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"And what more?"
she asked excitedly.
"He has revealed to me",
continued Musailima, "that He created woman a receptacle
and, created man as her mate, to enter her and leave her at his
pleasure. And then a little lamb is brought forth!"
Sajjah was fascinated. "You are indeed a prophet!"
she gushed.
Musailima moved closer. "Do you
feel like marrying me?" he asked. "Then with my
tribe and yours I shall eat up the Arabs."
"Yes", she answered. 1
Musailima had conquered again.
She stayed with him for three days, then
he sent her back to her army. On arrival at her camp, she assembled
the elders of the tribe. "I have found the truth",
she declared. "I have accepted him as prophet and married
him."
The elders were not a little surprised.
"Has he given you a wedding gift?" they asked.
Sajjah confessed that she had received no wedding gift.
These elders knew a little more about Musailima
than she did, and feared that their girl had been taken for a ride.
"Then go back to him", they insisted, "and
do not return without a wedding gift."
Again Sajjah rode with her 40 companions
to Yamamah. Musailima saw her coming and closed the gate of the
fort. "What is the matter?" he asked angrily from
within.
"Give me a wedding gift"
she pleaded from outside.
Musailima thought for a moment, and then
replied, "I give you a wedding gift for all your people.
Announce to your followers that I, Musailima bin Habib, Messenger
of Allah, remit two of the prayers that Muhammad had imposed-the
prayer of the early morning and the prayer of the night." 2
With this wedding gift Sajjah returned to
her army.
A few days later, wishing to establish more
durable ties with her people than those of the tent in his courtyard,
Musailima sent an envoy to Sajjah. He offered her political and
economic partnership: she could have half the grain of Yamamah.
Sajjah refused. But Musailima sent his envoy again to insist that
she accept at least a quarter of the grain. She accepted this and
left for Iraq. This happened around late October 632 (late Rajab,
11 Hijri), shortly before Ikrimah's clash with Musailima.
Musailima had finished with her. And she
had finished with politics and prophethood. She took up residence
amongst her mother's tribe and lived in obscurity for the rest of
her life. Later she embraced Islam and was believed to be a pious
and virtuous Muslim. During the caliphate of Muawiyah she moved
to Kufa, where she died at a ripe old age.
1. Tabari Vol. 2, p. 499.
2. Ibid.
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