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Abu-Bakr Embracing Islam
A short time before the advent of Islam, there had been much talk about the imminent advent of the last prophet, among those who talked much about that were the Jews; there are a lot of prophecies about the expected prophet in the Holy Book. At that time there were wise people who refused the pagan customs and worshipping partners other than God; the biography of the prophet tells us that five famous peoples used to exhort the polytheists to put aside the worshipping of idols and even they presented to idol-worshippers mental evidences to the existence of God, they never indulged themselves in the pagan habits that the idols worshippers followed. Motivated by the search for the truth, those five people contacted some pious oracles to help them find the truth, they told them that it was time for a prophet to appear and that he would appear in Mekka and that he would be of the lineage of Ishmael. Among them was Warka ibn Nawfel, who embraced Christianity and testified to the prophethood of Muhammad when he received the first revelations, he even wished to be alive when the prophet would confront the idolaters to support him but he died before the prophet made his call public. Abu-Bakr, though he was still too you young, used to sit before those people and listen to them and what the oracles told them. It is also narrated that Abu-Bakr happened to be present in a caravan in which Muhammad, who was still a boy, accompanied his parental uncle, the caravans passed by an oracle and sat to him, he listened to the talk of the oracle about the expected prophet and he even affirmed that this prophet would be the young boy" Muhammad", it was the physical sign on the shoulder of the young blessed boy that led him to identify him, moreover, this man had a certain kind of clairvoyance that helped him to know that the young Muhammad must be the prophet whose holy book talked about him. Time passed and Abu-Bake who became the leader of a caravan that travelled to Syria used to visit the different monks on his way to and back from Syria. It happened that that the pure heart Abu-Baker saw a dream in which he saw that the moon moved over Mekka then went into pieces then fell on mekka then it gathered again and fell on Abu-baker's lap. He told Buhyra, a faithful monk, about his dream. The monk asked him where he was from and what his tribe was. Then he told him that if his vision was true, it meant that the advent of the expected prophet was so soon and that he would be a close friend to him and that he would follow him, after death, in ruling people. On their way back to Mekka, chanters in his caravan sang songs that expressed their longing for seeing their beloved except Abu-Baker, whose heart was clung to the coming prophet. At the time the talk about the expected prophet was on everyone's tongue. It was an urgent necessity for him to appear. The world, including the Arabian Peninsula was completely indulgent in the swamp of lust and idolatry except for some monks who retired from the world and some as we mentioned were in search for the truth in some of the fragrances of the religion of Abraham, the father of the prophet. So much was Abu_bakr obsessed with the prophet whom God would gift the humanity with that he asked the chanters in the Caravans" who among you is still keeping in memory the poetic verses of Ke'is ibn Sd'da." Someone shouted" I did," and the man began to chant" Isn't there a prophet to be sent to us? To tell what end is there after our long life, We have learnt that the all will go, on the footsteps of the previous ones they will go I wonder and death is not wonder Why the mortals lament the dead. O Allah let me not be a polytheist … A few weeks passed and the caravan was moving towards the borders of Mekka where many people went out to meet the long-absent caravan. "Have you heard what Mohammed said? Have you heard what Mohammed claimed?" These are the sentences that were first reported to them after words of greetings. To Abu-Baker went Abdalhakm ibn Hesham, nicknamed Abu-Gahal, rendered the fountainhead of ignorance, saying
says Abu-Bakr.
says Abu-Gahl Abu-Bakr for a moment recalled the day of the caravan; what the monks said and most importantly the integrity and the uprightness of Muhammad. He answered him saying
These words dumbfounded the man and everything went upside down. Then Abu-Baker went home to prepare himself for meeting the prophet that he remained agog to see. |