The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume I — Page 200
Seal of the Prophets - Volume I 200 Holy Prophet sa in front of him and behind his back. The purpose of this was none other than to cause grief and to raise tumult through provocation. The routine of the people who lived as neighbours to the Holy Prophet sa was that they would throw rocks into the home of the Holy Prophet sa and place thorns at the front of his door. They would place filthy and foul-smelling things in his home. Whenever their actions caused suffering to the Holy Prophet sa , they would be pleased and would chuckle and burst into laughter. One time, someone placed a very filthy and putrid thing in the Holy Prophet’s sa home. The Holy Prophet sa picked it up himself, and brought it outside, and said, “O Banū Abdu Manāf! Is this how you fulfill the right of your neighbour?” 1 But the ears, to which this cry reached, were completely deaf to an appeal of decency. In those days, the Quraish also decided that the Holy Prophet sa would be called upon by the name ‘Mudhammam’ , meaning ignominious and scornful instead of Muḥammad. As such, this name found great popularity in Makkah for some time and the Quraish were not even shameful enough to realize that this was the same person, who we used to call Amīn , prior to his claim to prophethood. When the Holy Prophet sa found out about this, he smiled and said, “My name is Muḥammad - how can someone who is Muḥammad be called Mudhammam? Look how God protects me from their cursing. ” 2 But in this time as well, the torture of the Quraish was not confined to verbal abuse alone. At times, in their fury or finding an opportunity, they would not think much of causing the Holy Prophet sa practical harm or inflicting bodily pain upon him as well. Therefore, there is an incident, perhaps during the same era, that one time when the Holy Prophet sa was offering his Ṣalāt near the Ka‘bah, ‘ Uqbah bin Abī Mu‘īṭ stood up in rage and began to strangle the Holy Prophet sa with a cloth until his breath began to stop. When Ḥaḍrat Abū Bakr ra was informed of this, he came running and saved the Holy Prophet sa from the evil of this wretched man and addressed the Quraish saying: ُ للّٰه � َ َن ْ یَّقُوْل َ رَبِّی � ً َتَقْتُلُوْن َ رَجُلا � “Do you murder a man only because he says 1 Tārīkhuṭ- Ṭabarī, By Abū Ja‘far Muḥammad bin Al-Jarīr Ṭabarī, Volume 2, p. 241, Bābu Dhikril- Khabri ‘ammā kāna min Amri Nabiyyillāhi sa ‘inda Ibtidā’illāhi Ta‘ālā. . . . . . , Dārul-Fikr, Beirut, Lebanon, Second Edition (2002) 2 Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, Kitābul-Manāqib, Bābu Mā Jā’a fī Asmā’i Rusūlillāh sa , Ḥadīth No. 3533