Al-ʿAlâʾ as a wall between them. Muḥammad ibn-Muṣaffa al-Ḥimṣi from al-ʿAlâʾ ibn-al-Haḍrami who said: "The Prophet sent me to al-Baḥrain (or perhaps he said 'Hajar') and I used to come as a wall between brothers [i. e. try to create discord] some of whom have been converted. From the Moslem among them, I would take the tithe, and from the 'polytheist,' kharâj."[1]
The Prophet's letter. Al-Ḳasim ibn-Sallâm from ʿUrwah ibn-az-Zubair:—The Prophet wrote to the people of Hajar as follows:—[2]
"In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. From Muḥammad the Prophet to the people of Hajar: ye are in peace. I praise Allah on your behalf, beside whom there is no god. Then I admonish you by Allah and by yourselves that ye do not go astray after having been guided, nor be misled after having the right pointed out to you. What ye have done has reached me, and now the offense of the guilty shall not be charged to him among you who behaves himself. When my commanders come to you obey them, reinforce them and help them in carrying out Allah's plan and his cause, for whosoever among you does the good deed, his deed shall not be lost before Allah or before me. Your delegation has come to me, and I did nothing for them but what was pleasing to them; although if I were to enforce all my right on you, I would expel you from Hajar. Thus did I accept intercession for the absent among you, and bestow favor on the present. Remember the grace of Allah upon you."
The tax imposed on al-Baḥrain. Al-Ḥusain ibn-al-Aswad from Ḳatâdah:—In the time of the Prophet, no fight took place in al-Baḥrain, for some of the people accepted Islâm,
