“It was on one of these days that, in a solitary and contemplative state, he had taken refuge in a cave on Mount Hira – the year was 610 – and he received his first revelation. Mohammed was lying down in the cave when suddenly, a very intense light flooded the bare walls, assailing him. A commanding and insistent voice called him by name and ordered him to read. Mohammed was deeply troubled – he felt that someone was strongly embracing him – and in response to his hesitation, the voice continued to insist, and said to him then:
Recite in the name of your Lord who created: Created man from a clinging substance. Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous - Who taught by the pen - Taught man that which he knew not. (Koran 96:1-5)
“Now Mohammed, who did not know how to read or write, left the cave trembling with fear, and returned to the comforting arms of Khadija. To proclaim himself as prophet of the only God in the Mecca of those days meant being persecuted, banished, captured and tortured, which naturally filled Mohammed with dreadful consternation. However, he continued to withdraw to the same cave on Mount Hira to meditate, and there he received the second revelation of God:
O you who covers himself [with a garment]! Arise and warn! And your Lord glorify! And your clothing purify! And uncleanliness avoid! And do not confer favor to acquire more! But for your Lord be patient! (Koran 74:1-7)
Mohammed resolved to set out on an arduous and giant undertaking which was to proclaim to everyone the presence of one single God, of which he was the Prophet. Khadija was the first to believe. The Prophet also invited his closest friends and relatives to join his religion. At the end of three years, he had managed to gather thirty followers who practiced the faith in secret, given the prevalence of polytheist beliefs in Mecca, and at a certain point, Mohammed decided to take more ambitious steps. He increased his exposure to risk and began to address the multitudes directly, exhorting them to exchange their paganism for belief in the only God. This inevitably attracted the attention of the Quraysh, who began to try to discredit him, spreading propaganda that Mohammed was a crazy man and that he was possessed by evil spirits, yet despite all these difficulties, the Prophet never wavered. The Quraysh threatened to use force and other actions, such as placing thorns in places where the followers of Mohammed (the Muslims) prayed, or chasing after them and throwing all kinds of filth on their bodies. A group of Muslims then sought refuge in Abyssinia, whose king was thought to be tolerant and hospitable, but in response to this, the Quraysh, urged King Negus of Abyssinia to hand over the fugitives. One of the most remarkable events in the history of Islam is the defense of Ja’far, spokesman for this this group of exiles, offered up to King Negus, when he asked whether the accusations of the Quraysh were true:
O King! We were sunk in the depths of ignorance and barbarism, we worshipped idols, we lived without morality, we fed upon dead meat and spoke abominations, we were indifferent to any human sentiment, and to the duties of hospitality and being good neighbors, and all we knew was the law of brute force. Then God raised up among us a man whose birth, truthfulness, honesty and purity made us aware. He summoned us to the Unity of God, and taught us not to associate God with anything. He forbade us to worship idols, persuaded us to speak the truth and fulfill our duties, to be merciful and respect the rights of our neighbors. He forbade us to slander women and to deprive orphans of their rights. He ordered us to depart from vice and evil and to pray, to give alms and to fast. […] For this reason our own people rose up against us, persecuting us so we would stop worshipping God […] They tortured us and harassed us until, no longer finding it safe among them, we came here to your country.
Changing their tactics, the Quraysh decided then to offer great wealth to Mohammed so that, in exchange, he would cease to spread his message, but he persisted, infuriating the Quraysh. You could put the Sun in my right hand and the Moon in my left with the aim of making me renounce this mission, but you would not accomplish it. I shall not desist for as long as God wishes for me to continue. Mohammed decided at this point to go back to other cities and try to spread his message in Taif, a city close to Mecca. However, he ended up being expelled, stoned and bloodied. There followed a series of attempts at assassination by the Quraysh from which Mohammed managed to escape, one by one. However, having reached the age of seventy-five, his beloved Khadija died, plunging the Prophet into a period of bitter grief.
It was around this time that the night journey occurred, a central event in the life of the Prophet. Mohammed was sleeping in a place that would later come to be known as the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, in an area close to the Ka’aba. Penetrating into his sleep, the archangel Gabriel appeared and led him magically out of the mosque. The Prophet mounted onto the back of a white, winged creature, something between a mule and a donkey, and whose strides spanned distances as far as the eye could see. Mohammed traveled in these supernatural conditions to the mosque of Jerusalem and there encountered other prophets: Abraham, Moses, Jesus and others. It was then that the ascension took place. Looking through his heart and his soul, Mohammed rose up until he saw Paradise beyond the earth, and at the peak of his ascent was the supreme tree of knowledge, with its roots in the trunk, and which indicates to all the end of knowledge, regardless of whether they are prophets or archangels.
“After this chapter in the life of Mohammed which is the night journey, a group of twelve men from the city of Yathrib, ten of them being from a Jewish tribe, contacted Mohammed. They swore not to associate anything with God, not to steal or commit adultery, not to kill children, not to kill or debase others, and to obey the Prophet completely. Later, they returned, reaffirming their oath, and there were now seventy three men and women. At this point, in the face of growing dangers and threats from the Quraysh, the Prophet decided to emigrate to Yathrib, which constituted the Hegira, a watershed event that marked the start of the Islamic calendar.
“His new city of residence received him in ecstasy. Its name was changed to Medina-tun Nabi, that is, the city of the Prophet. Mohammed was elected supreme lawgiver in a society that included Jews and pagans. Following his election, he issued a charter defining the rights and responsibilities of the citizens, in which it said, among other things:
“The state of peace and war will be common to all Muslims; no one among them shall have the right to make peace or declare war against the enemies of his fellow believers. The Jews who join our community shall be protected from all insults and vexations; they shall have the same rights as our people, and access to our assistance and help. The Jews from various branches and all others with a residence in Medina shall form one community, together with the Muslims: they shall be free to practice their religion, just as the Muslims are free to practice theirs.”
During this period the Prophet established major provisions that shaped the lives not only of the Muslims of that time, but of all others yet to come: turning towards Mecca to pray, the human voice to call the faithful to prayer instead of bells (and the first to issue the call was a black slave, Bilal, previously tortured by the Quraysh); the month of Ramadan for fasting (after another revelation of the Prophet); the obligation of zakat, the donation of a part of the personal fortune of each individual as alms for the poor and needy.
“The Quraysh, however, did not relent, and undertook to attack Medina. Inevitably, conflicts then began between the people of Mecca and those of Medina, and after each defeat, the Quraysh returned in ever greater numbers. However, it should be emphasized that, out of the sixty-three years in the life of the Prophet, only less than two months were spent in combat, and always only as an act of last resort in personal defense. It must be emphasized – my dear Argun, I hope you are still listening with full attention – that the Prophet is a man and not a God, as he made a point of reminding his followers whenever it was necessary, so that, like any man, he was subject to the vicissitudes of human life. Accordingly, he ate and drank and procreated, and if necessary, as a last resort, he defended himself and his people from the oppression of others. Howe
ver, as it is said, the greatest battles of his life are thought to have lasted less than one day. The evidence demonstrates that the Prophet repudiated the use of violence and always sought to avoid it, although when it became a matter of survival, he did not renounce the obligation to do battle.
“The Prophet made a pilgrimage to Mecca and signed a peace treaty that brought about a cessation of hostilities for ten years. However, two years later, the Quraysh violated these provisions. On January 11, 630, the Prophet entered Mecca in triumph with an army of ten thousand men. There was no resistance, such was the general disorientation in the city. Mohammed instructed his soldiers not to fight. Ordering a general amnesty, he said:
"No blame will there be upon you today. Allah will forgive you; and He is the most merciful of the merciful." (Koran: Chapter 12, Verse 92)
“The vanquished Quraysh were treated with benevolence and generosity. There was no pillaging of houses, there were no men or women molested. Reconciliation was promoted. The Prophet maintained his residence in Medina. One tribe after another appeared declaring loyalty to Mohammed. Ten years had not yet elapsed since the Hegira and Mohammed had already brought about the union of all of Arabia.
“In the year of his death and final pilgrimage to Mecca, Mohammed gave this farewell address:
“Lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether after this year I shall ever be amongst you again. […] regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. […] Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. […] Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord Allah, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds. […] you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have rights over you. […] Do treat your women well and be kind to them […] Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. [You are all equal with the same rights and similar obligations] […] Nothing shall [belong] to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves. […] All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly.
“At the end of hearing all these things, Argun was amazed, as though little by little he had been awakened from a long hypnosis. He had traveled through centuries. It was as though he had just seen Mohammed himself before him, and it seemed to him that much of what he had felt upon waking from his amnesia was now explained, or at least, if not fully explained, he found it now reflected in the life of Mohammed and in this Islam that the imam had told him about. The idea of a single God on earth seemed clear to him now, as though something had clicked inside him that had enabled him to see everything more clearly.
As they left the mosque, Okan asked Argun if he wanted to pray with him now before they left. He accepted with a pure heart. However, as they prayed, kneeling and facing Mecca in the hall of prayer, his mind brought him another memory from his forgotten past in the form of some more brief and disconnected images. He was now in some city somewhere, and he clearly heard the call to prayer. The voice that came to him through the powerful loudspeakers repeated the Shahadah, the testimony: there is no divinity other than God and Mohammed is His Prophet. A swarm of people rushed past him, heading towards the beautiful mosque of rectilinear architecture and white walls, illuminated by streetlights. Argun mingled with the multitude and went into the mosque. In the midst of this crowd of men dressed in long white tunics to their ankles, he immediately noticed that he did not fit in, because he was wearing a suit and tie. It was hot and stifling, so he unbuttoned his collar and lowered the knot on his tie. He was sweating. He went into the mosque, took off his shoes and went to a sink where, kneeling down to the level of the faucets, he performed his ablutions, washing his hands, his mouth and then his nose, sniffing vigorously. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He felt terrible anguish. He opened his eyes again and continued with his purification, alongside a number of other Muslims carrying out the same ritual. He washed his face three times, his forearms, his head, his neck, and finally both feet. He then walked to his place among the others in the prayer hall, facing Mecca. He tried to concentrate but his nausea only increased. New memories came to him, and now they were far from the mosque. The more he tried to concentrate on these memories, the stronger his nausea and headache became. There then appeared to him in a totally unexpected fashion the following random images: a man with a long beard, very assertive, telling him something with his finger raised; himself and a number of other men taking shelter in a cavern under a deafening bombardment; a man at his side dropping to the ground, riven with machinegun bullets; the explosion of a bomb and pieces of shrapnel cutting through the flesh of a woman. Suddenly, his headache was so strong and excruciating that he could no longer endure it. He came to and found himself fallen on the cool floor of the mosque, back on Gökçeada. Seizing his head with both hands, terrified, he gave Okan a look of sheer, petrified horror.
16
Okan and Argun were walking through a vineyard lavishly planted with hectares of vines, all of them aligned with the ground and elevated on trellises of stone and wire so as to form long rows extending as far as the blue horizon. Okan was explaining the business of his vineyard to Argun and showing him the property. It was early in the afternoon and the sun shone fiercely at its peak. For this reason both of them were dressed in cool clothes, the only striking difference in their wardrobe was that Okan was wearing an orange shirt, and Argun a green one, both short sleeved.
“I’m going to tell you a story: a short history of wine in Turkey.” Okan had stopped at some rows of grapes and Argun stood beside him to listen. “Did you know that according to the most recent scientific studies, grapes have been grown in Turkey for more than six thousand years? Some of the oldest vineyard artefacts ever discovered on earth were discovered in Anatolia and eastern Turkey dating from that time, which makes Turkey one of the birthplaces of wine in the history of the world. Six thousand years ago, wine was being produced in Anatolia!”
“Six thousand years?” asked Argun, in astonishment.
“Six thousand years. In the Neolithic age. Then the time of the Jews came, then the time of the Christians. The time of Alexander the Great came, and then the Romans dominated this region which was, at that time, a land of Jews and Christians. Everything leads us to believe that at this time, wine production was stimulated, all the more so because for the Christians wine symbolizes the actual blood of Christ.”
“Then came the time of Mohammed, the time of Islam.”
“Exactly. And Islam, as you know, is not very favorably disposed to wine or any alcoholic beverage, and this slowed down the production of wine. But it didn’t make it disappear altogether. As the record shows, the Muslims who lived in these lands until the 13th century, around the time they were taken over by the Ottoman Empire, were tolerant of wine. During the time that the Ottoman Empire ruled here, however, wine was banned from Muslim culinary practices. It only survived among Armenian and Greek communities.”
“And so we come to modern times.”
“Yes, more recently, less than a century ago the Ottoman Empire came to an end, and with it came the creation of the Republic of Turkey under the command of the glorious Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. An admirer of the Enlightenment, of modernity, culture, freedom, democracy, equal rights, in short, a true reformer, the father of modern Turkey and first president of the new republic also, as far as wine was concerned, wanted to modernize the country and decided to revive the production of wine in Turkey, digging it up from the deep oblivion into which it had fallen.”
“Even so, the Koran recommends that a man should abstain from alcoholic beverages.”
“It also speaks of rivers in paradise of the most delicious wine. You know, Ataturk’s visionary leadership put an end to certain dogmas there were among us Turks, without preventing us from being true Muslims. He made it so that certain decisions were ours and
not imposed, he showed the Turks that certain things, like drinking alcohol, for example, as long as it’s not to excess, are not a mortal sin, and the mere production of wine or growing and selling grapes for its production even less so. And the truth is that resuming the cultivation of vineyards has not only created more jobs, but also created more wealth for the Turks. This is just established fact. But still it hasn’t been very long – I myself heard these stories, I heard others telling them, and I know that probably even today this will happen in certain rural areas – when I bought this property, and planted vineyards here aiming to sell grapes to make wine, lots of people told me it was very wrong, that what I was doing amounted to a mortal sin against Islam and that therefore I would face a terrible divine punishment. My lands, for example, would soon dry up. None of these grim prophecies they made have come true, and what’s more, it wasn’t long before many of these prophets of doom, seeing the money I was making, then felt free to grow grapes themselves and sell them for wine.
As he spoke these last words, Okan noticed that Argun had a gloomy look on his face.
The Miracle of Yousef: Historical and political thriller Page 29
