© The Author(s) 2015
Mohammed Ali Al-Bar and Hassan Chamsi-PashaContemporary Bioethics10.1007/978-3-319-18428-9_22. The Sources of Common Principles of Morality and Ethics in Islam
(1)
Medical Ethics Center, International Medical Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
(2)
Department of Cardiology, King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Introductory Remarks
All nations have common principles in morality and ethics. The source of these moral and ethical attitudes can be traced back to three main sources:
1.
Intuitive Reasoning (al-fitra) or the basic innate constitution of all human beings. In every person there is an innate intuition that can guide him/her to right or wrong in, at least, the basic morals. Killing an innocent person is repudiated and considered as an abominable, detestable crime, by all normal human beings whose innate constitution has not been distorted by wrong beliefs, practices, and attitudes. The Qur’an extolled the unblemished innate nature in many verses, including, for example, the following:
Our Sibghah (religion) is the Sibghah (Religion) of Allah (Islam) and which Sibghah (religion) can be better than Allah’s? And we are His worshippers. (Q. 2:138)
So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah (i.e. Allah’s Islamic Monotheism) upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know (Q. 30:30)
In a tradition, the Prophet said: “Everyone is born with the basic innate nature which is inclined to submit to God; then his parents bring him up as a Jew or as a Christian or Magian. (Narrated by Bukhari and Muslim) [1].
The untainted nature can discern that lying, breaking promises, stealing and so forth are bad and wrong and that veracity, keeping promises, fidelity and honesty are good and right. The basic principles of ethics lie deep in every soul. The intuition and innate constitution guide those with normal unblemished nature to the right conduct and keep them away from malevolent behavior.
2.
Faculty of Reason (al-‘Aql): The ability to reason and derive a decision by using one’s mind. The Qur’an extolled those who are wise, thoughtful and ponder over matters as a result of their accepting the call of the prophets of God. Thus, the Qur’an says:
You who believe. If you heed Allah, He will give you criteria (by which you will judge right from wrong), and will cleanse you of your sins and forgive you. (Q. 8:29)
However, the Qur’an also speaks about those who refused to use their faculty of reason and willfully transgress the boundaries set by God’s commands. Such people will find their abode in Hell:
They will say: If only we had really listened and used our reason (minds), we would not have been companions of the Blaze. (Q. 67:10)
The reason should be used to reflect on creatures of the Lord and his signs spread all over:
And in Your creation and all the creatures He has spread about, there are signs for people who use their reason (Q. 45:4)
There are signs for people who use their reason. (Q. 16:1)
There are those people who are blind to the truth because they refuse to see it despite the fact that they have normal eyesight, and refuse to hear despite the fact they have normal hearing:
And surely, We have created many of the jinns and mankind for Hell. They have hearts wherewith they understand not, they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones. (Q. 7:179)
And Allah guides not the people who disbelieve. They are those upon whose hearts, hearing (ears) and sight (eyes) Allah has set a seal. And they are the heedless! (Q. 16:108).
The blind and the seeing are not the same. Nor are those who believe and do right, the same as evildoers. (Q. 40:58)
It is only people of understanding who heed. (Q.13:19)
Truly it is not their eyes that are blind, but their hearts which are in their breast. (Q. 22:46)
Similar themes can be gauged in the biblical literature. Hence, for instance, one reads in the Gospel of Matthew about what Jesus (PBUH) said: “The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand. Isaiah said: This people will listen and listen but not understand; they will look and look, but not see because there minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes.” (Matthew 13/13–16).
It is logical to derive that people of wisdom acquire morality. They are honest, just, sincere, benevolent, modest, never inflicting harm (non-maleficence) except with very good reason to thwart greater harm. They are usually tolerant and forgive the misdeeds of others. The one who possess sagacity and discernment has the ability to analyze an event, or behavior in the best possible way. He can draw the best conclusions and make the right decisions.
Human beings are endowed with the faculty of reasoning by which one can discern right from wrong. However this pure faculty could be enmeshed and lured by instincts and carnal desires, egotism, search for pleasure, selfishness and hedonism. All the vices will ensue if the carnal desires, egotism, arrogance, pride, hegemony, unsatiated desire for wealth and power, are not controlled by reason and revelation. Both are needed to control the beast in each one of us hidden deep in the egotistic arrogant selfish desires. Man should strive hard to control his desires and aspire to those exalted who always do good and refrain from harming others: “And those who strive in Our (cause), We will certainly guide them to Our paths; for verily God is with those who do right” (Q. 29:69).
The first and foremost requirement in the development of moral-spiritual is to work on the control of the lower self from “doing harm” to any creature (humans, animals or ecosystem), except in self-defense and in order to thwart aggression. This striving is followed, or may go hand in hand, by doing good to others (beneficence). The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) told one of his companions that if you are not capable of doing good to others, at least do no harm to them [2]. According to the famous Muslim theologian, al-Ghazali: “If you cannot reach the level of angels, then do not fall into the level of beasts, scorpions and snakes. If your soul is content to come down from the highest heights, at least, do not let it be content into the lowest depths (to the rank of beasts, snakes and scorpions). Perhaps you will be saved by the middle way where you have neither more nor less than what suffices” [3]. The Qur’an says:
We have indeed created man in the best of stature, then We abase him to the lowest of the low. (Q. 95:4,5).
Certainly belief in Oneness of God guides the believers to noble virtues and righteous deeds, and admonishes them to refrain from vices and heinous deeds. The Prophet said: “I solemnly declare that a person who inflicts harm to his neighbor is not a believer of God” [4]. In another tradition he said, “A woman entered Hellfire, because she incarcerated a cat until it died of hunger and thirst” [5]. Still in another tradition, a prostitute of Bani Israel was thirsty so she came to a well, and got water for herself to drink. When she finished she found a dog very thirsty, so she went back to the well and got him water in her shoe and quenched its thirst. God was pleased with her deed and let her enter Paradise [6].
Muslim Philosophers like Ibn Tufail believe that any normal human being can recognize God, with his divinely endowed nature and his reason. He wrote the Story of Hayy bin Yaqzan whose mother delivered him on a remote island, and died in post partum. A gazelle felt sympathy for this newly born, and reared him like a mother. When he grew up, she died, and he was stunned, and dissected her body to know what happened. He went on pondering and by using his intuitive reason he reached the conclusion that indeed there was a Creator for this world, and he worshipped Him silently until a learned sage came to his island. They became friends and Hayy learned a language from him. Both were amazed when they found that Hayy reached to the conviction of a Supreme Being, the Creator of this world, without any guidance from anybody or revelation except his own intuition and reason.
Ibn Sina, Ibn Tufail, Al Kindi, Al Farabi, Al Razi, among many other Muslim philosophers believed that human being can recognize God and most of His attributes, without revelation if he uses his intuition and reason properly, and if it is not masked by carnal instincts, and false beliefs. They thought that the multitude of common people needed revelation, but the intellectuals and the philosophers can reach to the same conclusion without the guidance of a Prophet or his representative. Ibn Sina believed that revelation is also needed for men of intellect, not to reach the recognition of God, but to describe for them the proper code of life. Ibn Sina came to this conclusion in his later days, when he almost became a mystic Sufi.
Ibn Sina defied the other philosophers (or at least some of them) who saw that the revealed religion suits only the common people, while men of intellect are suited for philosophy. Ibn Sina held that a Prophet like Muhammad (PBUH) is superior to any philosopher, as the Prophet is not dependent on human reason, which can err, but is wholly dependent on revelation from God, which will never err. In his “book al-Isharat” signs (Admonitions) he became a mystic Sufi and became critical of the rational approach to God. Ibn Sina worked out a rational demonstration for the existence of God, based on Aristotle’s proofs, which became standard among later medieval philosophers in both Judaism and Islam [7]. However, neither he nor the Islamic philosophers ever doubted the existence of God, and that unaided normal human reason can arrive at knowledge of the existence of Supreme Being. Reason was man’s most exalted activity and it has an important role in the religious quest. Ibn Sina thought it was a religious duty for those who had the intellectual ability to discover God for themselves by using reason and to free the conception of God from superstitions (added to true religion) and anthropomorphism. Ibn Sina and others like him, wanted to use reason to discover as much as they could about the nature of God.
This attitude seems strange in modern philosophy. Reason is used in Western modern philosophy in a more mundane and pragmatic way as in a utilitarian consequentiality school, or to stress the importance of deontology, the categorical philosophy of Kant and his followers to establish the basis of ethics and morality on secular grounds. It is ironic that post modernist philosophers of the West in the twentieth century attacked “Reason” and all the philosophies built on Reason [8].
3.
Divine Revelation (al-wahy, Tanzil): Muslims believe that God guides humanity by sending a number of prophets and apostles, who are the bearers of the revelation. Muslim believe that since the beginning of history there have been a hundred and 24,000 minor and major prophets who came to guide humanity about their origin and final return to God. These prophets receive the revelations from God. However, the major Prophets are sent with a universal message from God, and a Shari’ah (Code of Life) to organize the community of faithful—the Umma, into a universal body of the believers. These prophets brought monotheistic faith in One God, but as time passed by their followers distorted the pure monotheism and brought back their old deities to be worshipped along with God. The first such prophet of God was Adam and the last is Muhammad (PBUH). A Muslim should believe in all of them, whether he knows their names, origins or not. The Qur’an mentions a number of them. Thus, it mentions, for instance Noah (Nuh), Abraham (Ibrahim), Ishmael (Ismail), Isaac (Ishaq), Jacob (Ya’qub/Israel), Joseph (Yusuf), Moses (Musa), Zacaria (Zakariyah), Jesus (Isa), John the Baptist (Yahya), Jonah (Yunus), Lot and so on. All these are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (with difference in their stories). Others who were not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, like Hud, Salih, Shu’yib are considered of Arab origin. Nevertheless, all of them stressed belief in one God, the Supreme Lord of all the worlds and creatures. The Qur’an is replete with the admonition of the messengers of God to their nations from the time of Noah, Hud, Salih, Shu’ayb, Lot, and every Prophet and Messenger of God who proclaimed the unity of God by declaring:
Invoke your Lord with humility and in secret. He likes not the aggressors. And do not do mischief on the earth, after it has been set in order, and invoke Him with fear and hope; Surely, Allah’s Mercy is (ever) near unto the good-doers. (Q. 7:56–57)
Muslims believe in all these prophets and the divine messages they brought with them. The Qur’an says:
Say we believe in God, and His revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes; and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to all prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them; and we bow to God in submission (islam). (Q. 2:136–138)
The Apostle believes in what has been revealed to him from His Lord; as do the men of faith. Each one of them believes in God, His Angels, His books and His Apostles. We make no distinction between one and another of His Apostles. And they say we hear, we obey; we seek your forgiveness. (Q. 2:285).
In the tradition reported on the authority of the Prophet, he said: My example and the example of the preceding Prophets is similar to a man who enters a wonderful building, which he admires, but for a cleft in the wall, which needs to be sealed by a slab (or a slate). The building represents the past prophets and I am only the slab which fills the gap” (narrated by Muslim in his authentic collection of traditions) [9]. The Prophet Muhammad is the culmination of a long history of prophethood and messengers of God. This is captured by the Qur’an when it declares:
This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon, and have chosen for you Islam, as your religion. (Q. 5:3).
Islam is the religion that unites the entire humanity from Adam till doomsday and considers all nations to have witnessed One God through the messages and teachings of their respective prophets:
There is no nation that was not given an admonisher. (Q. 35:24).
All peoples are the progeny of Adam who was elevated to be the vicegerent of God on earth:
Behold thy Lord said to the angels: I will create on earth a vicegerent. (Q. 2:30).
And He (Allah) taught Adam the nature (names) of all things. (Q. 2/31).
Adam was endowed with the knowledge which the angels did not know, and for that reason God ordered them to bow to Adam in respect and veneration. (Q. 2:30–34). And not only Adam was honored by Allah, but also his progeny:
We honored the progeny of Adam, provided them with transport on land and sea, given them for sustenance things good and pure, and conferred on them special favors above a great part of our creation. (Q. 17:70).
It is in this sense that Islam teaches respect for the human body. In a tradition the Prophet rebuked a man who broke a bone from the cemetery without any good reason and told him, “The guilt of breaking the bones of the dead is equal to the guilt of breaking the bones of the living” (narrated by Abu Dawud Sunan Abi Dawud, Kitabal–jana’iz), [10].
In other words, due respect and reverence should be given to the funeral as exemplified by the Prophet who stood up in veneration for the passing by of a funeral of a Jew, at a time when Jews were waging war against him (and tried to assassinate him and then poison him but failed). One of his companions exclaimed: “It is only the funeral of a Jew”. The Prophet (PBUH) retorted: “Is it not a human being?” [11] (Sahih al–Bukhari, Kitab al–jana’iz).
The unity of human beings is established in many verses of the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet. The value of a human being depends on his good deeds, and not on his wealth or position:
Oh mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah (God) is he who is the most righteous of you. (Q. 49:13).
Karen Armstrong in her book “A History of God” [12] says: “In practical terms, Islam meant that Muslims had a duty to create a just equitable society where the poor and vulnerable are treated decently. The early moral message of the Qur’an is simple: It is wrong to stockpile wealth and build a private fortune, and good to share the wealth of society fairly by giving a regular proportion of one’s wealth to the poor”. (Holy Qur’an 92/18, 9/103, 63/9, 102/1).
The zakat (alms giving) and salat (prayers) are two of the five Pillars of Islam. These five are (1) Shahada (i.e. witnessing that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger), (2) Salat (Regular five prayers each day) (3) Zakat: Compulsory alms giving which is a definite share of the wealth to be distributed every year to the needy and poor. (4) Fasting during the month of Ramadan (the 9th lunar month in the Islamic calendar) from dawn to sunset (5) Hajj (pilgrimage) to Makkah, at least, once in a lifetime, if a person has the amenities and means to go there.
Each of these has a great moral value, for example, prayers are done five times a day in congregation. There are no priests or clergy to lead the congregation. Any Muslim who knows the prayer and the rules of this ritual can lead them. The imam stands in the front while the rest stand behind him close to each other (shoulder to shoulder) with no difference between race, color, wealth or even age. Women usually stand in the back rows inconspicuously. However, it is recommended for them to pray in the privacy of their home.
The aim of Salat is multiple: Adoration of Allah, speaking to Him directly by reciting His word, the Qur’an, sense of equality and legality. The Salat should prevent those who pray from shameful and unjust deeds.
Establish regular prayers for prayers restrain from shameful and unjust deeds. (Q. 29/45).
The Zakat (literally purification and growth) frees Muslims from worship of wealth and teaches them to share their wealth with the needy and poor:
Take (O Muhammad) from their wealth a charity by which you purify them (Q. 9:103).
Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy, and for those employed to collect it, and for bringing hearts together (for Islam, usually the new reverts), and for freeing slaves, and for those in debt (for a good cause), and for the cause of Allah, and the wayfarer. (Q. 9:60).
Have you seen the one who denies the Day of Judgment, for that is the one who repulses the orphan, and does not encourage the feeding of the indigent. So woe to those who pray, (but) who are heedless of their prayers. Those who only make show (of their deeds), and refuse (even) neighborly needs (Surah Al–Ma’un – Almsgiving Q. 107: 1–7).
Similarly fasting a whole month from dawn to sunset, abstaining from food, drink and sex with a spouse, teaches each Muslim to develop a disciplined life and to forebear and remember the poor and needy who do not even get their meals. The month of Ramadan is celebrated with communal meals, congregational prayers and giving a lot to the needy and indigent.
Every Muslim has to make hajj, at least once in a lifetime, if he can afford the journey and expense. All those who go to Hajj, put off their clothes, garments and get into the simple traditional pilgrim’s white dress that eradicates all distinction of race or class. Furthermore, the person who adorns the required attire get liberated from the egotistic preoccupations of their daily lives. They all cry out in unison, “Here I am at your service O Allah”; and then start to circumambulate around the Ka’aba (the holiest shrine in Islam) seven times, along with multitudes (almost tens of thousands at a time, the total being more than 3 million).
Ali Shariati, the late Iranian sociologist of religion described his experience succinctly. “As you circumambulate and move closer to Ka’aba, you feel like a small stream merging with a big river. Carried by a wave you lose touch with the ground. As you approach the center, the pressure of the crowd squeezes you so hard that you are given a new life. You are now part of the people, you are now a man, alive and eternal… You have become part of this universal system. Circumambulating around Allah’s house, you soon forget yourself…you have been transformed into a particle that is gradually melting and disappearing. This is absolute love at its peak.” [13].
This is the true significance of the affirmation of islam, which literally means “surrender/peace.” Every Muslim has to surrender himself/herself in obeisance to Allah, The Creator, The Sovereign, The Merciful, The Exalted who has ninety-nine beautiful names or attributes:
He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity (no other God) Who knows (all things), both the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most Gracious, Most Merciful. He is Allah other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, and the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him. He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names (attributes). Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise (Q.59:22–24).
According to Karen Armstrong [14]: “There was no obligatory doctrines about God; indeed the Qur’an is highly suspicious of theological speculation, dismissing it as Zanna/Self-indulgent guesswork about things that nobody can possibly know or prove. The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation and the Trinity seemed prime examples of Zanna, and not surprisingly, the Muslims found these notions blasphemous. Instead…God was experienced as a moral imperative. Having practically no contact with either Jews or Christians and their scriptures, Muhammad had cut straight into the essence of historical monotheism.”
Further down she writes: “In the Qur’an, however Allah is more impersonal than Yahweh…” We can only glimpse something of God in the signs of nature, and so transcendent is He that we can only talk about Him in parables. Constantly, therefore the Qur’an urges Muslims to see the world as epiphany:
Verily in the creation of the heavens and of the earth and the succession of night and day in the ships that speed through the sea with what is useful to man; and in the waters which God sends down from the sky, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless, and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply there on; and in the change of the winds, and the clouds that run their appointed courses between sky and earth. (In all this) there are signs, indeed for people who use their reason. (Q. 2/158, 159).
“The Qur’an constantly stresses the need for intelligence in deciphering the “signs” or “messages” of God. Muslims are not to abdicate their reason, but to look at the world attentively and with curiosity. It was with this attitude that later enabled Muslims to build a fine tradition of natural science, which has never been seen as such a danger to religion as in Christianity. A study of the workings of the natural world showed that it had a transcendent dimension and source, whom we can talk about only in signs and symbols; even the stories of the Prophets, the accounts of the Last Judgment, and the joys of Paradise would not be interpreted literally, but as parables of higher ineffable reality.” The Prophet said that Jannah i.e. Paradise is something that no eye has seen or heard of or evencrosses the imagination of any human being) [15].
The Qur’an emphatically denied any association with God, neither as wife or son:
Say: He is the One God, the Eternal Refuge (the uncaused cause of all beings). He begets not, and neither is He begotten, and there is nothing that could be compared to Him (Q. 112:1–3).
“But they have attributed to Allah partners- the jinn, while He has created them. And they falsely, having no knowledge attribute to Him sons and daughters. Praise and glory be to Him (for He is) above what they attribute to Him. He is the originator of the heavens and earth. How can He have a son when He has no consort? He created all things and He has full knowledge of all things”.
That is God (Allah), your Lord, the Creator of all things, so worship Him, and He is the Disposer of all things. Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives all vision, and He is the Subtle (above all comprehension) yet acquainted with all things (Q. 6:100–103).
According to the explanation provided by Karen Armstrong [16], The perception of God’s uniqueness is the basis of the morality of the Qur’an. To give allegiance to material goods, or to put trust in lesser beings was Shirk (idolatry), the greatest sin of Islam…Muslims must realize that Allah is the ultimate and unique reality…There is no deity but Allah the Creator of the heaven and earth, who alone can save man and send him the spiritual and physical sustenance that he needs. Only by acknowledging Him as as-Samad (The uncause cause of all being) would Muslims address a dimension of reality beyond times and history… She continues: “There is no simplistic notion of God, however, this single deity is not a being like ourselves which we can know and understand. The phrase “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater) that summons Muslims to Salat (prayers 5 times a day) distinguishes between God and the rest of the reality, as well as between God as He is in Himself (al-Dhat) and anything that we can say about Him; yet this incomprehensible and inaccessible God wanted to make Himself known. An early tradition (hadith of the Prophet) says: “I was a hidden treasure; I wanted to be known. Hence, I created the world so that I might be known” [17].
By contemplating the signs (ayat) of nature and the verses of the Qur’an, Muslim could glimpse that aspect of divinity…we only see God through His activities, which adapt His Ineffable being to our limited understanding. The Qur’an urges Muslims to cultivate perpetual consciousness (taqwa) of the Face or the Self of God that surrounds them on all sides “Wheresoever you turn, there is the Face of Allah” (Q. 2:115)…Qur’an sees God as the Absolute, “Who alone Has True Existence”.
The Qur’an stressed the continuity of the religious experience of humankind, and teaches that God sent Messengers to every people on the face of earth. The Qur’an orders Muslims to argue other faiths with respect and friendly attitude, “Do not argue with the Peoples of the Scriptures except in the most kindly manner-unless it be such of them as are set on evil doing- and say: We believe in that which has been bestowed upon us, as well as that which was bestowed upon you; for our God and your God is one and the same, and unto Him that we surrender ourselves”. (Q. 29:46). Indeed, the religion of God introduced the compassionate ethos which was the hallmark of the more advanced religion: brotherhood and social justice were its crucial virtues. A strong egalitarianism would continue to characterize the Islamic ideal [18].
Gender Equality, the Hallmark of Islam
During pre-Islamic period, known as the Age of Ignorance (jahiliya), the majority of women were on par with slaves; they were disdained and the birth of a female child was considered as a calamity. Some would hide in disgrace, others would kill the newly born female child immediately after birth; still worse he might keep her and then he would take her and bury her alive.
The Qur’an condemned this callous disgraceful behavior:
And when the female (infant) buried alive (as the pagan Arabs used to do) shall be questioned. For what sin she was killed? (Q. 81:8–9)
If one of them receive the tidings of a female, his face darkens, and he is in wrath inwardly. He hides himself from his folk because of the bad news. He contemplates: Shall he keep the child in contempt or bury it (her) in the dust? Verily evil is their judgment. (Q.16:58,59)
They despised women because they could not fight. Moreover, since feuds and fights were almost a daily phenomenon between different tribes, there was deep-seated fear that if they get conquered, the enemy would enslave children and women. The men, when they felt the defeat, they fled the battlefield. Consequently, disgrace would befall the whole tribe for ages.
The Qur’an not only forbade the killing of female children (infanticide), it also gave women legal rights of inheritance (which they were deprived from when there was a male inheritor) and divorce. The Prophet encouraged women to play an active role in the affairs of Ummah. The first person on earth to believe in the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH) was his beloved wife Khadija, who supported him all through his life. In fact, when the Prophet had the first encounter with revelation in the Cave of Hira in Makkah, he came back trembling from the harsh new experience with the Archangel Gabriel. Khadija supported him and he was afraid of being attacked by bad spirits turning him into insanity. It was Khadija who reassured him saying: “Nay…never will Allah let you down. You are kind and considerate towards kin. You help the poor and forlorn, and bear their burdens. You are striving to restore the high moral qualities that your people have lost. You honor the guest and go to the assistance of those in distress. This cannot be that you are attacked by an evil spirit” [19].
She took him to her cousin Waraqa bin Nawfal, an old learned sage, who had adopted Christianity, and after hearing from Muhammad (PBUH), he reassured him that he had received a revelation from God, similar to that revealed to Moses and the Prophets, and that his tribe (Quraysh) will drive him out of Makkah. He wished to be alive then, to support him.
The first batch of Muslims included slaves, Sumayyah, her husband Yasir and her son Ammar, who were exposed to torture by Quraish. Sumayyah was the first martyr in Islam. She was followed by her husband Yasir, but Ammar was saved.
Khadija herself suffered greatly when Quraysh prevented Muslims to have any dealings with people of Makkah and its traders. This was a total boycott of the Hashimites, the Prophet’s clan. No food was allowed for them, and all of them suffered greatly. After 3 years of full siege it was lifted when the Prophet informed Quraysh that their written oath (to deprive Muslims from their necessities and push them into hunger) which was hanged in Ka’ba was eaten by moth except the name of Allah. Both Khadija and the Prophet’s uncle, Abu Talib, who also supported him, died in that same year.
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