pains them.
The Long Journey Back Home
The Prophet then set out on his journey back to Makkah. He stopped at Nakhlah, not very far from Makkah. Considering the situation he was in from all angles, he realized that the Quraysh might prevent him from entering Makkah again. Worse, they might kill him or have him locked up. There was only one way out: to seek the protection of one of their notables.
The nature of Arabian tribal society was such that any individual coming into a town or a tribe needed to have an alliance with, or protection from, a man of good standing in that town or tribe. Normally people of such standing would extend their protection to anyone who sought it, because by doing so they enhanced their own standing and reputation. In the case of the Prophet, however, the first two people his messenger approached, al-Akhnas ibn Sharīq and Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, declined. The third, al-Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdiy, responded favourably. He and his children and nephews took up their arms and went to the mosque. He then sent word to the Prophet to enter. The Prophet came up to the mosque and walked round it seven times, guarded by his protectors.9
Abū Jahl, dismayed at the loss of this chance of putting an end to Muhammad, asked al-Muṭʿim: “Are you a follower or a protector?” Al-Muṭʿim confirmed that he was only protecting Muhammad. Abū Jahl then declared that there would be no intervention to threaten such protection.
The Prophet then went home safely. He had learnt, however, a very important lesson: that he must not venture outside Makkah before first completing the necessary groundwork which ensured a good reception for his message and his own safety.
This disappointing trip to Ṭā’if had a profound effect on the Prophet. He was deeply hurt by the hostility of some of those Thaqīf leaders. Several years later, ʿĀ’ishah, his wife, asked the Prophet after the defeat suffered by the Muslims in Uḥud, their second major battle against the Quraysh: “Have you ever gone through a day harder than that of Uḥud?”
He replied: “I have suffered a great deal from your people; but the worst I have been through was on the Day of al-ʿAqabah. I offered myself to ʿAbd Yalīl ibn ʿAbd Kallāl, but he rejected my offer. I left him in a very depressed mood, and I did not come to myself until I reached Qarn al-Thaʿālib. I raised my head to find a cloud over me. I looked up and saw Gabriel (peace be to him) speaking to me: ‘God has heard what reply your people gave you, and He has sent you the angel in charge of the mountains to carry out your orders.’ The angel of the mountains greeted me: ‘God has heard what your people said in reply to you, and He has sent me to you to be at your service. If you wish, I will bring the mountains over their heads, and if you wish, I will cause the earth to swallow them.’ I said to him: ‘No, I hope that God will bring out from their offspring people who worship Him alone and associate no partners with Him’.”10
When the Prophet re-entered Makkah after his disappointing journey to Ṭā’if, he must have felt that he was in a very dire situation. Within the same year he had lost his loving wife and his uncle, who afforded him unwavering support. His attempt to compensate for this dual loss with outside support not only failed to win him anything, but also compelled him to seek the protection of al-Muṭʿim, a Quraysh notable who did not believe in Islam. Muhammad was by now fully aware that he could no longer rely on his own clan, the Hāshimites, for any measure of firm support. He felt himself alone in the whole world. His few followers were no match for the forces opposing him. Yet he firmly believed in the truth of the message he was preaching. His faith in God did not waver.
Comfort on the Way
At this point something unusual happened to him. One night, as the Prophet was asleep in the home of his cousin Umm Hāni’ bint Abī Ṭālib in Makkah, the Angel Gabriel came and woke him up and took him by hand to the mosque, where he found an animal smaller than a mule but slightly bigger than a donkey. The animal, which was a quadruped, also had two wings and floated easily as he moved with unimaginable speed. The Prophet’s own description of his movement was that “he put his foot at the furthest point to his side”.
Together, the Prophet and Gabriel rode the animal, which was called Al-Burāq, a name derived from ‘Barq’, meaning lightning. In no time at all they reached Jerusalem in Palestine. There the Prophet met Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other noble prophets. He led them all in prayer. He was then brought three cups: one contained milk, another contained wine, and the third contained water. He drank the milk. When he had finished, Gabriel said, “You and your nation are rightly guided.”
When they had finished their business in Jerusalem, they flew up to heaven. The Prophet tells us that as they entered each of the seven heavens Gabriel would confirm to its guardian angel that Muhammad had already received his mission. In each heaven he met one or other of the prophets who preached the message of God’s oneness to mankind. Among those mentioned in the authentic accounts of this very special journey were Adam, Jesus, John, Joseph, Moses and Abraham.
He also saw examples of the suffering which would be endured by certain groups of people, as they would be condemned to hell in the hereafter. The description of these groups and their suffering is so vivid that one can almost see them in their plight, yet the suffering was so horrible that one would do anything to escape it.
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