5. Would you like to meet him outside the institution? (cont.)

He then stood at the door of the Ka’bah and began to look at the crowds – how much I wish I was with them! – and then gave a sermon: “There is no one worthy of worship but Allah! The one who has no partners! He has been true to His servant and aided him, and single-handedly destroyed all the armies! Indeed, every retribution for life, murder, or usury is under my feet, except the Forgiving others caretaking of the Ka’bah and providing water to the pilgrims.” He then laid down some of the rules of Shari’ah, saying, “For the one who is killed in the act of manslaughter with a whip or a stick, the blood-money for his life is a hundred camels, forty of them pregnant.” He carried on with his sermon and looked at the leaders of the Quraysh and said, “O Quraysh! Allah has ridden you of pre-Islamic pride, and the pride in your forefathers. Men are descendants of Adam and Adam is made from dust!” He then recited, “O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honourable of you with Allah is the most God-fearing of you. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, AllAware.” He then began to focus on the faces of the disbelievers, as he was at the pinnacle of strength and dominion standing by the door of the Ka’bah, while the disbelievers were in the depths of disgrace and weakness. This was the place where they had rejected and humiliated him. This was the place where they had dropped filth over his head whilst he prostrated.Today, the disbelievers of the Quraysh were standing in front of him, defeated, disgraced and humiliated. He said, “O Quraysh! What do you think I will do to you now?” They rose up and said, “You will be good to us. You are an honourable brother to us, and the son of an honourable brother.” Amazing! Had they forgotten what they used to do to this honourable brother? Had they forgotten about their insults: Forgiving others ‘Crazy, magician, soothsayer?’ If he really was an honourable brother and the son of an honourable brother, then why did they wage war against him? What about the torture they had inflicted upon the weak and poor Muslims? Bilal was standing there. Right in front of them! The marks on his body were still vivid! There was the tree where Sumayyah was murdered along with Yasir! Here was their son, ‘Ammar ,with the Muslims! Yet, today they were saying, “Honourable brother”? What about their boycott of the Prophet along with weak Muslims for three years in the valley of Bani ‘Amir, until they were compelled to eat the leaves of trees due to severe hunger? They had not felt feel any pity for a crying child, nor a groaning old man, nor a pregnant or breastfeeding woman! What about their wars against him at Badr and Uhud? What about their alliances against him at Khadaq? Yet, today, he was their honourable brother? What about them preventing him from Makkah to perform ‘Umrah when he had come to them just a few years ago to do so? They had left him in al-Hudaybiyah and prevented him from entering Makkah! What about them preventing his uncle Abu Talib from embracing Islam when he was on his deathbed? There was probably a very long list of painful memories going through his mind as he looked at the faces of the disbelievers from Quraysh, as his sight fell on the roads of Makkah, and as he gazed upon the mountains surrounding the Haram. He was not Forgiving others alone, for the same memories were probably also going through the minds of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, Ali and Bilal. Each of them had gone through a terrible ordeal at the hands of Quraysh. The Prophet  was able to punish them with the most severe forms of punishments as they were enemy combatants, transgressors and violators of treaties. They had violated the treaty of Hudaybiyah and transgressed. They were criminals in shock, not knowing what would happen to them. However, the Prophet  crushed all grudges, rose with his noble determination, and said the words that would be remembered throughout history: “Go, for you are free!” They left in joy, as if their feet were about to fly in the air due to their delight. They wondered, “Did he really pardon us?” He then turned to look around the Ka’bah and noticed three hundred and sixty idols that were worshiped besides Allah, right next to Allah’s house! The Prophet  began to strike them with his hand and make them collapse as he said, “The truth has arrived and falsehood has vanished! The truth has arrived! Falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything.” A number of rebellious disbelievers from Quraysh, those who had a history of confronting the Muslims, ran away from Makkah before the Prophet  and his companions arrived.