Muslim Studies

they returned to their old unbelief, then they killed the shepherd and drove the herd further with them. The cruelest punishment of the Prophet overtook them.¹

Once—as tradition tells it—the Prophet said to his companions: "Whoever climbs that mountainside for me, namely that of Murar near Hudaybiyya, his sins will be taken away, just as they were taken away from the Children of Israel Original: Banû Isrâ'îl." The mounted men of the Khazraj tribe Original: Banû Chazrag set about this task first of all, and the others followed them in droves. The Prophet then announced to them the forgiveness of their sins. A Bedouin was standing nearby; he was riding a brown camel. Everyone urged him to rid himself of his sins by taking the test described by the Prophet. But he said: "That I might find my lost camel is more desirable to me than that your companion there should pray for the forgiveness of my sins."² For only the prospect of a higher position within Arabian society, or the even lower motive of common material gain, could have persuaded this thoroughly realistically-minded people to follow the caller who proclaimed unintelligible things to them. Some among them, who were impressed by the promise of reward and well-being, might also have expected from their profession of Islam Literally "submission." the prosperity of all their business and the constant fulfillment of all their wishes; and after experience taught them that their outward affairs remained subject to the same ups and downs and coincidences even after their conversion, they may have cast Islam aside like an ungracious fetish In this 19th-century context, Goldziher uses "fetish" to describe a religion treated as a mere lucky charm or magical object.. To such desert Arabs the Koran The Quran. verse (22:11) is said to refer, concerning those people who serve God "on an edge." Bedouins came to Medina The city where Muhammad established the first Islamic state.—so says the traditional exegesis Scholarly interpretation of scripture. of this passage—who were satisfied with Islam, to which they attributed this good effect, if their bodies were healthy, their mares bore beautiful foals, and their wives brought well-formed boys into the world, and if their property and cattle increased. But if things went wrong, they blamed everything on Islam and turned their backs on it.³

The proclamations of salvation by the Prophet thus held little attraction for the true Bedouin. The language spoken in the Quran sounded strange to him, and he had no understanding of it. By "glad tidings" and "redemption," he understood something different than instructions for eternal bliss. Amran son of Husayn Original: 'Amrân b. Ḥuṣejn relates that he was present when the Prophet invited the Tamim tribe Original: Banû Tamîm to accept the "glad tidings,"

1. B. Zakat nr. 68, Diyat nr. 22, Tibb. nr. 29. References to the Sahih al-Bukhari, a primary collection of Prophetic traditions.
2. Muslim V, p. 348. Another version in Waqidi-Wellhausen p. 246.
3. Al-Baydawi I, p. 628, 21 ff. A reference to the famous 13th-century Quranic commentator.