No, by Al-Lat and Al-Uzza.
"All that lives on it perishes;"
"but forever will remain the face of your Lord, full of majesty, granting grace."
"Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?"
"Everyone in heaven and earth entreats Him."
"Every day He manifests Himself in some wonderful way."
"Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?"
This is what we feared for you.
Those enemies of God never seemed so weak in my eyes.
If you like, I will do the same tomorrow.
No. You have done enough.
What troubles you today?
The people have lost their manners.
Which of them?
There are two peoples nowadays in Makkah.
I wish I could fault Muhammad's companions
in the same way as I fault our people.
When they are beaten up, they are patient.
When they are abused and reviled, they only reply with a greeting of peace.
The weak among them has become strong,
and the strong compassionate.
As for us, the strong among us are unjust to the weak,
and the weak scheme against the strong,
or flatter them to spare themselves harm or to gain something.
They are compassionate to one another,
and their rich help their poor.
Abu Bakr, Uthman, Musab Ibn Umair and Abu Hudhaifah Ibn Utbah
are equal to Bilal, Suhaib, and Salim, Abu Hudhaifah's former slave.
We, on the other hand, are classes: noble and low.
Even our nobility are of different classes.
How can such people be successful?
Today, I saw them severely beating up Ibn Umm Abd,
who has no clan to protect him,
because he recited a passage of the Qur'an in front of them.
And did you hear his recitation, brother?
I left them. I won't join them in such a thing.
But you beat people up, as they do.
If I do, then I only beat up those of my people over whom I have an authority.
I do not choose only the weaker elements,
or show my strength to one who has no support.
What has Muhammad done to us?
That's Muhammad.
It is all his doing, all these troubles he has caused us.
Would that I go and kill him with my sword,
then go to the Hashimites and surrender myself to them to kill me.
Just a man for a man.
Then Makkah will revert to its previous life.
This is not something you do, brother.
You will shed pure blood for no offence.
He has not thrown a small pebble at you,
nor waved a stick to your face,
nor said a word of abuse to you.
Shedding the blood of two people is much better than the killing of many.
I save my people with such an act.
Put such thoughts out of your mind, Umar.
By God, I never allowed my being older than you affect the way I look at you.
I let you have precedence over me, and you are worthy of that.
I am not flattering you, so listen to me.
Only now I say that I am older, and that certain rights are due to me.
God forbid that you should listen to such black thoughts.
You will then be the most wretched person.
You have just mentioned how Muhammad and his companions have morals.
You were both right and fair.
Follow, then, your good nature,
because it will lead you to the right way.
He gets close, but then moves away. Till when?
Muhammad is at the Kaabah performing his prayer in front of you,
and Abu Bakr is standing beside him while you are sitting here uninterested!
Go back! Go back in peace.
Will you assault a man for merely saying: My Lord is God?
The Hashimites will soon hear of what you are doing
and this could lead to many killings.
True. Therefore, tell your friend to leave and not to affront us with this sight.
I am not one to order him when he is God's messenger.
He informs us of what God wants
and we say: We listen and we obey.
Then you will be first.
No one has spoilt our sons and our slaves as you did.
Call against us Taim, your clan.
What have these idiots done to my son?
By God, he is the refuge of orphans, widows and the poor.
Taim has never known a man who is kinder and more dutiful than him.
How could they do this to him?
We will do to them what is worse.
Say something, son.
He hasn't spoken since they brought him.
It is evening now and I fear...
He is moving his lips. Say something, son. Say...
What happened to God's messenger?
We are here to look after you and you ask about Muhammad.
What is he to us?
We support you because you are our blood relation.
Leave me alone.
Try to give him something to eat or drink.
What happened to God's messenger?
By God, I have no knowledge of your friend.
Go to Umm Jameel Bint Al-Khattab.
Why should I?
My son, Abu Bakr, sent me to ask you about Muhammad Ibn Abdullah.
I know neither Abu Bakr nor Muhammad Ibn Abdullah.
If you like, I could come with you to see your son.
By God, the people who did this to you are wicked unbelievers.
I hope that God will punish them for what they did.
And you too follow Muhammad's religion?
What happened to God's messenger?
Here is your mother listening.
You need not worry about her.
God's messenger is safe and sound.
- Where is he? - At Al-Arqam's home.
By God, I won't eat or drink anything until I have seen God's messenger.
Be patient, Abu Bakr, until things are quiet
and people's movement has calmed down.
We can then take you to him.
Your pain will probably have abated a little.
- Who is it? - It's Abu Bakr.
Everything may be sacrificed for your sake.
Nothing is wrong with me,
except for what the wicked man, Utbah, has done to my face...
Here is my mother who is taking good care of her son.
You are certainly blessed.
So, call on her to believe and pray God for her.
May be with your prayer God will save her from hell.
Come in, mother.
I bear witness that there is no deity other than God,
and I bear witness that you are God's messenger.
And you have done it, father,
when you are the wisest of all those people?
Or did the evil man, Abu Jahl, goad you and you wanted to match him?
Enough. Don't speak to your father in such a way, you deserter.
I am more dutiful to my father than you.
I call on him to follow divine guidance
and you want him to persist with falsehood and with what is contrary to integrity.
Abu Bakr? Abu Bakr, father?
He is the most polite, the best mannered and the kindest of people,
and you hit him with your shoes on his face until it is unrecognizable?
And then I hear my companions saying:
What has the transgressor, Utbah, done to him?
May God cut their tongues, and take away your hearing
so that you won't hear them speaking ill of your father
without shutting them up.
Have you lost all care for your father?
By God, I was vacillating between care for my father,
hating that he should do an evil act to invite criticism,
and caring for our most respected brother and companion, Abu Bakr,
who has been badly wronged by my father.
You have gone too far you deserter...
Enough!
I did what I did. I neither take pride in it nor regret it.
I had advised my people to leave Muhammad alone
and to let him advocate his message.
If the Arabs kill him, they would have done the job for us,
and if he wins, his glory will rub on us.
They took no heed of my advice.
Ultimately, I am one of my people.
Even though they may be in error.
To me, the biggest error is to desert the community,
just like a camel moving away from his flock.
You... You, Abu Hudhaifah,
have deserted your father's community.
It behoved me to do to you what others have done to their sons
who deserted their fathers' religion:
they imprisoned and starved them and they beat them up.
You had better done the same!
Yet I have spared you that, until people shamed me.
I heard what I disliked on your account.
Abu Jahl! Lost are the people who follow his lead.
Now you want to judge your father?
God will judge between us in our quarrel.
No power operates except by His will.
Why do you go to this trouble for us, Al-Waleed?
I don't know... perhaps because we are all relatives!
But blood relation has not stopped our brother, Abu Al-Hakam,
from doing to us what you see.
Just because I took pity on them, considering that they are my relatives?
- Is it only taking pity? - What else?
You can't be more compassionate to them than their brother.
Abu Al-Hakam?
But he gives them food and drink.
Only enough to keep them alive, and prolong their suffering.
Why do you get yourself involved in their business?
Stop it, Khalid.
You cannot order me about when our father is alive.
Al-Waleed, you've done badly although you wished to do well.
Kindness to undeserving people is foolish.
These two men have abandoned our religion.
But they continue to belong to us.
They don't see themselves as such.
When asked, they will say that they belong to Islam.
They say the same as all Muhammad's companions say:
that God has replaced their jahiliyyah affiliation with the bond of Islam.
They disown their fathers, brothers and clans who don't follow their religion,
placing before them people like Suhaib, Bilal and Salim.
They say these are their brothers.
Father, they don't disown their families and clans;
they only disown their religion and actions.
They discard tribal bigotry and acclaim kindness to kinsfolk.
You speak like them... You say jahiliyyah.
I am only quoting their words and meanings.
They do acclaim rightful kindness to kindred.
They started advocating their religion within their clans
only because they have a stronger claim to their kindness.
They discard the principle advocated by our poet who says:
"I am only one of the tribe of Ghuzayyah:"
"if my tribe err, I err with them; and if they do right, I likewise do right."
According to their religion, this principle is based on ignorance.
What should bring people together are right and justice.
I even heard some of them say that God's messenger has ordered them
to support their brethren whether they are oppressors or oppressed.
Supporting the oppressed is well known,
but supporting the oppressor means to stop him from doing injustice.
Now you, wise men, tell me: which principle is better?
Have you heard all this from Salamah and Ayyash?
By God, you speak just like them.
I fear that similarity of speech heralds similarity of minds.
Al-Waleed, have you become a Muslim?
I haven't, but I am being fair.
I admire their wisdom and morality, as well as justice and kindness.
As for a world beyond, heaven and hell...
I am still not convinced.
Make sure to remain unconvinced.
Now, go to Abu Al-Hakam and apologize.
Would I apologize for feeding his two brothers,
and taking pity on them after what he did to them?
By God, I will not. I will never do.
Leave him alone, Khalid.
Don't make him more stubborn,
for you will then make him lean more towards his two friends.
Abdullah Ibn Suhail?
What brings you out here alone in the middle of the night?
Why are you out yourself?
I had some unpleasant feelings,
and I thought I would relax by looking at the sky and the stars.
So, we came out for the same reason.
Are you worried?
What worries you?
Umar, can anyone live with two hearts:
one for himself and one for others?
Should we obey our fathers and disobey our hearts?
Wow! Are you thinking about Islam?
If it is Islam that you are thinking about,
and you follow your mind, declare yourself a Muslim
and withstand the consequences,
you will be my opponent who wins my respect and admiration.
If you prefer cowardice and safety to what you believe in,
you will be my ally but I look at you with contempt.
Therefore, I don't know what advice to give you.
Yes, Ibn Al-Khattab. You have indeed.
I appeal to you by God, Abdullah... not now.
What secret is between you two?
- Abdullah! - What's the matter?
Father, would it please you to discover that your son
- is a double-faced lackey? - No, by Al-Lat and Al-Uzza.
Would it please you if he is a coward
putting up an appearance that is different from what he believes?
No, by Al-Lat and Al-Uzza.
Who is better in your view:
a brave opponent who is a man of honour and integrity,
or a cowardly follower who is devoid of integrity?
Definitely the first,
but better than both is a brave ally of integrity.
What makes you ask such questions?
Then I would like you to know, father, that I am a Muslim.
I follow Muhammad and I disbelieve in Al-Lat and Al-Uzza.
Have you done that, Abdullah?
I will kill you.
No, you won't, father.
If you do, you won't get a penny from me.
What is with God is better and longer lasting.
I will put your legs in chains; I will indeed.
Don't try, father.
You won't succeed. You will have to bear its stigma.
Be gone with you, deserter. I disown you.
You are no longer my son. Get out!
Abu Jandal!
If you have disowned him, I haven't. He is my brother.
How about you?
Has he tricked you to join him in his religion?
You haven't answered.
Father, wouldn't it have been better that you ask me
whether I accepted his religion by personal choice,
instead of saying that he tricked me to join him.
Am I a lackey who has no opinion?
Had I been, I would rather obey my father.
True. It is better that you obey your father.
Do I have to obey one of you? What about myself?
Yes, where do you stand?
I haven't become a Muslim; yet!
What have you said? Not yet?
Who can vow for the future, father?
Who knows; you may change your mind one day and accept Islam.
Do not say today what you may regret tomorrow.
I won't change, even if the whole of Quraysh changes.
If I have nothing other than tree branches,
I will still use that to fight Muhammad and his companions,
in defence of my religion and my gods.
Good morning, Abu Al-Waleed.
Good morning to you, Umar.
What makes you in haste?
Have you heard that Muhammad has permitted his companions
to immigrate to Abyssinia?
What could he be after?
Won't you get fed up, woman?
How many times have I said to you...
Yes, until you get your freedom.
Have you never thought of me, Wahshi?
What about me? Huh!
Suppose you won't get your freedom for ten years, or twenty:
where will I be then?
Nay, suppose you get it within a year.
What about me?
Will my master free me for your sake?
We take things as they come.
All I know now is that a person who doesn't own his soul
cannot give it to another.
As for me, I am happy to have you in whichever state you are.
Wahshi, here is something which is the sole property of its bearer.
He does with it whatever he wants:
he loves whomever he wants and hates whomever he wants.
Look at you:
isn't it by your heart that you hate your slavery?
Did you take your master's permission?
If you can hate your lot with your heart,
you can love whomever you want with it.
This is what Bilal understood while you still can't.
Don't mention him to me.
It is then as people say:
Muhammad has grieved for what is happening to his companions
and the suffering of those who are vulnerable,
while he is spared, protected by the Hashimite clan.
He, therefore, has permitted anyone who so wishes to immigrate to Abyssinia.
Well, what makes you leave,
when your father is the chief of his people
and he has protected you, sparing you all harm?
It is harmful, father, that I see my companions suffering
and I cannot do anything to defend them.
It is harmful, father, to live with you with mutual dislike.
We are among you but don't belong to you.
It is harmful, father, that I see my father heading for hell
and cannot do anything to save him from it.
Besides, I do not wish to embarrass you further among your people
who shame you for protecting me.
Just as they shame me when you are with us,
they will still shame me after your departure.
How is that?
They will say, Utbah Ibn Rabeeah, the chief of his people,
has not been able to protect his son.
He let him head to a country where he may well be lost and humiliated.
Or, as God's messenger has described it: a land where truth prevails,
ruled by a king who ensures justice to all.
Has he truly said this of Abyssinia and Negus?
Muhammad has taken a share of our own children.
Yes, indeed, he has. In doing so, he has split our hearts
so that we are compassionate to them with half our hearts
and we quarrel with them with the other half.
They have chosen to leave us, and this is certainly what we love.
It is indeed "good riddance".
I wish none of them would remain with us.
If they do, they will spare us having to torture them and spare us their disgrace.
They won't tempt away anyone who continues to follow our religion.
Is there any more hateful sight
than seeing them offering their prayers among us?
Let them go to Abyssinia.
By Al-Lat, they will go to their death,
even though they don't perceive it.
How is that, Abu Al-Hakam?
The king and the people of Abyssinia
have a religion which is different from that of Muhammad.
They have a holy book, churches and cardinals.
If we can't tolerate the religion of these people
when they are our own blood relations,
will the Abyssinians tolerate them?
No, they will not
Will you, Abu Al-Hakam, be pleased
if your own people are killed by strangers in a far away land?
Should this happen, it will be to our everlasting disgrace.
There is nothing shameful when a person is killed by his own people,
but when he is killed by strangers, then that is disgraceful.
Even if they have deserted our religion?
Even then. We better keep them, for better or worse.
We heard nothing from you today.
- I had nothing to say. - You are not your usual self.
Have you known a situation like the one we are in?
The best that can be said of us is that we know what we don't want.
Muhammad, on the other hand, takes action
and leaves us confused, disagreeing on what to do.
We know that we don't want Muhammad's religion,
but we don't know what to do.
We increased the persecution of our people and their numbers increased.
Their weak firmly resisted us and our strong ones weakened.
Should we prevent them from immigrating to Abyssinia?
Why, when we would love to see them disappear?
Should we let them go?
Then the Arabs will be sympathetic to them and shame us on their account.
Do we wish them to perish in Abyssinia?
Then people will say that we have sacrificed our own children,
leaving them to die in a far away land where they were humiliated.
Do we hope that Negus will be kind to them?
Then the Arabs will say that we have terrified our own sons
while strangers provided them with security.
Besides, if they enjoy security there,
they will have taken their faith to a peaceful place.
They will advocate it so that it wins followers among Arabs and non-Arabs,
while it used to be confined here in this city, between these two mountains.
By Al-Lat, Muhammad has only sent them there for this purpose.
You are right, Umar...
If they live in peace there and their numbers increase,
they will be the reserves for his message.
If he has to fight here against us or against other Arabs,
and we kill many of his companions,
the ones in Abyssinia will be safe, giving him support.
His message will then move on.
Just like a wise commander would hold back some of his troops in reserve.
If the enemy puts a hard fight, tiring out his front forces,
he can call on those in the back who have retained their strength.
That's it.
Do you see now how Muhammad is looking to the future and taking suitable measures,
while our people don't look beyond their noses?
They remain confused.
I don't know what you are saying.
Do you say all this about these people's immigration?
All we know is that they are fleeing persecution.
By Al-Lat, all you have done is to praise Muhammad's strategy
and criticize your elders.
You are half way to victory
if you know your adversary better than you know yourself.
Bilal!
You have changed much, Bilal!
- All praise is due to God. - Wait a moment!
What's it?
What's it with you, forgetting your friends.
My friends are those who believe in God and His messenger.
Your faith has benefited you, Bilal.
From the very first moment.
How does freedom feel, Bilal?
Only a person who has faith can appreciate its sweet feeling.
- This is not what I meant. - But it is what I mean.
My feelings now are the same as when I first became a Muslim.
It is something that starts here, Wahshi.
It then travels to your organs.
It is something that you choose by yourself.
You make it yourself. No one else gives it to you.
What brings you here now when you have no job on your hands?
I call on anyone I meet to believe in God.
You call on Arabs to believe in your religion?
Isn't it enough for you to be safe from them, now that you are free?
How would I show my gratitude to God for guiding me aright,
unless I try to get others to have the same goodness I am enjoying?
Bilal! This immigration to Abyssinia, the land of our forefathers: are...
No, I am not immigrating.
Why not? Arabs are immigrating, and you, an Abyssinian, stay here?
No, I don't think you'll ever understand.
My people are here... here, Wahshi.
Islam has made me one of them:
I share their faith, language, worries and aims.
Here I live and here I die.
Should Abyssinia try to invade the land of the Haram, the Arabs and the Muslims,
I will be fighting alongside my Arab brothers as they never saw me fighting before.
Perhaps it is as you say: I will never understand this.
Is he intent on leaving?
Why would he when I have neither beaten him up nor imprisoned him?
I wish I had imprisoned him.
He wouldn't have been able to immigrate.
Let him go wherever he wants.
I don't care if he is drowned or eaten by beasts.
Abdullah!
Do you really want to cross the desert on foot?
I am meeting some of my brothers at Bani Amir's well.
One of them will take me with him on his camel.
- Take this. - I don't need it.
Don't be silly!
And how will you go back?
I am not that weak.
And then we are not yet out of the area of Makkah.
"Abyssinia"
How are you settling in among our people?
We find your country exactly as God's messenger has described:
a land where truth prevails, ruled by a king who ensures justice to all.
- Is that what he said? - Yes, indeed.
By God, I will not disappoint him.
If you are short of anything, you let me know.
My door is always open to you,
as a group or as individuals.
We are short of nothing, Sire... except...
Except that we miss Makkah.
After all that you have suffered there?
Homeland is dear to everyone's heart, Sire.
We would have much preferred that our people would believe,
or at least leave us alone, and we stay among them.
God's messenger has been given a message in their tongue.
By God, he loves nothing better than that they should respond to God's guidance,
but they remain set against it.
Such are God's messengers.
Each one of them struggles against his people.
If he triumphs, they end up winners,
and if they overcome him, their loss is great indeed.
How beautifully you've put it, Sire.
I wish we could do something for you
to ease your longing to your homeland.
But all I say is: patience.
You are Utbah's son, as I have been informed?
Do you know my father, Sire?
Your business people have always been coming to our land to buy and sell.
Some of them have visited me.
I know Abu Sufyan, Al-Aas Ibn Wail
and his son Amr Ibn Al-Aas,
who is a bright young man of insight.
I liked him and his company.
I hoped he would stay with me. How is he doing?
Now Abu Al-Hakam; now Abu Ali; Now Abu Abd Shams...
Now, people of Quraysh.
You know now that you were wrong about those immigrants to Abyssinia.
By God, I gave you sound advice.
Don't be too hard to us, Abu Al-Waleed.
We never thought that Negus would welcome them.
We thought that it would be only a question of time before they came back to us,
feeling that there was no welcoming place for them.
You wanted something, but found the reverse.
Wherever you look, you see what displeases you.
You are business people, not farmers.
When anyone of you became a Muslim,
you used to refuse to sell him things,
telling him that he had to either revert to your religion or starve.
Now the scales are beginning to turn against you.
How would you feel if Makkah loses a sizeable section of its population
who used to buy your goods?
What a tidy situation:
you used to make things hard for them refusing to sell them,
now they are about to make things hard for you by not buying from you.
What is worse is that we have considerable business activity with Abyssinia.
My worst worry is that the king of Abyssinia may lean towards them.
If they encourage him to take a stand against us,
where would our business with Abyssinia be in this case?
We are not used to blame one another.
Wouldn't it be better to agree on something?
In my view, your only option
is that you reduce the pressure on Muhammad's followers.
When our traders go to Abyssinia,
some of us should reassure the immigrants,
giving them what may encourage them to come back.