Through Force or Faith? — Page 172
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 172 Gibbon writes about it: As he was still supported by his family, the rest of the tribe of Koreish engaged themselves to renounce all intercourse with the children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, nei- ther to marry not to give in marriage, but to pursue them with implacable enmity, till they should deliver the per- son of Mahomet to the justice of the gods. The decree was suspended in the Caaba before the eyes of the nation; the messengers of the Koreish pursued the Mussulman exiles in the heart of Africa: they besieged the prophet and his most faithful followers, intercepted their water, and inflamed their mutual animosity by the retaliation of inju- ries and insult. (Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 50) In spite of all these atrocities, the Holy Prophet s as did not declare any war; instead, he advised his companions to migrate to Abyssinia where no one would persecute them for practic- ing Islam. The Meccans even went there to get them repatriated ( S ī rat Ibn Hish ā m ). This is mentioned by Gibbon too in the above quotation. Ultimately, the Meccans conspired to kill the very person of Muhammad s as. They besieged his house. At that point, the Holy Prophet s as left Makkah and, after spending three days in a cave with a lone companion, migrated to Madinah that is about 430 km from Makkah. The Meccans did not leave him alone even there and threatened Medinites that if they did not expel him, Madinah would be invaded (Sunan Abū D ā wūd: Kit a bul Khar a j, Spoils,