The Day of Mercy

The desert morning was quiet.

Thousands of white tents shone in the rising sun, of the hills about Makkah.

The Prophet Muhammad, the Muslim saint, had come back after years of exile, persecution and struggle not as a fugitive, but as a conqueror.

None, though, was the trumpet of war, the flag of conquest.

Silence followed, interrupted by the mellow trifling recitation of SubhanAllah, by the wind.

It was the sixth century and thirty years later he found himself in front of the gates of the city which, ten years ago, cast him out.

The Prophet {Silla Llahu Alayhi WaSallam} was riding on his camel, Qaswa, his head was so much bent that it seemed his beard almost rested on the saddle.

His eyes were full of gratitude and humility and not of pride.

Behind him went ten thousand believers, whose hearts were too hard to beat with anger, but with awe. They had become the powerless and oppressed, displaced out of their residences and now with the will of Allah had come back in harmony.

The Prophet {Silla Llahu Alayhi WaSallam} issued his first order when they entered Makkah:

Keep no one who lays his arms, keep no one, of those who lay down their arms.

Whoever steps into the house of Abu Sufyan you are on the safe side.

Who is left at his home is safe.

Whosenaver enters the Sacred Mosque is safe.

The Quraysh tribe, who had slandered him, beaten him and murdered his supporters, stood back on their doors now. They were afraid because they understood what most of the conquerors did when they were victorious.

But Muhammad Salla Llahu Alayhi WaSallam was not any other man.

Entering the city, he directly walked to Kaaba, the House of Allah, the same house, where his grandfather Ibrahim (AS) had put the first foundations of monotheism.

It had 360 idols around it, of stone and wood, dumb witnesses of centuries of the false worship.

The Prophet {Salla Llahu Alayhi WaSallam} took his staff and touched every idol saying:

Truth has come, and falsehood has disappeared.

Yes, lies must die indeed dead.<|human|>But falsehood lives must die indeed dead. (Qur'an 17:81)

One word dropped the idols--then another--then another--then another--then another--until the Kaaba was clean once more and was a house with only in it the memory of Allah.

There was no breeze and the crowd stood staring in astonishment.

This was no revenge. This was restoration.

At that, amidst their accomplices in his murder, the Prophet {Silla Llahu Alayhi WaSallam} was at the Kaaba steps.

The city that had at a stroke sent away him hearkened inwardly.

He gazed over the faces, men and women who had been at one time flingers of the stone, and who had at one time sworn at him, and killed his friends.

And then he asked:

Wham zaka yazida Qurayshani O sinners of Quraysh, what shall I do with you to-day?

They prostrated themselves, and added, You are a good brother, a son of a good brother. Eschew but good We expect from you.

Ahead he stopped--and uttered these words that would live to be repeated in all history:

Say unto thy brethren, I say unto thee, as Yusuf (Joseph) said to them, Thou shalt be as numerous as the stars:

Today shall blame no one of thy.

Go -- for you are all free."

Long silence was to follow,--a weeping.

Broken-hearted hearts were becoming open.

Men who had fought him for many years, such as Abu Sufyan height and Hind bint Utbah and Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl, came on, trembling, and converted to Islam.

The city once burnt with pride was now humbly bowing its head in religion.

Makkah had never been as peaceful as it was for generations.

It was on the same night that the Prophet {Silla Llahu Alayhi WaSallam} was standing on the Kaaba with a sky full of stars.

He did pray till dawn, weeping, with thanksgiving to Allah that He gave him no success in arms, but by mercy.

It is that he had gone to purify hearts, not stone walls.

And when the day began with the adhan round the city--the earliest Allahu Akbar swelling above the mountains of Makkah--it was not the voice of its conquering.

but the sound of forgiveness.

When the people remembered that day years later they did not talk of armies and weapons.

They talked of the Prophet who spared execution to his adversaries when he could have killed them.

They were referring to the man who demonstrated that it is not about the defeated person/people that one needs triumph over, but oneself.

On that day, Makkah was conquered by mercy.

And the world came to know the real power of forgiveness,

not vengeance.