Word Count of Sira, Mohammed as prophet = 274,838 The Sira has 3 sections, pre-prophet material, Mohammed as prophet, Hisham’s notes. This data uses only Mohammed as prophet text. Kafir text: 221, 343 = 80.53% = 81% 183 HOW THE APOSTLE WAS TREATED BY HIS OWN PEOPLE When the Quraysh became distressed by the trouble caused by the enmity between them. and the apostle and those of their people who accepted his teaching, they stirred up against him foolish men who called him a liar, insulted him, and accused him of being a poet, a sorcerer, a diviner, and of being possessed. However, the apostle continued to proclaim what God had ordered him to proclaim, concealing nothing, and exciting their dislike by contemning their religion, forsaking their idols, and leaving them to their unbelief. Yahya b. 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr on the authority of his father from 'Abdul-lah b. 'Amr b. al-'As told me that the latter was asked what was the worst way in which Quraysh showed their enmity to the apostle. He replied: 'I was with them one day when the notables had gathered in the Hijr and the apostle was mentioned. They said that they had never known anything like the trouble they had endured from this fellow; he had declared their mode of life foolish, insulted their forefathers, reviled their religion, divided the community, and cursed their gods. What they had borne was past all bearing, or words to that effect.' While they were thus discussing him the apostle came towards them and kissed the black stone, then he passed them as he walked round the temple. As he passed they said some injurious things about him. This I could see from his expression. He went on and as he passed them the second time they attacked him similarly. This I could see from his expression. Then he passed the third time, and they did the same. He stopped and said, 'Will you listen to me O Quraysh? By him who holds my life in His hand I bring you slaughter.'I This word so struck the people that not one of them but stood silent and still; even one who had hitherto been most violent spoke to him in the kindest way possible, saying, 'Depart, O Abu'l-Qasim, for by God you are not violent.' So the apostle went away, 184 and on the morrow they assembled in the Hijr, I being there too, and they asked one another if they remembered what had taken place between them and the apostle so that when he openly said something unpleasant they let him alone. While they were talking thus the apostle appeared, and they leaped upon him as one man and encircled him, saying, 'Are you the one who said so-and-so against our gods and our religion?' The apostle said, 'Yes, I am the one who said that.' And I saw one of them seize his robe. Then Abu Bakr interposed himself weeping and saying, 'Would you kill a man for saying Allah is my Lord?' Then they left him. That is the worst that I ever saw Quraysh do to him. One of the family of Umm Kulthum, Abu Bakr's daughter, told me that 187 she said, 'Abu Bakr returned that day with the hair of his head torn. He was a very hairy man and they had dragged him along by his beard' (177). NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE APOSTLE AND THE LEADERS OF QURAYSH AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE SURA OF THE CAVE Islam began to spread in Mecca among men and women of the tribes of Quraysh, though Quraysh were imprisoning and seducing as many of the Muslims as they could. A traditionist told me from Sa'id b. Jubayr and from Kafir in Sira 3/26/2010 1 'Ikrima, freedman of 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, that the leading men of every clan of Quraysh-'Utba b. Rabi'a, and Shayba his brother, and Abu Sufyan b. Harb, and al-Nadr b. alHarith, brother of the Banu Abdu'l-Dar, and Abu'l- Bakhtari b. Hisham, and al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib b. Asad and Zama'a b. al- Aswad, and al-Walid b. al-Mughira, and Abu Jahl b. Hisham, and 'Abdullah b. Abu Umayya, and al-'As b. Wa'il, and Nubayh and Munabbih, the sons of al-Hajjaj, both of Sahm, and Umayya b. Khalaf and possibly others- gathered together after sunset outside the Ka'ba. They decided to send for Muhammad and to negotiate and argue with him so that they could not be held to blame on his account in the future. When they sent for him the apostle came quickly because he thought that what he had said to them had made an impression, for he was most zealous for their welfare, and their wicked way of life pained him. When he came and sat down with them, they explained that they had sent for him in order that they could talk together. No Arab had ever treated his tribe as Muhammad had treated them, and they repeated the charges which have been mentioned on several occasions. If it was money he wanted, they would make him the richest of them all; if it was honor, he should be their prince; if it was sovereignty, they would make him king; if it was a spirit which had got possession of him (they used to call the familiar spirit of the jinn ra'iy), then they would exhaust their means in finding medicine to cure him. The apostle replied that he had no such intention. He sought not money, nor honor, nor sovereignty, but God had sent him as an apostle, and revealed a book to him, and commanded him to become an announcer and a warner. He had brought them the messages of his Lord, and given them good advice. If they took it then they would have a portion in this world and the next; if they rejected it, he could only patiently await the issue until God decided between them, or words to that effect. 'Well, Muhammad,' they said, 'if you won't accept any of our propositions, you know that no people are more short of land and water, and live a harder life than we, so ask your Lord, who has sent you, to remove for us these mountains which shut us in, and to straighten out our country for us, and to open up in it rivers like those of Syria and Iraq, and to resurrect for us our forefathers, and let there be among those that are resurrected for us Qusayy b. Kilab, for he was a true shaikh, so that we may ask them whether what you say is true or false. If they say you are speaking the truth, and you do what we have asked you, we will believe in you, and we shall know what your position with God is, and that He has actually sent you as an apostle as you say.' He replied that he had not been sent to them with such an object. He had conveyed to them God's message, and they could either accept it with advantage, or reject it and await God's judgment. They said that if he would not do that for them, let him do something for himself. Ask God to send an angel with him to confirm what he said and to contradict them; to make him gardens and castles, and treasures of gold and silver to satisfy his obvious wants. He stood in the streets as they did, and he sought a livelihood as they did. If he could do this, they would recognize his merit and position with God, if he were an apostle as he claimed to be. He replied that he would not do it, and would not ask for such things, for he was not sent to do so, and he repeated what he had said before. They said, 'Then let the heavens be dropped on us in pieces,' as you assert that your Lord could do if He wished, for we will not believe you unless you do so.' The apostle replied that this was a matter for God; if He wanted to do it with them, He would do it. They said, 'Did not your Lord know that we would sit with you, and ask you these questions, so that He might come to you and instruct you how to answer us, and tell you what He was going to do with us, if we did not receive your message? Information has reached us that you are taught by this fellow in al-Yamama, called al-Rahman, and by God we will never believe in the Rahman. Our conscience is clear. By God, we will not leave you and our treatment of you, until either we destroy you or you destroy us.' Some said, Kafir in Sira 3/26/2010 2 'We worship the angels, who are the daughters of Allah.' Others said, 'We will not believe in you until you come to us with God and the angels as a surety." When they said this the apostle got up and left them. 'Abdullah b. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum (who was the son of his aunt 'Atika d. of 'Abdu'I-Muttalib) got up with him and said to him, ‘O Muhammad, your people have made you certain propositions, which you have rejected; first they asked you things for themselves that they might know that your position with God is what you say it is so that 190 they might believe in you and follow you, and you did nothing; then they asked you to take something for yourself, by which they might know your superiority over them and your standing with God, and you would not do it; then they asked you to hasten some of the punishment with which you were frightening them, and you did not do it', or words to that effect, 'and by God, I will never believe in you until you get a ladder to the sky, and mount up it until you come to it, while I am looking on, and until four angels shall come with you, testifying that you are speaking the truth, and by God, even if you did that I do not think I should believe you.' Then he went away, and the apostle went to his family, sad and grieving, because his hope that they had called him to accept his preaching was vain, and because of their estrangement from him.