Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 505
! ! 505 suffering. Of these Muslims some were free, and others were slaves. The slaves were torture d and often targeted by enemies. However, the enemies targeted the free Muslims less, therefore they could not persecute them as freely. A husband and wife among these slaves were so brutally persecuted by their master, that one’s heart trembles when one hears of it. Their master would lay them on blazing hot sand and jump up on their chests, leaving them under the blazing sun for so long that their eyes would swell and redden. Still , the master would have no mercy on them. Once the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa passed by and saw that they were being tortured so cruelly. Their master had forced them to lay up on the hot sand , while he tortured them. He repeatedly asked them to refute the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa and to proclaim that o ther gods should be worshipped beside Allah. J ust as a father becomes distressed upon witnessing his child’s affliction, how could the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa who felt a greater love than any parent, withstand such a sight? He felt great anguish. He stopped there to pray for them and received a revelation from God. The Holy Prophet Muhammad sa counselled them, “Be patient. Be patient a while longer. God Almighty will soon remove from you this pain and liberate you from this suffering. ” Within two to three days , the man broke free from this world d ue to unbearable suffering, and later his master killed the woman with a spear. These people were slaves. They did not belong to free families. It wa s thought that the intellect of slaves wa s not strong and that generations of slavery had render ed them less intelligen t than ordinary servants. However, by accepting the Holy Prophet sa , they became so wise and of such strong resolve that they sacrificed everything but refus ed to deny the Oneness of God. Among these slaves was also Ha z rat Bilal ra , an African, whose master would subject him to intense torture, but [today] I wish to give you examples of women’s sacrifice. I have already given one example above and I will now give you some more incidences of sacrifices made by women. When the persecution of Muslims in M ecc a intensified , and the enemies were increasing in their mischief every day. When