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Unity and Diversity in the Muslim Ummah: Some Reflections on the Farewell Pilgrimage Zafar Ishaq Ansari Farewell Pilgrimage or H a j ~ aaalt Wada ' was the crowning event in the long striving of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to bring man out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of Divine Guidance. This Hajj, which was the only one performed by the Prophet (peace be upon him) after the Hijrah, and which took place just a few months before he met with his Real companion', marked the full crystallisation of his Message and the glorious success of his Mission. It meant that the call to tawbid had reached the length and breadth of the vast Arabian Peninsula and had won over the hearts of countless men and women. By the time of this Hajj, shirk lay vanquished, rejected by its former votaries so that it was proclaimed that never again would any polytheist be allowed to make Pilgrimage to the holy land. It is no wonder that Allah chose the occasion to reveal the famous verse: "I have perfected for you your faith, have bestowed u p m you my favour in full measure; and have chosen for you Islam as your religion". (5:3) Making tawbid prevail was doubtlessly the most significant achievement of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The doctrine of tawbid, however, also had its socio-political implications. Great though the achievement of the Prophet (peace be upon him) was in the doctrinal realm, it should not lead us to overlook or underrate the transformation brought about in the social life whose basic ethic and structure were radically changed and a new social order was brought into existence. This paper attempts to trace the rise of this new social order, and to delineate the twin aspects of unity and diversity, which in our view, characterize it. I In order to appreciate the achievement and contribution of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in the social domain, it is essential to become acquainted with its pre-Is!amic social order and the conceptual foundations. Social life in pre-Islamic Arabia was premised on the principle of bloodkinship. A number of factors, especially the near impossibility of the survival of individuals and even solitary nuclear families, in the harsh terrain of Arabia, had led to the rise of clans and tribes whose members were tied together by the idea of descent from a common ancestor, whether real or fictitious. Even the religious life of the pre-Islamic Arabs was a reflex of their social organization. For clans and tribes usually had their own deities, a counterpart of the particularism which characterized their clans and tribes. The position of the tribe (or its sub-division, the clan) was buttressed by the fact that it was the main guarantee of whatever security could be provided in that environment. One of the functions of the tribe was to ensure the protection of a person's life and property against the prevailing brutal conditions of life that prevailed. Moreover, nomadic pastoralism, the dominant pattern of living at the time, could hardly be camed on by individuals or small families. All this made the tribe something of an economic necessity as well. All in all, to live independently of a tribe or clan was hardly a practical proposition. These tribes looked upon themselves as self-sufficient and independent. Also, thanks to the rigorous conditions of life which often led to inter-tribal feuding, there developed in them a strong particularism. The result was that the main tribes had become, in the words of W. Montgomery Watt, "sovereign and independent political entities". The driving force of this social system was 'asabiyyah, the spirit of the clan or tribe, a strong feeling of group solidarity. 'Asabiyyah meant boundless and unconditional loyalty of fellow-clansmen and corresponded, in general, to the patriotism of the passionate, chauvinistic type in our time. 'Asabijyah meant giving constant support to one's brethren-in-clan or brethren-in-tribe, whether they were the wrong-doers or the wronged. Their favourite motto was: "My tribe: right or wrong" which reminds one of the motto of extreme nationalists of our own time: "My country: right or wrong7'or "My nation: right or wrong". A man was required to be always prepared to sink or swim with the members of his clan or tribe. Regardless of the extent of sacrifice demanded of a person by his clan or tribe, the pre-Islamic ethical code required that he should not shirk making that sacrifice. Thus, in pre-Islamic Arabia, loyalty to the tribe stood above all other loyalties. There were no higher values to which this unqualified and unbounded loyalty to the tribe could be subordinated. The Message that the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave to his people, whose religious beliefs were tainted with polytheistic ideas and practices and whose social outlook was vitiated by a narrow tribalism, was the following: believe in Allah, the One True God; submit to Him and worship none but Him; believe in Muhammad as the Prophet and Messenger of Allah; recognize the message that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had brought to them as Divine Guidance, and live a life of righteousness and benevolence in the light of that guidance. He also emphasized that loyalty to Allah was above all loyalties; that duty to Allah had priority over all other duties. Even the duty of obeying one's parents, a duty which was frequently emphasized by the Prophet (peace be upon him) in his own preaching and was quite often stressed in the Qur'an, was not permitted to stand in the way of fulfilling one's duty to God, viz., worshipping none but Him. (29:s) The teachings of the Prophet (peace be upon him) created a new focus of loyalty, a loyalty to which all other loyalties had to be subordinated - man's loyalty to his Creator. Later on, however, this idea was to result in the destruction of the whole value-system on which the pre-Islamic social life had rested, and eventually to the establishment of a social order on a completely different set of principles. The Prophet's opposition of idolatry and his appeal to the Quraysh to submit to the discipline of a Divinely ordained moral and legal code were at first greeted by his people with ridicule and contempt. In the course of time, this gave way to severe opposition and active persecution of the Prophet and his followers. This was done by the Prophet's own tribe, Quraysh. To the Quraysh the followers of Muhammad (peace be upon him) were heretics and apostates, the black sheep who had forsaken the faith of their own pcople, who had abandoned the lifeways of their forefathers. On the contrary, in the eyes of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his followers, their own small group of the faithful were the elect; that they were the fortunate few who had discovered the word of God and were trying to respond to it by carrying out His Will; that they were the real elite who, by God's grace, had been pulled out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of Divine Guidance. Although most of these believers belonged to the Quraysh, yet there were also men like Bilal and Salman, who were of foreign origin. And as things developed, the faith preached by the Prophet (peace be upon him) began to disrupt the rampant social order by unifying, let us say, the Abyssinian BilHl and Persian Salman with the Qurayshite Abu Bakr and making them members of one camp, and colleagues and coworkers in the cause of Islam, as against some of their own kin who were opposed to it. In the same way as tuwhid replaced shirk in the doctrinal sphere, a major change was introduced in the socio-political domain as well. Hitherto blood kinship or common ancestry was considered the basis of social life. This was replaced by the idea of common faith. The factor that now unified people and gave rise to a community was belief in the same God, in the same Prophet, in the same Divine Book, and the shared commitment to be guided by the principles enunciated by the Qur'an and elaborated and put into practice by the Prophet (peace be upon him). The Qur'an is full of statements to the effect that religious faith should lead to forging brotherly ties between all those who believe in it: "Indeed, the believers are none but brethren of one another" (49:lO). Islam also emphasized the essential unity of all mankind in-so-far as their ancestor was the same: "[Allah] created you out of one living entity, and out of it created its mate, and out of the two spread abroad a multitude of men and women" (4: 1). Thus, all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are one family, and the differences and diversities found among them do not negate their essential unity. Their division into peoples and tribes, far from serving as a reason for estrangement, let alone mutual bitterness and hostility, should facilitate their interaction: "0people! Verily We created you from a male and a female and made you into peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed the most honoured of you with Allah is he who is most pious" (49: 13). There was, therefore, no justification for any group of people to boast that they were inherently superior to others on grounds of ancestry, lineage, or any other mundane considerations. Thus, the whole basis of the jahili social ethic, which accorded the highest priority to a person's tribal allegiance, was undermined. The driving force and core principle of the jclhili social order was not only set aside in actual practice, but was also categorically denounced as antithetical to Islam. In the words of the Prophet (peace be upon him): He who dies for the sake of 'asabijyah does not belong to us; he who calls people to 'asabiyyah does not belong to us; he who fights in the cause of 'apbijyah does not belong to us.' Significantly, at the time of his triumphant entry into Makkah, the Prophet (peace be upon him) emphatically proclaimed: 0 people of Quraysh! Verily Allah has taken away from you the arrogance of the period of ignorance, and the pride of noble ancestry. 0 men! All of you are from Adam, and Adam was from dust.3 The exaggerated concern with the tribe as manifested in tribal 'agabiyyah was an important factor in preventing the pre-Islamic Arabs from being united. Hence, it was not easy for them to establish and sustain the institution of state which would have been possible only if a considerable number of tribes could be united under one banner. With the advent of Islam, a unifying principle - religious faith - was provided and this enabled the myriad of Arabian tribes to rise above their divisions and diversities, making it possible for them to weld themselves into a strong religious brotherhood. Even during the Makkan period of the Prophet's life we notice the emergence of an ummah on the basis of common faith. This was, to a large extent, the result of the teachings of Islam which emphasized true faith as the factor of paramount importance in man's life for it alone could ensure his salvation. One can also see that the course of events in the early history of the ummah also contributed to reinforcing the brotherhood of faith and to weakening the hold of tribal asabiyyah which these early Muslims might have inherited from their social surroundings. One can well imagine what would have been the impact on the minds of the Makkan Muslims of the persecution suffered by them at the hands of their own fellow-tribesmen, even their blood relatives, during the Makkan period of the Prophet's life. Their experience was bound to make them increasingly identify themselves with their fellow-believers and to alienate them from their detractors and opponents, who were often from their own clan or tribe. The sense of belonging to this new identity of faith was further strengthened when, after suffering persecution in their own home town, a good number of Makkan Muslims who belonged to several sub-divisions of the Quraysh, took refuge in Abyssinia. This feeling of identity was even further strengthened when the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his Makkan followers emigrated to Madinah. What did that mean? It meant that the Muhdjirtm of Makkah and the An@r of Madinah had become knit into a fraternal relationship. Another obvious implication was that a wedge had been driven between the Makkan believers and their unbelieving kinsmen. With all these developments, the tribal unity of the Quraysh seemed to be on the verge of shambles. On the other hand, the Prophet (peace be upon him) further cemented this unity by what is known as rnuwdkhdh - fraternization. As we know, after arrival in Madinah he took one person from the Muhdjiriin and one from the Ansdr and declared that they were brothers. This meant that the two would henceforth share each other's weal and woe, which indeed actually happened. For some time they even shared each other's inheritance until this was revoked by the Qur'm. And all this process was made possible by the willing consent of these partners in fraternization without least recourse to coercive means. All this naturally widened the horizons of the Muslims and brought them out of the narrow confines of tribalism. It was this broadening of outlook which enabled them to establish a state in Madinah which gradually came to embrace the whole of Arabia, and within just a few decades it had expanded to cover a very large part of the then known civilized world, giving the world a great state and a splendid civilization. These developments testify to the great potential of Islamic concept of the brotherhood founded on the commonality of religious faith. They also testify to the great leadership qualities of the Prophet (peace be upon him). But the fact that even in the first instance, the tribes of Arabia transcended their extreme particularism and became part of the Islamic body-politic is a phenomenon which, in order to comprehend it fully, a word of explanation seems necessary. The success of Islam in weaving the diversities which characterised the 7Ih century Arabian life into one fabric was possible because of some of the basic characteristics of Islam itself Islam has been described as having two basic qualities: the qualities of hanlfiyyah and sarnrfhah. The hanlfiyyah of Islam is reflected in its doctrine of tawhid. It would be a platitude to say that as regards to tawhid Islam is absolutely uncompromising. It has no patience for building any mid-way houses. God is One and unique: "There is nothing like Him" (42:l I), declared the Q u r ' a in its categorical majesty. And that's that. However, when it comes to the practical matters of life, we find that the Islamic shari'ah is characterized by a tolerant attitude which enables the Islamic civilization to easily accommodate a wide variety of cultural diversities. This was made possible because, while the rules of 'ibddat were laid down and were considered fixed, the basic assumption about the ordinary acts of life such as eating, drinking, dressing, is that of freedom. In other words, Islam has provided man with a reasonably small list of what is unlawful or undesirable. Everything else is to be considered to belong to man's area of discretion wherein one could act as one may wish to. This may be elaborated a bit even at the risk of sounding pedantic. Let us t&e the most ordinary matter of human life - eating. Islam has prohibited a few things which one may not eat, and they are very few indeed - carcasses, flesh of swine, blood, and so on. The implication is that it is lawful to eat anything other than these prohibited items. Moreover, one is free to cook these lawful things in the manner one wishes. There is no particular formula of cooking which might be called Islamic in an exclusive sense. If the food items are lawhl, there could be innumerable ways in which one might cook. Islam does not impose any particular cuisine, be it that of the Quraysh or of the Arabs, or of any other Muslim people. Likewise, Islam has laid down certain principles regarding dress: that a dress should properly cover certain parts of the body, and in this connection it has enunciated the satr of both the males and the females. Islam has also expressed disapproval of extravagant dresses, or wearing dresses that give vent to arrogance and haughtiness. Were one to comply with these basic principles, one might dress as one would like to. Hence, the European, the Mexican, the Middle Eastern, the Central Asian - all these dresses are authentically Islamic provided the basic guidelines given by Islam have not been violated. Thus, there is and has always been a unique mix of unity and diversity in Muslim life. The element of unity is provided by our having a common worldview, a common frame of reference, a common set of moral values, and a common set of rules pertaining to bald and haram provided by the Shari'ah. However, as we have shown, the shari'ah itself accommodates diversities that are a natural characteristic of human life. In his effort to build an Islamic ummah the Prophet (peace be upon him) displayed a striking degree of sensitivity to the factors that would strengthen the unity of Muslims. He urged people to develop the attitudes and qualities which would cement their relations and strengthen their brotherly ties. At the same time, he discouraged and denounced those attitudes and qualities which were likely to weaken, and in some cases, even undermine and destroy the unity and brotherhood of Muslims. In fact the Qur'an itself had identified the attitudes and habits that were destructive of the brotherly ties between Muslims - backbiting, calling names, subjecting people to ridicule, looking upon oneself or one's group as superior and others as inferior, attributing evil intent to the acts of others, and so on. The Qur'an naturally urged the Muslims to eschew these attitudes and habits and urged them to develop positive attitudes, attitudes that would conduce to a healthy social life, attitudes that are likely to foster amity, cordiality and brotherhood. The Prophet (peace be upon him) also made a great contribution to this by his personal example, by the care that he took to prevent tribal 'asabiyyah from being inflamed, and by inspiring the people around him to become human beings of a much finer quality than the world has ever witnessed. All this was bound to unify the ranks of his followers, and turn the believers, as he himself described, into a wall each part of which supports the other; or as he said on another occasion. "As regards their mutual love and affection and compassion, the believers are like a human body; if one part of it suffers pain, it eventually extends to the whole body."4 The whole life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the entire gamut of Islamic injunctions and institutions deserve to be studied in the context of the question under discussion - how it was possible to build this wonderful edifice of unity of the ummah which, in a natural and healthy manner, accommodated ethnic, cultural and other diversities without allowing these diversities to threaten the unity of the ummah. In our view, this was possible because of the fact that Islam was prescribed by man's Creator and hence all its teachings are in conformity with man's nature. And, of course, who could understand this, in all its profundity, better than the Prophet (peace be upon him)? In what follows is an attempt to draw attention to the major landmarks in the life of the Prophet (peace on him) with a view to illuminate the matter in hand. After the Hijrah, as we know well, one of the first things that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did, apart from rnuwdkhcih which has been mentioned earlier, was to draw up the rules that would govern the relationship between the different elements of the Madinian society. After Hijrah the main components of Madinah were Muslims and Jews. The Muslims consisted of the Muhiijirun and the Ansdr. The Anscir, in their turn, had a number of subdivisions. And the same was the case with the Jews. A glance at this document, which is often called the Constitution of Madinah, brings out several significant 'points. It shows that, apart from his well-known ability to expound his religious message with great clarity and force of persuasion, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was also blessed with an outstanding political instinct, that he had the ability to comprehend the complex situation which he faced and the capacity to promote his ideals and objectives with rare wisdom. Nicholson describes this document as one ostensibly embodying "a cautious and tactful reform". But he adds, "it was in reality a revolution". Through this constitution, says Nicholson, the Prophet shifted the centre of power from the tribe to the community. Let us note some of the salient features of the Constitution of Madinah: First, that the believers and those Jews who were their allies for common defence, were declared one ummah (a political community) distinct from all others. The Jews had the right to follow their religion and naturally the Muslims too had the same right. However, this unity of Jews and Muslims was based on specific terms and conditions on which the two parties - the Muslims and the Jewish tribes "who follow them [i.e., the Muslims] and are attached to them and crusade along with them-" were agreed. Second, that the separate entity of the believers as a community of faith, transcending the tribal affiliations of the individual believers, was clearly recognized. The believers were not allowed to forsake any debtor among them; the peace of the believers was one; in case of any loss of the believers' blood in the cause of God, all the believers would take revenge; no believer could confederate with the client of another believer. Third, though the Muslims were divided internally into separate tribal affiliations, yet unlike the pre-Islamic times, these tribes were not independent and sovereign political entities. They were rather to function merely as administrative units. As administrative units they remained and discharged some useful functions. They still had a degree of autonomy and were responsible for their internal affairs. The payment of blood-money and the ransoming of their captives, according to the provision of the constitution, was the joint responsibility of the members of a clan as in former times. But gone was the former position of the clan as the focus of supreme loyalty. The tribes and clans remained, but the particularism and the chauvinistic attachment to them that would stand in the way of subordinating this tribal association to any other higher 5 consideration, were destroyed. Almost everything in the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) bespoke of his full faith that Islam's message was universal, and that it was bound to be accepted by people whose instincts were sound and healthy. This explains his writing letters to the chiefs of innumerable tribes inviting them to Islam. This also explains his sending emissaries to rulers even outside Arabia - to Caesar, to Chosroes, to Muqawqis, and to many others. All these letters also bespeak of his concem with his basic mission - that people submit to and obey and worship their Creator and follow the Guidance that had been made available to mankind through His last Messenger (peace be upon him). If any were prepared to do so, he was not at all eager to change things upside down. Again, this was in keeping with what we have said earlier: that the Prophet's doctrinal concem was the affirmation of tawhid and his social programme consisted of establishing a just and benevolent social order which would provide the right social setting in which men may live as God's servants and as brothers of one another. This called for establishing the Muslim ummah on strong foundations, an ummah that was agreed on fundamentals but was not inimical to the variety and diversity found in human societies. It was no wonder that this policy paid rich dividends. Gradually the more inveterate enemies of Islam were overpowered on the battle-field. Their military defeat was also indicative of the success of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in persuading people to respond to his call, for it is these that valiantly fought for the cause of Islam. It is also indicative of the inner cohesion and solidarity of the Muslims, who stood like a solid rock despite the efforts of the enemies to divide their ranks. The natural consequence of all this was that eight years after the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his followers had bid farewell to Makkah, he and his followers returned to it and the city fell into their lap like a ripe fruit without even as much as a skirmish. Here again the Prophet's magnanimity shone in all its splendour and glory. The Makkans had not been conquered militarily; it is their hearts that had been 'conquered' by he who had suffered contempt and humiliation at their hands. The year that followed - year 9 A.H. - which is known as the "Year of Delegations" saw representatives of tribes from all the nooks and comers of Arabia visit Madinah, to embrace Islam and to assure the Prophet (peace be upon him) of their allegiance and loyalty. The total number of delegations is reported to be close to 100. All these developments gradually paved the way for what we have termed as the crowning moment, the moment of supreme triumph of the Prophet's struggle to make the Word of Allah prevail. We are referring to the Hujjat al- Wadd '. This Hajj witnessed a surging sea of humanity consisting of close to 150,000 souls - a figure that seems staggering for the Year I0 of Hjrah. They had come from all across the Arabian Peninsula. These pilgrims had surrendered themselves to the lordship of Allah, they were committed to follow the directives of the Last Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), were willing to do his every behest. They had risen above all their diversities and particularities and had become willing partners in the collective enterprise of the umnzah - "to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and call Allah's creatures to their Lord". This was the last opportunity that Allah had willed the Prophet (peace be upon him) to avail of, the opportunity to give finishing touches to what he had done for about twenty two or twenty three years. It would be instructive to cast a glance at the valuable things he had to tell these souls who were eager to know and to act upon what they would learn: 1. That every Muslim must honour the rights of other Muslims: he must regard their blood, their property and their honour as inviolable. 2. That wrong and injustice and riha and all the evil customs of Jdhilyyah were unlawful. 3. That special attention should be paid to the rights of women and that they should be treated with compassion and tenderness. In like manner, women were asked to be loyal to their marital ties. That the laws of inheritance should be followed and should not be tampered with by making testaments in favour of any of the legal heirs. That the custom of adoption and assigning false parentage to people was unlawful. That it did not become a Muslim to cause hurt to his brother by his hand or tongue; that a true Muhiijir was he who would give up sins; that a true rnujiihid was he who would subdue his own self to obey Allah. That no one should impute any false statement to the Prophet (peace be upon him) for that would land him into Hell. If people were to faithfully adhere to the Q u r ' a and the Sunnah, they would never go astray. That all Muslims were brethren and hence no one may forcefully take possession of another's property. He may do so only with the owner's willing consent. 10. That the rulers should be obeyed as long as they apply the Book of Allah. 11. That none may be regarded as any better than another except in consideration of piety. 12. That the slaves should be treated with kindness. 13. That no Muslim should shirk any of the following: to serve Allah with absolute sincerity; to tender good counsel to the rulers; and to remain vitally attached to the body of Muslims. If anything had remained to be done, it was done during the H a j ~ a talWadii '. With all these directives, the edifice of the urnrnah had been erected on firm foundations. Within a matter of ten years after, a sea-change had been brought about in the whole of Arabia, and the ummah had become equipped to start moving beyond the confines of Arabia with the last Message of the Creator to His creatures. Before concluding, it needs to be pointed that this miracle was not wrought simply by legalistic brilliance or political sagacity. The true sources of the unity of the ummah, on the one hand, have been its religious beliefs. On the other hand were the set of 'ibiidiit which have sustained and reinforced, albeit almost imperceptibly, the unity of the ummah. It is not insignificant that almost the very first act of the Prophet (peace be upon him) after arrival in Madinah was to build a mosque. All 'ibadat have played an important role in the lives of Muslims. They have been a potent means of bringing them closer to Allah and revitalizing their faith. They have also provided them abundant moral and spiritual nourishment. And last, but not the least, they have been a source of unifying their ranks. While all this is true about all 'ibddat, the impact of Haji in all these respects has radiated to all comers of the world, and during the last fourteen centuries. It seems that of all 'ibadct the impact of Hajj has been the greatest and the most abiding. As I conclude, I can hardly resist reproducing out in extenso the impressions of Hajj on the mind and soul of an outstanding convert to Islam, Muhammad Asad. I have not read so far any statement which brings out, as forcefully as this one, how deeply the Hajj experience links one with the entire body of Muslim ummah, and how the little particularities of us Muslims are subordinated to our sense of belonging to the ummah of Islam: "And as I stand on the hillcrest and gaze down toward the invisible Plain of Arafat, the moonlit blueness of the landscape before me, so dead a moment ago, suddenly comes to life with the currents of all the human lives that have passed through it and is filled with the eerie voices of the millions of men and women who have walked or ridden between Mecca and Arafat in over hundred pilgrimages for over thirteen hundred years. Their voices and their steps and the voices and the steps of their animals reawaken and resound anew; I see them walking and riding and assembling - all those myriads of white-garbed pilgrims of thirteen hundred years; I hear the sounds of their passed-away days; the wings of the faith which has drawn them together to this land of rocks and sand and seeming deadness beat again with the warmth of life over the arc of centuries, and the mighty wingbeat draws me into its orbit and draws my own passed-away days into the present, and once again I am riding over the plain riding in a thundering gallop over the plain, amidst thousands and thousands of ihr~m-cladbeduins, returning from Arafat to Mecca - a tiny particle of that roaring, earth-shaking, irresistible wave of countless galloping dromedaries and men, with the tribal banners on their high - poles beating like drums in the wind and their tribal war cries tearing through the air: Yii Rawga, yii Rawga! by which the Atayba tribesmen evoke their ancestor's name, answered by the Yii 'Awfj yii 'Awfr of the Harb and echoed by the almost defiant, 'Shammdr, yii Shammdr'! from the farthest right wing of the column. We ride on, rushing, flying over the plain, and to me it seems that we are flying with the wind, abandoned to a happiness that knows neither end nor limit ... and the wind shouts a wild paean of joy into my ears: Never again, never again, never again will you be a stranger'! My brethren on the right and my brethren on the left, all of them unknown to me but none a stranger: in the tumultuous joy of our chase, we are one body in pursuit of one goal. Wide is the world before us, and in our hearts glimmers a spark of the flame that burned in the hearts of the Prophet's Companions. They know, my brethren on the right and my brethren on the left, that they have fallen short of what was expected of them, and that in the flight of centuries their hearts have grown small: and yet, the promise of fulfillment has not been taken from them ... from us ... Someone in the surging host abandons his tribal cry for a cry of faith: 'We are the brethren of him who gives himself up to God!' - and another joins in: 'Alliihu Akbar!'- God is the Greatest! - God alone Is Great'! And all the tribal detachments take up this one cry. They are no longer Najdi beduins revelling in their tribal pride: they are men who know that the secrets of God are but waiting for them ... for us ... Amidst the din of thousands of rushing camels' feet and the flapping of a hundred banners, their cry grows into a roar of triumph: 'Allahu Akbar! ' It flows in mighty waves over the heads of the thousands of galloping men, over the wide plain, to all the ends of the earth: 'Alliihu Akbar!' These men have grown beyond their own little lives, and now their faith sweeps them forward, in oneness, toward some uncharted horizon ... Longing need no longer remain small and hidden; it has found its awakening, a blinding sunrise of fulfillment. In this fulfillment, man strides along in all his God-given splendor; his stride is joy, and his knowledge is freedom, and his world a sphere without bounds.. . 996 End Notes ' ' ' Namely al-Rafiq al-'A12. See al-Bukhari, Sahib KitBb al-MaghBzi, BBb Marad alNabiyy wa Wafatuh. See Abii DB'iid, Sunan, KitBb al-Adab, BBb fi aL6Apbiyyah. See Abii DB' iid, Sunan, KitBb al-Adab, Bab fi al-Tafakhur bi al-Ahs8b See al-Bukhsri, bahih Kitab al-Adab, B8b Rahmat al-NBs wa al-Baha'im. For the full text of the Constitution see Muhammad Hamidullah, The First Written Constitution in the World (Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1968). Muhammad Asad, The Road to Mecca (London: Max Reinhardt, 1954), pp. 373-375.