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ʾILÂM-EN-NÂS.
HOW SAUDAH DAUGHTER OF ʾAMMÂRAH
OBTAINED REDRESS FROM MUʾÂWIYAH.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
ʾAmmâr-ibn-Yasîr, surnamed el-Asad, was one of the first to profess el-Islám, and was held in high esteem among the Associates of the Prophet. It is said that, being taken prisoner and condemned to be burnt on account of his religion by the idolatrous Mekkans, a miracle was wrought on his behalf by Muhammad, who, passing by the place of execution, stretched out his hand and commanded the fire "to become for him a refreshment, as it had been to Abraham in the furnace of Nimrod."[1] ʾAmmâr attached himself to ʾAly's faction, and fell in the engagement which took place between ʾAly and Muʾâwiyah at Siffîn, a tract of
- ↑ It is evident that Muhammad was indebted to the Jews for many of the stories and traditions contained in the Kurân. The following is a condensed account of the tale alluded to in the above note, as given by the Commentators on the Kurân. The Kaʾabah was given to Abraham by God as a place of religious worship; so one day when the Chaldeans were abroad in the fields celebrating a great festival, Abraham broke all the idols then set up in the Kaʾabah, except the biggest of them, round the neck of which he hung his axe, that the people might lay the blame upon the idol. When Terah (Abraham's father) returned, finding that he could not insist upon the impossibility of Abraham's story without confessing the impotence of his gods,
