Shining Stars
Sa‘d bin Abi Waqqas g
The Bowslinger: Part III
by Abu Saalem
‘Turning the other cheek’ is not mandated under Islamic
code nor does it define the essence of true Islamic conduct
even now, but there was a time in our history when pacifism
was necessary to achieve very specific spiritual ends.
In the Makkan period, the Sahaba l were discouraged
from retaliating to any type of persecution, Islamophobic
propaganda, or oppression from the Makkans. They could
not protest, in any manner, against the injustices that
took place in public and/or private, and were expected
to bear all hardships with patience and steadfastness.
This only made matters worse and the number of attacks
against Muslims escalated. The hate-mongering also
increased and helped create a mob mentality in which
Makkans openly attacked the Sahaba l in the markets
and other public areas with impunity and in defiance
to tribal allegiances and affiliations. In fact, one of the
ways mufassirun can recognized the difference between
the Makkan ayahs and the Madani ayahs is that only the
Makkan ayahs narrated stories of the persecution of past
prophets as a way to assuage the situation of the Sahaba l
in Makka Mukarrama and urge them toward forbearance.
Therefore, when Khabab bin al-Arat g once asked the
blessed Prophet a to invoke Allah against the Makkans,
the blessed Prophet a told the story of a believer from a
previous nation and said, “There was a man from before
you for whom a hole was dug in the ground. He was
thrown in the hole and then a saw was brought and he was
sawed into half” (Bukhari; ‘Alamat al-Nubuwwa fi al-Islam).
Another way to recognize the ayahs of Makka Mukarrama
and Madina Munawwara, mufassirun say, is that the ayahs
relating to struggling in the path of Allah are singularly
Madani ayahs, while most, if not all the ayahs about being
steadfast, establishing lofty character, and calling towards
faith in the basic tenets of Islam is characteristic of the
Makkan-revealed ayahs (al-Saleh, Dr. Subhi; Mabahith fi
‘Ulum al-Qur’an: Ilm al-Makki wa al-Madani).
Sa‘d bin Abi Waqqas g was, as mentioned earlier (in
Bowslinger, Part II), defiant and fiercely independent
in character. As difficult as the unsaid policy of nonretaliation
was for the Sahaba l, it was an effective way
14 January - February 2020 | AL-MADINAH