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

22 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
addressed Ahraha, saying, '0 king, we are your slaves, fully obedient to you; we
have no dispute with you and this temple of ours is not the one you want.' By
this they meant the temple devoted to the goddess al-Lat. 'What you want is the
building in Mecca; we will send guides to take you there.' So Ahraha passed
them by unmolested."
Ihn Is@q went on, "The temple of d-LXt was one they had there in d-ra'if
that they venerated almost as was the kacba.
"So Thaqif sent with Abraha Ahn Righzl as guide to Mecca. They travelled as
far as al-Mughammis where they made a stop. It was there that Aha Righzl died
and thereafter the Arabs stoned his grave; his grave is the one at al-Mughammis
that people still stone. In the story of Thamiid, Ahti Righd was one of their men
who would seek refuge at the sanctuary but was struck and killed by a stone as he
left it. Once the Messenger of God (SAAS) said to his Companions, 'And the
proof is that he was buried with two branches of gold.' When his grave was
disinterred, they did find them. He was said to he known as Aba Thaqif."
The connection between this and Ibn Ish~q's account is that the name of this
latter Ahii Righzl was the same as that of his ancestor and that the people stoned
his grave just as they did that of the former. But God knows best. Jarir spoke the
verse: "When al-Farazdaq dies, then may people stone his grave like they stoned
Aha Righid's." l1
It seems evident that he was the second.
Ibn Is@q continued: "When Ahraha made a halt at al-Mughammis he sent on
ahead to Mecca one of his Abyssinian men named al-Aswad h. Maq~ad with
some cavalry. He brought to him the possessions of the people of Tihama, from
Quraysh and others; this included 200 camels belonging to 'Ahd al-Mu~alih b.
Bshirn who was at that time the leader and elder of Quraysh. As a result,
Quraysh, Kinwa, and Hudhayl, and all those venerating the kucbu decided to do
battle with Ahraha but abandoned this idea when they learned they had
insufficient power to match hi."
Ahraha then sent Hunzia the Himyarite to Mecca with the following order:
"Find the leader and the most noble of these people. Then tell him that the king
says, 'I have not come to war upon you, hut only to destroy that building (the
kacba). If you do not engage in warfare to prevent our access to it, then I shall have
no need for your blood.' If he does not want war, bring him to me with you."
When Hun%@ entered Mecca he asked after the leader of Quraysh. He was
directed to 'Abd d-Muwib h. H%hm and so passed on Ahraha's message to
him. 'Ahd al-Mu~alih replied, "By God, we do not want war with him and have
not the power for it; this house is God's sacred house and that of His true
follower Abraham, upon whom he peace." He was saying in effect, "If God does
11. Jarir and al-Farazdaq, who lived during the seventh to eighth centuries AD, are remembered
ch~efly for their satlric verses aimed at one another.