لطفا منتظر باشید ...
Arabian Peninsula
The territory of Arabia is very wonderful and miraculous
and it will retain this characteristic even in future.
It contains very large deserts. If these deserts had not been
devoid of rains and had been green and fertile this land
would have fed the hungry and clothed the naked of the
world. However, unfortunately Arabia has always remained
a desert. It contains vast areas comprising mounds of sand,
small and dry hills and stony tracts, which are neither
cultivable nor habitable. If farming had been possible this
region would have been thickly populated, but the position
is otherwise. Although this territory is surrounded by sea
on three sides, the rains are very scanty and it is very hot
during summer.
It also rains in some areas which makes the atmosphere
somewhat cool. However, when the scorching wind blows
it is so hot that trees and plants become dry and even the
animals die of heat.
The Arab poets liken zephyr, which always blows
from the eastern side, with the breeze of Paradise.
There are no perennial rivers in Arabia. However, as
and when rains come and the streams begin to flow, the
people avail of the opportunity and store water by constructing
dams. This water suffices only for some time.
Camel is the typical animal of Arabia which enjoys
a distinguished position as compared with the animals
found in other regions. The Almighty God has given
it long legs so that it may cover long distance easily and
may not get weary in the dreary deserts. Its hooves are
also such that its feet do not get thrust into the sand. It
also possesses sufficient stamina to cross the difficult
and strong paths and can tolerate heat as well as thirst.
God has given it an extraordinary stomach in which it
can store water to suffice for many days and as and
when water is not available its owner also takes out water
somehow from its stomach for his personal use. The
Arabs have given the camel thousands of names.
Vegetation is very rare in this territory. Some thorny
bushes grow but they too are withered on account of
shortage of water and severe heat. The dwellings of the
people are usually tents which cannot protect them either
from the scorching winds or from the heat of the sun.
In fact there is no difference between living in these tents
and living under the sky. For these reasons its population
is scanty and scattered. The people of Arabia do not
usually live at one place permanently but shift from
place to place.
The staple food of the Arabs is dried palm-dates.
To this is added the meat of the camels and the hunted
animals. On account of their spending their lives
permanently in the deserts warfare and bloodshed have
become a part of their nature. It is so hot in the desert
and valleys of the Arabian Peninsula that the earth accumulates
sufficient heat to enable the people to roast
the animals on the sand.
Similar deserts replete with sand, scanty and scattered
population and uniformity of conditions are very tiresome
things and make life unpleasant. Aspiration and hope
which are the capital of happy life do not exist anywhere
in this desert.
In such difficult circumstances and with such uniform
life it was not possible for the nomadic Arabs to become
acquainted with the vicissitudes of life and the various
ways and manners of the other people of the world.
Existence of righteousness and piety which make the heart
of man accept faith cannot be imagined in a barren land.
Such qualities develop in green and fertile lands and not
in stony and dry areas. They develop in persons who are
endowed with blessings of all kinds and not in the hearts
of those who are devoid of them.
A few small towns and settlements of those times
were not very significant, firstly because their number
was very small and secondly their position was no better
than a few tents pitched in a barren desert, which had to
suffer the onslaught of unfavourable winds. Of course, in
taif and Madina better means of livelihood were available.
As regards Mecca it was an idol-temple. Its residents
were tradesmen in whose eyes one dinar was more valuable
than the life of a human being.
A life of poverty and indigence in a desert burning
like hell with the present full of despair and the future
without any hope- this was the condition of what was
called the Arabian Peninsula.
What is surprising is this that although there are
many lands adjacent to Arabia which are fertile and
contain all amenities of life, there were people who
ignored all these facilities and preferred to lead a miserable
life in this barren land. They, therefore, never thought
of stepping out of this desert. And what is more surprising
is the people there considered their homeland to be
superior to the entire remaining world. They neither wanted
to leave it, nor desired to choose another place as their
homeland. This was a miracle of the Arabian Desert
even before the prophet of Islam was appointed to the
prophetic mission.
However, if we compare all the cold and sweet
springs, the fertile and green lands, the beautiful sceneries,
the wealth and all other blessings available to various
countries, other than Arabia, with the thing which appeared
in that land, all those blessings and facilities appear to be
of no value. The Arabian Desert, the land of miracles,
produced something which is superior to all other blessings.
That magnanimous being was the great personality who
showered his blessings on all human beings, who cleansed
the springs of reality, because of whom the value of life
became known, righteousness and deliverance became
great things, and reality was elevated viz. Muhammad.
The birth of the cousin of Muhammad, Ali, in Arabia,
where human life was not worth more than a dinar was the
second miracle of this Desert.
