Life of Muhammad — Page 17
sa 17 seemed protruded. Ab u Bakr ra happened to come and rescued him, saying, "You seek to kill him, because he says, God is his Master?" On another occasion he lay prostrate in prayer and they laid the entrails of a camel on his back. He could not rise until the weight was removed. On yet another occasion he was passing through a street and a group of street boys followed him. They went on slapping his neck and telling the people that he called himself a Prophet sa. Such was the hatred and enmity against him, and such was his helplessness. The Prophet's sa house was stoned from surrounding houses. Garbage and the remains of slaughtered animals were thrown into his kitchen. On many occasions dust was thrown on him while he was praying so that he had to retire to a safe spot for his public prayers. These cruelties, perpetrated against a weak and innocent group and their honest, well-meaning but helpless Leader sa , were not wasted, however. Decent men saw all this and became drawn to Islam. The Prophet sa was once resting on S af a , a hill near the Ka ‘ ba. The Meccan chief Ab u Jahl, the Prophet's sa arch-enemy, passed by and began to pour vile abuse on him. The Prophet sa said nothing and went home. A woman-slave of his household was a witness to this distressing scene. H amza ra , the Prophet's sa uncle, a brave man feared by all his townsmen, returned home from a hunt in the jungle and entered the house proudly, his bow hung on his shoulder. The woman-slave had not forgotten the morning scene. She was disgusted to see H amza ra walk home thus. She taunted him, saying that he thought himself brave and went about armed but knew not what Ab u Jahl had done to his innocent nephew in the morning. H amza ra heard an account of the morning incident. Though not a believer, he possessed nobility of character. He may have been impressed by the Prophet's sa Message, but not to the extent of joining openly. When he heard of this wanton attack by Ab u Jahl, he could not hold back. His hesitancy about the