Muslim Studies

the city Arabs) and are more disposed not to know the limits (laws) that God has revealed to His Prophet. Among these Arabs, there are those who consider that which they must spend (for religious purposes) as a forced loan and lie in wait for a change in fortunes.”¹

Indeed, there are also—as the following verse says—exceptions: believing Bedouins who gladly contribute to Muhammad’s causes and see in it a means to draw closer to God; but these were the minority. And even among the believers, there are those who profess their faith only outwardly, but in their hearts feel no inclination toward the morality of Islam Literally "submission" or "surrender" to the will of God. and its dogma,² showing no sense for what Muhammad understood and taught as “submission to God.”³ Some data preserved in the Traditions Arabic: Hadith. The recorded sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, which serve as a major source of Islamic law and guidance. define the relationship of the Bedouin Arabs to religion even more precisely: “Coarseness and stubbornness are the peculiarities of those noisy ones (faddâdîn), the tent-dwellers from the tribes of Rabî'â and Moḍar, who drive camels and cattle (literally: at the tail-roots of their camels and cattle).”⁴ Rudeness and disregard in their dealings with the Prophet are held against them as a reproach.⁵ It is easily understandable that even the converts among them did not like staying in Muhammad's surroundings, because city life did not suit them; they returned to the desert after the Prophet showed no willingness to release them from their pledge of allegiance.⁶ How little of their Bedouin nature they had discarded can be shown by the example of those converts from the tribes of 'Ukl and 'Urejna, who, after living for some time in Muhammad's surroundings, spoke to the Prophet: “We are people accustomed to the udders of camels; we are not people of the soil; in Medina we feel uneasy, and life there does not do us well.” The Prophet then gave them a herd, placed a herdsman at their disposal, and allowed them to leave Medina to indulge again in their accustomed way of life to their heart's content. Scarcely had they reached the Ḥarra A volcanic tract of land with black basalt stones, common in the Arabian Peninsula, specifically referring here to the area near Medina., they indulged

1. Sûra 9: 98—99.      2) ibid 48: 11.      3) ibid 49: 14.
2. B. Manâḳib no. 2.
3. Examples of this can be found in B. Waḍû' no. 60, 61. Adab no. 67, 79. cf. Ibn Ḥaǧar I, p. 993. Of note is the word A'râbijja “Bedouin-like manner” in connection with ġafâ' = coarseness in Al-Balâḍorî p. 425, 1. 'Omar b. 'Abd al-'Azîz, the sworn enemy of luxury in the lifestyle that developed under the Caliphate, finds at least the frugal, simple lifestyle of the Bedouins praiseworthy. “No one would be more similar to the pious ancestors than the Bedouins, if their coarse nature (ġafâ') did not distinguish them from them” (Al-Ǧâḥiẓ, Book of Eloquence and Exposition fol. 47ᵃ).
4. B. Aḥkâm no. 45. 47. 50.