The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 58
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 58 Muslims as a people with whom they could enter into treaty relations, and that they had agreed to a ten - year truce period. During that time Islam could be freely preached, and, he added, perhaps peaceful conditions would be established throughout Arabia be fore the truce period ended. He also stressed that the terms of the treaty were not contrary to his vision; in fact, they opened a way for its fulfillment, inasmuch as the performance of the circuit of the Ka’aba the following year was now assured. Concern ing the one - sided arrangement with regard to the return of Meccan young men who might accept Islam, the Prophet pointed out that any person whose heart was illumined by faith would continue to spread the light wherever he was, while Muslims had no use for anybody who chose to repudiate his faith and desert them. While the Prophet and his party were on their way back to Medina from Hudaibiyya, the Prophet received a revelation which described the peace treaty as a great victory (48:2). Peace having been secured, with every chance of its being made permanent before the treaty lapsed, the Prophet was now able to turn, without distracting diversions, to the carrying forward of his principal mission. He addressed letters to the various ruler s holding sway over territories which were part of, or contiguous to, the Arabian peninsula, inviting; them to accept Islam. Among those to whom these letters were sent were the Chief of Bahrain, the Emperor of Iran, the Byzantine Emperor, his Viceroy in Egypt, and the Emperor of Ethiopia. The Chief of Bahrain and many of his people accepted Islam. The Iranian Emperor treated the Prophet’s communication with haughty contempt, not only tearing it up, but sending directions to his