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Honestly, no one has held as firmly as you did,
when you are the weakest of them.
We know that they only gave in under duress,
while retaining their beliefs.
You know that Muhammad ordered them to do so, to protect their lives,
as long as they remain believers at heart.
Why don't you do like them?
I will not search your heart.
All I want from you is a mere verbal utterance,
a word to be heard by the people around us.
Harbour in your heart whatever pleases you.
I am certainly being fair to you. What do you say?
He is One. He is One.
What foul omen brought you to us, you evil slave!
Deserter! Deserter!
Deserter! Deserter! Deserter!
Deserter! Deserter!
Deserter! Deserter! Deserter!
- This what we do with the idiots! - Which idiots do you mean?
Deserter! Deserter! Deserter!
Deserter! Deserter!
Deserter! Deserter! Deserter!
By God, it seems as if he is the one who is torturing you.
It is true. I saw people today looking from me to him.
I don't know to whom they are more sympathetic.
He does not fear death, while I fear to do more and he would die
before giving in to me. That would be a disgrace to me.
If he survives without giving in, my disgrace is even greater.
He doesn't leave me a way out.
A man does not seek to escape by giving in unless he has something to care for:
his life, wealth, family.
If he has none of these, no threat or torment is of any use.
He will go the whole length, even if it means his death.
What is the use of me wiping your back and chest when they will be torn again tomorrow?
Give them their word, Bilal, and think of its opposite.
No one will see what is in your heart.
No. No one will ever know what is in my heart.
That's it. That's it.
Then they will think I truly said it. I would have thus let my religion down
and supported the unbeliever, Umayyah Ibn Khalaf.
No! By God I will give them nothing.
I lived my life a slave, receiving and obeying orders. Not any more! Not any more!
Then die as you please. By God, you don't deserve sympathy.
Who begged for sympathy? You need it more than me.
As you please.
I am the one who is mad, for trying to help you.
Why are you so silent?
The fool! The fool!
If he is certainly going to die,
can't he find a sword to kill and then be killed?
Who are you talking about?
You are early today. The midday sun is not at its hottest yet.
- Now, you dirty slave! - Father!
Now, Bilal. You know that we were always kind to you,
until you've done this.
I am your master and you are duty bound to obey me.
My master, yes. But God is the Master of all.
I haven't come to argue with you about your faith. But...
OK. Ok. You will not give me the word I want,
but I am offering you something no master has ever offered to his slave.
When we go out today, you say in front of the people a word by which
you don't renounce your faith but doesn't contradict my religion.
It pleases both parties. What do you say?
I've gone a long way towards you. You have to do the same so that we meet half way.
There is nothing between truth and falsehood except what is false.
When the truth shifts its ground, even by an inch, it loses its status as the truth.
Have you heard? You made me do this.
The slave is now in a position higher than his master's.
He refuses to give in, even by an inch. What disgrace! What disgrace!
How are our allies this morning?
It is not appropriate that my greeting is not returned with a similar one.
Sumayyah!
Sumayyah!
What has Sumayyah done today?
Has she combed her hair, worn perfume and her adornments to please her husband?
Yassir, how do you find your wife today?
Isn't she pleasant to look at ?
As for me, I am pleased with what I see.
If you like, you divorce her and I will pay her dowry.
How vile! Obscene!
Yes, that's right.
Patience, Yassir and family. I wish you were slaves!
I would have bought you your freedom.
But, as God's messenger has said: ''Patience, Yassir and family.
Heaven is our meeting place.''
He is One. He is One.
- He is about to die. - Which of them?
This situation has produced people's worst qualities.
And their best.
Who could have thought that Bilal Ibn Rabah, Umayyah's slave,
could have shown such perseverance and resisted like a mountain?
By God, lying there in this condition, he is stronger and greater than Umayyah,
the chief of Jumah.
Is it Islam that does it?
Don't ask a question whose answer is bound to embarrass you.
- Won't you go back, father? - Now, that he is so close?
Close to what?
It is either death, or he would give.
Does he, in his position, have anything to give?
How do you understand, Abu Jandal?
What pleasure is there in seeing someone dying?
It's curiosity, not pleasure.
Where to?
For me, neither pleasure nor curiosity.
Won't you fear God in your treatment of this weak man?
It is you who spoiled him and took him away from us.
Sell him to me.
You will thus save him and get rid of him.
- How much will you pay? - Name your price.
Seven... Forty gold ounces.
It's a deal. I'll send you the money tonight.
He is no longer mine. He is no longer mine. I am not responsible for him.
Are you able to stand up?
O people. Witness this my declaration: I have set Bilal free.
He is my brother and friend. Nothing will separate us except death.
How kindly is Abu Bakr!
How kindly!
By Al-Lat, when Abu Bakr released him, he also released me.
How I suffered from that slave.
- Now I am free of embarrassment. - How much did Abu Bakr buy him for?
By Al-Lat and Al-Uzza, had Abu Bakr insisted on buying him for one ounce,
I would have agreed. But I took advantage of him.
- I've done that; haven't I? - Yes. Perhaps you did.
Why are you so sad as though you have lost a loved one?
No. I don't think he will survive today. I have seen the signs.
What are you talking about?
You mean your friend, Bilal. Apparently, you haven't gotten out today.
Would I go out to helplessly watch him dying?
You haven't gotten out today to see and know.
Know what?
If you are sorry for your friend, you better jump with joy for him.
Today was the best day of his life.
- Abu Bakr bought him and set him free. - What?
As you heard. Yes, indeed.
What happened to you? I thought the news would please you.
Leave me alone. Go away.
Leave me alone.
Son, why are you wasting your money freeing such weak slaves:
Amir Ibn Faheerah, Umm Umais,
Abd Al-Dar's maid and her daughter,
and then the other maid, Zinneerah, and now Bilal?
Father, I don't mind spending all my money for God's sake.
These are my brothers in Islam, and they had no one to protect them.
Our people found them vulnerable and subjected them to torture,
while I am spared all trouble.
But you are freeing weak elements.
It would have been better for you to free some strong men to defend you.
All I want out of my action is to please God.
You, Yasser!
You are the father and the husband who will be obeyed.
Won't you take pity on them...
and save them from this hardship they are suffering?
Revert to our religion and tell them to revert also.
You will all be saved and you will live happily with your masters, the Makhzooms.
You are crying, Ammar!
You are crying!
Well, why shouldn't you cry for your father?
By God, I saw him carrying you when you were young
and putting charms on you.
I have never seen a father who is kinder to his children.
If you really care for your parents,
how could you do this to them?
It was you who tricked them and led them to this end.
How undutiful of you!
Look at them.
Look!
Most probably they won't see the morning.
They are not as strong as you are.
Is this the way a dutiful son behaves?
Do you think that a couple of tears are enough to show your dutifulness?
Now, if you say just one word, cursing Muhammad,
I will release them both now.
Sumayyah!
Sumayyah!
What a wicked wife and mother you are.
What mother is happy to see her own child tortured
when she can release him?
And your husband...
I think he will be the first of you to die.
I can clearly see death in people's faces.
No.
I don't think you will care if he dies.
You may care for your son,
but not for your husband.
I think you will be glad to see him die.
Why?
Why?
By Al-Lat, you believed in Muhammad
because you fell in love with him, as he is so handsome.
God damn you, you wicked, filthy, obnoxious one.
By God, a dung-beetle is more respectable than you.
Mother!
Call her if she will hear you.
Don't worry, you will join her soon.
Are you alright, father?
Don't give up, son.
Doesn't it make things easier for you that your mother is the first martyr in Islam?
I am the second.
Give my greetings to God's messenger.
Father! Father!
And peace be to you, father.
How are my two deserter cronies this morning?
We are Muslims and believers, thank God.
What about this chain?
It does not prevent us from glorifying and worshipping God, and this is good enough.
- What brings you today? - Aren't you my friends?
Where would I go for company when nothing is better than your company?
Habit dictates.
You can go to our brother, Abu Al-Hakam. You two have the same religion.
Of the same religion indeed, but I don't like his company.
And you like our company?
Yes, indeed. Shall we go out hunting, or to Abu Jameel's tavern?
Or, shall we stay in this welcoming place, and we can order the best food and drink
to enjoy ourselves and chant poems, and discuss Arab history?
Choose for us, Umar.
You were always the one with the best views & we would never disagree with you.
But you disagreed with me on a more serious matter. This religion of yours.
To obey God and His messenger, who are dearer to us, and the one to be obeyed.
Let us not get back to this. I am bored with it and I have given up on you two.
- But we will not give up on you. - Why not?
God won't let someone of your calibre go astray.
Your values are the same as those of Islam, but you are still an idolater.
You are again flattering me.
Yes, fearing your stick, or hoping that you will undo our shackles!
Had we wished, we could have flattered the one who put us in these fetters,
my brother, Abu Al-Hakam. But we will testify to the truth.
By God, He would not put you and him on equal footing.
We say this when he is our brother, while you are my cousin
and belong to Adiy, not to our Makhzoom clan.
Have you had enough?
Do you know why I've ordered food and drink for you?
You may have understood.
Yes, to prolong your suffering.
Your parents died without giving me anything.
In some way, I feel that they have won, although I am alive
and they are dead.
Abu Al-Hakam has never been defeated. Therefore, I won't let you win.
I shall hear you saying a word cursing Muhammad.
I will thus win, and you will be saved.
That is, by Al-Lat, a fair deal.
What do you say?
Abuse Muhammad. Curse Muhammad. Revile Muhammad.
Speak.
What shall I say?
Have you forgotten all reviling words? Say that he is a liar.
Say that our religion is better than his.
As you said... as you said.
What did I say?
Muhammad...
Liar.
Raise your voice for these people to hear it.
Liar... Muhammad liar.
Have you heard it? By God, he said it.
I am not as weak as Umayyah Ibn Khalaf.
Ammar!
Easy. Easy, now. Easy.
I reviled God's messenger. Abu Bakr, I did.
I weakened and gave in.
Take me to him to kiss his feet.
Muhammad, did God speak to you last night?
Did he mention me to you?
I heard that you claim that he sent down a Qur'an speaking ill of me!
You want me then to believe in you, so that I should worship God
by reading a Qur'an abusing me!
Abu Abd Shams, perhaps if you believe, he will cancel the part that speaks ill of you
and replaces it with a new one speaking well of you.
Were this to take place, I will be the first apostate.
How will he cancel words that sentence me to the fire, and then say the opposite?
If he is right in the first statement, he lies in the second,
and if he is right in the second, he lies in the first.
If he doesn't change it, I will be the most stupid person
if I believe in him when he prays reading a Qur'an that speaks ill of me.
A person who dislikes certain people should leave them and go away,
instead of irritating them by his presence.
Abu Abd Shams, this heaven they speak about,
they say that it is much better than the orchards of Syria and their fruit,
and far more splendid than the palaces and treasures of the Persian Emperor.
I have decided to buy it all, however expensive it may be.
Thus, no one else can enter it.
Abu Ali! Won't you make me your partner,
and I will give you whatever profit you wish.
As a guest, you are most welcome, but not in any other way.
You are most generous.
I will kill this slave one day.
Little shepherd, Abdullah Ibn Massoud.
I am now free to deal with you, son of Umm Abd.
Where are you going?
Won't you let us enjoy your company?
There is no room for the likes of you in this road.
You will make it crowded for the chiefs of Quraysh.
Leave me alone, you...
Say it. Abu Jahl.
Why do you fear to say it to my face?
Hasn't your crony taught you not to fear anyone other than God,
and to persevere when you are tested?
Or is it that he has no power to defend the weak?
Whether in Islam or otherwise,
the little shepherd remains but a little shepherd.
If this is what you fear... It is coming to you anyway.
Look at his legs, just like the legs of grouse.
Muhammad scares us with the likes of this one.
I will cut off your leg one day, little shepherd.
You are most certainly the better of the two men.
And I believe the Prophet's prayer won't miss you.
They continued to slander and taunt him until he was clearly displeased.
By God, I have never seen him in such a state.
- How did he reply to them? - Would he dare?
By God, he didn't even look at them.
Has it occurred to you that he didn't look at them because he is a model of politeness?
He neither curses nor uses vulgar or obscene language.
Since when is obscene language considered strength, and politeness weakness?
What about you, father? Did you join in what the two idiots said?
- Abdullah! - It is unbecoming of you to describe
two of the great nobility of Quraysh as idiots.
When you ask me this, it is as if you are saying:
''have you been an idiot like them?'' Where are your manners?
No, I didn't. It is not in my nature.
But it didn't displease you. You are merrily speaking about it.
Enough, Abdullah.
Haven't you heard? Are you pleased with this?
Our sons dare rebuke us.
Muhammad! Muhammad has put us in this situation, forcing us to what we dislike.
He wouldn't compromise on anything. What does he want?
We offered him money, women and kingship, but he refused.
Wahshi, until when will you stay like this? It is luck.
If his freedom doesn't benefit you, it causes you no harm.
I used to think myself stronger than him, then I saw him doing what I cannot do.
I desperately wanted my freedom, and I thought that he was content with his status.
Yet he has beaten me to freedom.
Before he broke his master's fetters, he broke away from his religion.
If you like, you can do the same.
Become a Muslim? What a tiny mind you have, woman!
You think that since it happened once, it will happen again?
Had it been so, there wouldn't be a single slave in Makkah.
Don't you know what Quraysh is doing to its own sons who have become Muslims?
Would they let slaves be more comfortable, or let them hope for something better?
No. I don't care about this or that religion.
All I want is my freedom. I will take the safe course to it.
Which one is that?
I will stick to my master's conditions and endeavour to please him.
He may accept to let me buy my freedom one day, or reward me with my freedom.
How long can we tolerate this injustice?
We were proud when we were idolaters.
Now that we believe in God, are we to become humiliated?
Won't God's messenger permit us to fight?
Saad, we must follow the Prophet's orders.
He has commanded us not to retaliate.
God has forbidden us to revile their deities lest they would revile God in ignorant reply
God has sent His messenger as a guide, a bearer of good news and a warner.
He is just like a doctor with a patient who refuses to take the medicine he prescribes.
If he cares for his patient, like the Prophet cares for his people,
he will be sorry for him.
He wouldn't wish him dead for his refusal.
I have noticed that the more his people harm the Prophet,
the more sorrowful for them he is.
Whoever advocates something stands to make some gain out of it,
except for God's messenger.
He calls on them to accept Islam for their sake, not for his.
Islam will inevitably triumph, as God has promised.
How will Islam achieve victory, if this group are killed, fighting the unbelievers.
We are still only a small minority.
How will this come about when Quraysh has not heard this Qur'an being recited aloud?
- Can anyone get them to hear it? - I will do.
Even after what Abu Jahl has done to you?
To me, he is today less of a threat than ever before.
We fear for you.
We want someone with a strong clan willing to protect him if they try to harm him.
Let me. God will protect me.
''It is'' the Lord of Grace who has taught the Qur'an.
He created man and taught him to articulate thought and speech.
The sun and the moon function in due measure.
The stars and the trees prostrate themselves '' before Him''.
He has raised the skies high, and has set the balance,
so that you may not exceed the balance.
Weigh, therefore, with justice and do not fall short in the balance.
He has laid the earth for His creatures,
with all its fruits, its palm trees with sheathed clusters,
its husked grain and its sweet-smelling plants.
Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?
He created man from dried clay, like pottery,
and created the jinn from raging flames of fire.
Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?
He is the Lord of the two risings and the Lord of the two settings.
Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?
He has given freedom to the two great bodies of water, so that they may meet;
yet between them is a barrier which they do not cross.
Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?
What's Ibn Umm Abd saying?
He is reciting some verses of what Muhammad preaches.
And he dares? The little shepherd?
Are we to let him do it among us? No, by Al-Lat and Al-Uzza.
All that lives on it perishes; but forever will remain the face of your Lord,
full of majesty, granting grace.
Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?
Everyone in heaven and earth entreats Him.
Everyday He manifests Himself in some wonderful way.
Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you both deny?
Checked by: Ahmad Fawzy Proofread by: Doaa Ahmed