In the great revolution which Muhammad...

In the great revolution which Muhammad, the Apostle of God, had launched at the feast of Dhul-‘Asheera, he had mobilized the dynamism, and idealism, and the fervor and vigor of youth; Ali personified them all. Two things had happened at the Feast. One was that the Prophet had brought Islam out in the open. Islam was no longer an “under-ground” movement; it had “surfaced.” At the feast of his kinsfolk, Muhammad had “crossed the Rubicon” and now there could be no turning back.

Time had come for him to carry the message of Islam beyond his own clan, first to the Quraysh of Makkah, then to all the Arabs, and finally, to the rest of the world. The other was that he had found Ali who was the embodiment of courage, devotion and resolution, and was worth far more than a thousand sabers.

It is reported that some days after the second banquet of Dhul-‘Asheera, Muhammad climbed up the hill of Safa near Kaaba, and called out: “O sons of Fehr, O sons of Loi, O sons of Adi, and all the rest of Quraysh! Come hither, and listen to me. I have something very important to tell you.” Many of those Meccans who heard his voice, came to listen to him.

Addressing them, he said: “Will you believe me if I were to tell you that an army was hidden behind yonder hills, and was watching you to attack you as soon as it found you off-guard?” They said they would believe him because they had never heard him tell a lie. “If that’s so,” said Muhammad, “then listen to this with attention. The Lord of the Heavens and earth has commanded me to warn you of the dreadful time that is coming.

But if you pay heed, you can save yourselves from perdition…” He had gone only as far as this when Abu Lahab, who was present among the listeners, interrupted him again by saying: “Death to you. Did you waste our time to tell us only this? We do not want to hear you. Do not call us again.” Thenceforth, Abu Lahab made it a practice to shadow the Prophet wherever the latter went. If he started to read the Qur’an or to say something else, he (Abu Lahab) interrupted him or started heckling him.

Abu Lahab’s hatred of Muhammad and Islam was shared by his wife, Umm Jameel. Both of them were the recipients of the curse of God in Al-Qur’an al-Majid (6). NOTES: _______________________________ The Life of Mohammed The Jew the Gypsy and El Islam, San Francisco, 1898 chapter 26; verse 214 As Follow: a) Tabari, History, Vol. II,p. 217 b) Kamil ibn Atheer, History, Vol. II, p. 22 c) Abul Fida,History, Vol. I, p.