[Illustration: (Calligraphy) _Ye shall assuredly be tried in your possessions and in yourselves._] CHAPTER THE FOURTH [Sidenote: PERSECUTION] Quoth the Prophet: "Allah created Paradise for the man who obeyeth Him, even if only a black Abyssinian slave; and Hell for the man rebelling against Him, even if he be a nobleman of the Quraish." Islam, tending towards the perfect equality of castes and races, naturally attracted all the poor and downtrodden of the city. With increasing vexation, the idolatrous masters saw their slaves, in eager crowds, converted to the new faith. But as these wretched folks were in the tyrants' power, they glutted their vengeance on them, not daring to attack disciples of the Prophet occupying higher rank. Oummayatah ibn Khalaf, having become aware of the conversion of his black slave, Bilal ibn Hammah, was engrossed with but a single thought: that of torturing him with the most dastardly refinements. Placing his neck in a noose made from a rough rope of palm-fibre, he gave him into the hands of boys knowing no pity. They dragged him along behind them, like a beast of burden, just for amusement. The rope, pulled this way and that by the juvenile wrongdoers, ploughed a sanguinary furrow in Bilal's flesh. Nevertheless, he seemed insensible to pain. Thereupon his master deprived him of food and drink, and led him from the town at noonday, in the middle of summer, throwing him out in the "Ramda," a sandy plain, so torrid that a slice of meat, thrown on the ground, cooked itself immediately. He made his slave lie down, stretched out on his back, an enormous stone on his breast. 'Thou shalt stop there,' he ordered, 'until thou dost abjure Mohammad's doctrines, and worship Lat and Uzza.' But the stoical Moslem did nothing more than lift the forefinger of his right hand, saying again and again: 'Ahad! Ahad! Allah is one! Allah is one!' thus testifying the scorn he felt for his master who dared to couple wooden or stone associates with the Master of the Worlds. The affirmation of the slave produced insensibility to pain, because the ineffable joy of the sacrifice for his faith mingled with and mastered the bitterness of torture. Passing one day near the Ramda, Abu Bakr witnessed this cruel sight. 'Fearest thou not the justice of Allah, the Most High, O Oummayatah! when thou dost inflict such torment on that wretched man?' he cried indignantly.--'Thou didst corrupt him; therefore 'tis thy duty to save him,' was the cynical reply.--'Willingly! I possess a young black slave, stronger and a better worker than thine. Moreover, he is entirely devoted to thy idols. I offer him to thee in exchange.' Oummayatah accepted and turned Bilal over to Abu Bakr who granted him his freedom straightway. Besides, this generous man (may Allah make him welcome in His Grace!) purchased six other slaves, men and women, all Islamic converts, merely to set them free, and deliver them out of the hands of their idolatrous masters.