Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 16
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 16 Ka’aba, who cast them in the usual mode. The fatal arrow fell upon Abdullah, the youngest and best beloved. The vow must be fulfilled by the sacrifice of Abdullah. His daughters wept and clung around him and he was willingly persuaded to cast lots between Abdullah and ten camels, which was the current amount of blood money for one person. If the ransom was accepted, the father could spare his son without scruple. But the lot a second time fell upon Abdullah. Again, and with equal fortune, it was cast betwee n him and twenty camels. At each successive trial, the anxious father added ten camels to the stake, but the lot still indicated that the blood of his youngest son was demanded. It was now the tenth throw, and the ransom had reached a hundred camels, when the lot at last fell upon them, and the father joyfully released Abdullah from his impending fate, and slaughtered the hundred camels between Safa and Marwa. The inhabitants of Mecca feasted upon them, and, Abdul Muttalib’s family refusing to partake; the residue was left to the beasts and to the birds. The prosperity and fame of Abdul Muttalib excited the envy of the house of Umayya, whose son, Harb, challenged his rival to a trial of their respective merits. The Abyssinian king declined to be the umpire, and the judgment was committed to one of Quraish, who declared that Abdul Muttalib was in every respect superior. Harb was deeply mortified, and abandoned the society of his opponent, whose companion he had previously been. Abdul Muttalib gained an important accession of stability to his party by concluding a defensive league with Khuzaa, who were still inhabitants of Mecca. They came to him and represented that, as their quarters adjoined, such a treaty would be