one leg when he saw the Prophet, as a gesture of respect. Apparently, this was an Abyssinian tradition. Jaʿfar wanted to show every kind of respect when he saw the Prophet. On his part, the Prophet said: “I do not know which gives me greater pleasure: the conquest of Khaybar or the arrival of Jaʿfar.”8 When one considers that the conquest of Khaybar changed the fortunes of the Muslims in Madinah, ushering in a period of affluence after they had suffered great poverty, and when one considers that this conquest meant the liquidation of all opposition from the Jewish enemies of Islam, one realizes how happy the Prophet was to see Jaʿfar and those who emigrated with him to Abyssinia.
All the foregoing confirms the view that the emigration to Abyssinia was intended to accomplish very clear and important tasks. If one wants to identify them, one can only suggest that Jaʿfar and his fellow emigrants were asked by the Prophet to propagate the faith of Islam in Abyssinia. Their efforts were clearly met with opposition, as is clear from Asmā’s report. Of course, there was a favourable response from some people. Otherwise, there would have been no need for them to stay in Abyssinia when Muslim forces in Madinah needed strengthening. The question here is: how far were they successful? A report mentioned by al-Qurṭubī in his commentary on the Qur’ān states that Jaʿfar and his companions brought with them from Abyssinia 62 people who met the Prophet and believed in him. Another report mentioned by Muqātil and al-Kalbī, two prominent scholars in the early period of Islam, suggests that those who came with Jaʿfar included 40 people from Najrān, 32 from Abyssinia and 68 from Syria.9 The very fact that such a delegation of Abyssinian Muslims came to see the Prophet is enough to clarify the nature of the mission undertaken by Jaʿfar and his group in Abyssinia.
NOTES
1. Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, Dār al-Qalam, Beirut, Vol. 1, pp. 344-356. Also, Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, ʿUyūn al-Athar, Dār al-Turāth, Madinah, 1996, pp. 209-213.
2. Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, op.cit., pp. 214-215.
3. Ibn Hishām, op.cit., pp. 358-360.
4. Ibid., pp. 360-361.
5. Ibid., pp. 361-362.
6. Ibid., pp. 344-353.
7. Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, op.cit., pp. 213-214.
8. Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah, Maktabat al-Maʿārif, Beirut, Vol. 3, pp. 71-72 and Vol. 4, pp. 205-208.
9. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Zād al-Maʿād fi Hadi Khayr al-ʿIbād, Vol.3, Mu’assasat al-Risālah, Beirut, 1986, pp. 332-333.
THE EMIGRATION TO Abyssinia gave the impression that there were fewer Muslims in Makkah than their actual number. This helped to avert any all-out aggression the hard-liners of the Quraysh in Makkah might have been contemplating. Support for such an action would not be readily forthcoming if the problem was made to appear much smaller.
The emigration, however, made those who were left behind much more vulnerable. There would be many more tormentors for every Muslim left in Makkah. In that tribal society, where personal and tribal influence counted for much more than physical or numerical strength, the balance could be restored easily if people of the right calibre came forward. It was in recognition of this fact that the Prophet used to pray God in those days to support Islam by making either ʿAmr ibn Hishām, most famous for his nickname, Abū Jahl, or ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb join the ranks of the Muslims.
The latter were very hostile to Islam. Abū Jahl was the archenemy. ʿUmar betrayed no soft feelings towards the Muslims. Indeed, he tortured a slave woman in an attempt to make her renounce Islam. It speaks volumes for the Prophet’s confidence in the truth of what he was preaching that he should hope for a change of heart by either one of these two men.
It was in the nature of things that ʿUmar should be the first to want to bring the conflict in Makkah between the Quraysh and Islam to a final end. Perhaps the easiest and surest way to achieve that was to kill Muhammad, a feat which was certain to kill his message too. ʿUmar was not a man who shrank from a difficult task or pretended not to know what he could or should do. If Muhammad was to be killed, then he would be the one to kill him. He therefore went out carrying his sword in search of Muhammad.
He was soon met by a man called Nuʿaym ibn ʿAbdullāh who, like many others, hoped to escape trouble by keeping secret the fact that he was a Muslim. Nuʿaym asked ʿUmar where he was going. Unhesitatingly, ʿUmar declared his purpose. Nuʿaym then said: “Your strength has certainly fooled you. Do you imagine that the ʿAbd Manāf clan [to which the Prophet belonged] would leave you to walk these roads when you have killed Muhammad? You would be better advised if you went back to your own household and put them on the right course.” ʿUmar asked: “What do you mean, and who of my household?” Nuʿaym replied: “Your cousin and brother-in-law Saʿīd ibn Zayd and your sister, Fāṭimah, have both followed Muhammad and become Muslims.” Obviously Nuʿaym’s purpose was to divert ʿUmar’s attention. If ʿUmar was preoccupied with his own household, the Prophet would be in no imminent danger from that quarter.
Saʿīd and his wife Fāṭimah also kept secret the fact that they were Muslims. When ʿUmar approached their home, they were studying the Qur’ān with a fellow Muslim called Khabbāb. When they realized that ʿUmar was approaching, Khabbāb sought somewhere to hide, while Fāṭimah hid the sheet they were reading. In his fury, ʿUmar asked as he entered about the voices he overheard. Receiving an unsatisfactory answer from his sister, he assaulted his brother-in-law making it clear that he knew their secret. His sister rushed to push him away from her husband but he struck her, causing blood to gush from her face. She then said, with a boldness and determination which surprised ʿUmar himself: “Yes indeed, we are Muslims; we believe in God and His Messenger. You may do as you please.”
The sight of blood on his sister’s face made ʿUmar feel sorry for her. He said in a rather conciliatory tone: “Give me what you have been reading. Let me see what Muhammad teaches.” When she hesitated, expressing her fear that he might destroy the sheet, he swore by his idols to give it back to her after he had read it. The sheet contained the opening verses of Sūrah 20, entitled Ṭā Hā. The meaning of these opening verses may be rendered as follows:
We have not bestowed the Qur’ān on you from on high to make you unhappy, but only as an exhortation to all who stand in awe [of God]: a revelation from Him Who has created the earth and the high heavens, the Merciful, the One established on the throne of His almightiness. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth, as well as all that is between them and all that is beneath the sod. And if you say anything aloud, well, He indeed knows even the secret thoughts as well as that which is hidden even more deeply. God, there is no deity other than Him; His alone are the attributes of perfection. (1-8)
Softening of a Hard Heart
Impressed, ʿUmar read on, and then he read the whole sheet again. He felt the powerful verses striking their notes on the strings of his heart. He looked at the floor for a moment as he repeated verse 13: “For certain, I – I alone – am God; there is no deity other than Me. Hence, worship Me alone and be constant in prayer, so as to remember Me.” He then raised his head and said: “How beautiful and how noble.” At this point Khabbāb came out and told ʿUmar about the Prophet’s prayer for fresh support to Islam, saying: “I sincerely hope that you will come forward in answer to the Prophet’s prayers.”1
ʿUmar then declared that he wanted to be a Muslim and asked to be taken to the Prophet to declare his submission to God and his belief in the message of Muhammad. ʿUmar did not need much persuasion to tackle such a step. Indeed nobody tried to persuade him, not even his injured sister. Everybody was aware of ʿUmar’s enmity towards Islam which was so fierce that no one close to him would have imagined such a change was at all possible.
Some may wonder whether ʿUmar’s sense of guilt, which must have been very