Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 57
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 57 wished to behave well, but were not willing to follow the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, out of a sense of prestige, and also because they felt that Islam threatened their ancestral faith, habits and customs. Of the principal ones among them was Mut’am bin Adi of Banu Naufal. He was a confirmed pagan but generally behaved well towards the Holy Prophet. We shall see later that he took a leading part in terminating the boycott by Quraish of the Holy Prophet and the entire Banu Hashim; also on the return of th e Holy Prophet from Taif, he very courageously extended his guarantee of protection to him so as to enable him to re - enter Mecca. Another one of the same type was Abul Bakhtari who was of Banu Asad; and a third one was Zubair bin Abu Umayya, brother of Um Salama, who later married the Holy Prophet. In the second category were those leading men of Mecca whose opposition to Islam was characterized by a certain degree of mischief, though they did not enter upon active persecution. Of them was Utba bin Rabi’a of Banu Abd Shams. He was very wealthy and po ssessed great influence. In the battle of Badr when the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, espied him mounted on his red camel in the front of the enemy, he observed, ‘If anyone from the enemy possesses some nobility of character, it is that rider of the red c amel. ’ His brother Shaiba was of the same type. Both were killed in the battle of Badr by Hamzah and Ali. Another was Waleed bin Mughirah, father of Khalid who subsequently won renown as a great Muslim general. He was the leading chieftain of Quraish, who esteemed him as their father. He died three months after Hijra by being accidentally pierced by an arrow. Another was Aas bin Wail Sahmi, the father of Amr bin Aas. He was also