Al Haqeeqa
- He was a nephew of `A’isha through his mother Asma’ bint Abi Bakr, who was `A’isha’s sister.
- At Uhud, the Prophet suffered a deep wound in his skull, nothing sort of a disaster for a man who has fifty-five years behind him. We have no details whether it healed fully or not after the helmet ends had to be pulled out by teeth used as tongs. In addition, some of his teeth were chipped off.
- He did not identify himself as a Qurayshi, but rather, preferred to say, “your people.” Further, that is the most that he said about the hardships he suffered at Makkah for a decade.
- He was referring to the events when he climbed up to Ta’if along with Zayd – his slave for the namesake, but more a beloved Companion. He stayed there for some ten days, first meeting with Ibn `AbdYaaleel b. `AbdKulaal and two of his brothers, powerful chieftains of Ta’if. Despite his request that they keep their meeting with him and their own rejection to themselves, they betrayed him, made it public, and set mischievous urchins upon him, chasing him and stoning him to bloodied feet.
Interestingly, after Makkah’s fall, and after the failure of Makkah’s siege by the Prophet, the Thaqif tribe met up with the Prophet and embrace Islam, but, as some unchecked reports claim, Ibn `AbdYaaleel, did not submit, but rather preferred to leave to settle down in Syria.
- “Sadness” is a mild term to state the state of his heart. How exactly he felt we do not know. His unflinching supporter uncle, Abu Talib, was dead. His best friend ever, Khadijah, the noble soul, was dead. He had four daughters. His sources of income were dry. Worse of all, by joint agreement, the Quraysh had disallowed any preaching within Makkah, and finally, the next chieftain of the Banu Hashim tribe, Abu Lahab had disowned him, meaning, he could be picked up and sold as a slave in a market thousand miles away, or even killed, since he had become an outcast of his tribe.
He was the ‘sent one’ of his Lord, no doubt. But his Lord was not ‘walking in front of him – as the Jews claimed with regard to their prophets. His Lord hadn’t even sent angels to safeguard him: “Many Messengers of the past were killed,” his Lord reminded him. He had promised him that his spiritual realm shall cross Arabian borders, but hadn’t told him that he would be alive then.
So, a lonely person, on a lonely track, he had to fend for himself, and face the situations squarely, not with the help of supplications, but with the power of his own arms and mind. He decided to seek help from the powerful Ta’ifians. That is what took him there.
But the worst was not over. He was climbing down, this hill and that hammock, with the knowledge that he could not enter Makkah again: without a chieftain offering his refuge. His refuge now was the Cave Hira.
So, when he said he was sad, he was being quite conservative. The reality was that, at one point, he didn’t know where he was going: “So much that I felt lost, only to discover myself in Qarn al-Tha`aalib!”
- The name of a little mountain, on the road coming from Yemen, into Makkah, falling between Makkah and Ta’if. The place was then infested by foxes (tha`lab, pl. tha`aalib), which disappeared a little time later. Now the place is known as Qarn al-Manaazil, a Meeqat of the Yemenies (Mullah `Ali Qari and others).
- Named `abdun in the Qur’an, the Prophet was a true slave. With his footwear, perhaps, still wet with blood, he supplicates for the Ta’ifians who had behaved so cruelly for, when he said, “I hope that Allah will bring out of their loins a people who will worship Allah …,” he was – very subtly – pleading their case. His Lord had the power to turn their hearts soft for Islam. A true slave himself, the Prophet wished them to become His Lord’s slaves too.(Au.)
