1297 worthier shall expel thence the meaner.' After the veracity of Zayd B. Arqum had become evident, A'bâdah B. Assâmat and Awus B. A'bdullah passed near A'bdullah B. Abu Salûl, and failed to greet him. He therefore reproved them, but those two blessed individuals warned him of the eternal punishment he would have to incur for having sworn a false oath, and Awus said: 'We shall have nothing to do with thee until thou repentest.' And A'badah added: Come to his lordship, that he may ask the forgiveness of God for thee.' That heedless and perjured man, however, turned his neck and looked away from A'bdullah, who continued: By Allah! with reference to thee and the turning of thy neck, a verse of the Quran will be revealed, which shall be recited during prayers;' and the blessed verse, 'When it is said unto them, Come, that the apostle of God may ask pardon for you, they turn away their heads, and thou seest them retire big with disdain, '298 is confirmatory of the above assertion. It is said that A'bdullah B. Abu Salûl had a son of the same name who obeyed God and the prophet, being very different from his father. When this young man heard Fârûq requesting the apostle to appoint Muhammad B. Moslamah or some other Anssâr to kill A'bdullah B. Abu Salûl, he approached his lordship, and said: If thou intendest to slay my father, order me to do it, and I swear by Allah that ere thou risest from the assembly I shall bring his head to thee. By Allah! the men of the Khazraj [tribe] know that of all of them I have acted the best towards my father, and that since a certain time he takes neither food nor drink from the hands of anyone except from me; and I fear, O apostle of God, that if another man attempts to kill him, and I see it, consanguinity [or, rather, filial duty] will compel me to avenge his death on that person, and that I shall for such a deed obtain eternal punishment in hell. Thy favour, however, and thy forgivingness are great.' The apostle-u. w. b.replied: 'O A'bdullah, it is not my intention to kill thy 297 Qurân, ch. lxiii. 8. 298 Ibid., 5. father, nor have I ordered anyone to do so, and as long as he remains among us I shall treat him well.' When A'bdullah, the son of A'bdullah E. Salûl knew that the life of his father was to be spared, he uttered some distich, the translation of which [from the Arabic] is as follows: 'The world is full of marvels, but more wonderful are The words I heard O'mar saying to the prophet: "Order some one to bring Ebn Abu's head to thee!" I said to the apostle: "If he is to be killed, order me to do it." My resolution is stancher than iron and ore.' It is related in the Mostagadza that when Ebn Abu Salûl arrived near Madinah, and desired to enter that prosperous region, his son A'bdullah took hold of his horse's bridle, stopped it, and said: 'I swear by God that I shall not allow thee to enter this town unless by the permission of the apostle of God, because he is the most noble of the sons of Adam, and thou art the meanest of the inhabitants of this world.' He asked permission from his lordship to commit parricide, but the latter replied: 'Let him alone, and behave kindly to him.' It is related that during the return march from the Ghazwah with the Bani Mossttalaq a very high wind commenced to blow, and some people thought that enemies. had entered Madinah to plunder it [on such an occasion]; but his holy and prophetic lordship-u. w. b.—exclaimed: 'Be not afraid! Madinah is my place, and there is no spot nor corner thereof which does not contain an angel. to guard it and to watch over it; this day, however, one of the very greatest hypocrites has died.' And, according to the tradition of Muhammad E. Esahâq, Zayd B. Raqaa'h had on that day departed to hell. When this information reached A'bdullah B. Abu Salûl he was overpowered with fear and grief, because he had been on very intimate terms with the deceased. STORY OF THE SLANDER.299 There is a tradition of A'ayshah that she said: 'When the apostle intended to go on a journey he was in the habit of drawing or throwing lots concerning his wives, and she on whom it [i.e., the lot] fell accompanied him. In this Ghazwah the lot came upon my name, and I enjoyed the happiness of going with him. As at that time the verse of the curtain had not yet been revealed, a howdah was prepared for me, in which I sat, and which was placed on the camel I rode. When the campaign was over we marched back, and arrived in the vicinity of Mekkah [sic]. Whilst the order to start was being given in one of the haltingplaces I had gone out of the camp for a natural purpose, and on returning to it I perceived that I had lost my necklace. Accordingly I retraced my steps and searched the place where I had been till I found my trinket. In my absence, however, the men who were accustomed to place the howdah upon the camel arrived and did their duty. At that time women were weak and light, because they were content to eat only so much as would satisfy their hunger. I was young and light, so that the difference of the weight could not be perceived whether I was in the howdah or not. When I returned from the place where I had answered a call of nature I saw no one, and said to myself: "If they do not see me they will come and look for me." Accordingly I sat down in the same place until I was overpowered by sleep, and began to slumber until the morning, when Ssafuwân B. Moa'ttal Solmy, who had followed in the rear of the army for some business, arrived in that place, saw me, and exclaimed: "We are Allah's, and unto Him shall we surely return."300 The repetition of this phrase awakened me, and caused me to veil my face. Ssafuwan made his camel kneel down, stood aloof, and said: 299 The whole statement of A'ayshab, one of the wives of the prophet, our author has literally translated from Ebn Esahâq's biography of Muhammad, published in the original Arabic by Dr. Wüstenfeld, and translated by me into English. 300 Qurân, ch. ii. 151. "Mount." Accordingly I rode on the camel, which Ssafuwân led with the bridle, until we reached, during the heat of the day, the place where the army was halting. Hypocrites have uttered with reference to us whatever opinions their minds suggested; of their number A'bdullah Bin Abu Salûl was one, and of that of the Musalmâns were Hasan B. Thâbet, and Mosattah B. Asâmah, and others, who all agreed in the calumny [concerning me].' Ssidiqah [i.e., A'ayshah] continues: When I arrived in Madinah I fell sick, and the calumnies of those men spread among the people. I knew nothing, but I found that the apostle's behaviour towards me had changed. I did not experience any of that kindness from him which he had manifested to me in former maladies; but I was not aware of the cause until one night during my recovery, when I was with the mother of Mosattah-who then happened to be in Madinah-going out for a natural purpose, waterclosets not having as yet become customary at that time. Her wrapper having become entangled, she fell down, and began to revile her son; but I asked: "Insultest thou a man who has been present at the battle of Bedr ?" This falling and squabbling was thrice repeated, whereon she said at last: "O A'ayshah, hast thou not heard what he said?" I asked what he had spoken, and the mother of Mosattah informed me of the circumstances of the case and of the slander. My disease augmented, and I returned to the house. When the apostle of God came near me, I said: "O apostle of Allah, permit me to return to my father's house," my intention being to institute an inquiry into the matter of the calumny. When I arrived in my father's house I asked my mother: "What story are the people relating about me ?" My mother replied: "Be not dismayed, but take the matter easy. By Allah! there is not one handsome and noble woman whom her husband loves, but has other wives besides her, concerning whom similar tales are not bandied about." I exclaimed: "Praise be to Allah! have they said such words?" But I could not sleep that night, and my tears did not cease to flow.' Ssidiqah continues: His lordship the refuge of the apostolate-u. w. b.-called A'li B. Abu Ttâleb-u. w. b.and Asâmatah B. Zayd, to consult them about divorcing me. Asâmatah said: "We think nothing but good about thy wife." And A'li B. Abu Ttâleb said: "O apostle of God, the Almighty has not distressed thee through women, except by their multitude. Examine Baryrah, the servant girl of A'ayshah, and she will tell the truth." Accordingly that prince examined Baryrah, and she spoke as follows: "I swear by that God who has sent thee in truth that I have seen nothing blameworthy in A'ayshah, except that she sometimes falls asleep, so that the sheep come and eat up the leavened flour." Esma'il B. Nitzâmu-l-mulkrelates in the Khulássatu-sseyr that in those times his holy and prophetic lordship— u. w. b.—was one day sitting in his house in a state of depression and melancholy, when Fârûq [i.e., O'mar] entered, and the apostle asked him: What sayest thou of this event?' He replied: O apostle of God, I know for a certainty that the hypocrites are speaking lies.' He continued By what reason?' Fârûq replied: 'By reason of God's not allowing a fly to settle upon thy blessed skirts, because it alights also on impure things and soils its feet. How, then, would He not preserve thee from a worse defilement?' His lordship was highly pleased and flattered by these remarks. After that Dhu-n-nûryn entered, and his lordship spoke to him on the same subject, and he replied: 'I am sure the hypocrites are liars.' That prince continued By what reason?' He replied: 'Because God the Most High does not allow thy shadow to fall upon the ground, lest it might be polluted, or a person might step thereon. If, therefore, God the Most High thus protects thy shadow, will He not restrain thy honoured spouse from committing such an impropriety, or allow a stranger to defile the honour of thy wife with the pollution of treachery?' At these words of Dhu-n-nûryn the most noble mind became yet more tranquillized. Then A'li B. Abu Ttâleb entered, whereon his holy and prophetic lord |