The Islamic Call

CHAPTER IV.

FAITHFUL ADHERENTS

 

1.- Lady Khadigah

        No preacher of a cause
however physically and mentally strong, can alone carry the burden without
staunch adherents to help. His close advisers and helpers must be very well
chosen or they may do the cause great harm. Muhammad the youth was wise to the
verge of inspiration when he consented to marry Khadigah, though she had
married twice before, and was fifteen years his senior. The story of his orphanage
must have been mutual since their first meeting after his return from Syria
as the leader of her caravan, though his bashfulness and self-respect would
have made it very difficult for him to ask for her hand in marriage. She might
have refused; he could not tell. The question, however, was settled when
Khadigah suggested the match through Nafisah, daughter of Allayed. They
married, and their matrimonial life lasted nearly twenty five years full of
happiness. She died in the tenth year of his Mission.

        A quiet happy matrimonial
life affords the best possible help that a great man with a great task ahead of
him, can have. To feel that he is trusted, obeyed and believed in by his wife
will add to his vigour and courage in his struggle for the triumph of his
cause. Mutual loyal?y and trust will do away with all distinction between them
in respect of riches and poverty. He or she may expend but neither can think of
humiliating the other in return. With mutual love and trust, the rich wife will
not thinkless of her husband for his poverty, but will feel rather happy and
proud of his manhood, his protection, and his manly guardianship of her honour.

        Loyalty and love between
husband and wife are then the holiest of links-the highest blessing that God
bestows on the elected great, on the Prophets and Messengers He chooses to send
for guiding humanity to Truth and Right.

        Khadigah never made
Muhammad feel the stern bond of marriage, or the obligations entailed thereby.
Their marriage gave him, before his prophethood, the time and opportunity to
contemplate other creeds, and, after his prophethood, to devote himself to his Mission and the supreme
good of humanity.

        When he received the first
revelation in the cave of Hiraa, and felt rather overawed by his tremendous
mission, he returned to his folk, to Khadigah who noted his new condition and
the transformation worked on him by his experience with the Angel, and asked
what the matter was. He told her what he saw and what he feared, and her
concern changed at once into smiles of encouragement, making her famous remark,
quoted above, that God will never disappoint or foresake him. She took him to
her relative Warakah son of Noufal to whom he revealed his secret - the vision
in the cave and the words he received. Warakah immediately congratulated him on
these happy tidings - on the Divine Mission
he received, and the new position to which he would rise. When this was heard
by Khadigah, she instantly declared. her belief in Muhammad and his mission and
henceforth lavished on him the wise counsel and encouragement she had given
before.

        She began her staunch
support of him and of his Call, challenging his heretic opponents, when the
time came, with her prestige and means. They were cowed so far, by this and
other factors, as not to take against him the severe measures they adopted
against Zaid son of Nofile. They were content for a good while with threatening
and maltreating his weaker adherents when the time came for the Prophet to
publicly send forth his Call.

        Khadigah was not an
ordinary wife, a mere accident in the life of Muhammad. She had a unique role.
She did the Islamic Call the greatest service, and contributed to its success
through incessant effective effort.

        She was the first woman
believer, who devoted life and property to the establishment of the newly begun
Islamic Call. No wonder, then, that tradition records the great grief of the
Prophet Muhammad on the occasion of the death of?Khadigah, his wife and
helpmate. After Khadigah's death, Quraish waged against him unremitting
struggle, molesting and maltreating him, and almost forcing his expatriation
from his home town

     No wonder also that he loved her so far as
not to take to himself any other wife throughout her life. Even after her death
he kept loving her and cherishing her memory[1]

        If it is true, what Carlyle
says, that in the life of every great man there is some woman who encourages,
guides, and inspires him with his classic work, then the nearest to this dictum
in the life of the noble Apostle Muhammad would be Lady Khadigah.

�
 
 

 

2. ABU BAKR EL SEDDIK (The Faithful)

 

        Islamic
tradition maintains that Abu Bakr was the first of men believers in the Prophet
Muhammad, upon whom be peace. He supported him from the start and was molested
and persecuted more perhaps than was the Prophet himself. The reason may be
that Abu Bakr, though a member of the tribe of Quraish, belonged to the branch
of Teim who had not the honour, prestige, and power of the branch of Beni
Hashim, to whom the Prophet, peace be upon him, belonged.
 

       
Tradition seldom mentions Muhammad without also mentioning Abu Bakr, who
followed the Prophet as his shadow, and was nearer to his heart than the nearest
of his kin.

 
        How did this close noble
friendship begin? They first belonged more or less to one profession - Abu Bakr
was a merchant, and Muhammad did some trading. This would bring them nearer to
one another in out look. They were approximately of the same age with a
difference not more than two years, and were brought up in the same environment
- even in the same town.

        A careful study of the two
personalities brings out the striking resemblance between them as if they were
offshoots of the same branch. Friendship between the two originated therefore
before the Muhammadan mission, and it is reasonable to suppose that they
discussed the question of their ancestral religious beliefs. More, they must
have gone beyond that in their talks. This is natural enough between friends;
the contrary is rather unnatural.

        This
must have cemented their friendship beyond disruption. Muhammad the Apostle,
therefore, must have had Abu Bakr as the first man believer Muhammad the
persecuted must have had Abu Bakr as his defender; and Muhammad in triumph must
have had Abu Bakr, the Faithful, the nearest of the near.

�
        Not only did Abu Bakr believe in
Muhammad's Divine Mission, but he was very energetic and resourceful in calling
many into the Faith To him is due the credit of the conversion of a group of
early, now famous, disciples, such as Osman, son of Affan, Zobair son of Al
Awam, then still young, Saad son of Abi Wakkas, Abd El Rahman son of Awf, and
Talha son of Obidallah. Islamic history relates of their respective great
contributions to the Islamic cause, and how they did their part in finally
establishing the Faith, sacrificing power, prestige, property and life. They
materially helped to make it dominant not only in Arabia but also North and
West, reducing the Persian, and violently shaking the Roman
Empire. Abu Bakr himself saved Islam from collapse after the death
of the Prophet by declaring relentless war against apostate tribes till they
were reduced to acknowledge Islam again.
 

        Those
tribes, only recently converted, had not yet been touched by the spirit of
Muhammad's teachings, nor had they grasped the cardinal principles of the
Islamic creed with the death of their Faithful Shepherd, they were led astray
into arid heathenism again. No sooner was Abu Bakr proclaimed Calif than he took drastic measures to
reclaim them back to the Faith, to its green pastures and clear springs. Having
restored the integrity of Islamic union and knitted the Arab tribes into one
powerful whole, he sent their echelons into neighbouring countries to carry the
call of Islam far and wide.

 

        Before
his Caliphate, Abu Bakr was the exemplary man, living up to his principles in
the face of persecution. Once when he was preaching the new religion at Mecca, he was fiercely
attacked by Otba, son of Rabi'a, so fiercely and determinedly, one report says,
that he fell speechless on the spot. He bought and emancipated some slaves who
were tortured by their masters, among whom may be mentioned the males: Bilal
Ibn Rabah, Amer Ibn Fahira, and Abou Fakiha; and the females mother of Gobais,
the she-slave of Bani Moamel, and Hamama mother of Bilal.

 

        He
converted his parents to the Islamic Faith. He emigrated with the Prophet in
person, thereby exposing himself, in case of detection, to all the wrathful
revenge of the idolaters. For all these considerations and more. He was the
Prophet's first counsellor amongst the Prophet's disciples.

        There is no doubt whatever that
the Islamic Call gained immensely through Abu Bakr who from all men was the
Call's main support and bulwark in peace and war alike. No historical narrative
of the Islamic Call would be complete without the mention of its second man Abu
Bakr. This fact had been demonstrated by western historians as well as Muslim
biographers. The well known historian, H. G. Wells, gives his own
interpretation of this fact when he writes "The true embodiment of the
spirit of Islam was not Muhammad, but his close friend and supporter Abu Bakr.
There can be little doubt that if Muhammad was the mind and imagination of
primitive Islam, Abu Bakr was its conscience and its will "[2]

 
        It is the eternal honour of
Muhammad to have carried the burden fully, to have faithfully and ably
interpreted into practice the Islam Call, the Divine Mission, in all its
ramifications It is the eternal honour of Abu Bakr to have helped without
stint, and followed without a swerve - to have so completely identified himself
with the Great Call from its very start.

 
 

 

3. - THE DEFENCELESS STRONG

 
        Amongst those who were first to embrace the
new faith was the class of "slaves" or bondmen, liberated or not,
known as Mawali, to whom Quraish gave the appellation "the
fenceless". They had some slight acquaintance with monotheistic religions
and were brought up in civilizations higher than that of the Arab chiefs in
whose hands they were destined to fall.

 
        Such persons were undoubtedly
potential revolutionists who could never acquiesce in the establish?d order of
master versus slave, and must have welcomed any change which promised to better
their life, and give them some measure of freedom. Any radical change in the
then prevailing social order would have been welcome, for it might have
bettered their condition but could not have made it worse.

 
        Further, such slaves were
completely disposed to monotheism, and longed for a spiritual life that had
nothing to do with idolatry, with the disgraceful worship to which the Arabs
then adhered. This class has been accredited with having prepared the way for
the Muhammadan mission. No wonder then that they surrounded the Prophet and
were among the first believers in Islam. Their attachment to the Prophet was so
strong that they stood firm in their faith despite their long drawn sufferings
and persecution by ploytheists and masters. History records both their exploits
and their martyrdom for the Islamic cause. That is why I call them " the
strong ".
 

        Wanton
persecution caused their emigration twice to Abyssinia
along with others. They were subjected to every sort of brutal torment. They
were whipped, branded, burned maimed and killed to make them recant, but in
vain. They persisted in their faith in spite of all. Chief among those heroes
of the Faith is Khabab, son of Al-Arutt, whom his mistress repeatedly branded
with red hot iron on the head to make him forego his Faith, but he stood firm.
Chief also are Ammar Ibn Yaser, Abu Fakiha, a serf of Safwan son of Omeyyah,
Sohaib the Greek, and Amer son of Fahirah.

 
        These, when they got the
opportunity, used to sit with the Prophet, and when seen thus by the
Quraishites the latter would redicule them. They could ask how it could be that
these, from amongst all the people, were alone blessed by God with guidance
and, the truth, arguing that if there were any good in the Mission of Muhammad
these would not have been the first to accept it in preference to themselves,
as if the choice of God would have fallen on such alone. The sitting and the
scoffing are both depicted in God's address to His prophet concerning the
demand of the Quraishites that the Prophet should dismiss the bondmen that they
might themselves sit with him.

The entire picture found expression in the holy
text. rendered thus:

     "Repel
not those who call upon their Lord at noon and evening, seeking His
countenance. Thou art not accountable for them in aught, nor are they
accountable for thee in aught, that thou shouldst repel them and be of the
wrong-doers. And even so do We try some of them by others, that they say:`Are
these they whom Allah favoureth among us ? Is not Allah best aware of the
thanksgivers? And when those who believe in Our revelations come unto thee, say
: Peace be unto you ! Your Lord hath prescribed for Himself mercy, that whoso
of you doeth evil and repenteth afterward thereof and doeth right, (for him) Lo ! Allah is Forgiving,
Merciful". (Surah Al An'am; verses 52-54).

 
        Those slaves contributed greatly
to the success of the Muhammadan mission through their extraordinary heroism,
and their martyrdom, so remarkable and striking in the annals of persecution in
history. Their persistency, their sufferance, attracted many to Islam and made
possible their assimilation of the creed.

 
        Most of them participated in
preaching Islam to others, aiding the Prophet considerably thereby. Many of the
Prophet's utterances have come to us through some of them, and to some is due
the credit of lending a hand in social organisation in Medinah.

 
        They proved to be one important
factor in disseminating the Islamic creed. They were its heroic silent
preachers, carrying its burden and serving its cause when things looked black.

 

4- OMAR IBN AL KHATTAB

 

        Islam
was something in the breasts of its believers, to be discussed in whispers, and
practised in secret, for fear of persecution. When Omar became a convert, it
was preached openly and unreservedly. He challenged Quraish, not only, like
Hamzah before him, by declaring his conversion fearlessly, but also by
practising it openly. No wonder, then that the Prophet of the Faith had prayed
God :- "O Allah ! strengthen Islam by the
conversion of either Omars"

   &nbsp?    Preaching a cause publicly
by its adherents is the first stage of the struggle. That was the step taken by
Omar, and by it he inscribed the first line in the history of the open fight
for the Islamic cause. It is as if he wanted, by such a step, to atone for
having been tardy in joining it. The prestige of Omar, added to that of Hamzah,
uncle of the Prophet, sufficed to make the faithful, then about forty, to
practise the Faith openly. It is to the credit of Omar that he first proposed
it. It will, then, be no exaggeration to maintain that Omar's conversion was
the separating line between two stages in the history of the Mission : the
stage of secretly, and the stage of openly, practising and struggling for the
Faith by its followers.

        To his influence, moreover,
were due two things of cardinal importance in the post Apostolic history of
Islam, the first saving it from collapse, and the second ensuring its lasting
triumph.

        The first took place with
the death of the Apostle himself, Peace be upon him, which threatened to revive
the factious spirit and thus disrupt the unity of the Arabs at Madinah. Omar
saved the situation by his strong attitude at the Sakifa (or shed) meeting. He
supported Abu Bakr, and did not hesitate to be the first to swear allegiance to
him as Caliph, causing the others to do the same, thus avoiding division at
that critical moment in Islamic history.

     The second is Omar's propagation of the
Islamic call itself, and the establishment of the Islamic cause beyond any possible
threat during his long happy reign, remarkable for the series of brilliant
martial successes of the Arabs, their territorial expansion, and the high
morale and prestige they enjoyed everywhere.

     His personal character as a ruler, remarkable
for austerity, asceticism, moderation and justice, afforded an exemplary type
of refined leadership, and an ideal Islamic type well worth mutation. Not only
did he preach the rights of man liberty, fraternity and equality but made them
a realised fact, and enforced them as the working principles of his rule.

        Throughout the then vast
Islamic Empire, he established justice and fair play, for he maintained
equality between governor and governed, shepherd and shepherded both getting
their due, with strict control over local governors lest they should deviate
from Islamic standards, and abuse the power vested in them, with the result
that they feared his question, and ruled with right and justice.

        To this great man is due a
big share of the credit for the later propagation and success of the Muhammadan
Call. Under the Romans and Persians, the masses suffered from unjust
irresponsible governors. Islamic rule presented an entirely different picture,
characterised with justice and exceedingly humanitarian administration, honest
and pure. That is why multitudes were converted to the?Islamic faith, and were
ready to sacrifice much for its sake.

     Omar was the embodiment of humility and
continence, never corrupted by riches or made vainglorious through power. He
remained throughout. the true spiritual Successor, the Calif true to his Master, the Prophet.

        His asceticism afforded a
practical example for his local governors to follow. When he travelled to Jerusalem to take over
the keys of this holy city, he was attended by no train of retainers except his
henchman. For this tedious journey he was provided only with loaves of barley,
some dried dates, a skin of water, and a wooden plate. When the Patriarch of Jerusalem saw him, he did
not recognise him until he was pointed out. Perhaps he had thought of Omar as
or some Caesar or Khisroe of the day, till the picture of finery and pomp gave
place to that of humility and asceticism.

        Omar's life was one
continual chain of unremitting activity. He believed, I think, that governance
was a holy trust, to be preserved from frivolity and corruption, and
safeguarded by justice and counsel, if security and satisfaction are to
prevail.

     To him constant activity was a pleasure. He
was, in truth, a holy torch that Providence
raised to illuminate in after years the road of the Islamic Call for every true
believer in generations to come.

     The Apostle of God, upon whom be peace, gave
twenty three years of his life to establishing the call of Islam in Arabia,
addressing it to rulers of neighbouring states and through them to their
peoples, and to the training of his train of faithful disciples that they might
maintain and safeguard the Cause against any possible disruption or collapse.
Then came the first disciple, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, who cemented it
beyond division in Arabia, and started sending
its legions abroad. But it was Omar, the second Caliph, nominated by Abu Bakr,
who following in Abu Bakr's steps, completed the great work of establishing the
Call abroad to an extent that still stands without compare; conquering the
Roman and Persian empires in Africa and Asia, and, through his exemplary
justice and humility and continence, enlisting in the end their vast
populations under the banners of Islam. He and Abu Bakr stand, after the
Prophet, as the deal rulers of Islam, for humanity to look up to and follow. It
was a bad day for Muslims when their rulers lost this ideal.

 

 

5 - THE BELIEVING YOUTHS

        By these are meant the body
of young men under twenty who were converted to the faith in the early stage of
the Call, and who were numerous enough to constitute a remarkable feature
worthy of record. They believed in the Prophet, upon whom be peace, at his
critical moments when he stood almost one, and when the battle between belief
and disbelief, between truth and falsehood, was pending

     Those young converts were never slighted or
disregarded by the Prophet. On the contrary he used to welcome them, give them
room to sit, spiritually dominating and regenerating them, himself being their
exemplary practical ideal. He educated them and completed their bringing up as
nobody else could. Muhammad in conformity with the then established Arab
tradition, honoured and valued youth and assigned for young men the appropriate
status expressed by the Arab poet in the words:

        "A proper youth copes
with adversity;

        He is not born for
endearment by mates".

        In search for a secret
place for their meetings where they could neither be detected nor suspected,
one of those young men, Al Arkam by name, offered his house to become the first
hall for the Islamic Call. This he presented to his brothers in the faith
willingly, though he knew that the unbelievers would pull it down stone by
stone if they could detect the purpose for which it was used. No earthly
menace, however, could have made the young man change his mind, given devotedly
as he was to the way of God. Yet Al Arkam was then only twelve years of age.

        One of those young was Ali,
son of Abu Talib, the earliest boy believer, the valiant hero destined to be
the fourth Calif.
He was a steadfast warrior when valiant warriors gave way under strain. His
duel with the veteran Arab knight, the hero of the idolaters Amr Ibn Wud, in
the battle of the Moat, is famous in Islamic history, and no better example of
heroism can be cited. He killed the famous knight, though only a youth of
twenty six. He killed Amre, the experienced, the hero of many battles, and the
victor of many duels.

        He was the man who forced
the fort of Naim in the battle of Khaiber, after it had successively resisted
the efforts of Abu Bakr and Omar. The occasion is famous for, having lost his
shield, he wielded a door as a buckler and fought on till he forced his way
into the fortress in the face of the desperate resistance of the Jews. His
notable physical strength was aided by a spiritual power arising from his deep
faith.</?pan>

     Like Ali in courage was Zobair Ibn Al Awam
who highly distinguished himself in the first two battles fought by the
Prophet, upon whom be peace. He defended the Prophet very heroically in the
battle of Ohod, where he was commissioned  by the Prophet to lead the
right wing against the great commander Khalid Ibn El Waild who then led the
enemy's left. He, much to the satisfaction and encouragement of the Muslims,
killed in a duel a noted adversary who stood in the lists challenging the whole
Muslim army.

        Some of these young men
emigrated to Abyssinia after having been
subjected to painful persecution and torture in property and limb.

     But the young believers were not all males;
some were females remarkable for their patience, and fortitude in the struggle
for the Cause. Amongst these may be mentioned Asma daughter of Abu Bakr,
Fatimah daughter of Al Khattab, sister of Omar that is, and Asma daughter of
Omise.

     The teachings of Islam
could reach and dominate the hearts of those young believers because they had
not yet imbibed the heathenish spirit, or developed into rigid followers of
abhorrent custom and wrong tradition. They were tutored by the Prophet himself,
who instilled into them of his spirit, opened to them his great heart, widened
their horizon, enlivened their right emotions, moved them to seek godly honour,
and was to them a teacher and a guide. And what tutor for the young could be
better than the master teacher, the Apostle o whom God Himself testifies:

"Thou art surely of great morality and noble
nature". (Surah Al Qalam, verse 4).

 

        And what
can we expect of such young men brought up in such a school under such a tutor
? Nothing less than the heroism and glory alluded to. From amongst them arose
such a rightly guided Caliph as Ali Ibn Abi Talib, such distinguished savants
as Abdullah Ibn Massoud, such eminent commanders as Zobair Ibn Al Awam and
Saa'd Ibn Abi Wakkas, and such faithful believers as Al Arkam and Taiha Ibn
Obeidillah.

 

&nbsp?       Some
of them were the first to die martyrs for their convictions in the Islamic
battles, and some worked hard to instil their own true spirit in others who
were thus spurred on to great efforts under the banner of Islam. To quote in
effect, a divine verse:

       
"They were young men who believed in their Lord and We increased them in
guidance".
(Surah. Al Kahf, verse 13).

 

6- Al-Ansar (The Helpers)

        What might have become of
the Islamic Call had it not been for the Helpers, the Muslims of Madinah, who
sponsored and gallantly defended it? Careful analysis shows that the Call then
would have been diverted into different channels of perhaps uncertain or
unfavourable results, and history would have taken a different aspect.

        During: pilgrimage days,
the Prophet used to address Arab tribes - particularly Thakif, Kindah, Kalb,
Bani Hanifah and Bani Amer, telling of his divine mission and asking each in
turn to accept and defend him. They turned their backs to him, returning rather
uncivil answers.

        With the death of Khadigah
and his uncle Abu Talib, the Prophet met with more cruelty and more stubborn
resistance at Mecca, so much so that it became clear that there was no use in
his continuing to stay in that city God, however, sent His prophet due help in
the form of a small group of pilgrims from Yathrib, of the Aus and Khazrag
tribes, who responded to his teachings, and swore allegiance to him at Al-Aqabah.
Next pilgrimage season, a larger more representative group met the Prophet at
the same place, swore allegiance, and undertook to defend him if he would go to
their city. These are the two famous pacts of Al-Aqabah.

        The researcher would have to
pause and consider the reasons why the Arabs of Yathrib, contrary to other Arab
tribes, came to believe so readily in the Prophet's mission.

        One possible reason is that
Muhammad was not a total stranger to Yathrib and the Arabs there. A noted Yathrib
family, the family of Banil Naggar, comprised his uncles. His father's grave
was in Yathrib (Madinah) and his mother, as mentioned before, used to take him
as a child to visit his uncles and the grave, in memory of the father and
husband who died in his youthful prime. His mother died while returning to Mecca from one such visit, and was buried at Abwa',
between Mecca
and Madinah. These happenings had probably something to do with the mental and
spiritual approachment which led to the immediate response which the Prophet's
call met with from those people. In his own words

         
"Souls are organised into groups, affection developing between the similar,
disaffection between the dissimilar".

 
        Another probable reason why they
were so easily converted to Islam was the prominent existence of Judaism at and
around Yathrib. They had for neighbours the Jews of Khaiber, of Beni Koraizah,
of Beni Kinakaa and of Banil Nadaer, who
believed in Monotheism, and decidedly and steadfastly condemned idol worship.
This undoubtedly familiarised them at least with monotheism, and prepared mind
and heart to accept a monotheistic call for the worship of the true God, should
it arise through an Arab and not through a Jew.

 

        There
was also that relentless internecine war between their principal tribes, the
Aus and the Khazrag tribes, who were equal in valour, almost equal in strength
the recurring war between them, therefore indecisive, threatening to bring them
both ultimately to destruction, leaving their city free to the Jews. Would it
not be natural for their representatives at Al-Aqabah to think of the benefit
of accepting such a neutral fair authority as the Prophet himself, who could
bridge the gap between them and realize their ideal of peace?

 
        Moreover, it is recorded that
they thought Muhammad to be the prophet expected by the Jews to come and make Israel
dominant, unifying the world under Judaism. They sought, therefore, to
forestall the Jews, and believe in him first that they might have the
precedence over the Jews.

 
     ?nbsp;  It may also be that the incessant
war between them made them long for a life, for a spiritual life, based on Faith
and communion with God.

 
        Whatever may have been the
reason, Muhammad found in them a way out of the narrow circle in which he was
then labouring, and they found in him the able arbiter and leader who could
rescue them from the destruction that threatened them, in addition to the
eternal life that they would secure by believing in, and living up to, his
divine Mission. The pact entered into, therefore, was a triumph for all.

 
        Furthering the cause of Muhammad
and protecting him was an act of sheer defiance to the rest of the Arabs, and
they knew it before taking their oath, as may be evidenced by the speech of
Saad Ibn Obadah at the second conference before the oath of allegiance was
sworn at Al Aqabah : ((You people of Khazrag )) - Saad was a Khazragite
-"Do you know what you are doing when you swear allegiance to this man ?
you are swearing to defend him against all people, red and black''.[3]

 
        But they knew well what they were
doing, and all Aus and Khazrag representatives including Saad himself took
their oath with confidence, to defend the Prophet, come what might. Henceforth
they were called Al Ansar, the Helpers and defenders of Muhammad, the Apostle
of God.

 
        The Helpers were throughout loyal
to the Islamic Call, were the faithful soldiers of the Prophet, ran the risk of
long wars, and bore large sacrifices in body and property. They fought in fact
against both Arabs and Jews, but never gave way. They took their oath and stuck
to it with the undaunted spirit and the readiness expressed by Saad Son of Maaz
in a speech made on a famous occasion before the battle of Badr "We
believed in you, and consequently in your word. We gave you our pledges, so
proceed, O Apostle of God ! to the fulfilment of your heavenly orders. For, by
Him who has sent you with Truth, should it be your will to wade the sea, we
shall be ready to wade it with you. Nor do we shun the idea of your sending us
against the enemy tomorrow. We are patient in war, true in battle; so proceed
with God's blessing".

       

This splendid morale was one chief
factor in securing the victory for the Muslims in the battle of Badr decisive
for the success and dissemination of the Cause.

 
        But it is no wonder that those
Helpers should be so, their natural valour having been stirred up, and their
martial spirit, ever watchful wary and ready, having been marshalled by the
Prophet into a formidable force with which he struck right and left when
occasion arose. With it he struck at Quraish, and with it he met the clans of
the Moat, and with it he reduced the Jewish tribes one by one until God sent
final victory, and caused the Call to conquer all. The Helpers, then, having
been through God's mercy brought together into one whole after their
pre-Islamic wars, became God's instrument for securing the victory for the
cause of Islam, shielding it from the many dangers that threatened it.

 
        The Prophet, upon whom be peace,
returned the strong attachment the Helpers felt towards him, and, at the moment
of his final victory, fulfilled his part of the Aqabah pact. On that famous
occasion, Abu Al Haitham asked "O Apostle of
Allah! we shall sever connections existing between us and men (the Jews). When this
is done and Allah gives you triumph, would you go back to your folk and leave
us?".

       
"No!" answered
the Prophet "Your
blood is my blood, and your abode is my abode. You are of me and I am of you. I
fight whom you fight, and make peace with whom you make peace".

        And so
it was. The Prophet, true to his word, did not move to Mecca after the conquest. He stayed on with
his faithful Helpers who supported him at the critical time, and aided in
propagating his Call. He made their city his abode until he was recalled by his
Lord.