16 No god but God
Muhammad and his childhood friend Ibn Haritha were returning
home from Ta’if, where they had slaughtered and roasted a ewe in sac-
rifice to one of the idols (most likely Allat). As the two boys made their
way through the upper part of the Meccan Valley, they suddenly came
upon Zayd, who was either living as a recluse on the high ground
above Mecca or was in the midst of a lengthy spiritual retreat. Recog-
nizing him at once, Muhammad and Ibn Haritha greeted the Hanif
with “the greeting of the Jahiliyyah” (in’am sabahan) and sat down to
rest next to him.
Muhammad asked, “Why do I see you, O son of Amr, hated by
your people?”
“I found them associating divinities with God and I was reluctant
to do the same,” Zayd replied. “I wanted the religion of Abraham.”
Muhammad accepted this explanation without comment and
opened his bag of sacrificed meat. “Eat some of this food, O my
uncle,” he said.
But Zayd reacted with disgust. “Nephew, that is a part of those
sacrifices of yours which you offer to your idols, is it not?” Muham-
mad answered that it was. Zayd became indignant. “I never eat of
these sacrifices and I want nothing to do with them,” he cried. “I am
not one to eat anything slaughtered for a divinity other than God.”
So struck was Muhammad by Zayd’s rebuke that many years later,
when recounting the story, he claimed never again to have “stroked an
idol of theirs nor... sacrifice[d] to them until God honored me with
his Apostleship.”
The notion that a young pagan Muhammad could have been
scolded for his idolatry by a Hanif flies in the face of traditional Mus-
lim views regarding the Prophet’s perpetual monotheistic integrity. It
is a common belief in Islam that even before being called by God,
Muhammad never took part in the pagan rituals of his community. In
his history of the Prophet, al-Tabari states that God kept Muhammad
from ever participating in any pagan rituals, lest he be defiled by
them. But this view, which is reminiscent of the Catholic belief in
Mary’s perpetual virginity, has little basis in either history or scripture.
Not only does the Quran admit that God found Muhammad “erring”
and gave him guidance (93:7), but the ancient traditions clearly show