In Muslim history there are some extraordinary stories of how people have embraced Islam over the years. As Muslims, these stories encourage and inspire us to learn more and more about the history of Islam, especially in the early days when our Prophet ( peace be upon him ) was struggling to make its message known and heard.
Learning about how others came to Islam allows us to pause and reflect on our own spiritual journey and to thank Almighty Allah for His great gift to us of being Muslims. Such stories of heroism and spiritual searching help us to put into context our own poor efforts as servants of Allah.
One of the most human of these stories is that of Hamzah ibn Abd Al-Muttalib, the uncle of Prophet Muhammad.
The story of his call to Islam is all the more amazing because it was not brought about by the reading of books, nor after hearing a beautiful sermon, nor after searching and pondering over the meaning of life. His return to Islam was a direct result of his very strong sense of family honor.
Embracing Islam The story is very simple. It happened like this. For three years Prophet Muhammad had spoken to only a few people about the revelations he had so far received from Angel Jibreel (Gabriel), and for a further three years he struggled against great odds to make the message known to the wider community in Makkah.
One day, Prophet Muhammad was walking at the foot of Mount As-Safa in Makkah when Abu Jahl met him. Abu Jahl began to hurl insults at him and to ridicule the message of the Oneness of Allah that he was preaching. Some reports even say that he took a stone and hit Muhammad with it, causing his head to bleed. The Prophet did not respond to the taunts, and Abu Jahl moved to the Kabah at the center of the town, where he boasted to his tribes people of what he had done.
Hamzah was one of the Prophet's staunchest supporters and did everything he could to protect him. [We know that your breast is distressed by what they say.] (Al-Hijr 15:97)
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