Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 362
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 362 They began to waylay every caravan from Mecca and spared no one. This confronted Quraish with a difficult and dangerous situation. They were at length so harassed by the activities of this group that they solicited the interference of the Holy Prophet, and , on condition that their activities were restrained, waived their right to have them delivered up as deserters. The Holy Prophet acceded to their request and wrote to Abu Baseer and Abu Jandal that as Quraish had voluntarily waived the relevant clause of the treaty, they should now go to Medina. When the Holy Prophet’s emissary arrived in Siefal Bahr, Abu Baseer, who had been ill, was in extremity. He received the Holy Prophet’s letter with great reverence and breathed his last while holding it in his hand. Abu Jandal and the rest of the group buried Abu Baseer in Siefal Bahr and then made their sorrowful way to Medina. It is worthy of observation that if Abu Baseer, on leaving Mecca, had not gone to Medina at all and had proceeded to Siefal Bahr, as he eve ntually did, Quraish could not have requested the Holy Prophet to direct him to return to Mecca, as his case would not have fallen within the terms of the Truce. The Truce of Hudaibiyya was one of the most outstanding events in the life of the Holy Prophet. With it was terminated the struggle between him and Quraish, which had extended over nineteen years, and had, after the Migration, assumed the character of an a rmed conflict. By virtue of the Truce, peace had at last been established, at least between Quraish and the Holy Prophet, and the major difficulty in the way of peaceful propagation of Islam had been removed. Thereafter, Islam began to spread rapidly in th e greater part of Arabia. Some estimate of