Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 249
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 249 Muslims. Those who were still in the field now gathered round the Holy Prophet who, being supported by Talha and one or two others, climbed one of the cliffs of Uhud close behind and joined several of the Muslim army who had already found secure retreat th ere. The joy of the Muslims at finding the Holy Prophet alive was unbounded. Kaab bin Malik, who met him on the way, began to call aloud the good news, but the Holy Prophet motioned him to be silent. When the party found shelter in a cave, the first care o f the Companions was to remove the helmet from the head of the Holy Prophet. Two of its rings were so firmly embedded in his cheek that Abu Obaida lost two teeth in the endeavour to extract them. The blood flowed copiously from his wounds. Ali ran to a hol low in the rock and brought some water in his shield. The Holy Prophet could not drink of it, but only rinsed his mouth. As the blood was being washed off his face, he remarked, ‘How shall a people prosper that treat thus their Prophet who calleth them unt o the Lord?’ After a few moments, he supplicated, ‘Allah, forgive my people, for they know not. ’ About this time, the Holy Prophet’s daughter, Fatima, arrived from Medina and dressed the wound on her father’s temple, stanching the blood with the ash of som e burnt matting. The wound took more than a month to heal fully. Safiya, the Holy Prophet’s aunt, was fondly attached to her brother Hamza, and the Holy Prophet, fearful of the effect which the sight of his mangled remains might have upon her, had desired her son, Zubair, to keep her aside till the body was buried, but she was not to be kept back. ‘I will not go back’, she cried, ‘until I see him. ’ So the Holy Prophet led her to the spot, saying, ‘Leave her to her grief alone. ’