HIS HOLY AND PROPHETIC LORDSHIP—U. W. B.—GOES TO TÂIF AND RETURNS THEREFROM, AFRAID AND MELAN­CHOLY, TO THE VICINITY OF THE SANCTUARY, WHERE A NUMBER OF GENII PROFESS THE RELIGION, AND HE RE-ENTERS MEKKAH BY THE AID OF ONE OF HIS WELL-WISHERS.

His lordship the prince of the righteous left Mekkah on account of the persecutions and insults of the infidels and the wicked, and went to the tribes Bani Bakr and Wâbel, inviting the people to walk in the straight way; but they remained unblessed by the grace of acceptance, whereon he removed to another encampment, the tenants whereof first aided but afterwards repelled him, repenting of their first friendliness. Then he paid a visit to the inhabitants of Tâif and to the tribe Thaqif, where, as a certain tradition informs us, he stopped ten days, inviting the chiefs and heads of the people to accept Islâm, but none were willing to do so. There is a tradition of Muhammad B. Ka’b Qurtti that on the said occasion there were two brothers and chiefs of the tribe Thaqif A’bd Thalil at Tâif, whose names were Mosa’vud and Habib, sons of O’mar B. O’mair, whom his lordship the refuge of prophecy—u. w. b. —met, invited them to accept Islâm, and worked evident miracles. One of them said: ‘If thou art a prophet then I must have stolen the door of the Ka’bah,’ but according to another tradition he said: ‘I do not know what to answer thee.’ Another asked: ‘Has Allah the Most High not found a better man than thee to send as an apostle?’ Another said: ‘I cannot reply to thee, for if thou art a prophet thy dignity unfits me to converse with thee; but if thou art not one, why should I do so?’ His lordship the apostle—u. w. b.—however, said to them: ‘If you do not accept my invitation, may Allah keep this matter secret!’ The lord of existences uttered this wish lest the Qoraish might become informed of the state of affairs and might augment their persecution.

The miserable ones of that locality struck the hand of refusal upon the breast of the invitation of the chief of both worlds, and instigated foolish persons to throw stones at that prince, so that they broke the head of Zaid, wounded the blessed legs of his lordship, and exclaimed: ‘Thou sorcerer! thou madman! Hast thou come to raise quarrels among us, and to lead astray the simple?’ His lordship left that tribe, entered a garden belonging to O’tbah and to Shaibah on the road to Mekkah, and sat down in the shade of a tree. His luminous mind was highly aggrieved, and the stones thrown by the hard-hearted fools of Tâif having soiled his august legs with blood, he raised his hands in prayer with a sorrowing heart and wounded body, saying: ‘O Allah, in my weakness I lay my complaint at the courts of Thy magnificence. I acknowledge my simplicity and impatience at the palace of Thy greatness, and represent to Thee my abject and miserable condition, because Thou art the most merciful of [those who are] the merciful and the protector of the helpless. Thou art my cherisher. Referest Thou me to a friend who may become displeased as soon as he perceives me, or to an enemy who would like to become the master of my destiny? If this affliction has not befallen me from Thy wrath I dread it not. But Thy mercy is greater. I take the light of Thy countenance to witness, the light which has illuminated darkness, and has connected me with the affairs of this world and the next, that Thy dis­pleasure and anger will not befall me. Thou canst punish according to Thy good pleasure. There is no power nor strength except by the will of Allah!’

It is related that on the above occasion O’tbah and Shaibah were in their garden sitting on an elevated spot, and looking at the tricks played by some insolent persons upon his lordship, but their vein of consanguinity being touched, they felt pity for him, and sent a few grapes to the prophet by a Christian boy from Nineveh, called A’dâs. When this youth presented the dish to the august vision of the best of men, his lordship said: ‘In the name of Allah,’ and began to eat. A’dâs, who had scrutinized the noble countenance of his lordship, thereon exclaimed: ‘By God! these are words which I have never heard in this country from anyone.’ His lordship asked: ‘Who art thou? What is thy religion and thy country?’ He replied: ‘I am a Christian servant from Nineveh.’ His lordship continued: ‘Thou art from the village of that pious man Yûnas Bin Matti [Jonah].* A’dâs asked: ‘How knowest thou Yûnas?’ The apostle—u. w. b.—replied: ‘He is my brother. He was a prophet, and I am one also.’ When A’dâs heard these words he prostrated himself at the feet of his lordship, and when O’tbah with Shaibah had seen what was taking place, they said: ‘He has perverted the boy.’ When A’dâs returned to them, they asked him what that man had said, why he had kissed his hands and feet, mani­festing all that humility? He replied: ‘That individual has informed me of a matter which none but prophets know.’ They rejoined: ‘Woe to thee! He has deceived thee and injured thy religion.’ A’dâs answered: ‘Do not say so; for a better man than he is not living on the face of the earth.’

When his holy and prophetic lordship departed from Tâif he went to the valley of Nakhlah, from which Mekkah can be reached in one night. At that place he arrived in the latter part of the day, but during the night seven of the genii of Nassibin* came, and overheard the lord of apostleship reciting the Qurân. They waited till he had finished his prayers, and then presented themselves to his lordship, who invited and received them into the firm religion, saying: ‘When you return to your country, invite your people to accept the bright religion.’ God the Most High has said: ‘[Remember] when we caused certain of the genii to turn aside unto thee that they might hear the Qurân, and when they were present at the [reciting of the] same, they said [to one another] “Give ear”; and when it was ended, they returned back to their people preaching [what they had heard].’*

In some chronicles it is recorded that when, after the mission [of Muhammad], the Satans were prohibited from listening by stealth, they said to each other: ‘A great event must have taken place in the world, on account of which a curtain has been interposed between us and the celestial news. Therefore we must make inquiries in the east and in the west of the inhabited world and learn the cause.’ Accordingly the above-mentioned number of their company alighted on the earth in the region of Tahâmah, went to the valley of Nakhlah, where his holy and pro­phetic lordship—u. w. b.—happened to be engaged in his devotions when the genii arrived. When the latter heard the Qurân, they said: ‘By God! there is no other veil between us and the celestial information except this.’ After they were made happy by professing the Faith, and had returned to their people, they exclaimed: ‘Verily we have heard a wonderful Qurân,* which directeth unto the right institution, wherefore we believed therein, and we will by no means associate any other with our Lord.’*

It is related that the genii waited twice upon his lordship —u. w. b.—the first time in the manner just narrated, and the second time many of that tribe, who had heard his lordship’s description from those seven individuals, made —three months after the above event in the valley of Nakhlah—their appearance in the Hajûn mountain-pass near Mekkah. They desired to meet the prince, and during the same night his lordship went to the said place, where he beheld many wonderful and strange things, which can be ascertained in detail from voluminous books.

It is also on record that when the lord of existences, the prince of men and demons, was returning from Tâif towards the sanctuary he learned that the Qoraish had, after being informed of the misbehaviour of the inhabitants of Tâif, instigated a number of fools to imitate those heedless men to overstep the boundaries of decency and to protrude the hand of impudence from the sleeve of respectfulness. Some allege that during the journey Zaid Bin Hâreth said to his lordship the prophet: ‘We went to Tâif on account of the persecutions and insults of the idolaters, therefore it will be proper for us not to re-enter Mekkah except under the protection of someone.’ Accordingly, his lordship the apostle—u. w. b.—stopped near Mount Hira, and sent a man to Akhanas, [who was] of the Bani Srariq, with the request to protect him. Akhanas, however, refused, and the same question having been addressed to Sahal Bin O’mra Mutta’m, he complied, and sent the following answer: ‘Condescend to visit me, for I shall protect thee.’ The next morning Mutta’m armed himself, as well as his sons and retainers, and went to the temple of Mekkah. When Abu Jahl heard of this event he ran headlong from his dwelling, never stopping till he likewise arrived there, and when he perceived Mutta’m in this attitude, he asked: ‘Art thou a follower or protector [of Muhammad]?’ Mutta’m replied: ‘I am a protector.’ Abu Jahl continued: ‘To whomsoever thou grantest safety we also grant it to him. Accordingly, his lordship entered Mekkah, kissed during that night the black stone, circumambulated the Ka’bah, performed his devotions with two prayer-flexions, and then returned to his august domicile.

Some relate that the next day his holy and prophetic lordship—u. w. b.—went to Mutta’m, and requested him to withdraw his protection. Being asked for the reason of the demand, his lordship replied: ‘I do not wish to be under the protection of an idolater more than one day,’ and Mutta’m complied with the request. During the tenth year after the mission his lordship the refuge of the termi­nation [of prophets] married A’aishah Ssiddiqah,* but consummated his marriage with Sowdah, that of the former taking place only three years afterwards in the honoured city of Madinah, because she is said to have been only six years of age when the betrothal was made.