The Merciful War

This is the seventh lecture of Dr. Adam and the audience is the same audience. Comments on these lectures have multiplied in many fora, newspapers and journals, the majority of which were positively appreciative, though some were critical on the grounds that she sometimes goes too far in adducing evidence and in analysis. There was one source only that considered the lectures emotional in character.

 

There appeared an article in the University Magazine that stated that  there was a mixture of emotions and family sentiments, and that these lectures were family meals that are appropriate for all members of the family, but they apparently remain points of view, which were themselves admired by others, particularly those who were previously interested in this topic.

 

Dr. Adam never made any comments regarding what was said about her lectures. This was remarked by others attending here lectures, who would  have liked to hear something from her, but no one wanted to bring up the matter or raise any questions in that regard.

 

Dr. Adam started her lecture, as usual, by welcoming her audience and then went on to say:

 

“Other lectures have touched on the relationship that exists among different aspects of ethics, and we have sometimes reported the views of some specialists in the field of ethics, which views indicated that a human personality cannot highlight a certain ethical trait that would become closely associated with it, unless such personality begins by applying other ethical traits and identifies itself with universal values. We mentioned, in that respect, the view of some scholars who maintained that ethical traits reinforce one another, which confirms the previous view.

 

I have intended the following lines to be an introduction to this subject. You may remember that someone in the audience had touched on this subject and that I said at the time that it was a basic aspect of our topic and that we would revert to it in some detail.

 

However, it seems to me that before dealing with this subject and with the illustrations of mercy that are associated therewith, I am compelled to touch on the philosophy of war in the life of Prophet Muhammad, pbuh. I must admit that I do not like to talk about wars. I believe that you share this aversion with me and do not desire to listen to what is connected with wars, whose stinking odors bother all of us, in an age in which hidden thoughts have become foul and people’s minds have become blinded.

 

We have felt depressed as a result of hearing about wars and the horrible scenes of blood and destruction associated therewith, so much so, that we were under the impression that humanity had gone out of its mind, as it did not know why the killer kills and why the victim was killed; why the unjust has perpetrated their injustice, nor how the victim has avenged himself.

 

Our aversion to war, its news and consequences are among the main reasons that have prompted us to talk about ethics and morality, particularly the ethics of mercy. This is done in order to remind the erring humanity that there is on earth something that is called mercy, which may in many instances make it possible to dispense with war and hatred, and so that humanity may realize that there is a person in whom mercy was an eminent attribute throughout his life. It was the weapon with which he fought his adversaries in many cases, at a time when they fought him with force and cruelty. It was the means through which he attracted many people to his message and succeeded in spreading mercy among people.

 

It is inevitable, however, to talk about mercy without touching on war and its disasters. I hope we shall not be misunderstood as being driven by emotion and compelled by our humane feelings to the point of ignoring the conflict between good and evil in this world, or as being oblivious of the causes of such conflict, whether they are convincing and legitimate or not.

 

I would like to talk about the subject of war in the life of the Prophet, pbuh, in the format of several points, lest we should digress beyond our intended objective, particularly as this subject is so controversial that opinions diverge over it and is subjected to the influence of selfish interests.

 

First, it has been established that the Prophet, pbuh, has given permission to fight, to his companions, fifteen years after the beginning of his mission. Thus fighting was authorized in the second year of the Hegira, which is the view of the majority of scholars.[1] This means that the years of fighting were only eight years, because the mission of the Prophet, pbuh, lasted twenty three years.

 

If we take into account that the culture that prevailed at the time proscribed fighting during the sacred months, which numbered four.  (“The number of months in the sight of God is tywelve months in God’s decree on the day when He created the heavens and the earth, ouf of these four are sacred (Al-Tawbah, 36); and given that this culture was respected by the Muslims and by their adversaries ــ If we take these facts into account,  we must drop from the eight years about three years, which constitute the sum total of the sacred months from each of the eight years. Hence, the total period during which the Prophet, pbuh, was allowed to fight was only five years out of the twenty three years of his mission, as we have said.

 

Second: The number of battles fought by the Prophet, pbuh. was only nine battles, to which are added limited fighting activities, in which he used to entrust to his companions the performance of specific tasks that did not involve any killing or any fighting.

 

Several scholars have attempted to count the number of human losses during the time of the Prophet, pbuh, and they reported conflicting figures. The highest figure did not exceed 1048 persons from all parties, but I have ascertained that the number does not exceed hundreds, at most, in eight years, in nine battles, and a number of his minor campaigns.

 

In the context of adducing figures, it is quite in order to mention the number of people killed during the First and Second World Wars only.

 

The First World War:  or the global war that put an end to all wars, is the one that took place between 1914 and 1918, during which chemical weapons were used, for the first time., and in Which the world had never  mobilized such a number of troops as it had done in that War. In that war, civilians were bombed, from the sky for the first time in history, and racial annihilations were practiced (9 million military personnel, 7 million civilians, totaling 17 million persons.)

 

The Second World War, which erupted in 1937 in Asia and in 1939 in Europe, and ended in 1945 with the surrender of Japan. This war is considered a universal war and the costliest in the history of humanity on account of the wide expanse of the war and the multiplicity of the theatres of the battles that took place. Many states were involved in the conflict and the War claimed the lives of about 60 million human beings, between military personnel and civilians (25 million military personnel and 37 million civilians).

 

Yes, my dear audience! Consider the painful figure of 77 million people killed in just two wars, within about 12 years, of whom 44 million were civilians.

 

But in the age of mercy, in the life time of the Prophet, pbuh, there was almost no civilian casualty, throughout 23 years of the confrontation between the Prophet, pbuh, and his adversaries.

 

In this context, allow me, after those stunning figures, to reiterate the statement made by Noam Chomsky: “I have taken these figures from history, and one must clamor in protest and announce them in public.”[2]

 

Third: The Prophet has sought to avoid fighting, as much as possible, which the strong with many potentials avoids, as he was aware that his objective had been realized and many successes had been scored, without the need to fight. This is a fact confirmed by fifteen years that elapsed without any fighting, years that were full of accomplishments.

 

It would be interesting to illustrate this orientation by adducing what had happened in the Battle of Badr, which was fought by the Prophet, pbuh, against his Meccan adversaries. He had left Medina seeking no fighting, a fact recorded by the Quran, when referring to the Prophet and his companions: “and you would have liked to seize the less powerful one” (Al-Anfal, 7). This verse has revealed that the Prophet did not desire to fight, but had been compelled to do so, finding no other alternative, as the Prophet, pbuh, would never run away from his enemy.

 

Hours before the start of the battle, he had hoped that Quraish would listen to reason and be dissuaded from fighting, as is evidenced by the Prophet’s statement to his companions hours before the start of the battle: “If there is any good in one of them, it lies with the owner of the red camel, for if they obey him they would be reasonable.”²,  meaning Otbah ben Rabiaa, who had tried to dissuade Quraish from going to war, but did not succeed and was overruled by Abu Jahl and those who were of his opinion.

 

On occasions, he used to change his routing in order to avoid fighting, as he did when he was on his way, with his companions, to perform Umrah (the Small Pilgrimage), and used to send mediators to his adversaries to convince them of the damage and injuries that result from war and of his desire of peace. This happened in the Hudaibiyah Truce.[3]

 

The Prophet always preferred to conclude treaties with his adversaries and was eager to make same in order to close the door to war. The number of treaties is almost equal to that of his military campaigns. This is only an indication of his keenness on avoiding war.

 

Fourth: When forced to fight, the Prophet, pbuh, would only fight in self-defense or in defending his territory, even if he took the initiative in the fighting. Thus, whenever he anticipated an imminent danger, or had intelligence of some people preparing to fight him, he would hasten to fight them, in fulfillment of the Quranic orders: “And fight in God’s cause against those who wage war against you, but do not commit aggression, for verily, God does not love aggressor ” (Al-Baqarah, 190).

 

At this juncture, a lady in the audience raised her hand, and was given the floor. She introduced herself in a soft voice which was not heard. She said she worked in the field of child-care and had an interesting piece of information in this respect, which she desired to share with the audience. Dr. Adam welcomed her offer, and the lady said:

 

“I have read an article which was read at a seminar on child-care, copy of which I keep at my office. The article said that the Prophet, pbuh, used to prevent children from joining him in battles.

 

Thus, it happened that when the Prophet, pbuh, was  reviewing his army at the Battle of Bdr, he noticed that there were two boys, Abdullah bin Omar and Al-Baraa bin Azib who had joined the army, and he ordered them to go back to Medina[4], although they had tried to stand on their tip toes to give an impression of their being old enough. But their attempt failed, for the Prophet, pbuh, insisted on their going back , though he was not sure there would be a fight. But in case fighting would break out, he wanted to spare the boys the danger of fighting, out of his mercy for them.”

 

The speaker paused and asked if she could continue and Dr. Adam said, “Please do, but give me a minute first, lest I should forget, to say that the Prophet pf Mercy was keen on protecting children as a whole, and not merely the children of Muslims. Thus he firmly ordered Muslims not to kill any children of the enemy. This is illustrated by his order to Khaled bin Al-Walid not to kill a child, a woman or a servant.[5]"

 

The lady went on to say, “In contrast to that, the UNICEF has published the figure of 300 thousand children recruited in armies and participating in battles.[6]”

 

She went on to say, “You have mentioned in the First Lecture that the Non-Governmental Organization “Medecins sans frontiers” has reported that 2 million children were killed in the past few years, in wars and conflicts.

 

This encourages me to propose that in addition to the points you have mentioned that a pointe be added on the eagerness of the Prophet, pbuh, to keep away civilians, children and women from the wars, and this explains why there were no civilian casualties in the wars he fought.”

 

Dr. Adam listened with great interest to the intervention of the speaker and invited her to come forward to the podium and repeat her magnificent statements, which she considered to form an important part of her lecture, and that they would be added thereto.

 

The speaker hesitated and wished to be excused, but Dr. Adam insisted, for a good reason, saying, “the majority of the audience did not hear your interesting speech. Hence it is necessary that you respond to the invitation so that all would benefit therefrom.  I have decided that your statements would constitute the fifth point.” The speaker stepped forward feeling a bit shy and repeated what she had said to the audience, who expressed admiration and appreciation.

 

When she finished, Dr. Adam thanked her once more, on her own behalf and on behalf of the audience. Thereafter, another person in the audience stood up and said that it seemed that the situation encouraged him to make a brief intervention, which he thought was interesting and would show how eager the Prophet, pbuh, was to protect children from all harm. Dr. Srah thanked him and invited him to go ahead. He said, “Ibn Malek has reported that the Prophet, pbuh, told parents to call home their children after sunset.[7] I gather from this advice that the Prophet ,pbuh, wanted children to be at home before the advent of darkness, as it is associated with possible harm to children.

 

I believe that this is an indication of the mercy of the Prophet, pbuh, towards children, which we hope would be observed by parents in our time, and thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

 

Dr. Adam thanked the speaker for this interesting and significant piece of information and his request that it be included in the lecture and went on to say:

 

“I remember two other events, which are relevant to our subject.

 

The first: we have already touched on it. It is the story of the first woman martyr in Islam, Sumayyah bint (daughter) of Khabat, whom the enemies of the Prophet, pbuh, did not hesitate to kill, while in contrast, when the Prophet, pbuh, saw one of his enemies’ women killed, he was angry and ordered his companions not to kill women.

 

During the Battle of Hunain, the Prophet, pbuh, saw a woman who had been killed and was surrounded by onlookers. He was told she had been killed by Khalwed bin Al-Walid. The Prophet, pbuh, said that she was not participating in the fighting and sent some of his companions to tell Khaled Ibn Walid that the Prophet ordered him not to kill a child, a woman or a servant.”

 

At this point a person in the audience said, “I have read that women used to go out with the Prophet during his battles. Is this true? If so, how can we reconcile this with what you have just said?”

 

She said, “this is true. I  have read some texts that so indicate, and I read about the attitude of the Prophet, pbuh, towards women. But what we should know is that women remained behind the army, tending to the wounds of the fighters and providing the men with water. They were far from the field of battle, which is an indication of the esteem given to them when they were given the opportunity to offer their services. Having them stay far from the fighting is by way of mercy towards them.

 

I would like, dear Audience, to revert for a while to the refusal by the Prophet, bpuh, to permit the two boys to accompany him to the field of battle. For no one should wonder when seeing this picture of compassion of the Prophet, pbuh, towards children.

 

Another indication of his mercy is the fact that he used to prolong his prostration in prayer in order not disturb a child who has mounted his back, lest he should fall. This child was the son of his daughter, Fatimah[8]

 

The second: The Prophet’s companions saw him carrying Omamah, the daughter of his daughter Zainab. When prostrating, he would place her gently on the floor, and rising he would carry her again. He probably did this lest she should fall off his back, out of pity and mercy towards her. Now is it conceivable that he who behaves like this with children, would allow them to accompany him to his battles?

 

Dear audience,

 

This merciful Prophet, pbuh., could not stand the sight of a bird being deprived of its chicks and ordered his companions to return them to the mother, as we have seen. It is inconceivable that he should see a human mother lose her child and therefore he told the two boys to go back home, as we have seen.

 

Permit me to make an urgent appeal, in your name and mine, and a sheer advice, to the whole of humanity, to search for Muhammad, pbuh. Now, if they do not find him in person, they will definitely find him through his noble and transcendent  principles, which humanity needs today as never before.

 

Thus, his behavior indicates that he was not fighting individuals, but was fighting an authority which, if left alone, would constitute a threat to Islam and its people, and hence, it was necessary to remove it from the way in order to give individuals the chance to make their own choice, without being affected by external forces.

 

Professor Aqqad says, “Islam is criticized on the grounds that it had fought, with the sword, an idea that may be fought on the basis of reason and proof. But he is not criticized for fighting with the sword an authority that stands in his way and prevent him from addressing those who are willing to listen to him, as an authority is removed only by another authority, and subduing it by force is something inevitable.”[9]

 

Dr. Adam went on to say, “At a previous lecture it was maintained that principles needed force to preserve them in many contexts, not in order to force them on people, but in order to protect them and remove obstacles from their way.

 

The West has not adhered to the principle it had laid down, namely, he who hits you on your right cheek, turn the other for him. Throughout history, many wars have erupted in the name of Christ, of which he is absolutely innocent, which wars claimed the lives of millions of people. No one can deny these painful facts, and I do not wish to dwell too long on this issue.”

 

Sixth: The Prophet, pbuh, had a special way of preparing his army for confronting his adversaries. Thus he never obliged anyone to go out to fight, and used to exempt those who expressed personal reasons, to the point that God Almighty reproached him for that, “May God pardon thee; why did thou grant them permission ere it had become obvious to thee as to who was speaking the truth and ere thou camest to know who were the liars?” (Al-Tawbah, 43)  I seems that the Prophet, pbuh, was too ready to accept excuses. Hence, reproach came to reveal the sincere excuses and to expose the false ones.

 

This attitude does not contradict his desire for his companions to accompany him in his campaigns, while they themselves were only too eager to join him, to the point that a quarrel would sometimes erupt between son and father as to which of them shall join the Prophet, pbuh. This was the case with Saad bin Khaithamah and his father in the Battle of Badr[10], and between Abi Umamah and his uncle, over which of them shall stay with Abi Umamah’s sick mother, as we have already seen.

 

Going to war voluntarily is different from fighting on compulsion without any regard for special circumstances. This is being practiced by civilized armies these days, where soldiers are sent to the battle field, in spite of their will.

 

This was clearly illustrated when the Prophet, pbuh, told one of his commanders, Abdullah bin Jahsh, not to compel anyone to fight if he does not wish to join the fighting. Thus in a message sent to him, he said , “Go forth, with God’s blessings, until you reach Nakhla, and do not force any of your companions to go with you.”[11]

 

The Prophet, pbuh, used to give permission to certain individuals not to go with him and to stay behind for personal reasons, some of which we have already mentioned, and sometimes he would ask some of them to stat behind, as when he asked Othman bin Affan to stay behind on account of his wife’s illness[12], and gave permission to Abu Umamah to stay behind and look after his sick mother. There are many similar cases.

 

When such cases are combined together, they constitute strong evidence that the Prophet, pbuh, was not keen on fighting and that it was not a goal he sought to attain. He has never been thirsty for fighting or killing. He has never forgotten that he was sent as a mercy to mankind, and that he would use mercy more than he used arms to confront his adversaries in some fields, as did happen in fact.

 

The view of the ethics scholars that “morality is the art of controlling one’s desires” is clearly reflected in the fighting philosophy of Muhammad, pbuh. He is in sharp contrast, in this respect, with so many great leaders that humanity has witnessed, such Alexander the Macedonian, Hulago, Napoleon, Hitler and others.

 

All those have fought people who had nothing to do or had no enmity with those leaders in the first place. However, the mundane motives, such as fame and general and private interests, have prompted those leaders to enter territory that was not theirs and fight innocent people who were not their adversaries. They killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed hundreds of cities, and the sum of all this was killing, destruction and instability.

 

On the other hand, the Prophet, pbuh, has fought those who fought him and his followers, those who had eradicated them from their land and had taken their possessions. Thus, he had the right to do that under all laws, and yet he never did anything that indicates that he had any passion for killing or that he was seeking to attain fame in this field.

 

Both Christ and Muhammad, peace be upon both of them, have preached mercy, tolerance and good deeds. But Christ was not able to propagate what he was preaching or to realize it in actual fact as he would have liked to do. This was because he had not found the necessary force that protects mercy and makes way for it to reach all people, on account of the hostility of the Jews and the existence of a Roman cruel authority.

 

But Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, did find this force with which he removed the obstacles that stood in the face of the spreading of those sublime principles. Thus the resort of the Prophet, pbuh, to force in some cases was evidence of his eagerness to spread the culture of mercy, tolerance, justice and good deeds. Otherwise, he could have preached such ethics, as did his great predecessors, and then leave people alone to choose or not to adopt such ethics or to turn away from them and do the very opposite.

 

But the Prophet of Mercy, who was sent as a mercy to mankind, could not have done that because humanity would be the victim that would pay a high price. The Prophet’s fighting was a mercy, so that mercy would prevail among people without any obstacles or barriers.

 

Dear audience,

 

I have gathered lots of information while preparing these lectures, which I keep separately and I often feel inclined to share them with you, because they reveal an aspect of fairness in the studies made about those who have written about Muhammad, pbuh, other than his followers, and I find this interesting to reveal. They, frankly, inspire a large amount of confidence in many of the listeners. Therefore, allow me to read to you what eminent scholars have to say on our subject, and I apologize in advance if I have already mentioned some of them at previous lectures.

 

The Spanish orientalist, Jean Lake, says, “Muhammad’s life cannot be described in a way that is better than God’s description in the Quran, ‘And we sent thee as evidence of Our mercy towards the worlds.’ (Al-Anbiyaa, 107). Muhammad was a real mercy.[13]

 

The English philosopher Thomas Carlyle says, “Muhammad, that great man, who was full of mercy, good and tenderness, had ideas other than mundane greed and intentions, other than the quest for authority and prestige.”[14]

 

Carlyle also says, “The severe wars he fought against the Bedouin Arabs were not devoid of scenes of force; but neither were they devoid of indications of mercy, generosity and forgiveness. Muhammad did not apologize for the first, nor did he boast about the second.”[15]

 

Commenting on the treatment by the Prophet, pbuh, of the prisoners of the battle of Badr, the thinker, Lord Hudley, says, “Is not this evidence that Muhammad was not characterized  by cruelty or thirst for blood, as his adversaries allege; he rather always sought to avoid the shedding of blood, as much as possible.”[16]

 

The Great German scholar, Bertley Saint Hiller, says, “The Prophet preached the religion of one God. In his preaching, he was gentle and  merciful, even with his enemies. His personality is characterized by two of the most sublime qualities that characterize a human being, namely, justice and mercy.”[17]

 

Dear audience, we are still on the subject of the Prophet’s mercy in all its aspects, but in another sphere, when his followers have multiplied, and his strength has grown and his victories have come in succession. In such circumstances, dazzling pictures of mercy were drawn in the Prophet’s attitude towards his enemies, which won great admiration and astonishment, perhaps.

 

I must admit that among the reasons for my pursuit of this subject, and my eagerness to consider these events, is what some Western writers have written, that Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, was a tolerant prophet when he was in Mecca, but when he went to Medina, he became a ruler and a head of state, acting like leaders do.[18]

 

Allow me to take you back to Mecca, when Quraish isolated the Prophet, pbuh, his followers and relatives in a valley called the valley of Abu Taleb for three years, during which they were denied food and contact with them to the point that they nearly died together with their women and children, some of them had perhaps been driven by hunger to eat insects and worms.[19]

 

Days went by and the Prophet migrated to Medina and established a strong state that had great prestige and status. At this time, Thumamah bin Athal, the leader of Bani Hanifah of Najd, embraced Islam and unilaterally decided to support the position of the Prophet, pbuh, and weaken his weak enemies in Mecca, by stopping the export of wheat to Mecca, which is known to be a non-agricultural land.

 

People in Mecca were terror stricken when they were confronted with the ghost of hunger. So they wrote to the Prophet, pbuh, and sent a delegation to beg him to intercede with Thumamah to resume exporting wheat to them.

 

People in Mecca knew that the Prophet, pbuh, was never of a cruel heart or ill tempered. Therefore, they appealed to him, despite their antagonism towards him.

 

It was as though the Prophet, pbuh, remembered the past years when he and his followers and relatives had been besieged , and his relatives were among those who begged him to intervene, reminding him of the family ties between them, which ties had been absent when they besieged him together with those who were with him. The Prophet’s mercy moved him to write to Thumamah to resume exporting wheat to Quraish.

 

The Prophet, pbuh, could have retaliated in kind and could have left them to suffer hunger, particularly in view of the fact that he had nothing to do with the matter of the ban on export. He was not the one who had ordered the siege and Thumamah had acted on his own initiative without consulting the Prophet, pbuh, when he decided to stop exporting wheat to them.

 

The Prophet’s mercy did not allow him to deal with Quraish on the basis of reciprocity. Thus the scene was repeated when Quraish had faced severe drought that nearly caused them to die of hunger. So, they sent a delegation begging the Prophet, pbuh, to pray to God to lift this drought that had befallen them.

 

Thus, the Prophet, pbuh, responded to their plea and prayed to God for lifting the drought. His prayer was answered and the great mishap was lifted.[20]

 

In the face of the begging of Quraish, one experiences a feeling of astonishment that is mixed with irony towards Quraish. May be one may laugh; for the Prophet’s adversaries now admit that he is merciful and witness the effects of his mercy. They realize that the Prophet, pbuh, offers mercy on all occasions, and therefore they came begging him to seek to lift the ghost of hunger from them, their women and children, through his prayers and his interceding for them with Thumamah.

 

They were sure he would respond to their pleas, which he did; and yet they maintained their hostility towards him. Here, I would like to remind you again of Professor Aqqad’s statement that people had the audacity to dare to approach greatness despite the fact that they were in need of it. [21]

The Prophet, pbuh, has acted mercifully in an environment that lacks such quality, but he succeeded in benefiting from it in solving his problems with his adversaries. I am sorry to say, dear audience, that such mercy is still lacking in contemporary environments. There are those who preclude people from exercising, experiencing and feeling happy in the exercising of it, when those who trifle with people’s minds and play on their emotions claim that the interests of those people is realized only through killing and destruction, and that their security is jeopardized unless they indulge in indiscriminate killing and destruction.

 

Is it not possible for those who are endowed with wealth and strength to solve their problems, if any, through love and mercy, in which case the strong will feel happy when exercising mercy and the weak will feel happy when benefiting from its benign effects?

 

The Prophet, pbuh, has provided examples for humanity, the exercising of which would result in great happiness.

 

In this context, I remember a beautiful statement by Descartes to the effect that noble persons are masters of their anger and the haughty are slaves of their desires.[22] No more noble behavior is there than to see mercy guiding the attitudes of the Prophet, pbuh, towards his enemies   ! How true is the statement of ethics scholars who say that mercy is not merely a word or feeling that a person feels, but is a form of behavior and a reality that has an objective corollary.[23]

 

Days passed by, but Quraish did not benefit from the attitudes of the Prophet, pbuh. Thus in the Hudaibiyah Truce between the Prophet and Quraish, the latter have stipulated a hard term, which the Muslims felt that insulting.

 

Quraish has stipulated that if any one from Mecca adopts Islam and goes over to Medina to join the Prophet, pbuh, the Prophet, pbuh, should return him to his folks in Mecca, while the opposite will not be the case. Nevertheless, the Prophetm pbuh, agreed to this hard to bear condition.

 

Then a number of young men from Mecca, whi included Abu Baseer, adopted Islam and joined the Prophet, pbuh, in Medina, whereupon Quraish demanded that they be returned to them, and the Prophet, pbuh, asked them to leave Medina, in fulfillment of the terms of the Truce.

 

Those young men, who had accepted Islam, left Medina but did not return to Mecca. There were less than a hundred of them and they gathered together in a place between Mecca and Medina called Al-Ais and began to intercept the trade caravans of Quraish that were heading towards Syria, killing the men accompanying the caravans and taking their goods. These events almost paralyzed the trade of the people of Mecca, who felt that they were in an unenviable position.

 

Once more, the people of Mecca sent a delegation begging the Prophet, pbuh, to have mercy on them and to require those young men to join him in Medina. So, the Prophet’s adversaries announced in public that they had revoked their insulting condition. The Prophet, pbuh, responded to their request, felt pity for them, and asked the group of young men to leave their position and joinh him in Medina.[24] 

 

Quraish has confronted the Prophet, pbuh, and his companions with their arrogance and arbitrary conditions, but the result was their defeat and their coming to him in utter humiliation. But the Prophet, pbuh, responded with mercy when he felt that their livelihood was threatened  on account of the paralysis of their trade, and asked the young men not to harass them any more.

 

Dear audience,

 

Is it not the case that Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, has fought his enemies with mercy and was victorious in many instances through his mercy? He has fought them by being magnanimous towards them rather than treating them on the basis of reciprocity of enmity. This exercise of mercy has encouraged them to embrace Islam. Thus, Al-Hareth bin Hisham, says, on the day of the conquest of Mecca, that he tried to hide from the Prophet, pbuh, as he felt ashamed of his previous enmity towards him. But then he remembered the Prophet’s generosity and mercy and went to him and proclaimed his conversion to Islam, which made the Prophet, pbuh, very happy.[25]

 

Another famous episode clearly illustrates what I have said. It took place eight years after the Prophet, pbuh, and his companions were forced to leave Mecca on account of Quraish persecution of them, without anyone of them being able to carry with him any property.

 

There is a moving description of them in the Quran, “(Part of these gains shall be given ) to the poor among those who have forsaken the domain of evil, those who have been driven from their homelands and from their possessions, seeking favor from God and (His) goodly acceptance and who aid (the cause of ) God and of His Apostle: it is they, they who are true to their word. (Al-Hashr, 8)

 

After eight years, the Prophet, pbuh, returned to Mecca with ten thousand  of his companions who were fully armed, and entered it with nothing on his mind except mercy. On his way to Mecca, he was told that one of his military commanders, Saad bin Obadah, said that that was the day of carnage and the lawful practice of what was forbidden. But the Prophet, pbuh, said instead that that day was the day of mercy and removed him from command and replaced him with his son, Qais bin Saad, [26].

 

Dear audience,

 

You may have wondered, in the face of this wise and merciful step, why he has replaced Saad with his son. Had he replaced him with someone other than his son, he would have felt unhappy and sad. But for him to be replaced by his son must have pleased him, as both father and son would be satisfied. So this step was an act of mercy for both of them, just as it was for all the people of Mecca. It is the simple and crucial mercy that is exercised in all situations.

 

The Prophet entered Mecca and found its people gathered round the Kaaba awaiting their destiny, wondering what the Prophet, pbuh, would do to them, given that they had hurt him, driven him out and killed persons who were the dearest to his heart. Addressing them, the Prophet, pbuh, said, “What do you expect me to do to you?” They said, “what is good, as you are a magnanimous brother and the nephew of a magnanimous brother,” to which he replied, “Go forth, you are free. There is no blame on you today, May God forgive you.” [27]

 

I remember in this context something I read which was written by certain Western philosophers like Hobbes and Nietzsche, who based morality on the pillars of force. They consider mercy a good thing, because it is an indication of the strength of a person, who exercises mercy towards those who are weaker than him, and is evidence of his disdain to confront the weak as he would confront his strong counterparts.[28]

 

If such persons have read the biography of the Prophet, pbuh, they probably would have rephrased this theory because they would have seen that the Prophet, pbuh, used to confront both the strong counterparts and the weak with mercy. This was evident on many occasions, which we have seen, but which is difficult for many people to appreciate, as it is an unusual attitude in the life of the majority of great men.

 

It was mercy and no other that has prevailed, the mercy that has encompassed all the people of Mecca, with the exception of six or seven,  whose killing the Prophet, pbuh, proclaimed to be lawful, in view of their great hostility to the Prophet, pbuh, and to Muslims. But he pardoned most of them when some of his companions interceded on their behalf.

 

The American writer and historian Washington Irving – who is among the foremost Americans who were interested in the Arab civilization and its history – has followed the events of the Prophet’s entry into Mecca and was greatly impressed by the Prophet’s forgiveness of his bitter adversaries, saying, “The behavior of the Messenger of God after his entering Mecca is an indication that he was a Prophet sent to guide humanity, not a victorious leader. For he has shown mercy and pity towards his fellow citizens, although he had acquired a strong position: he has crowned his victory with mercy and forgiveness.[29]

 

Dear audience,

 

I have realized that there is a strong motive behind all this mercy, other than what has already been said, namely, the motive of love. I have come to the conclusion that the Prophet, pbuh, was motivated by his love for all God’s creatures, believers, unbelievers, animals and birds.

 

True love performs miracles. The Prophet’s love for his companions goes without saying. But his love for unbelievers was attested in the Quran, in God’s addressing His Messenger, as follows: “Would thou, perhaps torment thyself to death, because they refuse to believe” (Al-Shu’araa, 3), i.e. it is as though you wanted to destroy yourself as a result of your great sadness and sorrow because the unbelievers refused to see the truth.

 

He was very sad and felt so pitiful for those people because he knew what would become of them if they died without seeing the truth, and therefore God said to him: “Hence, do not waste thyself in sorrowing over them. Verily,God has full knowledge of all that they do” (Fater, 8), i.e. have pity on yourself, Muhammad, you have done your duty to the utmost.

 

I wish my dear audience would look for love in all the various circumstances of the Prophet, pbuh, which we have considered and I am sure you will clearly see it.

 

On the other hand, hatred only serves to destroy humanity, and I leave it to you to consider some of the attitudes of some great men and war mongers, past and present.

 

I wonder if you will find in them indications of love or those of hatred.

 

In these historical hours, and despite the succession of events, the mercy of the Prophet, pbuh, was shown towards one of his close companions, Bilal bin Rabah, a slave in Mecca who was tortured by being made to lie on the burning heat of the sun, on account of his faith, while he kept reiterating: (God is) one, (God is) one, (god is) one. The Prophet felt mercy towards him and remembered his previous suffering, as he entered Mecca and asked Bilal to climb to the top of the Kaaba and call for prayer.

 

On top of the Kaaba, Bilal raises his voice calling for prayer repeating the attestation to the oneness of God, for which he had been tortured. That was a gesture of honor for Bilal and recognition of his devotion in a society that was so cruel and severe on him.

 

If the mercy of the Prophet, pbuh, towards Bilal, provokes our admiration, his mercy towards Abu Sufian provokes our astonishment, for the latter was hostile towards the Prophet, pbuh, ever since the Prophet, pbuh, began to preach his message of the Quran. Moreover, Abu Sufian was the military leader of Quraish in their wars against the Prophet, pbuh, and his companions. But when Abu Sufian came to the Prophet before he entered Mecca, the Prophet, pbuh, conferred on him certain face-saving privileges out of his mercy towards him.

 

Thus, the Prophet, pbuh, proclaimed to the people of Mecca that whoever entered the house of Abu Sufian shall be safe[30]. This had a great effect on Abu Sufian  and was a merciful face-saving measure before the people of Mecca, as those hours were the beginning of the end of Abu Sufian’s leadership.

 

The Prophet, pbuh,  had felt that Abu Sufian needed sympathy and mercy on that occasion and he gave them to him. It is quite probable that this merciful attitude of the Prophet, pbuh, towards Abu Sufian, has contributed to the latter’s embracing of Islam and the progress he made together with his family in Islam.