Coming H/Jm~ 171were ada mant: the three nights were over, and the pilgrim s were to leave
the city according to the terms of the treaty signed a year earlier. T he
Prophet complied: he forbade his Companions to say anything inappro-
priate about the Quraysh and promptly left Mecca for Medina. By marry-
ing the "\vidow Maymunah, the Prophet also established a kinship rela-
tionship with his fierce opponents the Makhzum, who were henceforth
bound to him.
When the Prophet was back in 11edina and daily life had resumed its
course, he heard of the unexpected arrival of three men who had met on
the way and who were arriving together to meet him, Uthman ibn Talhah,
Khalid ibn al-Walid , and Amr ibn ai -As were all coming to convert to
Islam and pledge allegiance to the P rophet, whom they had fought so
fiercely for so many years. The Prophet was very happy about that, and so
were all the Companions, who were aware of the three men's qualities:
their commitment was sincere and unreserved, and the future was not to
disappoint them, as it was to be strewn with success. Those conversions,
like Abu Hurayrah's some time before, were pregnant with teachings, for
not only was the past of Islam's worst enemies forgotten as soon as they
recognized God's oneness, but the time these people had needed in order
to follo\,-' the path of this recognition said nothing about their sincerity,
their moral gualities, and their future status within the community of faith.
After being hostile to the Prophet and his message for almost twenty years,
they had undergone a profound conversion, and during the last (\VD years
of the Prophet's life they were to become epitomes of faith, self-abnegation,
and integrity for the Companions as well as for all Muslims through the
ages. Thus faith~its intensity and its power to convert and transform
hearts--::annot be measured on the basis of time or rationality; its very sin-
cerity and intensity attest to its nature, and this is why a recent convert can
attain a deeper, more complete inner illumination than someone else can
teach after years of religious practice. The opposite is also true, and again,
this reguires people to refrain from judging others' hearts.MutahA few months later the Prophet decided to send envoys to the north, to
ensure the solidity of existing alliances and the ability of Muslims to travel