Hilf-al-Fudul

Now when Muhammad lived in Makkah

there was not much in the way of laws to protect people from each other.

If someone did something to you that you thought was wrong,

the only way to deal with it

was your family or clan asking their family or clan to put it right.

And if their family disagreed with you about what had happened,

or just didn't care

and refused to do anything to put matters right,

the only way to change anything

was for the two clans to fight about it.

Of course, that didn't always mean

that anyone ended up happy with the outcome,

except perhaps the strongest clans

because they usually got their own way.

So that was the situation when Muhammad was young,

with little injustices sometimes being enough to start family feuds

that could last for years

But not everyone liked fighting all the time,

and people wondered how they could change things for the better,

until finally something happened

that some people agreed was so dishonourable

that they would try to do something about it.

When Muhammad was in his teens,

a merchant came to Makkah and sold some valuable goods

to one of the leaders of the clan of Sahm,

who took possession of the goods

but then refused to pay.

Now the merchant was from Zabid in Yemen,

and had no clan in Makkah to fight for him,

so he appealed to the tribe of Quraysh,

the strongest Makkan clan,

to come to his aid.

Now the Quraysh were allied to Sahm,

and did not want to deal with the matter,

but one of the wealthiest men in Makkah at the time was 'Abd Allah ibn Jud'an,

the chief of the Taym tribe,

and he invited any tribal leaders who were interested in justice for all,

not just the strong,

to come to his house for a meeting

to discuss the merchant's complaint.

And there and then they decided

to found an order of chivalry,

the Hilf-al-Fudul,

to fight for justice for all

and to stand up for the weak against the strong.

With that, they went to the Ka'bah

and poured water over the Black Stone

and let it gather in a bowl,

and all those present drank from this bowl

and vowed to stand together to fight against injustice,

and their first act together was to force the man from Sahm

to pay his debt to the Yemeni merchant.

Together with the chief of Taym,

Zubayr of Hashim was there at the founding of this order,

and he took with him his young nephew Muhammad

who took part in the meeting and joined in the oath beside the Ka'bah.

Later in his life, the Messenger said

that he would not change his part in that event,

even for a herd of camels,

and that if called to do so again

as a muslim he would do so gladly.

In surah al-Nisa God says in the Qur'an

"you who believe,

stand up for justice

witnesses for God

even though it be against yourselves

or your parents and family,

whether for the rich or poor,

God is closer to either of them."