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Khadijah bint Khuwaylid: Difference between revisions
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==The Persecution== | ==The Persecution== | ||
After three years and some fifty converts,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 115-117.</ref> it was known throughout Mecca that Muhammad considered himself a prophet. | After three years and some fifty converts,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 115-117.</ref> it was known throughout Mecca that Muhammad considered himself a prophet. He received little attention<ref>{{Tabari|6|p. 93}}.</ref> until the day when he gathered his relatives together for a dinner-party and invited them to forsake their idols and submit to Allah. But no mass-conversions followed;<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 117-119.</ref> the Meccans doubted, questioned and ignored him. Discouraged, Muhammad confided his troubles to Khadijah,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 191.</ref> who was quick to console him. The citizens of Mecca accused him of outright lying, and Khadijah continued to reassure him that he was a prophet.<ref>Ibn Hanbal, ''Musnad'' volume 6 p. 117-118.</ref> Debates led to angry arguments and mockery, and Khadijah disparaged their folly. Notwithstanding this concise summary of Khadijah’s attitude, surprisingly few specifics are recorded. The exact words of her counter-mockery do not survive, and nor is it precisely described how she “helped him in his work.”<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 117.</ref> There are very few ''ahadith'' about her everyday life with Muhammad or her involvement in community affairs, although there must have been multiple witnesses to both. | ||
Muhammad kept preaching, and the public arguments led to fights in the streets. It was a Muslim who struck the first blow,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 118.</ref> but when Muhammad continued his "shameless" attacks,<ref>Francis Edwards Peters,Muhammad and the Origins of Islam, SUNY Press, p.169</ref> mocking the idols in the Ka’aba, the pagans began a systematic campaign of punishing Muslim slaves and teenagers.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 143-145.</ref> One of the worst offenders was Khadijah’s brother Nawfal, whom the Muslims called “a satan of the Quraysh.” He once tied Abu Bakr to his kinsman Talha ibn Ubaydullah and left them helplessly roped together.<ref>Guillaume/Ibn Ishaq 127-128.</ref> His attitude raises interesting questions about Khadijah’s relationship with her brother – especially as Nawfal’s own son was an early convert to Islam.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 147.</ref> However, while his spiteful prank no doubt caused Abu Bakr and Talha some inconvenience, if this was deemed the action of a “satan”, then the general harassment of freeborn adults was far from life-threatening. The majority of these converts fled to Abyssinia, where the Christian King extended his unqualified protection. Muhammad and Khadijah, being under the protection of Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib, remained in Mecca.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 146ff.</ref> | Muhammad kept preaching, and the public arguments led to fights in the streets. It was a Muslim who struck the first blow,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 118.</ref> but when Muhammad continued his "shameless" attacks,<ref>Francis Edwards Peters,Muhammad and the Origins of Islam, SUNY Press, p.169</ref> mocking the idols in the Ka’aba, the pagans began a systematic campaign of punishing Muslim slaves and teenagers.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 143-145.</ref> One of the worst offenders was Khadijah’s brother Nawfal, whom the Muslims called “a satan of the Quraysh.” He once tied Abu Bakr to his kinsman Talha ibn Ubaydullah and left them helplessly roped together.<ref>Guillaume/Ibn Ishaq 127-128.</ref> His attitude raises interesting questions about Khadijah’s relationship with her brother – especially as Nawfal’s own son was an early convert to Islam.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 147.</ref> However, while his spiteful prank no doubt caused Abu Bakr and Talha some inconvenience, if this was deemed the action of a “satan”, then the general harassment of freeborn adults was far from life-threatening. The majority of these converts fled to Abyssinia, where the Christian King extended his unqualified protection. Muhammad and Khadijah, being under the protection of Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib, remained in Mecca.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 146ff.</ref> | ||