The Prophet dismounted the camel just outside Madina and sat...

The Prophet dismounted the camel just outside Madina and sat down under a date tree. People rushed forward to greet and welcome him to their city. He was Ioved by all and everyone was keen to salute him. After the traditional welcome ceremony, the Prophet mounted his camel to enter the holy city. All around, there were expressions of great joy.

The children got together and in loud voices chanted the following welcoming poem: - "TALA-AL BADRU ALAINA MIN THANAYATIL WADAI WAJABAS-SHUKRU ALAINA MA DA'A - LLAHA DAI" "The full moon is shining on us from the area of gardens. We must offer thanks (to Allah) so long as anyone prays before Allah" "AYYUHAL MAB-UTHU FIINA JE'TA BIL AMRIL MUTAI JE'TA SHAR-RAFTAL MADINA MARHABAN YA KHAIRA DAI" "O The one sent to us, you have come with commands which we shall obey.

You came and graced Madina, we salute and welcome you, 'O' the best caller (towards Allah)" It was hardly three years since the people of Madina had embraced Islam and had started to worship Allah. The young boys in the city were given a job to eradicate the worship of idols. Wherever they saw an idol, they destroyed it and set fire to it. One day, the youths came to know that Omar bin Janah, the chief of Barti Salma tribe, had still preserved his idol and worshipped it.

In order to impress upon him the uselessness of worshipping an idol made of wood, they removed it from his place and threw it down a pit. The Chief, on tracing the idol to where it was lying, brought it back, washed it and kept it in its original place. But the next day again it was removed and thrown into the pit. The Chief was very much disturbed at this. For the last time he brought home this idol and cleaned it.

He then put his sword around its neck and said to the idol: "If henceforth anybody comes to you, promptly take action and kill him with the sword." On the next day, the idol was again missing. This time he found it tied to a dead body of a dog. There was no effect at all of the sword which he had tied around the neck of the idol. This incident made him lose faith in his man-made wooden idol. He abandoned the idol-worship altogether. On becoming a Muslim, he uttered a poem as under: "Alas!

O'my idol! If you were my god, you would not have reached this stage and I would not have seen you in the pit along with a dead dog. I have now put my faith in the Almighty Allah, from Whom come all blessings.