Muhammad Read online

  Look at the camel

  and how it is created

  Look at the sky and how it is raised

  Look at the mountains and how they are set

  Look at the earth and how it is spread.20

  The entire cosmos was a veil, which hid the presence of its Creator. The succession of day and night, sun and moon, the life-giving rains, and the marvellous construction of the human being were all signs of God’s presence. By contemplating these signs in a sustained and disciplined manner, they would become aware of the inexpressible reality behind them and be filled with gratitude.

  At present the Quraysh despised the weak; they believed that failure and poverty revealed an inherent lack of nobility, so they felt no obligation towards the poor, the orphan, or the widow. But if they understood their dependence upon Allah at every moment of their lives, they would appreciate their own frailty, and their arrogance would be tempered by awe and wonder. They would lay aside their haughty self-reliance and their proudly cultivated refusal to bow to any creature, human or divine. Muhammad wanted every man, woman, and child in Mecca to develop within themselves the humble thankfulness that should characterize the human condition.

  Muhammad was not content simply to work for social reform; he believed that without an interior transformation, a purely political program would be superficial. To effect this, he taught his little group the ritual actions that would enable them to cultivate this new attitude. First, they would meet for prayer (salat): their devout prostration would be a daily reminder of their true condition. Salat interrupted their ordinary business and helped them to remember that Allah was their first priority. It was very difficult for men and women schooled in the muruwah ethos to grovel like slaves, and many of the Quraysh were offended by this abject posture. But the physical routine of salat symbolized the surrender (islam) of their entire being to Allah. It taught their bodies at a level deeper than the rational to lay aside the self-regarding impulse to prance and preen arrogantly. A muslim was a man or a woman who had made this act of submission and was proud to be God’s slave.

  Second, members of the Muslim community (ummah) were required to give a proportion of their income in alms to the poor. This “pure offering” (zakat) took the egotism out of the traditional Bedouin generosity; instead of exhibiting their reckless, excessive liberality, they made a regular, undramatic contribution to the weaker members of the tribe. The new karim was no longer a person who gave away his entire fortune in a single night, but one who tirelessly practiced the “works of justice.” At this stage, the new faith was called tazakka (“purification”).21 By looking after the poor and needy, freeing slaves, performing small acts of kindness on a daily, hourly basis, the Muslims learned to cloak themselves in the virtue of compassion and would gradually acquire a responsible, caring spirit, which imitated the generosity of Allah himself. If they persevered, they would purge their hearts of pride and selfishness and achieve a spiritual refinement.

  For three years, Muhammad kept a low profile, preaching only to carefully selected people, but somewhat to his dismay, in 615 Allah instructed him to deliver his message to the whole clan of Hashim.22 “The task is beyond my strength,” he told ‘Ali, but he went ahead and invited forty elders to a frugal meal. The meagre fare was a message in itself; there was to be no more excessive hospitality.23 Luxury was not simply a waste of money but ingratitude, a thankless squandering of Allah’s precious bounty. When the elders arrived, they were nonplussed when ‘Ali served them a simple leg of mutton and a cup of milk. When he told the story later, ‘Ali made it sound like Jesus’ miracle of the loaves and fishes: even though there was scarcely enough for one person, everybody ate his fill. After the meal, Muhammad rose to address the gathering, told them about his revelations, and started to expound the principles of his religion of islam, but Abu Lahab, Abu Talib’s half-brother, rudely interrupted him: “He’s put a spell on you!” he cried, and the meeting broke up in disorder. Muhammad had to invite them back the following day and this time he managed to finish his presentation: “O sons of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, I know of no Arab who has come to his people with a nobler message than mine.” He concluded, “God has ordered me to call you to Him. So which of you will cooperate with me in this venture, as my brother, my executor, and my successor?”

  There was an awkward silence, and the elders looked at one another in embarrassment. They could all remember Muhammad as a little boy, living on the charity of his relatives. How dared he claim to be the prophet of Allah? Even Muhammad’s cousin Ja‘far and his adopted son Zayd were reluctant to speak, but finally ‘Ali, a gawky thirteen year old, could bear it no longer: “O prophet of God,” he cried, “I will be your helper in this matter!” Muhammad laid his hand tenderly on the boy’s neck: “This is my brother, my executor, and my successor among you,” he said. “Hearken to him and obey him.” This was too much. The spell was broken and the elders burst out laughing. “He’s ordered you to listen to your son and obey him!” they cried derisively to Abu Talib as they stormed out of the house.24

  Undeterred by this humiliating failure, Muhammad continued to preach more widely in the city, but with very little success. Nobody criticized his social message. They knew that muruwah required them to share their wealth with the poorer members of the tribe; it was one thing to be selfish and greedy, but quite another to defend these attitudes. Most people objected to the day of reckoning. This, they argued, was simply an old wives’ tale. How could bodies that had rotted away in the earth come to life again? Was Muhammad seriously suggesting that their venerable ancestors would rise from their graves to “stand before the lord of all beings”?25 The Qur’an replied that nobody could prove that there was no life after death, and that if Allah could create a human being out of a tiny drop of semen, he could easily resurrect a dead body.26 It also pointed out that the people who poured scorn on the idea of a final reckoning were precisely those who had no intention of changing their oppressive, selfish behavior:27 When faced with the insistent questioning of the Qur’an about the ultimate value of their life, they took refuge in denial and levity. But despite their skepticism, most of the Quraysh were content to leave Muhammad alone. They were businessmen who had little taste for ideological debate, and they knew that a serious internal conflict would be bad for trade. In any case, this little band of slaves, angry young men, and failing merchants was no real threat and their movement would surely peter out.

  Muhammad himself was anxious to avoid an open rift. He had no desire to damage Mecca, the “mother of cities.” He knew that some of the Quraysh thought that he wanted to become king—an abhorrent idea to the Arabs, who were deeply suspicious of monarchy. But Muhammad had no political ambitions. As if to reassure his critics, God told him firmly that he must not aspire to public office. He was simply a nadhir, a messenger with a warning, and should approach the Quraysh humbly, avoid provocation, and be careful not to attack their gods. This is what the great prophets had done in the past.28 A prophet had to be altruistic; he must not trumpet his own opinions egotistically or trample on the sensibilities of others, but should always put the welfare of the community first. A prophet was first and foremost a muslim, one of “those who have surrendered themselves unto [Allah].”29 In his desire to avoid a serious dispute, Muhammad did not, at this stage, emphasize the monotheistic content of his message. Like the hanifs, he was convinced that Allah was the only God, but he did not at first condemn the worship of the stone idols round the Kabah or the cult of the three gharaniq. Like most of the great religious sages, he was not much interested in orthodoxy.30 Metaphysical speculation tended to make people quarrelsome and could be divisive. It was more important to practice the “works of justice” than to insist on a theological position that would offend many of the people he was trying to win over.

  But tension was growing. In 616, some of the Quraysh attacked the Muslims while they were performing their ritual prayers in one of the glens outside the city. The incident shocked everybod
y in Mecca, and both sides desperately tried to reach a modus vivendi. This may have led to the notorious incident of the “satanic verses.”31 The episode is recounted by only two of Muhammad’s early biographers, and some scholars believe it to be apocryphal, though it is hard to see why anybody would make it up. Both historians emphasize the desire for reconciliation in the city at this time. Ibn Sa‘d starts his account by saying that in his desire to avoid an irrevocable breach with the Quraysh, Muhammad “sat down by himself, wishing that nothing be revealed to him that would drive them away.”32

  Tabari begins,

  When the apostle saw that his people had turned their backs on him and he was pained by their estrangement from what he had brought them from God, he longed that there should come to him from God a message that would reconcile his people to him. Because of his love for his people, and his anxiety over them it would delight him that the obstacle that made his task so difficult could be removed; so he meditated on the project and longed for it, and it was dear to him.33

  One day, Tabari continues, Muhammad was sitting beside the Kabah with some of the elders, reciting a new surah, in which Allah tried to reassure his critics: Muhammad had not intended to cause all this trouble, the divine voice insisted; he was not deluded nor inspired by a jinni; he had experienced a true vision of the divine and was simply telling his people what he had seen and heard.34 But then, to his surprise, Muhammad found himself chanting some verses about the three “daughters of God”: “Have you, then, ever considered what you are worshipping in Al-Lat and Al-Uzza, as well as Manat, the third, the other?” Immediately the Quraysh sat up and listened intently. They loved the goddesses who mediated with Allah on their behalf. “These are the exalted gharaniq,” Muhammad continued, “whose intercession is approved.”

  Tabari claims that these words were put on his lips by the shaytan (“tempter”). This is a very alarming notion to Christians, who regard Satan as a figure of monstrous evil. The Qur’an is certainly familiar with the story of the fallen angel who defied God: it calls him Iblis (a contraction of the Greek diabolos: “devil”). But the shaytan who inspired this gracious compliment to the goddesses was a far less threatening creature. Shaytans were simply a species of jinn; they were “tempters” who suggested the empty, facile, and self-indulgent yearnings that deflected humans from the right path. Like all jinn, the shaytans were ubiquitous, mischievous, and dangerous, but not on a par with the devil. Muhammad had been longing for peace with the Quraysh; he knew how devoted they were to the goddesses and may have thought that if he could find a way of incorporating the gharaniq into his religion, they might look more kindly on his message. When he recited the rogue verses, it was his own desire talking—not Allah—and the endorsement of the goddesses proved to be a mistake. Like any other Arab, he naturally attributed his error to a shaytan.

  Muhammad had not implied that the three “daughters of God” were on the same level as Allah. They were simply intermediaries, like the angels whose intercession is approved in the same surah.35 Jews and Christians have always found such mediators compatible with their monotheism. The new verses seemed a truly propitious gesture and their effect on the Quraysh was electrifying. As soon as Muhammad had finished his recitation, he prostrated himself in prayer, and to his astonishment, the Qurayshan elders knelt down beside him, humbly pressing their foreheads to the ground. The news spread like wildfire through the city: “Muhammad has spoken of our gods in splendid fashion! He alleged in what he recited that they are the exalted gharaniq whose intercession is approved!”36 The crisis was over. The elders told Muhammad: “We know that Allah kills and gives life, creates and preserves, but these our goddesses pray to Him for us, and since you have now permitted them to share divine honors with Him, we therefore desire to unite with you.”37

  But Muhammad was troubled. This was too easy. Were the Quraysh really going to amend their behavior, share their wealth with the poor, and be content to become the humble “slaves” of God? It did not seem likely. He was also disturbed by the jubilant words of the elders: he had certainly not meant to imply that the goddesses “shared divine honors” with Allah. While everybody else was celebrating, Muhammad went home, shut himself away, and meditated. That night Gabriel, the spirit of revelation, came to him: “What have you done, Muhammad?” he asked. “You have recited to those people something I did not bring you from God and have said what He did not say to you!”38 Muhammad’s wish for a compromise had distorted the divine message. He was immediately contrite, but God consoled him with a new revelation. All the previous prophets had made similar “satanic” mistakes. It was always a struggle to make sense of the revelations and all too easy to confuse the deeper current of inspiration with a more superficial idea of one’s own. But, the revelation continued, “God renders null and void whatever aspersion the shaytan might cast, and God makes his messages clear in and by themselves.”39 An important principle had been established. God could alter his scriptures at the time that they were being revealed to a particular prophet. Revelation was progressive: We might say that Muhammad sometimes saw fresh implications in his message that qualified some of his earlier insights.

  Now Muhammad had to go back to the Quraysh with a new verse that amended the “satanic” ones. Once again God asked: “Have you, then, ever considered what you are worshipping in Al-Lat and Al-Uzza, as well as in Manat?” But this time his answer was scathing. Why did they attribute daughters to Allah, when they themselves preferred sons? These so-called goddesses were simply “empty names,” human projections fabricated by the Quraysh and their forefathers. Those who worship them follow “nothing but surmise and their own wishful thinking.”40 This was a slap in the face that not only eliminated the gharaniq but insulted the revered ancestors. Why did the Qur’an find it impossible to accommodate these three goddesses alongside the angels? Why ruin the chance of peace with this uncompromising rejection of an apparently harmless devotion?

  After four years of Islam, Muslims could no longer take the traditional religion seriously. For most of the Quraysh, Allah was still a remote high god, who did not impinge on their daily lives. But this was no longer true for Muhammad’s converts. The beauty of the Qur’an had made Allah a vibrant, indeed overwhelming reality. When they listened to their scripture, “a chill creeps over the skins of those who fear their Lord, and after a while, their skins and hearts soften at the remembrance of God.”41 The word of God was experienced as a powerful reality that could shatter the world: “Had We bestowed this Qur’an from on high upon a mountain,” God told Muhammad, “thou wouldst see it humbling itself, breaking asunder for awe of God.”42 Allah was now completely different from the deity worshipped by the Quraysh and the “satanic verses” were wrong to suggest that Islam was the same as the old religion. It was ludicrous to imagine that the three stone idols of the gharaniq could influence the God of Islam.

  The Qur’an now began to make this distinction clear. The other deities were as helpless and ineffective as dangerously weak tribal chiefs. They could not provide food for their worshippers, as Allah did, and they would not be able to intercede on behalf of their devotees on the day of reckoning.43 Nothing was on a par with Allah.

  *

  Shortly after the repudiation of the “satanic verses,” the Surah of Sincerity was revealed:

  Say he is God, one

  God forever

  Not begetting, unbegotten,

  and having as equal none.44

  The principle of tawhid (“unity”) became the crux of Muslim spirituality. It was not simply an abstract metaphysical affirmation of the singularity of the divine, but, like all Qur’anic teaching, a call to action. Because Allah was incomparable, Muslims must not only refuse to venerate the idols, but must also ensure that other realities did not distract them from their commitment to God alone: Wealth, country, family, material prosperity, and even such noble ideals as love or patriotism must take second place. Tawhid demanded that Muslims integrate their lives. In the st
ruggle to make God their sole priority, a Muslim would glimpse, in the properly ordered self, the unity that was God. It was perhaps at this time that new converts were first required to utter the shahadah, the declaration of faith recited by all Muslims today: “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet.”

  The Quraysh would not have been shocked by monotheism per se, which was not, after all, a new idea to them. They had long found the religion of Jews and Christians compatible with their own traditions, and had not been particularly disturbed by the hanifs’ attempt to create an authentically Arabian monotheism. But Muhammad was doing something different. Most hanifs had retained a deep respect for the Haram and had made no attempt to reform the social order. But in attacking the effigies that surrounded the Kabah, Muhammad implied that the Haram, on which the Meccan economy depended, was worthless. The Bedouin tribes did not make the hajj to visit the house of Allah but to pay their respects to their own tribal gods, whose cult was now condemned by the Qur’an in the strongest terms.45 The Quraysh often invoked the “exalted gharaniq” as they circumambulated the Kabah; now this practice was dismissed as deluded and self-indulgent. Ta’if, where Al-Lat had her shrine, provided Mecca with its food; many of the Quraysh had summer homes in this fertile oasis. How could Ta’if remain on friendly terms with them if they condoned the insult to their goddess?

  Overnight Muhammad had become the enemy. The Qurayshan leaders sent a delegation to Abu Talib, asking him to disown his nephew. Nobody could survive in Arabia without an official protector. A man who had been expelled from his clan could be killed with impunity, without fear of vendetta. Abu Talib, who was genuinely fond of Muhammad and not himself a Muslim, was in an impossible position. He tried to temporize, but the Quraysh returned with an ultimatum. “By God, we cannot endure that our fathers should be reviled, our customs mocked, and our gods insulted!” they cried. “Until you rid us of him, we will fight the pair of you until one side perishes.” Abu Talib summoned Muhammad, begging him to stop this subversive preaching. “Spare me and yourself,” he pleaded. “Do not put upon me a burden greater than I can bear.” Convinced that Abu Talib was about to abandon him, Muhammad replied with tears in his eyes: “O my uncle, by God if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on condition that I abandon this course, until God has made it victorious, or I perish therein, I would not abandon it.” He then broke down and left the room, weeping bitterly. His uncle called him back. “Go and say what you please, for by God I will never give you up on any account.”46 For a while, Muhammad was safe. As long as Abu Talib remained his patron and could make this protection effective, nobody dared to touch him.