Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 120
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 120 Mecca; among them were seventy persons who had embraced Islam, or were ready to do so, and who had come to Mecca to meet the Holy Prophet, peace be on him. Mus’ab bin Umair was with them. His mother was a pagan, but was very fond of him. When she learnt of his arrival, she sent a message to him to go to her immediately, to which he sent back word that he would come and see her after he had paid his respects to the Holy Prophet. Thereafter, when he called on his mother he found her in a rage and greatly upse t that he had not come to see her immediately. Mus’ab spoke gently to her and tried to persuade her to embrace Islam. She reacted very fiercely to his suggestion and signalled to her male relatives to seize Mus’ab and detain him, but he escaped. The Holy Prophet, peace be on him, had been briefed by Mus’ab, and some of the Yathrab Muslims came to meet him secretly in ones and twos. The Holy Prophet sent a message that they should all meet him at midnight a few days later in the same spot where he had met some of them the previous year, so that he could speak to all of them in comparative privacy. He directed that they should not proceed to the rendezvous all together, or in large groups, but only in ones and twos, and taking precautions that their purpose should not become known. The Holy Prophet left his house shortly before midnight and on the way took his uncle Abbas with him, who was still a pagan, but was very fond of him and was now the chief of Banu Hashim. On arrival at the rendezvous, where the Muslims of Yathrab had arrived as they had been instructed, Abbas opened the conversation with: ‘Men of Khazraj, Muhammad is respected and loved among Banu Hashim, who have been the guarantors of his safety and have