This is a fictional love story based on the last days of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and all the quotations from the Hadith are correct.
It does not contain any profanity or any distortion of the Hadith.
All the references to the Prophet are based on historical facts from the research of the author.
The Transition of the Prophet (pbuh)
60 days after his last Hajj the prophet became very ill. And he knew that the time had come for him to pass on. He prophesied words of blessings on our anointed martyrs of Uhud. I still remembered his sacred farewell message.
“There is a slave among the slaves of Allah (The One God) to whom God has offered the choice between this world and that which is with Him, and the slave has chosen that which is with God.”
I hung on his ears as he continued his solemn sermon with so much radiance on his face.
“I warn you O Muslims to be good to the Ansar (the Helpers, i.e., those residents of Medina who helped the Emigrants from Mecca). They have performed their duty well. Muslims will increase in number but Ansar will dwindle and be as salt in a meal.”
I was one of his devotees and rear guards in his last jihad. I loved him. And he confided some secrets in me. The cause of his illness that only Aishah (ra) and I knew.
“Woe to the nations before you who worshiped the tombs of their prophets. I forbid you to do that. O people, the most unselfish of men to me in his companionship is Abu Bakr, and if I were to take from mankind an inseparable friend he would be Abu Bakr - but the brotherhood of faith is ours until God unite us in His presence. O my dear daughter Fatimah and O my dear aunt Safiyah, spend your efforts in the way of the hereafter for I will not be able to help you against the Will of Allah. I go before you and I am your witness. Your meeting with me is at the pool of the celestial river Kawthar. I fear not for you that you will set up gods beside Allah, but I fear for you that you will rival one another in worldly gains.”
The prophet then anointed Abu Bakr to continue his messages. He retired to his inner chambers where his beloved wife Aishah nursed him with his bald head on her bosom. And she soon made him to regain his strength that at the break of dawn of twelfth of Rabi’ al-Awwal, he was even able to join us in the mosque. But he had to lean on Fadl and Thawban. When Abu Bakr saw the prophet, he quietly stepped back even without moving his head. But the last prophet of Allah/الله patted him on his shoulder and nodded that Abu Bakr should continue. Abu Bakr often glanced at the prophet who was sitting at his right hand side praying in solitude.
We were all in elated spirits to see him looking hale and hearty in spite of his protracted illness. Anas (ra) turned to me and smiled with glee.
“I have never seen the Prophet’s face more beautiful than as I see it now at this moment,” he said joyfully.
I nodded and as I looked to see the cheerful faces of the other devotees, my eyes and the eyes of Aishah met and I quickly averted my eyes lest I would be caught ogling at the most beloved wife of the prophet. Then I saw him whisper into the ear of Aishah.
The prophet adored her deeply as he said, “The superiority of 'Aishah to other ladies is like the superiority of Tharid (i.e. meat and bread dish) to other meals. Many men reached the level of perfection, but no woman reached such a level except Mary, the daughter of Imran and Asia, the wife of Pharaoh."
We also knew that she was the muse of the Wahy (Divine Revelations)
Later Sunniyah told me that Aishah disclosed to her what he whispered into her ear.
“No Prophet is taken by death until he has been shown his place in Paradise and then offered the choice to live or to die.”
The prophet never recovered. Anas later disclosed his last words to me.
“With the supreme communion in Paradise, with those upon whom God has showered his favor, the prophets and the saints and the martyrs and the righteous, most excellent for communion are they.”
Anas said he raised his head and said, “O Allah, with the supreme communion.” The prophet gave up at the dusk of the twelfth of Rabi’ al-Awwal, which the followers of the sacred cross recorded as June 8, 632 A.D. Sunniyah told me that he died with his head resting on the laps of his beloved Aishah.
He was only sixty-three years old. There was an unconfirmed rumour that his Jewish wife poisoned him. But we were warned that this rumour must never be breathed out by any soul. Could the poison have taken the precious life of the prophet?
Abu Bakr wept as he came to the mosque and looking up at us as we stood in disbelief, he sighed and exclaimed:
“O People! If Muhammad is the sole object of your adoration, then know that he is dead. But if it is Allah (The One God) you Worshiped, then know that He does not die.”
Then Abu Bakr proclaimed an invocation from the Qur'an, 3:144:
“Muhammad is no more than an Apostle: many were the Apostles that passed away before him. If he died or were slain, will you then turn back on your heels? If any did turn back on his heels, not the least harm will he do to Allah; but Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly reward those who (serve Him) with gratitude.”
The verse was actually a divine revelation he received after the Battle of Uhud.
We buried the prophet the following day in the same place he died in Aishah’s bedroom as he had told Abu Bakr that “Allah does not cause a prophet to die but in the place where he is to be buried.”
All his children had died before him, except Fatimah (ra). But unfortunately she also died six full moons after the prophet. But Aishah and his other wives, the Ummul Momineen (mothers of the faithful) survived and lived as pious widows until they passed away. But of all his numerous wives only Khadijah and Maria al-Qibtiyya bore him children. Aishah did not have any child for the prophet. We all wondered why?
Aishah was once suspected of committing adultery whilst on a journey in the caravan escorted by Shafwan ibn Muatthal. This was after the prophet married Maria al-Qibtiyya. But the rumour only circulated in whispers among the sheiks of Arabia. But the prophet only queried her and never summoned any man suspected to have dared to even attempt such an abominable act and be beheaded. It was a scandal that would have cost Aishah her life. Aishah maintained her innocence that she lost her necklace and whilst looking for it, she was left behind by the caravan until she was able to find her way back to Medina. Sunniyah told me that Aishah later said the prophet told her that he had a revelation that four witnesses would be required to convict her of adultery. And her conviction would mean her death by stoning. What the prophet would not even think of. Condemning and sentencing her most beloved and youngest wife to death! God forbid.
Since the prophet was dead, I felt some emptiness in my heart and soul and I made up my mind to return home to Abyssinia. And I wanted to persih the thought of any future with Aishah. The father now seemed to have more need of her divine gifts in the absence of the prophet. I also feared that the caliph would never allow an Abyssinian to marry his beloved Aishah.
The Three Maidens In White
I was feverish for some days and I was seeing and hearing things as my body shook and it was as if I was no longer on earth. I was used to these fevers. I always fell ill once in a year and I would be rejuvenated afterwards. I took my usual medicine made from bitter herbs prepared by Sunniyah.
“May be you are homesick,” she said.
I did not reply. I only nodded.
I have spent over ten years in the service of the prophet and survived many battles. And I have been even more comfortable here than my years at home. But I was missing my mother. Again, I was discovering certain things and the parchment I received in my last pilgrimage to Jerusalem was now like my talisman. And even the prophet did not deny the truth. That it was the Jews who told him about Allaha whom they called Allah. We all agreed that "He is the one and only supreme God and the maker of all things visible and invisible in heaven and on earth". But, I wanted to return to Jerusalem and ask more questions on how the sacred word of God could become flesh and was the Jew Prophet Isa the only begotten Son of God? Because, the Qur'an said this was not so. Why? Only the truth would satisfy my yawning soul.
It was about the eleventh hour of the Jummah when I was half asleep. Sunniyah was not with me. Then I saw smoke rising from the floor and soon the smoke enveloped the room. I was wondering what could be the meaning of this. Then I saw them. They were all in white. They looked like the minstrels of Wahy (Divine Revelations). Three of them coming from a mosque and I saw other buildings behind them.
Then suddenly I did not see them again. I closed my eyes and when I opened them Sunniyah had come with some fruits for me.
“You were hallucinating again,” she said.
“I had a vision,” I said.
She was washing the fruits and only glanced at me.
“Yes. These fevers come with such hallucinations and visions. Don’t worry Hassan, you will soon be on your feet and dancing with me.”
“You are not the only one who can see things,” I said and closed my eyes again. Because I was feeling like I should go back to sleep.
“All right. We all have dreams and visions. My dear brother, what did you see?”
“I saw three maidens in white in a mist of smoke.”
“Where? I hope Satan has not urinated in your ears while you were sleeping?”
“Allah forbids it!” I prayed.
She stopped what she was doing and came closer to where I lay on my mat.
“Right here while you were not here. When I was half awake.”
“The three daughters of Nasibin”
“You know them?”
“Yes. They only appear to you when you are ready to…”
“I am not ready to die now.”
She laughed and her voice rang in my ears.
“Oh, no Hassan! You are not about to die. They are not the jinns of Shayatin. But when they appear to young men, they mean well.”
“And what does it mean?”
“That your bride is coming soon!”
Sunniyah smiled and brought me three fruits in a bowl. She offered me one and I accepted it. “Eat my brother. The apple will revive you,” she said.
“But, I don’t want to marry here,” I said.
“Why?” She asked.
“I prefer one of our own maidens in Abyssinia,” I replied.
“Arabian women are the loveliest of all women in the world,” she sang.
She rose to her feet and danced for a moment.
Yes. She was lovely. Yes, very lovely. But she said she would never marry and loved her calling as a stargazer. But I knew she was the comforter of some men in Arabia.
“Your mother would be happy to be the mother in-law of a beautiful Arabian princess,” she said.
I sighed and we were silent for a while.
“The sun is going home and I must return before darkness covers my path,” she said.
“I wish I could escort you,” I said.
“Trouble not yourself. You need to rest until you are fully revived. “
She held my hands for a while and murmured her usual inaudible prayer.
“You will sleep well tonight my brother.”
As she left, I felt like the loneliest man on earth.
I decided to write some of the words from my heart on a parchment.
It was after the victory of Hunayn, that the prophet and I went up the Thubayr and Hira for fasting and praying. Most he often left me on Thubayr and would go to the Hira alone whilst I waited for him. Then during one our retreats, he declared,
‘Shall I tell you, O people, on whom the shaitans descend? They descend on every slandering sinner. Those who listen to hearsay - and most of them are liars - and those poets who are followed by those who go astray.”
I was wondering why he said that when he welcomed and appreciated the verses of HassAn ibn Thabit, a poet of Yathrib. And HasAn always recited poems in the praise of the prophet and Aishah. Well, I wouldn’t be the one to dispute the revelation of the messenger of Allah.
After our victories at the battles of Badr, Uhud and Khaybar , many people were killed, including male and female poets. And I knew those that were killed on the orders of the prophet. But he spared the poets who sang his praises. So, I kept my verses to myself. I would be safer if no one knew I could recite my own verses and I wouldn’t flatter anyone. Hypocrisy could choke me, so I wouldn’t sing the praises of the prophet without saying the truth as well. And I was not ready to dare the wrath of the prophet whom I vowed to serve till death separated us.
The Unveiling of Rekiyyah bint Abu bakr (ra)
One cold night, I was sitting alone in front of my tent under the half moon when I saw a hooded figure on the white mule of the prophet that was a precious gift from Muqawqis I was wondering who could be this strange visitor.
Then as the figure came closer, I recognized that it was a female figure in a burqa.
Then the unmistakable velvet voice of Rekiyyah bint Abu Bakr (ra) greeted me.
“Salam Alaikum.”
“Wa alaikum salam, sister.”
I was gaping and gasping in awe. Why would I to be honoured by such a highly revered visitor?
“Alhamdulillaah!” I exclaimed inwardly.
I hurriedly took her by her slim hands into my tent. I did not want anyone to see her.
Rekiyyah was the daughter of the caliph!
Part Two:
The second part and last part of "Unveil Me, My Love" will be in the complete novelette and available from $1 per copy.
For copies, contact me.
No comments:
Post a Comment