Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 152
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 152 Quraish were still bitterly hostile towards Islam and were bent upon wiping it out. If those who had given refuge to the Holy Prophet and the Muslims were threatened with wholesale slaughter and rapine, it may be imagined what their designs against the Mus lims were. Their letters to Abdullah bin Ubayy and the Jews were not merely sudden but passing ebullitions of their wrath; they were indications of their firm determination to destroy the Muslims. Some concept of their bitterness and venom may be formed from the foll owing incidents. About that time, S’ad bin Muaz, chief of Aus, who was a devoted Muslim, went to Mecca to perform Umrah and stayed with his friend of olden days, Umayya bin Khalf, one of the chiefs of Quraish. Apprehending some untoward incident on the par t of the Meccans, he requested his host to accompany him in his circuit of the Ka’aba, in order to obviate any such contingency. Umayya accompanied S’ad to the Ka’aba at noon when not many people were likely to be about. But it so happened that just at tha t time Abu Jahl also arrived and was outraged at seeing S’ad in the company of Umayya and inquired from the latter, ‘Abu Safwan, who is your companion?’ and received the reply, ‘It is S’ad bin Muaz, chief of Aus. ’ Thereupon, Abu Jahl raged at S’ad: ‘Do you people imagine that after giving shelter to that renegade you can perform the circuit of the Ka’aba in peace? Do you think that you have the strength to safeguard him and help him? I swear by God that had you not been accompanied by Abu Safwan, you could not have returned alive to your people. ’ S’ad was provoked to retort, ‘If you obstruct us in approaching the Ka’aba, then be sure you will not be able to