Strange
Happenings

When God told Muhammad that it was time

to speak out to the people about the One God,

it was not a very popular message,

and at first most people laughed at him.

But some people were attracted to the beauty of what he said,

as well as recognising that it made a lot of sense.

And some people were given much stronger signs

that this new way of worship was what they should be doing.

One such,

Khalid, son of Sa'id ibn al-'As,

woke one day from a terrifying dream

and felt that he had to find out what it meant.

So he went to ask the advice of Abu Bakr.

He told him that he had dreamed

he was standing at the edge of a great pit

filled with a vast raging fire

when his father came

and tried to push him into it.

As they were struggling,

at the moment of his greatest terror,

he felt himself being pulled back from the edge,

and when he looked round

he saw that it was Muhammad.

At which point he woke up.

"I wish you joy"

said Abu Bakr

"the man who saved you was the Messenger of God,

so follow him."

And with that

Khalid went to see Muhammad

and accepted Islam as his way of life.

At about the same time,

a merchant was on his way home from Syria

when he was awoken one night by a loud voice

crying out in what seemed like empty desert.

"Sleepers, wake up,

for truly Ahmad has come forth in Makkah"

said the voice,

but the merchant couldn't understand what it could mean.

Before reaching Makkah

he was overtaken by a man of Taym named Talbah,

a cousin of Abu Bakr,

who himself had something strange happen on his journey,

when he had been asked by a Christian monk at Bostra

if 'Ahmad' had appeared in Makkah.

When Talbah asked who this 'Ahmad' was

the monk told him "the son of 'Abd al-Muttalib's son 'Abd Allah",

namely Muhammad.

After they told of their experiences,

Talbah suggested that they visit Abu Bakr,

and after he heard their stories

he took them to meet with Muhammad,

where they immediately accepted Islam.

The merchant was a son of the Umayyad 'Affan,

and grandson of one of 'Abd al-Muttalib's daughters,

Umm Hakim al-Bayda, Muhammad's aunt.

The merchant was Uthman,

later to become caliph

and to die being stabbed to death

while he was reading the Qur'an.

And these were not the last strange events

to wake people from their slumbers and lead them to the Messenger,

to hear the Words of God,

and follow his new way of worship,

accepting the way of life that is Islam.