The Moral Vision
Big-Heartedness
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BIG-HEARTEDNESS
The first Umayyad Caliph, Mu’awiya, was ruling in
Damascus. Most of the eastern Byzantine Empire
had been conquered by Islam. The Caesar had been
forced to withdraw to Constantinople, and hold out
there. Yet he made incursions into Muslim territory.
In one clash the Romans imprisoned some Muslims,
one of whom was a man belonging to the Quraysh.
When the Caesar learnt of this, he asked for the
captives to be brought before him.
The Muslim captives were brought into the Caesar’s
court with their hands tied and feet in chains. The
emperor addressed them disparagingly. “The
punishment for such as you will be a slow death. It
will be a lesson to you and your compatriots to stop
encroaching upon our territory:”
The emperor’s words wounded the Qurayshi’s
sense of honour, and he answered back in a severe
tone. “As long as you remain an enemy of Islam,”
he said, “there will be no peace between us. The
price of our blood is a cheap one to pay for death in
the path
of God. But how precious our blood
