Life of Muhammad — Page 170
sa 170 to kill and be killed. The tribe was renowned for its skill in archery, and the base they had selected afforded a very great advantage to them. The Prophet sa approached S afw a n ra , a prosperous chief of Mecca for the loan of suits of armour and weapons. S afw a n ra replied, "You seem to put pressure on me and think I will be overawed by your growing power and make over to you whatever you ask?" The Prophet sa replied, "We wish to seize nothing. We only want a loan of these things, and are ready to give a suitable surety. " S afw a n ra was satisfied and agreed to lend the material. Altogether he supplied one hundred suits of armour and a suitable number of weapons. The Prophet sa borrowed three thousand lances from his cousin, Naufal bin H arith ra and about thirty thousand dirhams from ‘ Abdull a h bin Rab i ‘ a ( Mu’ a tt a ’ , Musnad and H albiyya ). When the Muslim army set out towards the Haw a zin, the Meccans expressed a wish to join the Muslim side. They were not Muslims, but they had agreed to live under a Muslim regime. Accordingly, two thousand Meccans joined the Muslims. On the way, they came to the noted Arab shrine, Dh a t Anwa t. Here was an old jujube tree, sacred to the Arabs. When Arabs bought arms they first went to Dh a t Anwa t and hung them in the shrine to receive its blessings for their arms. When the Muslim army passed by this shrine some of the soldiers said, "Prophet sa of God, there should be a Dh a t Anwa t for us also. " The Prophet sa disapproved and said, "You talk like the followers of Moses as. When Moses as was going to Canaan, his followers saw on the way people worshipping idols, and said to Moses as , 'O Moses as , make for us a god just as they have gods'" ( Qur’an 7: 139).