Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 87
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 87 should at any time worship your idols, as it is also not possible that, worshipping your idols, you should worship the One True God; that is because you follow one religion and I follow another. Having met with nothing but frustration, Quraish were much incensed, and at last resolved upon a complete boycott of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, all Muslims, and all Banu Hashim and Banu Muttalib, unless the latter should renounce their guarantee of protection of the Holy Prophet. Accordingly, in Muharram of the seventh year of prophethood, an agreement was drawn up prohibiting intermarriage between Banu Hashim and Banu Muttalib on one side and the rest of Quraish on the other, forbidding any transac tion between them and forbidding the supply of all provisions to them, till they should denounce Muhammad and hand him over to them. This agreement, to which Banu Kananah were also a party, having been reduced to writing, the chiefs of Quraish and Banu Kan anah put their signatures or marks to it and it was suspended from one of the walls of the Ka’aba, as a great national pact. In pursuance of this pact, the Holy Prophet and all Banu Hashim and Banu Muttalib, with the sole exception of Abu Lahab, and all th e Muslims, were compelled to retire to the quarter of Abu Talib in a narrow valley. The ban was put rigorously in force. The Hashimites soon found themselves cut off from all supply of corn and other necessaries of life. Quraish would sell them nothing; th ey were not strong enough to send forth a caravan of their own; if foreign merchants came, Quraish made them withhold their commodities from the besieged; and thus a great scarcity ensued which imposed terrible