Sublime Character

national security. Eventually, they deemed it prudent to free him and deport him from Makkah. While the Prophet was living in Madinah, where he had attained religious and political leadership, he sent some riders to Najd, the inhabitants of which were his sworn enemies. On the way, they came across the ruler of the city of Yamamah, Thamamah ibn Uthal. They took him captive and brought him to Madinah, where they tied him against a mosque pillar. The Prophet came to enquire after him. “If you kill me,” Thamamah said, “my people will avenge my blood, and if you release me, I will always be indebted to you. If it’s money you want, then I am ready to give you as much as you desire.” The Prophet did not kill Thamamah physically but conquered the man’s soul through humane treatment. After his release, Thamamah went to a nearby garden, bathed, and returned to the mosque. People wondered what he had come back for. But when he proclaimed his acceptance of Islam by pronouncing the testimony of faith in a loud voice, people realized that, by releasing Thamamah, the Prophet had, in effect, taken him captive for all time. Thamamah then went on a pilgrimage to Makkah. When the people of Makkah heard of his conversion, they told him that he had lost his faith. “I have not lost my faith,” Thamamah answered. “Rather, I have adopted the faith of God and His Prophet.” Thamamah, moreover, became a source of strength to Islam. Yamamah was one of the main places from which the people of Makkah used to collect