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to Abu Rafi'. Accordingly 'Abdu'llah ibn 'Utaik entered his house against him by night
when he was asleep, and slew him. Therefore 'Abdu'llah ibn 'Utaik said: 'And I placed my
sword in his belly until it reached his back, and I knew that I had killed him. Then I
began to open the doors, until I reached a staircase. Then I put down my foot, and I fell
in the moonlit 1 night, and my leg was broken. I bound it up with a bandage and
set out for my companions, and I came to the Prophet and I told him. Then he, said,
'Stretch out thy foot.' I stretched out my foot; he rubbed it, and it became as if I had
never broken it. '" We 2 shall see further on in the next chapter what
light this incident throws on Muhammad's character. Here we note that the tale of the
killing of Abu Rafi' is related also by Ibn Hisham,3 Ibn Ahtir,4 and
by the Author of the Rauzatu's Safa. 5 The tales differ considerably,
some saying that the murderer's leg was broken, some his arm, and some that he had only
sprained his wrist. Some forms of the story say nothing whatever about Muhammad's having
cured the injury, and hence they do not recognize that anything miraculous occurred. All,
however, admit that the killing of the sleeping man was performed at Muhammad's
instigation. Under these circumstances, had Muhammad wrought a miracle, we should have
been confronted with an immense moral difficulty, if we tried to prove that it was Divine
aid that enabled a miracle to be wrought for the benefit of a murderer like 'Abdu'llah ibn
'Utaik.
(2) Many different and contradictory accounts are given of how Muhammad supplied water
to his followers when thirsty. Of these a considerable number appear
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in the Mishkat. As a specimen of these we may quote the following Tradition,
which is given 1 upon Jabir's authority: "The men were thirsty upon the
day of Al Hudaibiyyah, and the Apostle of God had in his hands a small skin water-bottle,
from which he was performing religious ablutions. Then the men approached him. They said,
'We have no water to perform ablutions with and to drink, except what is in thy
water-bottle.' Accordingly the Prophet dipped his hand into the water-bottle, and the
water began to bubble out from between his fingers like fountains. We drank therefore, and
performed out ablutions." It was said to Jabir, "How many were you?" He
said, "If we had been 100,000, it would surely have been enough for us. We were
1,500." Other accounts say the number was 1,400; others say between 1,400 and 1,500;
others 1,300; or 1,600; or 1,700. Ibn 'Abbas says 1,525. Another very different version of
the story is given by Bukhari on the authority of Al Bara ibn 'Azib. He said: "We
were, with the Apostle of God, fourteen hundred on the day of Al Hudaibiyyah; and Al
Hudaibiyyah is a well. We had exhausted it, and had not left in it a drop. The Prophet
arrived and came to it. He sat down upon its edge. Then he asked for a vessel of water. He
performed his religious ablutions. Then he rinsed his mouth and prayed. Then he poured
it" (i.e. what was left of the water) "into it" (i.e. into
the well). "Then he said, 'Leave it alone for a time.' Accordingly they drew water
for themselves and for their steeds until they 2 marched away." Now the honoured
reader will perceive that it is not a miracle for water to collect in a well when it has
been left alone for a time; and this is a very different matter from causing water enough
to satisfy the needs of 100,000 men to flow from between a man's fingers.3
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