The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 66
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 66 he chose to believe in. On this assurance she followed Ikramah and persuaded him to return to Mecca. On arrival there, he repaired to the Prophet and received the assurance which the Prophet had already given to his wife. Thereupon he announced his accepta nce of Islam, and the Prophet asked him if there were anything he wished for. Ikramah replied that he could wish for no greater bounty than God had already bestowed upon him in opening his heart to the acceptance of Islam, but he did desire that the Prophe t should pray God to forgive him all the enmity that he had borne toward the Prophet and the Muslims. The Prophet prayed accordingly and then bestowed his own cloak on Ikramah, saying: “He who comes to me believing in God can claim my house as his. ” Ikramah proved himself a sincere and zealous believer and set the seal on his faith by laying down his life in defense of it on one of the Syrian battlefields some years later. The Prophet, having returned to Mecca, as had been foretold before the Emigration (28:86), felt that the people of Medina might wonder whether he intended to take up his residence there. He called their leaders and told them that he had no such intention. Mecca was very dear to him, but having cast in his lot with the people of Medina, who had stood by him when he was rejected by the Meccans and had to leave Mecca, he would not now leave them for Mecca. They were delighted to hear this and felt as if he had bestowed the world’s abundance upon them. Mecca had fallen, but this did not bring peace. The Prophet’s march against Mecca had been so sudden that the first intimation of it that reached the tribes of central and southern Arabia was the fall of the town. They were greatly agitated by the news, an d felt that the time had come for the last desperate effort to be put