Ancient Kings of Arabia by Andrew Crichton

Author:Andrew Crichton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pronoun

Hitherto the credit of Abu Taleb had been the main asylum of the apostle and his followers, and was perhaps the true cause of rescinding the prohibitory edict, after it had subsisted five years. Death deprived him of that support; and within a month this domestic calamity was followed by another,—the loss of Kadijah in her 65th year. The Prophet was inconsolable; for he had always regarded her with ardent and undivided affection. During the five-and-twenty years of their marriage his fidelity was irreproachable; and the rights or feelings of the wife were never insulted by the society of a rival. His tears and praises spoke his sorrow long after she was in the grave; and his excessive encomiums wounded the pride of her successor, the youthful Ayesha. “Was she not old,” said the petulant and blooming daughter of Abu Beker, “and has not God given you a younger and a better in her place?"—"No, truly,” replied the grateful apostle, “there never can be a batter; she believed in me when men despised me. She was generous, and gave me all she possessed, when the world hated and persecuted me”. Misfortunes so distressing and prejudicial to his interests made the Mohammedans commemorate this as the Year of Mourning.

A valuable accession was about the same time received to his flock in a small party of the tribes of Khazraj and Aus, who dwelt at Medina, and had come to Mecca on the usual pilgrimage. The secret motive of their conversion was a hope that their new master was the long-expected Messiah, and would deliver their allies, the Jews, as he had promised, from the vassalage to which they had been so long subjected. On their return these deluded proselytes became enthusiastic in disseminating so welcome a creed among their fellow-citizens.

Miracle of splitting the Moon

Historians, or rather the lovers of the marvelous, have signalized this period of Mohammed’s life with two remarkable events, the absurdity of which might have consigned them to oblivion, had not the gravest of the Moslem doctors maintained their reality. Religion, whether true or false, has usually appealed to the confirmation of miracles. These credentials the impostor himself admitted to be authentic. According to his own doctrine, therefore, the unbelieving Arabs might demand, and they did repeatedly urge him to produce, similar evidence of his mission. Sensible of his weakness, he evaded the force of their objections—appealing to the inimitable composition of the Koran as the greatest of all miracles, and protecting himself by the obscure boast of vision and prophecy.

His votaries, however, were neither so modest nor so ingenious. Of his miraculous gifts they were more confident than he was himself; and much learning has been expended, and innumerable volumes written, to convince the world that his miracles were more numerous than those of all the inspired teachers who had gone before him.

The first of these signal performances was the miracle of the Splitting; alluding to his cleaving the orb of the moon in twain. The Koreish,

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