Our Beloved Master - His Early Life — Page 78
•oUR BELoVED MASTER• 78 Ka‘bah. The Arabs would never kill anyone who had entered the sacred Ka‘bah. Therefore, the Ban u Qais returned to their homes saying that ‘Urwah’s blood would not go unavenged and that the Quraish should be ready to fight them the following year. Thus the Quraish were forced to spend the entire year in preparation for war. The following year Ban u Qais arrived in Makkah with their ally Ban u Haw a zin ready to fight. It was a tradition among the Arabs to cease all fighting during this particular month. But Ban u Qais did not take that into consideration and came armed to the teeth with weapons. The Quraish had to enter the battlefield; both of the parties were full of zeal and fervour. Prominent chiefs took oaths that they would rather die fighting than retreat. Soon a furious battle began to rage and an insignificant argument in the court of Nu‘m a n bin Mundhir reaped a most catastrophic result. The amount of bloodshed was unparalleled. This battle was one of the bloodiest massacres among the wars of the Days of Ignorance and is known in history as the Battle of Fij a r.