Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 349
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 349 of Bani Kananah, offered to go and try to find a way of settlement. When the Holy Prophet saw him approaching from a distance, he said to his Companions, ‘The person who is now coming to us belongs to a tribe who are impressed by a display of sacrificial a nimals. So collect your sacrificial animals and bring them forward so that he should realize for what purpose we have come. ’ Accordingly they drove their animals with shouts of ‘God is Great’ and brought them in front of the Quraish emissary. Witnessing th is spectacle, he exclaimed ‘Glory be to God, these people are pilgrims and they cannot be prevented from performing the circuits of the Ka’aba. ’ So he returned to Quraish and told them that he had seen the sacrificial animals of the Muslims, which had conv inced him that their only purpose was to perform Umra, and they should not be obstructed in the performance of this rite. But Quraish refused to listen to him, saying, ‘Thou art a simple Arab of the desert, and knowest not the devices of other men. ’ Halees was enraged at this slight and swore that, if they continued to oppose the advance of Muhammad, he would retire with all his men. The threat alarmed Quraish. ‘Have patience for a little while,’ they said, ‘until we can make such terms as are needful for o ur security. ’ In the meantime, the Holy Prophet felt that some intelligent person should be sent to Quraish who might put the Muslims’ point of view to them wisely and sympathetically. For this purpose he chose Kharash bin Umayya of Khuzaa and provided him with one of h is own camels. When he arrived in Mecca the younger section of Quraish were much excited and Ikramah bin Abu Jahl attacked his camel and wounded it, and even threatened