The clan of Hashim
then felt safe enough to emerge from their quarter and once more mingle with
the people. This was in the tenth year of the noble prophethood, circa 620 CE.
It was less than six
months after the end of this trial when Abu Talib passed away. Then the
Prophet's wife Lady Khadijah also died only three days after Abu Talib
according to some accounts. The Messenger of Allah was very saddened and named
this year the 'Year of Sorrow'.
The loss of Abu Talib
and Lady Khadijah dealt a severe blow to the Prophet at a time when he needed
these two most. The death of Abu Talib cleared the last hurdle for the Quraysh,
and if the presence of Abu Talib imposed certain limits and drew some red lines
for the Quraysh that they could not cross, now his death left them free to do
to the Prophet what was the unthinkable while Abu Talib was alive.
With the death of Abu
Talib, the trials meted out by his tribe to the Messenger of Allah grew more
barbaric and audacious. Once when the Prophet was praying by the Kabah, one of
the idolaters approached and violently tried to strangle him.
The Quraysh encouraged
the foolish to throw dirt on the Prophet's face and head. They used to throw
filth, blood and thorns at his door. Ummayah ibn Khalaf used to insult the
Prophet until his face became red but still the Prophet would not say anything
to him. When a fool threw the dirt in the face of the Messenger of Allah, he
entered his house with the dirt still on his head. Fatimah began to clean the
dirt from his head. She was crying and the Messenger of Allah saying: “Do not
cry my daughter, for Allah will protect your father.” He also said: “The
Quraysh could not harm me until Abu Talib died.”
It is related from
Khabab who said: 'I approached the Prophet when he was reclining in the shade
of the Kabah. This was after we had received some harm from the Polytheists. I
said to him: “O Messenger of Allah, will you not invoke Allah?” He sat up red
in face and said: “Among those who came before you, there were those whose
skins would be scraped off with combs of iron down to the bone and this did not
divert them from their religion. Allah will complete this matter until a rider
may travel from Sana to Hadralmaut with nothing to fear but the wolf getting to
his sheep.'
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