28 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD"Their purpose in all this was to spill the blood of the Messenger of God
(SAAS).
"When it was bed time, Abn T&h would tell the Messenger of God (SAAS)
to sleep on the former's bed, and he would do the same, the intent being that
anyone wishing to harm or assassinate him would he unaware of this. And while
people slept, Abn Talib made sure that one of his sons, brothers or nephews
would lie on the bed of the Messenger of God (SAAS), and he would tell the
latter to take their places instead.""At the start of the third year certain men of the tribes of 'Abd Manaf and
Qusayy, along with others whose mothers were from the Bann Hzshim, became
critical of this and recognized that they were breaking the bonds of kimship and
disregarding what was right. They therefore decided one night to revoke what
they had previously agreed to, and to free themselves thereof.
"They discovered, however, that God had dispatched woodworm to attack
their documents; they devoured everything making reference to their pact.
"It is said that these documents were hung from the ceiling of the temple.
Every reference to God's name was devoured; all that remained was material
relating to polytheism, injustice and destruction of ties of kindred.
"God, the Almighty and Glorious, made His messenger aware of what He had
done to their documents, and the Messenger of God (SAAS) told this to Abii Tdib.
"But Aba Tnlib responded, 'No! May the stars never mislead me!'
"He then hurried off with a band of the Banii 'Abd al-Munalib and went to
the mosque which was full of Quraysh. When the latter saw them heading for
them they were surprised, believing them to he doing so because of the extent of
their suffering and that they were coming to deliver the Messenger of God
(SAAS) to them.
"Ahn Talih spoke to them as follows: 'Various things we don't need to tell you
of have occurred between you. Bring now your deeds referring to the pacts you
have made; perhaps now there can be peace between us all.'
"The reason he said this was because he was afraid they might look at the
deeds before bringing them.
"They did now bring them down, proud of them and not doubting that the
Messenger of God (SAAS) was to be delivered to them. They placed them
down, saying, 'Well, the time has come for you to proceed to a reconciliation
with your people. Only one man has caused this rupture between us. You have
placed him in a position where he has brought the danger of destruction and
corruption to your people.'
"Abii Tdib responded, 'I have only come to you now to offer you justice. My
nephew has informed me - and he never lied to me - that God will have no part
of that document there before you and that He has erased all of His names from
it, leaving only references to your treachery, your breaking of the bonds of kin-
ship and your unjust public demonstrations against us.