The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume I — Page 255
VIII - Expansion of Preaching 255 belief in the divine origin of his calling. ” 1 It is mentioned in Ḥadīth that on one occasion, it was inquired of the Holy Prophet sa by Ḥaḍrat ‘ Ā’ishah ra , “Were you ever confronted by a day more difficult than the Battle of Uḥud?” The Holy Prophet sa responded, “O ‘Ā’ishah ra , your people have compelled me to confront times of severe adversity. ” Then the Holy Prophet sa described the details of his journey to Ṭā’if and said: During my return from this journey, the Angel of the mountains came to me and said, “God has sent me to you, that if you so command, I may bring the two mountains of this valley together upon these people, and destroy them. ” But the Holy Prophet sa said, “Nay! Nay! I trust that Allāh the Exalted shall give birth to such people from among them who shall worship the one true God. ” 2 Delegation of Jinn 3 before the Holy Prophet sa With relevance to the journey of Ṭā’if, it is narrated that when the Holy Prophet sa was returning from his journey, during the night at a place called Nakhlah, when the Holy Prophet sa was occupied in reciting the Holy Qur’ān, a party of Jinn , composed of seven entities, who came from a city in Syria named Naṣībain 4 , passed by the Holy Prophet sa , listened to his recitation, and were moved. When these Jinn returned to their people, they mentioned the prophethood of the Holy Prophet sa and the Holy Qur’ān. This occurrence is mentioned twice in the Holy Qur’ān, 5 and from both these instances, it is apparent that the Holy Prophet sa was not directly aware of the arrival of these Jinn. Instead, after their departure, the Holy Prophet sa was given knowledge of this occurrence by the revelation of God that a party of Jinn listened to your recitation and left. This occurrence has been mentioned in various places in Ḥadīth. In finer points, although the descriptions of historical accounts vary from that of Ḥadīth , the primary notion is the same, which is, that a delegation of Jinn listened to the recitation of the Holy Prophet sa in a state 1 Life of ‘Mahomet’, By Sir William Muir, pp. 112-113, Reprint of the 1894 Ed. , Published by Voice of India New Delhi (Publishers) 2 Saḥīḥ Bukhārī, Kitābu Bad’il-Khalq, Bābu Idhā qāla aḥadukum āmin. . . , Ḥadīth No. 3231 3 A creation of God generally hidden from the sights of man (Publishers) 4 To be more exact, this city is situated between Syria and Iraq (Author) 5 Al-Aḥqāf (46:30), Al-Jinn (72:1-2)