CHILDREN´S OWN PAGE

                                    HISTORIC OF TEARS

Major Empires during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

The morning broke fresh and bright. Outside the town in the big open space there stood firmly fixed in the ground the standard of the Prophet ﷺ. Proudly fluttering in the gentle morning breeze, the Crescent now gilded by the first rays of the sun just peeping over the horizon, sent silent invitations to the Faithful. These speechless messages were irresistible. The Muslimin hailed them as so many opportunities for winning honour and advancement. On many a bloody field of battle had this symbol of Islam looked down but had witnessed not an instance of pusillanimity or backturning. Such were these re-doubtable followers of the Prophet ﷺ. The Word of God had changed their very outlook on life. Nothing afforded them so much pleasure as to strike a blow in a righteous cause. Their Master’s example had inspired them with unearthly courage. The word fear was once for all blotted out of their dictionary.

Hardly had an hour passed when the streets of Medina, the metropolis of Islam, the highways as well as the by-ways flowed with so many human streams. Cavaliers mounted on their best Arab steeds whose mettle they had tried in many a deadly contest, dashed along, vying with one another, as it were, to be the first to rally to that standard of truth. From the countryside, came pouring in the dwellers of the desert under the command of their respective Sheikhs, bearing the ensigns of their own respective tribes. And before the sun had attained to the meridian, there was a huge cavalcade around that familiar crescent.

Besides the youngsters, there were, among these warriors, the veterans and heroes of Badr, of Uhad, of Ahzab, of Hunain and many another sanguinary struggle, whose scarred faces told of the deeds of daring and valour they had wrought. The Prophet ﷺ had it proclaimed what the expedition was that they were on. The neighbouring Christian

power, a province of the Great Roman Empire, was busy mobilizing forces to swoop down on the territory of Islam and extinguish the light of Truth kindled by the hand of God. It was not for Muslims to pick up quarrels with other people. Islam inculcated love of man. When, however, there was no other way out of it and the gauntlet had been wantonly flung in the face of Islam, the Muslim code of honour knew no flinching or faltering. Death in defence of Truth was in fact the most enviable honour that could fall to the lot of a Muslim.   

All was now ready. Man and horse both seemed impatient of any further delay when war drums announced that the march must begin. But just at this proudest moment of their lives when these soldiers of Islam let loose the reins of their steeds to win glory, honour and advancement by measuring swords with the infidels, there could be seen a handful of men who with their eyes, pinned to the ground were wending their way back to the Capital. A closer look at their faces and you see drops of tears trickle down their cheeks. It seems as if these people would like the earth to rend asunder and engulf them. Who are these men and what on earth is the matter with them?

Every soldier in these expeditions offered himself as a national volunteer. As a rule everyone had to find out his own war equipment—sword, lance, armour, steed and all the rest. These people whom we have just seen off on the way back to Medina, lost in sorrow and grief, were too poor to procure steeds for themselves. It was a long expedition and could not be undertaken on foot. But they did not know where to get steeds from. They had tapped all their private resources but without any avail. At last, they came to the Prophet ﷺ to help them out of the difficulty. The Prophet ﷺ had already come to the end of his resources too. And when they met disappointment in that quarter too, their hearts were overwhelmed with grief and that is why, as they dragged their steps along to the capital, two streams of tears could be seen furrowing their cheeks.

This is how the Quran depicts the scene in 9: 92:

” When they came to you (Prophet ﷺ ) so that you might furnish them with conveyances, you told them that you could not get any on which to mount them. Back they turned and as they did so tears flowed from their eyes out of grief that they could not find anything to spend.”

History is still rubbing her eyes at the marvellous phenomenon of the meteoric rise of Islam, being absolutely at a loss to account for it on any known laws of the birth and rise of nations. A nation unknown in the annals of man, as Muir puts it, is quickened, as though at the touch of a magician’s wand, when the Prophetﷺ makes his appearance, and sallies forth on its great adventure till it becomes, in the course of a few decades the builder of an Empire and a civilization, unparalleled in the exploits of man. History is to this day at a loss to make out this most marvellous miracle. But the explanation is not far to seek. It was to such high-spirited sons who, when they were deprived of the opportunity to meet a glorious death in the cause of Truth, wept like so many children – it was to such enterprising sons that Islam owns all the greatness and glory that it achieved in the twinkling of an eye, as it were. It is to such sons again that Islam is looking forward for its renaissance, the dawn of which is already in sight on more than one horizon. Will the Indian youth of Islam listen to that message, yes, the selfsame message that rallied the Faithful on the day of the Tabuk expedition and sent those streams of tears on so many cheeks? The day such streams flow down the cheeks of our young men, when the call of Islam comes to them, will, undoubtedly, be the day of the deliverance of Islam.

Editor.

(December 20, 1928 -THE LIGHT)