Muhammad (9 page)

Say: We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and their descendents, and that which has been vouchsafed by their Sustainer unto Moses and Jesus and all the [other] prophets: we make no distinction between any of them. And unto Him do we surrender ourselves (
lahu muslimun
).
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You could not be a muslim unless you also revered Moses and Jesus. True faith required surrender to God, not to an established faith. Indeed, exclusive loyalty to only one tradition could become
shirk
, an idolatry which puts a human institution on the same level as God. This is one of the first passages in the Qur’an to emphasize the words “islam” and “muslim,” which both derive from the verb
aslama
: “surrendering oneself entirely to someone else’s will.”
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The verse continues:

For if one goes in search of a religion other than self-surrender (islam) unto God, it will never be accepted from him, and in the life to come, he shall be among the lost.
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This verse is often quoted to “prove” that the Qur’an claims that Islam is the one, true faith and that only Muslims will be saved. But “Islam” was not yet the official name for Muhammad’s religion, and when this verse is read correctly in its pluralistic context, it clearly means the exact opposite.

The Qur’an depicts one prophet handing on the revelation to another. The message passes from Abraham to Ishmael and Isaac to Moses, and so on, in a continuous narrative. The Qur’an is simply a “confirmation” of the previous scriptures,
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and the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an are simply moments in God’s continuous self-disclosure: “Verily, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Sabians,
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and the Christians—all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds—no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve.”
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There was no thought of forcing everybody into the Muslim ummah. Each of the revealed traditions had its own din, its own practices, and insights. “Unto every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way of life,” God told Muhammad:

And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community: but [He willed it otherwise] in order to test you by means of what he has vouchsafed unto you. Vie, then, with one another in doing good works! Unto God you must all return; and then He will make you truly understand all that on which you were wont to differ.
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God was not the exclusive property of one tradition, but was the source of all human knowledge: “God is the light of the heavens and the earth,” Allah explained in one of the most mystical verses in the Qur’an. The divine light could not be confined to any individual lamp, but was common to them all, enshrined in every one of them:

The parable (ayah) of this light is, as it were, that of a niche containing a lamp; the lamp is [enclosed in glass], the glass [shining] like a radiant star: [a lamp] lit from a blessed tree—an olive tree that is neither of the east nor the west—the oil whereof [is so bright that it] would well-nigh give light [of itself ], even though fire had not touched it—light upon light.
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The olive tree signifies the continuity of revelation, which springs from one root but branches into a multitudinous variety of religious experience that cannot be confined to a single faith or locality, and is neither of the east nor the west.

Muhammad’s position in Mecca remained dangerously insecure. During the hajj of 620, he again visited the pilgrims who were camping in the valley of Mina, going from tent to tent in the hope of attracting support and protection. This time, instead of wholesale rejection, he met a group of six Arabs from Yathrib, who had camped in the gully of ‘Aqabah. As usual, Muhammad sat with them, explained his mission and recited the Qur’an, but this time, he noticed that the pilgrims were attentive and excited. When he had finished, they turned to one another and said that this must be the prophet expected by their Jewish and hanifi neighbors. If Muhammad really was the messenger of Allah, he might be just the person to solve the seemingly insuperable problems of Yathrib.

Yathrib was not a city like Mecca, but a series of hamlets, each occupied by a different tribal group, and each heavily fortified.
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The settlement was situated in an oasis, a fertile island of about twenty square miles, surrounded by volcanic rocks and uncultivable stony ground. Some of its inhabitants engaged in trade, but most were farmers, making a living out of their dates, palm orchards, and arable fields. Unlike the Quraysh, they were not wholly dependent upon commerce, and had retained more of the old badawah values, including, unfortunately, an entrenched hostility to other tribal groups. As a result, the oasis was engulfed in an escalating series of apparently unstoppable wars. The area had originally been cultivated by pioneering Jewish settlers and by the sixth century there were about twenty Jewish tribes in Yathrib, many of whose members may have been Arabs who had assimilated to Judaism.
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They preserved a separate religious identity, but otherwise were almost indistinguishable from their pagan neighbors. Clan and tribal loyalty came first, and there was no united “Jewish community.” The Jewish tribes formed separate allegiances with Arab groups and were often at war with one another. Their date crop had made them rich, but they were also skilled jewellers, manufacturers of weapons, and craftsmen. The five largest Jewish clans—Thalabah, Hudl, Qurayzah, Nadir, and Qaynuqa‘, the last of which controlled the only market in Yathrib—had achieved an almost complete monopoly of the economy that they had pioneered.

But during the sixth century, the Arab tribe of the Bani Qaylah had emigrated from South Arabia and settled in the oasis, alongside the Jews. They then formed two distinct clans—Aws and Khazraj—which eventually became two separate tribes. Gradually the Arabs acquired their own land, built their own fortresses, and by the early seventh century were in a slightly stronger position than the Jews. But despite the inevitable competition over resources, Jews and pagans were able to coexist. The Jews often employed the Arabs to transport their dates, while the Arabs respected the skills and heritage of the Jews, seeing them as “a people of high lineage and properties, whereas we were but an Arab tribe, who did not possess any palm trees nor vineyards, being people of only sheep and camels.”
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But by the time of the pilgrims’ meeting with Muhammad in 620, the situation had deteriorated. The engrained tribal rivalry had surfaced, and Aws and Khazraj were now engaged in a bloody conflict with one another. The Jewish clans had become involved in their struggle, Nadir and Qurayzah supporting Aws, while Qaynuqa‘ was allied to Khazraj. By 617, there was stalemate: neither side could gain ascendancy. Everybody was exhausted by the violence. At certain key moments, ‘Abdullah ibn Ubayy, a chief of Khazraj, had stood aloof from the fighting and thus acquired a reputation for impartiality. Some saw him as a possible king or supreme chief, who could enforce law and order. But the Arabs were averse to monarchy, and this type of experiment had never worked well in the peninsula. The Aws were naturally reluctant to hand the leadership to a member of Khazraj, while the other chiefs of Khazraj were equally unwilling to relinquish their power to Ibn Ubayy.

The six pilgrims immediately realized that, as the spokesman of Allah, Muhammad would be a far more effective arbitrator (
hakam
) than Ibn Ubayy. They had no problems with his religious message, because for some time the Arabs of Yathrib had been drifting towards monotheism. The Aws and Khazraj had long felt inferior to the Jews because they had no scripture of their own, and the pilgrims were thrilled to hear that God had finally sent a prophet to the Arabs. They made their formal surrender to God on the spot, with high hopes. “We have left our people, for no tribe is so divided by hatred and rancor as they. Perhaps God will unite them through you. So let us go to them and invite them to this religion of yours; and if God unites them in it, then no man will be mightier than you.”
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But they admitted that they had little influence in the oasis, and needed to consult their chiefs and wise men. If he was to be an effective hakam, it was essential that he have wide support. They promised to report back to Muhammad in a year’s time. It was a decisive moment. Circumstances had forced Muhammad to look beyond Mecca and even to entertain the extraordinary idea of abandoning his tribe to take up permanent residence with another.

While awaiting developments in Yathrib, Muhammad made some changes in his household. He needed a wife, and it was suggested that he should marry Sawdah, the cousin and sister-in-law of Suhayl, the devout pagan chief of the Qurayshan clan of Amir. She had been married to one of the Muslims who had migrated to Abyssinia in 616, but was now a widow and this was a good match for her. Abu Bakr was also anxious to forge a closer link with the Prophet, and proposed that he should marry his daughter ‘A’isha, who was then six years old. ‘A’isha was formally betrothed to Muhammad in a ceremony at which the little girl was not present. In later years, she recalled that the first inkling she had of her new status was when her mother explained to her that she could no longer play in the streets, but must invite her friends into the family home.

Muhammad’s harem has excited a good deal of prurient and ill-natured speculation in the West, but in Arabia, where polygamy was more common than the monogamous marriage that Muhammad had enjoyed with Khadijah, it would have been commonplace. These marriages were not romantic or sexual love affairs but were under-taken largely for practical ends. Sawdah seems to have been a rather homely woman, who was past her first youth; but she could take care of Muhammad’s domestic needs. Muhammad may also have hoped to win over Suhayl, who was still undecided about the revelations. There was no impropriety in Muhammad’s betrothal to ‘A’isha. Marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time between adults and minors who were even younger than ‘A’isha. This practice continued in Europe well into the early modern period. There was no question of consummating the marriage until ‘A’isha reached puberty, when she would have been married off like any other girl. Muhammad’s marriages usually had a political aim. He was starting to establish an entirely different kind of clan, based on ideology rather than kinship, but the blood tie was still a sacred value and helped to cement this experimental community.

During the hajj of 621, the six converts from Yathrib duly returned to Mecca, bringing seven others with them. Again, they met Muhammad in the gully of ‘Aqabah and, in what would become known as the Pledge of ‘Aqabah, promised to worship Allah alone, to refrain from stealing, lying, and infanticide, and pledged to obey Muhammad’s directives concerning social justice. In return, Muhammad promised them Paradise.
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In this first pact, the emphasis was on religion and ethics and there was as yet no political commitment. When the pilgrims returned to Yathrib, they took with them Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayr, a trusted Muslim, to instruct the people of Yathrib in their new faith.

This was a wise move. Tribal hatred was so intense in the oasis, that neither Aws nor Khazraj could bear to hear a rival leading the prayers or reciting the Qur’an, so it was important that these offices were performed by a neutral outsider. At first, the Aws were antagonistic to the faith, but gradually the power of the Qur’an broke down their reserves. One day, Sa‘d ibn Mu‘adh, chief of one of the leading Aws clans, was horrified to hear that Mus‘ab was preaching in his territory, so he dispatched his second-in-command to drive him away, who bore down on the little group, brandishing his lance, and asked the Muslim how he had the temerity to spread these lies among weak, foolish people. But instead of retaliating with jahili rage, Mus‘ab quietly asked him to sit down and judge for himself. The deputy agreed, stuck his lance in the ground, and, as he listened to the recitation, his face changed. “What wonderful and beautiful discourse this is!” he cried, “What does one do to enter this religion?” After he had proclaimed his faith in Allah and prostrated himself in prayer, he went back to report to his chief. Sa‘d was furious, grasped his own lance, and marched off to confront Mus‘ab himself, only to be overwhelmed in his turn by the Qur’an. He then summoned his people and asked them to follow him; trusting his leadership implicitly, the entire clan converted en masse.
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The news of Sa‘d’s dramatic about-face made a great impression on other chiefs, who began to take Mus‘ab more seriously.

It was not long before there were Muslims in almost every family in the oasis. In Mecca, Muhammad’s preaching mission had stalled largely because the Quraysh could not believe that such an ordinary person could become the messenger of Allah. But conditions in Yathrib were different.
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Muhammad was no commonplace fellow, who could be seen strolling around the marketplace and eating and drinking like anybody else, but a remote, mysterious figure, whose coming was eagerly anticipated. In Mecca, Muhammad’s teaching threatened to damage the cult of the Haram, which was crucial to the economy, but there was no sanctuary full of idols in Yathrib. Not everybody was enamored of the new faith, however. Ibn Ubayy naturally feared that his position was being undermined; others were still committed either to the old paganism or to the hanifiyyah, but at this stage the opposition was muted. If the new prophet really could solve the problems of Yathrib, there might be some material advantage to be gained from him. The Jewish tribes were also prepared to give Muhammad the benefit of the doubt, especially since the Muslims honored their prophets and had adopted some of their own customs.