24 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD"'When Wmar reached him, he asked, "Jamil, do you know that I have
accepted Islam and entered into the faith of Muhammad (SAAS)?"'
"Ibn Wmar went on, 'Well, I swear, he had no sooner told him this than off
he went, his gown trailing. Wmar followed him and I did so too until he stopped
at the mosque gate, where he shouted at the top of his voice, "0 Quraysh!"
(They were there at that time in their chambers around the ka'ba.) "Ibn
al-KhatGb has become a Sabian! "
'"Wmar, standing right behind him, yelled, "He lies! But I have become a
Muslim. I do testify that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the
Messenger of God!"
"'People were most enraged against him and soon he was battling hard against
them, they against him. They kept up this fighting until the sun was high over
their heads.
"'At last he was exhausted and sat down, while they stood all around him. He
told them, "Do what you want! But I swear by God that if we were 300 men
strong, either we'd have left the battlefield to you or you would have to us!"
"'While they were so engaged, a Quraysh sheikh finely dressed in a robe from
Yemen and an embroidered shirt came up and stood there. He asked, "What's
going on with you?"
""'Wmar has become a Sabian," they replied.
"'"So what? If a man chooses to do something, what's it got to do with you?
Do you think his tribe, the Banii 'Adi, will give him over to you like this? Let the
man go!'"
"Ihn Wmar went on, 'And I swear, they drew back like a garment being
stripped from him.'
"'And when my father Wmar went off into exile to Medina, I asked him,
"Father, who was that man who drove the people away from you at Mecca who
was fighting you the day you accepted Islam?''
"'"That, my son." he replied, "was al-'As b. W2il alsahmi'."'"
This chain of authorities is extremely strong. It points to the tardiness of
Wmar's acceptance of Islam. This is because Ibn Wmar fought at Uhud for the
first time, when he was 14. That battle, Uhud, occurred in the year 3 AH. He was
at the age of discrimination on the day his father accepted Islam, an event that
must have occurred some 4 years before the emigration to Medina. And that is
some 9 years after the beginning of the mission of the Prophet (SAAS). But God
knows best.
Al-Bayhaqi said, ''Al*&im related to us, al-Am informed us, quoting Ahmad
b. 'Abd al-Jabbzr, and Yiinus related to us, all from Ibn IshZq, who stated, 'Then
20 men came to the Messenger of God (SAAS) while he was in Mecca, or nearby;
these were Christians, news having spread about him to them from Abyssinia.
They found him at the meeting place and spoke with him and asked him ques-
tions, while the men of Quraysh were in their chambers there around the ka'ba.