The Koreish set forth their case. Then, with that most convincing rhetoric of simple, personal narration, the Moslems declared how they had once been idolaters till it pleased Allah to send them his message through his apostle, 'a man of noble birth and blameless life, who has shown us by infallible signs proof of his mission, and has taught us to cast away idols, and to worship the only true God. He has commanded us to abstain from all sin, to keep faith, to observe the times of fasting and prayer ... to follow after virtue. Therefore do our enemies persecute us, and therefore have we, by our Prophet's command, sought refuge and protection in the King's country.' We are told that the King and his bishops were melted to tears. They offered the exiles a safe asylum. [Sidenote: Mohammed's attempted Compromise, c. 615 A.D.] In spite of the growth in the number of his followers, Mohammed was much exercised just at this time by the failure of his mission: the fate of Islam seemed to be {57} hanging in the balance, and once at least he allowed himself to be betrayed into the path of compromise. He was preaching one day in his accustomed place before the Kaaba, and he recited the fifty-third sura: 'BY THE STAR WHEN IT FALLETH YOUR COMPANION ERRETH NOT, NEITHER IS HE MISLED, NOR SPEAKETH HE FROM LUST.... ONE TAUGHT HIM WHO IS MIGHTY IN POWER. HAVE YE CONSIDERED AL LÂT AND AL UZZA AND MANÂT, THE THIRD WITH THEM? THESE ARE THE EXALTED MAIDENS, AND VERILY THEIR INTERCESSION MAY BE HOPED FOR.' The Koreish were as much delighted as astonished. This was _their_ doctrine. When he ended his sura with: 'Wherefore bow down before God and serve Him,' the whole assembly obeyed. The new popularity, however, disquieted him, and he was man enough to see there could be no sound building upon such a compromise. Besides, too, the very heart of his message--the unity of God--was gone. Accordingly, a few days later he publicly retracted the verse, ascribing the words to Satan. Afterwards Mohammed dubbed Uzza and Lât 'names invented by your fathers, for which Allah has given no authority.' It was the first time, but not {58} the last, that he went back upon revelations which in the most solemn words he had ascribed to God Himself. But in the circumstances his recantation was the act of a strong man, and a brave one, for he knew that the storm would break out with greater fury than before. Surely, unless Mohammed found some hope in his own heart through these long years of struggle, his courage must have failed. [Sidenote: Death of Khadîjah and of Abu Talib.]