Soon after entering
Mecca, the Prophet went to the Ka‘ba, took its key from ‘Uthmãn
B. Tãlha, and entered it. Ibn Ishãq records, “There he found
a dove made of wood. He broke it in his hands and threw it away.” Next
he turned to the idols which were housed in and around the temple. They
were 360 in number. “The apostle was standing by them with a stick in his
hand, saying, ‘The truth has come and falsehood has passed away. Verily,
falsehood is bound to pass away’ (Sûra. 17.82).27
Then he pointed at them with his stick and they collapsed on their backs
one after the other. When the apostle prayed the noon prayer on the day
of the conquest he ordered that all the idols which were round the Ka‘ba
should be collected and burned with fire and broken up. FaDãla
b. al-Mulãwwih al-Laythî said commemorating the day of the
conquest:
Had you seen Muhammad and his troops
The day the idols were smashed when he entered,
You would have seen God’s light become manifest
And darkness covering the face of idolatry.”28
“Biographical works
are filled with the accounts of this proceeding, and that three hundred
and sixty idols, the greatest whereof was Hobal, had been erected by the
idolaters around the Ka‘bah. In some copies we read that Eblis had fixed
the bases of all these idols underground with lead, but that nevertheless
when the apostle of Allah touched them with the lance or stick he had in
his hands, and uttered the words: ‘Truth had come, and falsehood has departed’,
the idols fell on their faces at the mere touch of the staff… There
is a tradition ascribed to A’bdullah B. A’bbas that whenever his lordship
pointed on that day to the face of an idol, the same immediately fell on
its back, and whenever he pointed to the back it fell on its face.”29 The
Islamic lore has thus turned into a miracle what was actually a show of
brute physical force. “Muhammad when he entered Mekka as victor is stated
to have struck them in the eyes with his bow before he had them dragged
down and destroyed by fire.”30 The
burning of the idols gave rise to another story in Islamic lore. “Upon
the conquest of Mecca the Prophet cut open some of these idols with his
sword and black smoke is said to have issued forth from them, a sign of
the psychic influence which had made these idols their dwelling place.”31
One wonders what else except smoke could have come out when objects made
of stone and wood were burnt. It is the privilege of Islamic lore
to invest smoke with psychic power.
Hubal,
the principal idol in the Ka‘ba. “was pulled down and used as a doorstep
when the Prophet conquered Mecca and purified the Ka’bah.”32
This particular practice of the Prophet set up a pious precedent which
was followed extensively when Islamic iconoclasm arrived in India. Many
Hindu idols ended at the doorsteps of the principal mosques not only in
Muslim capitals within India such as Ghazni, Kabul, Lahore, Multan, Nagore,
Ajmer, Delhi, Jaunpur, Gaur, Daulatabad, Mandu, Ahmadabad, Gulbarga, Bidar,
Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golkunda, Dhaka and Murshidabad,
but also in far off places like Baghdad, Mecca and Medina, “The other stones
which were worshipped as idols were actually used as cornerstones of the
Ka‘ba and as such we must consider also the Maqãm Ibrahîm.”33
This too was a pious precedent which was followed extensively in India.
A large number of mosques and other Muslim monuments in India have Hindu
idols or their pieces embedded in their masonry.
There was only
one idol which the Prophet not only spared but also consecrated with his
kiss so that every Muslim who performs Hajj is expected to do the same.
This was the black stone now described pompously as al-Hajar al-ASwad.
The Muslims present on the occasion felt puzzled by the Prophet’s partiality
for this particular stone. They were informed that the black stone had
descended directly from heaven. According to a well-known tradition (hadîth)
from Ibn ‘Abbãs, the Prophet told his people, “By
Allãh, Allãh will lift it up on the Last Day. It will have
two eyes with which it will see. It will have a tongue with which it will
speak and stand witness for that man who had kissed it earnestly.”34
Other people’s idols are stones, while one’s own stone is God’s spokesman!
Many of his followers must have remained unimpressed by the mysterious
pronouncement. A few years later, Caliph ‘Umar (AD
632-44), while kissing the black stone, is reported to have said, “I know
that you are a stone which can neither help nor hurt. I would not have
kissed you, had I not witnessed the Prophet of Allãh kissing you.”35
Idols
were not the only “abominations” which the Prophet had to take care of
in the Ka‘ba. Ibn Ishãq and other biographers of the Prophet report
that the “Quraysh had put pictures in the Ka‘ba including two of Jesus
son of Mary and Mary… The apostle ordered that the pictures would be erased
except those of Jesus and Mary.”36 According
to a tradition, as ‘Umar began to wash out the pictures with the water
of the well known as Zamzam, “Muhammad placed his hand on the pictures
of Jesus and Mary and said, ‘Wash out all except what is below my hands.’
He then withdrew his hand.”37 There is no
reason to doubt that the walls of the Ka‘ba carried paintings. Pagans have
always been as fond of presenting their pantheon and mythology through
colour as through carving. But it is an invention that the paintings included
those of Jesus and Mary. The pagans who had maintained the Ka‘ba and decorated
its walls with paintings were not only not enamoured of the Christian god
and his mother, they actually entertained abhorrence for them. Allãh
himself says in the Qur’ãn that the disbelievers show disrespect
for Îsã. Referring to ‘Umar’s act of effacing the paintings,
Margoliouth observes, “Whom or what they represented we know only on Mohammed’s
authority, which we are not inclined to trust…”38
Scholars have
made several speculations regarding the Prophet’s attitude to the Ka‘ba.
Basing themselves on legends found in the biographies of the Prophet, some
say that he had reverence for the national sanctuary but regretted its
misuse by the pagans. Some others say that when he changed the Qibla from
the Temple in Jerusalem to the Ka‘ba in Mecca, he did so in order to conciliate
Arab national sentiment. “We do not know the personal feelings of the youthful
Muhammad towards the Ka‘ba and the Meccan cult, but they were presumably
of a conventional nature. What the biography of
the Prophet tells us about his Meccan period in this respect can lay no
claim to historical value. The Meccan revelations tell us nothing about
these relations during the important period in the life of the Prophet.
In any case, he felt no enthusiam for the Meccan sanctuary.”39
In
fact, there is a tradition that he wanted to destroy the Ka‘ba. ‘Ã’isha
has reported him as saying to her that “if your people had not renounced
ignorance promptly and become Musalmans, I would have demolished the Ka‘ba
and rebuilt it with two doors.”40 The tradition
seems to be authentic because it inspired demolition and rebuilding of
the Ka‘ba on two subsequent occasions. “When A’bdullah Bin Zobeir heard
this tradition he destroyed the building of the Qoraish whilst he held
sway, and rebuilt the Ka‘bah according to the intentions of his lordship
the last of the prophets. When, however, Hajjãj Bin Yusuf undertook
by order of A’bd-ul-Malik Merwãn [AD 685-705] a campaign against
A’bdullah Bin Zobeir and vanquished him, he destroyed the edifice built
by the latter at the command of the same Khalifah and re-erected it as
the Qoraish had built it during the lifetime of his holy and prophetic
lordship. When Harûn-ur-Rashid became Khalifah he desired to annihilate
the edifice of Merwzãn, and to rebuild the Ka‘bah according to the
model of A’bdullah Bin Zobeir. On this subject he
consulted the Imãm Mãlek, but the latter replied: ‘O commander
of the faithful, let the Ka‘bah alone, let it not become the sport of kings.’
Accordingly Harûn renounced his intention.”41
What was this
“building of the Qoreish” which Ibn Zubayr demolished and Hajjãj
restored? This much is clear from Muslim accounts that it was a pagan
temple housing the idols of many Gods. These accounts, however, insist
that in the ancient past it was a place of monotheistic worship consecrated
by Abraham. There is only one Muslim account which preserves a pagan tradition. “According
to al-Mas‘ûdî (Murûdj, iv, 47), certain people have regarded
the Ka‘ba as a temple devoted to the sun, the moon and the five planets.
The 360 idols placed round the Ka‘ba also point in the same direction.
It can therefore hardly be denied that traces exist of an astral symbolism…”42
That the Ka‘ba was a centre of sun-worship is also confirmed by whatever
memories of the pre-Islamic Hajj survive in Muslim accounts. “As soon as
the sun was visible, the ifãDa to Minã used to begin
in pre-Islamic times. Muhammad therefore ordained
that this should begin before sunrise; here again we have the attempt to
destroy a solar rite. In ancient times they are said to have sung during
the ifãDa, ashrîq thabîr kaimã nughîr.
The explanation of these words is uncertain; it is sometimes translated:
‘Enter into light of morning, Thabir, so that we may hasten.’”43
It is pointed
out by apologists of Islam that the Prophet did not convert the pagan temple
into a mosque and that he only “restored” it to what it used to be in Abraham’s
time. We known that the Abraham story about the Ka‘ba is a fabrication
floated after the Prophet had left Mecca and quarrelled with the Jews of
Medina. And there was no specific architectural design for a mosque developed
during the lifetime of the Prophet; any structure, in any shape could serve
the purpose. For the rest, everything that needs be done for depriving
a place of its pagan character and converting it into a place of Islamic
worship, was done by the Prophet. The conversion of the temple at Mecca
into a mosque was complete when Bilãl stood on the roof of the Ka‘ba
and recited azãn.
In Mecca proper,
Isãf and Nã’ila were the only other important idols outside
the Ka‘ba. They were the deities of as-Safa and al-Marwah. “On
that occasion the lord of apostleship ordered A’li… to break to pieces
Asãf and Nãylah… When these two idols were broken a rude
black woman issued from one of them, when his holy and prophetic lordship
said: ‘This is Nãylah. But she will never any more be worshipped
in your country.’”44
At
the same time, “The proclaimer authorised by the apostle of Allãh
went throughout Mecca calling upon all those who believe in Allãh
and the Last Day to leave no idol unbroken in their homes.”45
Having
“purified” Mecca, the Prophet sent “expeditions to those idols which were
in the neighbourhood and had them destroyed; these included al-‘Uzzã,
Manãt, Suwã‘, Buãna and Dhu’l-Kaffayn.”46
“Then the apostle
sent Khãlid to al-‘Uzzã which was in Nakhla. It was a temple
which the tribe of Quraysh and Kinãna and all MuDar used to venerate.
Its guardians were B. Shaybãn of B. Sulaym, allies of B. Hãshim.
When the Sulamî guardian heard of Khãlid’s coming he hung
his sword on her, climbed the mountain on which she stood, and said:
O ‘Uzzã, make an annihilating attack of Khãlid,
Throw aside your veil and gird up your train.
O ‘Uzzã, if you do not kill this man Kãlid
Then bear a swift punishment or become a Christian.
When
Khãlid arrived he destroyed her and returned to the apostle.”47
It is significant that the pagan priest saw no difference between becoming
a Muslim and becoming a Christian.
The rest of the
story is told in other sources. “He [the Prophet] asked him [Khãlid],
‘Did you see anything?’ Khãlid replied, ‘Nothing.’ He [the Prophet]
said, ‘Go again, and smash her to pieces.’ Khãlid went back, demolished
the building in which the idol was housed, and started smashing the idol
itself. The [pagan] priest raised a cry, ‘O ‘Uzzã, manifest your
might.’ All of a sudden a nude and dishevelled black
woman came out of that idol. Khãlid cut her down with his sword
and took possession of the jewels and ornaments she wore. He reported the
proceedings to the Prophet who observed. ‘That was ‘Uzzã. She will
be worshipped no more.”48 There
is a tradition that when the expedition was sent to Nakhla for the destruction
of al-‘Uzzã, the Prophet instructed Khãlîd, “In whatever
settlement you do not hear the azãn or see no mosque, slaughter
the people of that place.”49
“The apostle of
Allãh sent ‘Amr b. al-‘Ãs towards [the temple of] Suwã‘,
the idol of HuDayl, in order to destroy it. When ‘Amr arrived there, the
priest [of the temple] asked him, ‘What do you want?’ ‘Amr replied, ‘The
apostle of Allãh has commanded me to destroy this idol.’ He [the
priest] said, ‘You cannot overpower him.’ ‘Amr asked, ‘Why?’ He [the priest]
said, ‘He is well-protected.’ ‘Amr said. ‘You subscribe
to falsehood even now? May you perish! Does he hear or see?’
‘Amr approached the idol and smashed it. Then he ordered his companions
to demolish the house which contained [the temple’s] treasure. That house
yielded nothing.”50
“The expedition
to Manãt was sent under Sa‘d b. Zayd al-Ashahlî in the Ramzãn
Of AH 8… It was the idol of Ghassãn, Aws and Khazraj in al-Mushallal…
Sa‘d started with twenty cavalrymen and reached there at a time when the
priest was in attendance. The priest asked them, ‘What do you want?’ They
said, ‘Destruction of Manãt.’ The priest exclaimed, ‘You, and want
to do this!’ Sa‘d approached the idol. A black and nude and dishevelled
woman came out and advanced towards him, cursing and beating her breast. The
priest said, ‘O Manãt, manifest your might.’ Sa‘d started hitting
her, and she was cut down. He had asked his companions to take care of
the idol in the meanwhile. They smashed it. But the treasury yielded nothing,”51 Other
sources attribute the destruction of the sanctuary of Manãt in Qudayd
to ‘Alî bin Abû Tãlib, still others to Abû Sufyãn.52
One wonders whether more than one temple of Manãt was destroyed.
Soon after the
occupation of Mecca, the Prophet had to face a formidable alliance of pagan
tribes that had assembled in the valley of Hunayn between Mecca and Tã’if.
Ibn Ishãq records a tradition from Hãrith b. Mãlik:
“We went forth with the apostle to the Hunayn fresh from paganism. The
heathen Quraysh and other Arabs had a great green tree Dhãtu Anwãt
to which they used to come every year and hang their weapons on it and
sacrifice beside it and devote themselves to it for a day.” As the newly
converted pagans saw that tree, they said to the Prophet, “Make us a tree
to hang things on such as they have.” The Prophet
chided them, comparing them to the people of Moses who wanted the latter
to “make us a god even as they have gods.”53
It is not recorded whether the sacred tree was cut down at that time.
Perhaps the Prophet was in a hurry. But it is a safe bet that it was marked
for destruction.
The army of Islam
suffered a severe setback in the first round of the Battle of Hunayn. The
newly converted pagans were overjoyed. Abû Sufyãn, when he
saw the Muslims in headlong flight, observed, “They
will not stop till they reach the seashore.” A pagan who had been granted
respite from conversion for a specified period asked, “Has not sorcery
[Islam] come to an end today?”54
The Prophet himself
was in great danger. The situation was saved by lack of tactical skill
on the pagan side. They failed to pursue the demoralised Muslim army, and
were defeated by the counter-attack which followed after the Muslims managed
to regroup. The remnants of their defeated allies took refuge in the fortified
town of Tã’if. A Muslim poetess sang:
Allah’s cavalry has beaten Al-Lãt’s cavalry,
And Allah best deserves to hold fast.55
Al-Lãt was
the chief Goddess of the allied pagan tribes, and had a renowned sanctuary
in Tã’if. So the army of Islam advanced towards this town.
On the way the
Prophet detached Tufayl b. ‘Amr al-Dausî and sent him to destroy
the temple of Dhu’l Kaffayn. It was maintained by his own tribe of Daus.
He was to rejoin the main army after accomplishing the assignment. “He
moved fast towards his people, and destroyed Dhu’l Kaffayn. As he set fire
to the idol, starting from its face, he said:
O Dhu’l Kaffayn! we are not of those that obey you,
Our birth goes back much prior to your own.
See, I have stuffed your heart with fire.
Four
hundred men from his tribe followed him when he went back to the Prophet.”56
The army of Islam
was full of confidence when it arrived outside Tã’if. The court
poet of the Prophet, Ka‘b b. Mãlik sang:
Al-Lãt and Al-‘Uzzã and Wudd are forgotten,And Shaddãd b. ‘ÃriD al-Jushamî said:
And we plunder them of their necklaces and earings.
Don’t help A’-Lãt for God is about to destroy her
How can one who cannot help herself he helped?57
But the boast proved
empty and al-Lãt survived on this occasion. Tã’if proved
a hard nut to crack. “When he found the gates closed
and determined resistance offered, he endeavoured to frighten the Thakafites
by a wholesale destruction of their property. This was how he had dealt
with the Banu Nadir. But the Thakafites were no Jews.”58
The siege had to be raised, though newly acquired heavy war-engines were
employed for battering the city walls.
The only satisfaction
the Prophet could derive was from what he got done in the environs. He
“ordered his glorious companions to fell the date-trees and to destroy
the vineyards of the neighbourhood,” which acts were considered serious
crimes according to the ethics of pagan warfare. The Prophet had learnt
the art of total war from the Judaic and Christian scriptures. He also
indulged in his most favourite pastime. “It is related in some biographies
that while the siege of Tãyf was being carried on, his holy and
prophetic lordship appointed A’li Murtadza with a number of glorious companions
to make excursions into the country, and to destroy every idol they could
find… Thereon A’li, the Commander of the Faithful…
destroyed all the idols of the Bani Hoãzãn and Bani Thaqyf
which were in that region. The apostle was waiting for his return near
the gate of the fort of Tãyf, and as soon as the prince of saints
had terminated his business, he joined the august camp, was received by
the seal of prophets with the exclamation of the Takbyr…”59
No count of temples destroyed is available in the sources. They must have
been many. Islamic invaders of India followed the example whenever they
besieged a town.
“The apostle,”
reports of Ibn Ishãq, “went on until he stopped in Dhû Awãn
a town an hour’s light journey from Medina. The owners of the mosque of
opposition had come to the apostle as he was preparing for Tabûk
saying, ‘We have built a mosque for the sick and needy and for nights of
bad weather, and we should like you to come to us and pray for us there.’
He said that he was on the point of travelling, and was preoccupied, or
words to that effect, and that when he came back he would come to them
and pray for them in it.
“When he stopped
in Dhû Awãn news of the mosque came to him, and he summoned
Mãlik b. al-Dukhshum… and Ma‘n b. ‘Adîy… and told them to
go to the mosque of those evil men and destroy and burn it. They went quickly
to B. Sãlim b. ‘Auf who were Mãlik’s clan, and Mãlik
said to Ma‘n, ‘Wait for me until I can bring fire
from my people.’ So he went in and took a palm-branch and lighted it, and
then the two of them ran into the mosque where its people were and burned
and destroyed it and the people ran away from it.”60
The sources offer
no evidence that this mosque was built on land acquired illegitimately,
as some apologists of Islam like Ashgar Ali Engineer have been saying in
the context of the Rãmajanmabhûmi controversy. The
only point which emerges is that it was built by Muslims who did not see
eye to eye with Muhammad. Margoliouth observes: “Of the rights and wrongs
of this affair nothing decided will ever be known: the revelation in which
it is mentioned,61 and which contains a variety
of oracles delivered in connection with the expedition to Tabuk, is in
a tone of bitterness and vexation such as disappointment and opposition
are likely to engender in a man of Mohammed’s temperament. The people of
Medinah and their new Bedouin allies are charged with harbouring Hypocrites:
and it also appears that the Koran was beginning to give rise to criticism
from which the Prophet had suffered at Meccah. When a new revelation comes
down, people at Medinah ask each other sarcastically whether their faith
had been increased. Knots of people are found talking and laughing: inspite
of the most earnest denials, the Prophet is of the opinion that the Koran
has provided the materials for their amusement… Mere
is also one verse in the tirade suggesting that some of the malcontents
disliked the plan of living on plunder which was now characteristic of
Islam, and wished a more honest system inaugurated…”62
Obviously, the
mosque of opposition was built by people who were monotheists like Muhammad
but who did not believe that the doctrine enjoined bloodshed and rapine
which had become the Muslims’ daily practice. Small wonder that Allãh
of the Qur’ãn who sanctioned mass slaughter and endless accumulation
of plunder by the faithful, did not approve of such “toothless” monotheism.
So he moaned, “Is he who founded his building upon
duty to Allãh and his good pleasure better; or he who founded his
building on the brink of a crumbling, overhanging precipice so that it
toppled with him into the fire of hell?”63
The occupation
of Mecca had sky-rocketled the prestige of the Prophet. “In deciding their
attitude to Islam,” writes Ibn Ishãq, “the Arabs were only waiting
to see what happened to the clan of Quraysh and the apostle. For Quraysh
were the leaders and guides of men, the people of the sacred temple, and
the pure stock of Ishmael son of Abraham; and the leading Arabs did not
contest this. It was Quraysh who had declared war
on the apostle and opposed him; and when Mecca was occupied and Quraysh
became subject to him and he subdued it to Islam,
and the Arabs knew that they could not fight the apostle or display enmity
towards him they entered into God’s religion ‘in batches’ as God said,64
coming to him from all directions.”65 Muhammad’s
war-machine was sending waves of terror towards all tribes, which was a
very effective message. There was a debate afoot everywhere whether to
fight for the ancient religion and tribal honour, or submit to Muhammad
and become Muslim. The Prophet’s intelligence network kept him informed
of what was happening where. He was swift in exploiting the psychological
crisis to his own advantage.
The
groundwork had been done during the preceding two years. Ibn Sa‘d provides
a list of tribal chiefs to whom the Prophet had sent invitations to Islam,
starting soon after the Treaty of Hudaybiya with the Meccans in the year
AH 6.66 The letters containing his messages
were carried by special couriers selected from among his companions. The
message varied according to the status and strength of the tribe concerned.
Unfortunately, Ibn Sa‘d has lumped together the invitations without regard
for chronological sequence. This much, however, can be inferred that their
tone became sharper as the author of the messages marched from one victory
to another, the acme being reached in the conquest of Mecca and the Battle
of Hunayn.
At first Muhammad
wrote his letters beginning with basmak al-Laham, “I begin in the
name of Allãh,” after the custom of the Quraysh. A special revelation
came and he was commanded to begin with bismallãh, “In the
name of Allãh.” Another revelation amended
the formula to bismallãh al-RaHmãn al-RaHîm,
“In the name of Allãh, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” Finally,
it was revealed to him that he should begin with bismallãh al-RaHîm
al-WaHîd, “In the name of Allãh, the Compassionate, the
One.”67
The general tenor
of the messages sent was the same-dissociate from the idolaters which meant
an order to destroy pagan temples and break idols; bear witness that Allãh
is one without partners and Muhammad is his messenger; establish prayers
which meant an order to build mosques; pay zakãt and other
taxes to the central treasury at Medina; send to the Prophet one-fifth
of the plunder obtained from raids on the polytheists; and keep the highways
free from disturbance so that Muslim delegations can travel unmolested
for converting people and collecting taxes. In exchange, the tribes were
assured that they could keep their lands, their cattle, their wells, their
gardens, their houses and such of their special customs as did not come
in conflict with Islam. Defiance, they were warned,
will entail slaughter of their men, capture of their women and children,
and laying waste of their country. And punitive
expeditions were sent to those tribal settlements which molested the Prophet’s
messengers or otherwise refused to abide by his dictates.68 The
fear was abroad that “the Prophet of Allãh may send a military force.”69
When Banî Tamîm refused to pay zakãt, they were
attacked, and eleven of their women and thirty of their children were captured
and dragged to Medina.”70
“When
the apostle had gained possession of Mecca,” reports Ibn Ishãq,
“and had finished with Tabûk, and Thaqîf had surrendered and
paid homage, deputations from the Arabs came to him from all directions.”71 Ibn
Sa‘d lists as many as seventy-one deputations which waited on Muhammad
in Medina, the last one being on behalf of the wolves.”72
It seems that the beasts also had taken fright and were prepared to become
Muslims or the beasts felt that they, too, could confess the faith without
suffering inconvenience.
Strangely enough,
a deputation came to Muhammad from Tã’if soon after he had suffered
a repulse outside that city. It seems that the morale of the people in
this town has collapsed as they saw what was happening all around. The
deputation met Muhammad even before he had reached Medina. It was led by
‘Urwa b. Mas‘ûd al-Thaqafî who was one of the leaders of resistance
when Tã’if was besieged by the army of Islam. ‘Urwa
requested Muhammad to make him a Muslim so that he could go back and invite
his people to the true faith. He was baptised and sent back. But “when
he went up to an upper room and showed his religion to them they shot arrows
at him from all directions, and one hit him and killed him.”73
The
debate in Tã’if, however, did not come to an end. One of their chiefs
said, “We are in an impasse. You have seen how the affair of this man has
progressed. All the Arabs have accepted Islam and you lack the power to
fight them, so look to your ease… So after conferring together they dicided
to send a man to the apostle as they had sent ‘Urwa…”74
The man approached for the job refused to go alone. Finally a deputation
consisting of six chiefs reached Medina and met the Prophet.
“Among the things
they asked the apostle,” reports Ibn Ishãq, “was that they should
be allowed to retain their idol Al-Lãt undestroyed for three years.
The apostle refused, and they continued to ask him for a year or two, and
he refused; finally they asked for a month after their return home, but
he refused to agree to any set time. All that they wanted as they were
trying to show was to be safe from their fanatics and women and children
by leaving her, and they did not want to frighten their people by destroying
her until they had accepted Islam.
The apostle refused
this… They had also asked that he would excuse them from prayer and they
should not have to break their idols with their own hands. The apostle
said: ‘We excuse you from breaking your idols with your own hands, but
as for prayer there is no good in a religion which has no prayers.’ They
said that they would perform them though it was demeaning…
“When they had
accomplished their task and had set out to return to their country the
apostle sent with then Abû Sufyãn and al-Mughîra to
destroy their idol. They travelled with the deputation and when they neared
al-Tã’if, al-Mughîra wanted to send on Abû Sufyãn
in advance. The latter refused and told him to go
to his people while he stayed in the property of Dhû’l-Haram.75
When al-Mughîra entered he went up to the idol and struck it with
a pick-axe. His people the B. Mu‘attib stood in front of him fearing that
he would be shot or killed as ‘Urwa had been. The women of Thaqîf
came out with their heads uncovered bewailing her and saying:
O weep for our protector
Poltroons would neglect her
Whose swords need a corrector.
Abû Sufyãn,
as al-Mughîra smote her with the axe, said, ‘Alas for you, alas!’
When al-Mughîra had destroyed her and taken what was on her and her
jewels he sent for Abû Sufyãn when her jewellery and gold
and beads had been collected.
“Now Abû
MulayH b. ‘Urwa and Qãrib b. al-Aswad had come to the apostle before
the Thaqîf deputation when ‘Urwa was killed, desiring to separate
themselves from Thaqîf and to have nothing to do with them… ‘Urwa
asked the apostle to settle a debt his father had incurred from the property
of the idol. The apostle agreed and Qãrib b. al-Aswad asked for
the same privilege for his father… The apostle said,
‘But al-Aswad died a polytheist.’ He answered, ‘But you will be doing a
favour to a Muslim a near relation,’ meaning himself… The apostle ordered
Abû Sufyãn to satisfy the debts of ‘Urwa and al-Aswad from
the property of the idol…”76
‘Urwa and al-Aswad
show the stuff of which voluntary converts to Islam were made. Most of
them were questionable characters.
They sent their
chief, Dimãm b. Tha‘laba, to the Prophet. Dimãm asked some
questions and ended by becoming a Muslim. He went back to his people and
said, “How evil are al-Lãt and al-‘Uzzã!” His people rebuked
him, “Heavens above, Dimãm, beware of leprosy
and elephantiasis and madness!” He replied, “Woe to you, they can neither
hurt nor heal. God has sent an apostle and sent down to him a book, so
seek deliverance thereby from your present state..."77
He then destroyed the idols “It was not yet evening
that day that all men and women became Muslamans. They built mosques and
recited azãns so that people came to prayers.”78
Seven hundred
people from B. Sulaym had waited on the Prophet while he was in Qudayd
on his way to Mecca, which he occupied soon after. They went to him again
after the conquest of Mecca, Battle of Hunayn and the siege of Tã’if.
Their leader Ghãdî b. ‘Abû al-‘Uzzã was the keeper
of their temple. The Prophet bestowed upon him the estate of Rehãtã
which had a spring in it. He came back and composed the following couplets
about the idol he had worshipped earlier:
How can that be, God, on whom
The foxes came and stated?
He is abominable without a doubt,
He on whom the foxes staled.
He
attacked the idol and smashed it to pieces. When he waited upon the Prophet
with this report, he was asked, “What is your name?” He said, “Ghãdî
‘Abd al-‘Uzzã.” The Prophet said, “You are Rãshid b. ‘Abd
Raba.”79 People whose names referred to pagan Gods were always given new names by the Prophet-names which referred to the god of Islam.
Raba.”79 People whose names referred to pagan Gods were always given new names by the Prophet-names which referred to the god of Islam.
A deputation of
nineteen men from B. Hanîfa came to Medina. They were given rich
food and instructed in Islam by the Prophet. Each of them was given five
ounces of silver as a gift. When they got ready
to go back, the Prophet gave them a vessel of water with which he had performed
his ablutions. He said, “When you return to your country, destroy the church,
wash the site with water, and build a mosque on it.” They did accordingly.
The priest in charge of the church ran away. His days were over.”80
“The
Prophet sent ‘Alî b. Abî Tãlib towards the temple of
Fils belonging to the tribe of Tayy, with an order to destroy it… He went
with two hundred horsemen…”81
“‘Alî
inflicted atrocities on them and took prisoners from among them. He obtained
two swords from the temple; one of them was named Rasûb, the other
Makhzam. It was well-known that these swords had been brought as an offering
to the temple by Hãrith b. Abî Thamar. Among the prisoners
was a sister of ‘Adi b. Hãtim…”82 Hãtim
Tayy, the father of the girl, was a pagan chief renowned for his liberality.
Islamic lore at present tells many stories about him without revealing
that he was a pagan. The temple of Fils which was destroyed was on Mount
Aja‘. Another deity of Tayy was RuDã’.83
His temple, too, met the same fate.
A deputation consisting
of ten men came to Medina from Khaulan in the year AH 10. They informed
the Prophet that they were Muslims. The Prophet asked, “What about your
idol of ‘Amm Anas?” They replied, “That is in a bad shape. We have exchanged
him for Allãh whom you have brought. When we go back, we shall destroy
him.” They were instructed in Islam and entertained
lavishly. After a few days, the Prophet ordered that each of them be given
twelve and a half ounces of silver as reward. They went back and destroyed
the idol of ‘Amm Anas “even before they untied their luggage.”84
A
deputation of twelve men from B. ‘Uzra came to Medina and said to the Prophet,
“We are worried about our people.” The Prophet instructed them in Islam
and gave them gifts. He was told that the idol of ‘Uzra had spoken and
confirmed his prophethood. He observed, “This seems to be a believing jinn.”85
Idols, too, it seems, could become believers. It is not recorded whether
the idol was kept or removed.
‘Amr b. Marrah
al-Jahnî relates, “We had an idol which we used to honour. I was
its keeper. When I heard of the Prophet, I destroyed it. Then I went to
Medina and became a Muslim. I composed the following verse:
I bear witness that Allãh is true,
I am the first to renounce stone idols.”86
The Temple of Farrãz
Dbab, a man from
the tribe of Sa‘d al-Ashîra attacked the idol named Farrãz
and smashed it to pieces. He went with a deputation to the Prophet and
said:
I became a follower of the Prophet
When he brought (good) instructions.
I consigned Farrãz to a status of dishonour,
I attacked him and left him in a state
As if he never existed; this is the time of revolutions.87
The Temple of Dhu’l-KhalaSa
Jarîr b.
‘Abd-allãh al-Bahlî came to Medina with one hundred and fifty
men. All of them professed Islam. The Prophet asked Jarîr about those
whom he had left behind. Jarîr replied, “O apostle of Allãh!
Allãh has made Islam dominant among them. Azãn prevails
from mosques and courtyards. They have destroyed the idols they used to
worship.” The Prophet asked, “What happened to the idol of Dhu’l KhalaSa?”
He was told, “He is as before. Allãh willing, we will be rid of
him.” The Prophet sent them back. Jarîr returned
before long and reported, “I have destroyed the idols and taken whatever
it wore. I set fire to it and reduced it to such a state that whoever had
honoured him will now hate him. No one stopped us from doing this.”88
“It
is reported that after the burning and destruction of the idol-temple the
inhabitants of Dhu’l-Khalasa attained the nobility of Islam. The treasury
belonging to that temple contained much property and perfumes, all of which
was brought to Medinah. When his holy and prophetic lordship heard what
had taken place, and that the idol-temple had been demolished, he rejoiced
greatly, inviting a benediction on Jaryr and his tribe…”89
“Some
of the idols were made use of for other purposes, as for example the idol
of Dhu’l-KhalaSa, a white piece of marble in which a crown was carved and
which was worshipped at Tabãla, a place on the road from Mekka to
Yaman, was in the time of Ibn al-Kalbî (about AH 200) used as a stepping-stone
under the mosque at Tabãla…”90
It was the temple
of B. Rabî‘a, a branch of B. Tamîm. Al-Mustaughir b. Rabî‘a,
a man of the same tribe, destroyed it. He sang:
I smashed RuDã’ so completely that
I left it a black ruin in a hollow.91
Surveying the scene
in the year of deputations, Margoliouth sums up, “The iconoclasm which
had raged at Medinah at the time of the Prophet’s arrival spread far and
wide, now it had been clearly proved that the old gods were incapable of
defending themselves or of even taking revenge on those who broke them. Facts
which had remained unheeded for generations suddenly began to suggest important
inferences: one man observed that his god suffered himself to be desecrated
by beasts, and declined henceforward to worship a deity on whom the foxes
staled. The persons who hurry to place their incense on the altar of success
are familiar figures in all ages: and many a comedy was enacted at these
visits…”92
Thus the practices
of the Prophet or his Sunnah vis-a-vis idols and idol-temples was added
to prescriptions of the Qur’ãn in this respect, and the Islamic
theology of iconoclasm stood completed. Ever since, iconoclasm has been
a prominent as well a permanent part of the theology of Islam.
Allãh had
denounced the idols and their worship as abominable. His prophet got the
idols broken or burnt, and their temples destroyed.
The Prophet added
a few nuances on his own. He got the sites and materials of pagan temples
used in the construction of mosques that replaced them. In many cases,
idols were placed on the footsteps of the mosques so that the faithful
could trample upon them while entering and coming out of Allãh’s
abodes. These acts, too, became pious precedents and were followed by Islamic
invaders wherever they came across idols.
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