Our God — Page 118
118 this call off, and, if not controlled, it will divide their nation and cause dissension. This starts a magnificent war, unparal- leled in world history, that rocks and ravages the Arab world for twenty years, and kindles a fire from one end of the country to the other that is not extinguished until the whole country gath- ers under the banner of the One God. At first, the Quraish of Makkah tried to coerce the handful of Muslims back to their old faith, and subjected them to tyrannies, the accounts of which make one’s hair stand on end. Bilal ra was an Abyssinian slave, of righteous nature, who accepted Islam immediately. His mas- ter, Umayyah bin Khalf, tortured him most brutally. This evil one laid him stripped naked on the sand under the hot midday sun, when the earth was scorching hot, placed large stones on his chest, mounted them, and said: part with Muhammad saw , stop worshipping [one] God and prostrate to the idols, or else I will torture you like this until death. Bilal ra was not well-versed in Arabic; he would look to the heavens and say: A h ad! A h ad! This meant: God is One; God is One; I cannot leave Him. Then the tyrant would tie him up with a rope and hand him over to street hooligans, who would drag him along the stony streets of Makkah, whereby his unclothed body was wounded and bled profusely. Umayyah would ask him again: what do you say now? Bilal ra would utter the same words again: A h ad! A h ad! That is: God is One; God is One. The street boys, with a nod from Umayyah, would drag him over the scorching stones again. Another Muslim, Khub a b ra by name, not a slave, worked as a blacksmith in Makkah. The outraged wicked youth of Quraish would lay him on the burning coals of his furnace; one person would mount on his chest to prevent him turning to his side till