We begin the story of the life of Muhammad صل الله عليه و سلم with the story of the zamzam well. As many Muslims are familiar with, the Well of Zamzam was a blessing for the sake of Ismail عليه السلام. When the Lady Hajra had run out of milk in the middle of the barren and empty desert, she implored Allah for sustenance. A gushing outpouring of water appeared under the kicking feet of Ismail عليه السلام, and had Sayyidina Hajra not tried to contain it, it would likely have turned into a large river to flow through Makkah. As it happens, she held her hands up the flowing water, and cried “zam zam!” in a surprised attempt to stop it’s flow, and then proceeded to build up a mound of sand to form a wall around it. Thus, it was contained to a well, and did not become that river.

At the time, there were two tribes prevalent around Makkah, the Jurhum and Khuza’ah. Sayyidina Hajra permitted the tribes to take water from the well of Zam Zam, but insisted on maintaining rights to the well (a testimony to her mental fortitude–as a woman on her own in the desert, she was certainly strong to be able to negotiate with two tribes that were generally at war with each other, and would have certainly had no qualms about warring with her). Eventually, a time came when the Jurhum tribe was driven out of Makkah by the Khuza’ah. On their way out, the tribe decided to cover up the well, perhaps feeling spiteful towards the Khuza’ah and wanting them to suffer a bit. For a long time thereafter, the well of Zam Zam was no longer visible, and while the general location was know, the specific location was elusive.

Eventually, Abdul Muttalib, the grandfather of Muhammad صل الله عليه و سلم, was given the task of providing pilgrims to Makkah with water. Thus began his search for the well of Zam Zam. One night, he saw a dream telling him where the well was located, and he began digging the next day at that spot. The rest of the Quraish resented this, because all this digging happened to be at the spot at which two of their idols (Isaf and Nailah) were standing. Abdul Muttalib continued to dig with his son, and realizing the extent of his isolation (just two of them against a whole tribe), he asked Allah to give him ten sons, and if Allah granted him his wish, he’d sacrifice one of them in the name of Allah. A short time later, the well was discovered, and over the course of his life, Abdul Muttalib was also granted the ten sons he’d asked for.

The time came when he had to fulfill his oath to sacrifice one of those sons. He went to the Ka’bah and decided to draw lots to determine which son it would be. The arrows of chance chose Abdullah, the son who was most dear to Abdul Muttalib, and they left for the altar of sacrifice. His family and the various chiefs of the Quraish tried mightily to stop this sacrifice, but Abdul Muttalib was intent on fulfilling his promise to Allah. Ultimately, they all convinced him to take the advice of one of their prominent soothsayers, Saja, who would be able to find a wise solution. Abdul Muttalib agreed to this idea, as I can imagine he was not all too eager to see the demise of his son.

The soothsayer advised that the blood money for a single person was ten camels. So, they should put Abdullah on one side, ten camels on the other side, and then draw lots. If the camels were chosen, then they would be slaughtered; but if Abdullah was chosen, then ten more camels should be added and lots should be once again be drawn. This process should continue for as long as it takes for the arrows of chance to fall upon the camels. In the end, ten lots were drawn, for the eventual number of 100 camels. Since then, the blood money for one person killed has been fixed at 100 camels. (In short, killing a human being is expensive business. Contrary to popular opinion, camels in good health are not cheap. A hundred of them, forget about it.)

I know, it’s been a terribly long time since I’ve blogged. I’d say that life happened while I was gone, but if that were true, then I’d have had something to blog about! No, nothing happened, just have nothing much either on my mind or my fingertips. (I’ve twittered like crazy, though, this last weekend. Wimbledon got me kind of jazzed up, you know?)

Well, anyway, there’s this little thing I’ve been doing, where every Friday, we get to talk to a new Muslim woman about Islam. We started out covering the basics of tawheed (the sound belief in Oneness of Allah), salaah (prayer), wudhu (ablution, necessary for proper salaah), zakaah (alms-giving), saum (fasting), and Hajj (pilgrimmage). Now, we’ve moved onto discussing the life of the Prophet Muhammed* صل الله عليه و سلم, and Cookie Monster, unstoppable blogger and twitterer extraordinaire, expressed interest in reading what we’ve been discussing in our Friday masjid sessions. Since I do tend to write these sessions up for our new friend, I figured, why not? Also, it will get my blogging juices flowing again. Forgive me if these posts get a bit lengthy, and I hope that even if you already know most of this stuff, it’s still helpful to read. I know that every time I read something about the Prophet صل الله عليه و سلم, I pick up something new.

So, onward…there’ll be a few posts in a row for the next couple days, so that I can catch up to where we are in our current “real-life” sessions. And I’ll respond to all the back-logged comments after I come back from opening my fast (the other thing I’m doing this summer before Ramadaan) because I hate leaving your sweet comments ignored (even though I’ve been in effect ignoring them for like a month–sorry about that!).

*I’m adapting most of these from the book, The History of Islam, as well as things spliced together from other readings retained in my memory, in case anyone is interested in my source.

One of the things that occurs to some of us non-Arab Muslims is “why was Rasullullah Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam sent among the Arabs? Why couldn’t he be one of ‘our’ kind? Indian, or maybe Persian, or perhaps Roman? Is there a significance to him being an Arab?” This may sound like a stupid or jealous question…but it’s really not intended to be either. We try to come up with ideas of our own for why this is the case, and some of the things we come up with include: the genuine hospitality of Arabs which includes not wanting to keep anything great to themselves, making them naturally inclined to share the faith; the serious charisma of Arabs, who can explain things so poetically and so simply that even their foes have to give them a hearing at some point; and their relentless manner of never giving up, to the point where they will bang their head on a wall to get their points across. Allaahu ‘aalam if we come up with the right ideas, or if we are in fact wasting our energy on something completely silly…but these are things we come up with in trying to see what is different between Arabs and “us” that Allah would make Rasullullaah from amongst this nation. To my gratification, one of the first things that this book mentions is on this very idea.

We hear much about the deplorable state of the Arabs during the times of ignorance, commonly referred to by the Arabic term jaahileeyah, such as their manner of treating women like merchandise; the unusual forms of marriage; the unlimited number of divorces (as opposed to the strict limit of 3 talaaq); the constant warring over petty things; and the vast amount of illiteracy. So, could there possibly have been any fertile ground here for acceptance of this revolutionizing faith called Islam? Some of the better qualities of the Arab people include the following:
1) A natural intelligence: This quality is illustrated in two forms. The first is a very powerful memory. This is demonstrated in the vastness of the Arabic language, which includes 80 different words to label the thing known as honey; 500 words for the English word lion, and 1000 different words each for the terms sword and camel. Those who knew all those different variations surely must have had awesome memories. Then there was a love for poetry, which certainly helped an illiterate nation preserve it’s history and values. And of course, it does take memory to enable the illiterate to remember complex poetry. This memory served Islam how? In the obvious way: by enabling many Companions of the Prophet (RadiAllaahu Anhum) to memorize the Qur’aan as well as hundreds, if not thousands, of Hadeeth narrations to be passed down through future generations of Muslims the world over.

2) Generosity: This was a quality deeply rooted in Arabs, and it was expected that if an Arab owned nothing but a camel, and a guest arrived, that camel would be slaughtered to feed the guest. This generosity was well-exhibited in the Companions of Prophet (RadiAllaahu Anhum).

3) Bravery: The following says enough about this quality: One Arab commented upon hering about the death of his brother, “If he has been killed, his father, brother and uncle before him have also been killed. By Allah, we do not die of natural causes.” It was true then, and we see before our very eyes, that it is true today. SubhanAllah.

4) Truthfulness, keeping promises, and honesty: In general, Arabs avoided lying. The book gives several examples of these qualities, but I will share just one here.

When he was still a polytheist and a bitter foe of Islam, Abu Sufyaan traveled abroad and met Haraql, the leader of a foreign empire. Haraql began to ask question about the Prophet (Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam) and about the new religion in Makkah. Abu Sufyaan could have best served his purposes by lying abouthte Prophet (Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam), for to speak truthfully about him involved praising him for his good characther, noble lineage, and truthful speech. And it was not wise to praise the Prophet (Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam) in front of a foreign leader, wh had teh potential of embracing Islam and of wreaking havoc upon the Quraish. Nonetheless, Abu Sufyaan did speak truthfully about the Prophet (Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam); he later said, “Had it not been for me being shy of ascribing the lie to me, I would have lied against him.”

5) Patience in hard times and contentment with the bare necessities:
Arabs consumed food in moderation and it was commonly said that “Gluttony does away with intelligence.” The ability to endure the hardship of a harsh hot desert, with little food and water became more necessary: It was many a Sahaaba who went “days with only a small number of dates and some drops of water.”

I have not selected everything to write of. I also would not say that such characteristics are specific only to Arabs. However, I would say that they are character traits found most inherently in Arabs, just based on the few Arabs I know. And I think that the legacy of these characteristics was propagated throughout the people who became Muslims over time. They became examples to follow in the way that our Prophet (Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam) lived his life and carried out his message.

On Saturday night, the first night of Rabi al Awwal, I started reading from this 3-Volume book set on the life of the Prophet, Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam. As I was reading from it, I thought to myself, “How nice would it be to share just a small snippet of what I am reading with all 1.5 readers of my blog?” It would be very nice indeed, more so because it helps me to remember all what I am reading just a little bit better. It must be said though, that it is so easy to read or hear about the life of Prophet Sallallaahu alayhi wasSallam, and really very easy to remember what you are reading and/or listening to. As I read, some of the stories are familiar from prior experience, and then of course, many many many things are just ever so new. So, without much more ado, I shall begin with the first thing that I wanted to share, in the next post (just in a couple hour’s time, I promise!).

This is a multi-faceted story; it talks about the love of our Creator towards his creation, the love of a mother to her children, and rights afforded to animals as taught by our Nabi (Sallahu alayhi wasallam).

Allah loves us more than the mother cares about her children

A man once came to Prophet Muhammad (s) carrying with him his belongings and a box. He said, “O Prophet! While I was passing through a jungle, I heard the voice of some bird’s babies. I took them and put them in this box. The moment I did that, their mother came fluttering round my head.”

And the Prophet said, “Put them down”. When the man put the box on the ground, the mother of the young birds joined them. Seeing this, the Prophet asked the man who now had a look of surprise on his face, “Are you surprised by the affection of the mother towards her young? I swear by Him (Almighty Allah) who has sent me, surely, God is more loving to his servants than the mother to these young birds. Return these baby birds to the place from where you took them, and let their mother be with them.”

“Fear God with regard to animals”, said the Prophet of Islam, “ride them when they are fit to be ridden, and get off their backs when they are tired; surely, there are rewards for being kind and gentle to animals, and for giving them water to drink.”

(From Qisas.com)