Moral Pattern Par Excellence (Part 8)

A Rock of Faith that Stood Unruffled in the Face of Death

The culminating point, in the fiery ordeal to which the Prophet’s ﷺ faith in God was put through thirteen long years of persecution during the Makkah period of his mission was reached when his opponents decided to make a concerted assault on his life and be finished with him once for all. It was at this juncture that the green signal from God came to him to migrate to Medina. The incident how the Prophet ﷺ made Ali sleep in his bed on the fateful night of the projected assault has been described in an earlier instalment. When God would keep safe no human machinations can harm. The Quraish were feeling satisfied that they had at last got at the Prophet ﷺ. His house was closely surrounded by armed men from all the clans, so that the moment he came out in the morning, they would fall upon him in a body and make short work of him. But God had willed otherwise. Ali’s lying down in his bed deluded the besiegers that their prey was securely in their hands. Thus, pulled into self-complacency, the Prophet ﷺ managed to quietly slip out of their tight ring without being noticed. Another bosom friend of his, Abu Bakr, was to play as vital a role in this critical juncture as did Ali in lying down in the Prophet’s bed at the risk of his own life. He was to bear the Prophet’s company on the fateful dash for Medina. Escaping from the tight grip of the murderous gang, the Prophet ﷺ made for the rendezvous already fixed with Abu Bakr, where he found his friend waiting for him with a camel.

The two thus made good their escape, and took shelter in a cave a few miles away, waiting for an opportunity to start on the long hazardous trek towards Medina. The Quraish on their side, were taken by consternation when at daybreak, they discovered that their prey had slipped through their fingers. Forthwith chase-parties were despatched in all directions, and a price on the Prophet’s head, dead or alive, was announced.

Thus, it was that a stage was set for the display of the Prophet’s unwavering faith in God’s sovereignty and protection in moments when his very life hung by a slender thread. One of the chase-parties, it so happened, tracking the footprints of fugitives, reached the very mouth of the cave where the two lay hiding. Describing the situation subsequently, Abu Bakr said that the pursuers were standing at so close to them that had they just cast a glance at their own feet, they would have seen them. But this was not to be. God fulfils Himself in strange ways. A spider had woven its web over the cave’s mouth, after the entry of the Prophet ﷺ and his companion. This slender framework that could be blown of with a puff of wind from the mouth served as a steel wall which the pursuers could not penetrate. While God’s planning was thus outwitting the pursuers, inside the cave was enacting a scene the most sensational in the annals of human adventures. Seeing the pursuit-party standing right over their heads Abu Bakr thought the worst had come to the worst, and it was only a matter of a moment or so when the enemies hands would be on them. He held the Prophet’s life dearer than his own, and that was what filled him with apprehensions. The Prophet ﷺ could not but see how his friend’s mind was agitated. And promptly came the consoling words:

لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَنَا

(At-Tauba (The Repentance) 9:40)

Don’t worry! Rest assured God is with us!

This calm composure in the face of sure death was born of the deep-rooted faith the Prophet ﷺ had in the almightiness of God, in the righteousness of his cause, and in the fact that God would never fail him, no matter if to all human calculation his very life seemed to hang in the balance. The blood-thirsty men with swords slung over their shoulders had almost got at him. Just one moment more, and all would be finished. That was the situation, humanly speaking. But the Prophet’s way of looking at things was different. He had the gifted vision to see that nothing happened in the world except with the will of God. That is what made his heart firm like a rock in the most tense situations of life. In this particular situation, only a frail fine-spun spider web stood between him and the enemy’s sword. But his heart was steeled by his conviction in the all-Controlling hand of God, and his never-failing succour to fighters in His cause.

M.Y.K.

(The Light – January 16, 1959)