Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 73
73 rejected the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa ? But they had some special qualities as well, which if adopted by our people, would indeed make us shine like stars. And among those qualities was that if someone pledged to protect someone else, then no one could harm that protected person a nd if anyone tried to harm him, it meant that now the two were at the verge of war. Anyway, when Ha z rat ‘Uthman bin Maz`oon ra came under the protection [of his father’s friend]; the hardships which the people of M ecca had inflicted upon him stopped and they began to live in peace. But once when ‘Uthman ra was preaching to the nonbelievers, they complained to the w ealthy nobleman. He called Ha z ra t ‘Uthman ra over and told him to stop preaching. Ha z rat ‘Uthman ra replied , “I cannot stop preaching [God’s message], so you may take back your protection. ” Thus , the [protector] announced that he had taken away his protection. Once at a gathering, Labeed the poet , who was famous among Arab poets, was reciting his verses. Those were the days of [pre - Islam ic] Hajj. All the wealthy were sitting at the gathering, as he recited his poetry he came to this verse: ا # ﻵ ` a ّﻞ c dِ T ٍء َﻣ ﺎ ﺧ ﻞ g 2 ﺎ ِﻃ ﻞ " " “Hearken! Everything except Allah is going to perish. ” Ha z rat ‘Uthman ra was ther e and said, “ That is right! ” At this, Labeed the poet became angry , that a mere child w as praising a poet of his caliber. However, the others pacified him and so he continued. After that , he read the second verse which was this: َو j a ﻞ ﱠ ﻧ ﻌ ' ﻢ ﻻ ﻣ ﺤ ﺎ ﻟ ﺔ ز ا ﺋ ﻞ “ That is, e very blessing is going to fade away one day. ” When he read out this verse , “That is, every blessing is going to fade away one day,” Ha z rat ‘Uthman ra g rew agitated and said, “ False, false , absolutely wrong! The blessings of paradise are never going to fade away. ” Now how could a person who became irritated at hearing his verses praised, take any criticism? The result was that Labeed became silent, and said, “ I will never again recite my verses in Mecca. The people of Mecca are ill - mannered. ” At that, a person came forward in anger and rage and hit H az rat ‘Uthman ’s ra face with his fist so hard that one of his fingers pierced Ha z rat ‘Uthman ’s r a e ye. His eye began to bleed. The wealthy friend of his father who had offered protection to ‘Uthman ra was