The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

IMAM ABU AL-FIDA' ISMA?L IBN KATH~R 187
such ill-treatment, the man from Zabid approached Ahii Quhays at daybreak,
while Quraysh were in their assemblies around the ka'ba, and called out at the
top of his voice:
"0 heirs of Fihr, there's a man being wronged of his goods, right here in the middle
of Mecca, far from his own home and people.
"A man dishevelled and deprived, who has not completed his pilgrimage; fellow
men, I'm right here at the very heart of the hgr.'
"The sacrosanct is for those whose nobility is complete; there is nothing sacrosanct
for the robe of the immoral and treacherous."
At this arose al-Zuhayr b. 'Abd al-MurtaJib and said, "This matter can't be
ignored."
So the men of Hshim, Zuhra, and Taym h. Murra assembled in the home of
'Abd AIlnh b. Jud%n who prepared food for them. They established their pact in
Dhn al-Qacda, a sacrosanct month, agreeing and swearing by God that they
would act in unison with any wronged person against the wrongdoer until his
rights were fulfilled, for so long as the sea makes wool wet and the mountains
Thabir and Hirn' remain finnly set in their place and that they would comfort
(people) as long as they are alive.
Quraysh named that pact al-fudal, saying, 'LThnse men went into that
matterfifadl, i.e. 'to excess'. Afterwards they walked over to al-'As b. W2il
and took away from him the goods of the man from Zabid and returned them to
him."
Al-Zubayr b. 'Ahd al-Murtalib spoke the following verses about this pact:
"I swore, Let's make a pact against them, though we're ail members of one tribe.
We'll call it al-fdfit if we make a pact by it the stranger could overcome those
under local protection,
And those who go around the ka'ba will know that we reject injustice and will
prevent all things shameful."
Al-Zubayr also spoke the following:
"Al-fufil made a pact and alliance that no evildoer shall dwell in Mecca's heart.
This was a matter they firmly agreed and so the protected neighhour and the
unprotected stranger are safe among them."
@sim b. Thnbit related, in a curious hadith that, "A man of Khathh came
to Mecca either as a pilgrim or to perform the 'urnra (the 'minor pilgrimage'),
and brought with him a daughter of his named al-Qatiil, an exceedingly modest
girl. But Nabih b. al-Hajj2j seized her and took her away from him. So the man
of Khath'am said, 'Who will help me against this man?' He was advised to
invoke the pact of al-fudsl.
66 The space on the north-west side of the ka'ba enclosed by the curved wall, the hanm.