[Spice]

At Taif, a Slave

The Prophet went to the town of Taif and spoke to the leaders of the Thaqif tribe, hoping that they would hear the message of Islam and agree to protect the Muslims from their enemies. He met with a very cold reception, however, and the chiefs mocked his claim to be a Prophet. If he was, they asked, how could God allow His Messenger to beg for the support of strange tribes? Not only did they refuse to discuss the matter, but they mobilized the population against him: as he was leaving, insults followed him and children threw stones at him. More and more people gathered and jeered at him as he passed; he finally had to seek refuge in an orchard in order to escape his pursuers. Alone, having found no protection among his fellow human beings, he turned toward the One and prayed:

“Oh God, to you alone I complain of my weakness, the meagerness of my resources and my insignificance before men. O most Merciful of the Merciful, You are the Lord of the weak, and You are my Lord. Into whose hands do you entrust me? To some remote stranger who will ill treat me? Or to an enemy to whom You have granted authority over my affairs? I harbor no fear so long as You are not angry with me. Yet your gracious support would open a broader way and a wider horizon for me! I seek refuge in the light of Your face, by which all darkness is illuminated and the things of this world and the next are set aright, so that I do not incur Your anger and am not touched by Your wrath. Nevertheless, it is Your prerogative to admonish as long as You are not satisfied. There is no power nor strength but in You.”

It was toward the One, his Protector and Confidant, that he turned to when there appeared to be no way out. His questions did not express doubt about his mission, but it clearly voiced his helplessness as a human being as well as his ignorance of God’s purposes. At that particular moment, away from other people, in the solitude of his faith and of his confidence in the Most Gracious, he literally and wholly put himself in God’s hands; in this sense, his prayer reveals all the confidence and serenity Muhammad drew from his relationship to the Most Near. This prayer, which has become famous, tells of humanity’s helplessness and of the Messenger’s extraordinary spiritual strength. Seemingly lonely and without support, he knew that he was not alone.

The two owners of the orchard had seen Muhammad from a distance as he entered, and they had observed him as he raised his hands and prayed to God. They sent their slave Addas, a young man who was a Christian, to take him a bunch of grapes. When Addas gave him the grapes, he heard the Prophet say the formula: “BismiLLah!”. Addas was most surprised and inquired about the identity of this man, who said words that he, a Christian, had never heard polytheists say. Muhammad asked him where he was from, and Addas answered that he came from Nineveh. The Prophet added: “The land of Jonah the Just, son of Matta!” the young man was puzzled and wondered how this man could know of that. After informing him that he was a Christian, Addas in turn asked Muhammad who he was and how he had received his knowledge. The Prophet told him: “Jonah is my brother. He was a Prophet and I am a Prophet.”

Addas gazed at him for a while, then kissed his head, hands, and feet; his masters were shocked at this, and when he went back to them he told them that only a Prophet could know what that man knew. Addas accepted Islam immediately, after a few minutes discussion. The Christian king of Abyssinia had immediately recognized the linkage between the two messages, and now it was the young slave, also a Christian, who shared the same intuition. Twice already, in sorrow and isolation, Muhammad had encountered on his path Christians who offered him trust, respect, and shelter: a king welcomed Muslims and granted them security, a slave served their Prophet when everybody else had rejected him and his message.

The Prophet then set off back toward Mecca. On his way, he met a horseman and requested that that he ask a Meccan dignitary who was a relative of the horseman whether he would agree to grant Muhammad his protection. The horseman complied, but the dignitary refused, as did another leader whose support Muhammad sought. The Prophet did not wish to enter Mecca in such circumstances and sought refuge in the cave of Hira, where he had received the first Revelation. It was finally the third person he approached, Mutim, the leader of the Nawfal clans, who agreed to grant Muhammad his protection, greeting the Prophet in the Kaba enclosure to publicize the fact.

(From: In the Footsteps of the Prophet, byt Tariq Ramadhan)