Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 194
194 a great memory. If her marriage with the Prophet had been associated with unpleasant or indifferent memories, she would have forgotten everything about it. Maymunah lived long after the Prophet’s death. She died full of years but could not forget what her marriage with the Prophet had meant for her. On the eve of her death at eighty, when the delights of the flesh are forgotten, when things only of lasting value and virtue move the heart, she asked to be buried at one day’s journey from Mecca, at the very spot where the Prophet had camped on his return to Medina, and where after his marriage she had first met him. The world knows of many stories of love both real and imaginary, but not of many which are more moving than this. Soon after this historic circuit of the Ka‘bah, two renowned generals of the enemy joined Islam. They proved renowned generals of Islam. One was Khalid bin Walid whose genius and courage shook the Roman Empire to its foundations and under whose generalship country after country was added by Muslims to their Empire. The other was ‘Amr bin al-‘As, the conqueror of Egypt. Battle of Mu’tah On return from the Ka‘bah, the Prophet began to receive reports that Christian tribes on the Syrian border, instigated by Jews and pagans, were preparing for an attack upon Medina. He, therefore, despatched a party of fifteen to find out the truth. They saw an army massing on the Syrian border. Instead of returning at once with the report they tarried. Their zeal for expounding Islam got the better of them, but the effect of their well-meaning zeal proved to be the very opposite of what they had wished and expected. Reviewing events now, we can see that those who, under enemy provocation, were planning to attack the Prophet’s homeland could be expected to behave in no other way. Instead of listening to the exposition, they took out their bows and started raining arrows on this party of fifteen. The party, however, remained unmoved. They received arrows in reply to arguments, but they did not turn back. They stood firm, fifteen against thousands, and fell fighting. The Prophet planned an expedition to punish the Syrians for this wanton cruelty, but in the meantime he had reports that the forces which had been concentrating on the border had dispersed. He, therefore, postponed his plans. The Prophet, however, wrote a letter to the Emperor of Rome (or to the Chief of the Ghassan tribe who ruled Busrah in the name of Rome). In this letter, we may presume, the Prophet complained of the preparations which had been visible on the Syrian border and of the foul and entirely unjust murder of the fifteen Muslims whom he had sent to report on the border situation. This letter was carried by al-Harth, a Companion of the Prophet. He stopped en route at Mu’tah where he met Shurahbil, a Ghassan chief acting as a Roman official. "Are you a messenger of Muhammad?" asked this chief. On being told "Yes," he arrested him, tied him up and belaboured him to death. It may quite reasonably be assumed that this Ghassan chief was a leader