It is reported that when Ali was about thirteen years old Mohammed was one day praying with him in one of the retired glens near Mecca, whither they had gone to avoid the ridicule of their opponents.  Abu Talib, passing by, said, “My nephew! what is this new faith I see thee following?” “O my uncle,” replied Mohammed, “it is the religion of God, his angels and prophets, the religion of Abraham.  The Lord hath sent me as his apostle; and thou, uncle, art most worthy to be invited to believe.”  Abu Talib replied, “I am not able, my nephew, to separate from the customs of my forefathers, but I swear that while I live no one shall trouble thee.”  Then he said to Ali, “My son, he will not invite thee to anything which is not good; wherefore thou art free to cleave to him.”

Another early and important convert was Abu Bakr, father of Mohammed’s favorite wife, Ayesha, and afterward the prophet’s successor.  Ayesha said she “could not remember the time when both her parents were not true believers.”  Of Abu Bakr, the prophet said, “I never invited any to the faith who did not show hesitation, except Abu Bakr.  When I proposed Islam to him he at once accepted it.”  He was thoughtful, calm, tender, and firm.  He is still known as “Al Sadich,” the true one.  Another of his titles is “the Second of the Two,”—­from having been the only companion of Mohammed in his flight from Mecca.  Hassan, the poet of Medina, thus says of him:—­

“And the second of the two in the glorious cave, while the foes were
searching around, and they two were in the mountain,—­
And the prophet of the Lord, they well knew, loved him more than all
the world; he held no one equal unto him."[391]

Abu Bakr was at this time a successful merchant, and possessed some forty thousand dirhems.  But he spent most of it in purchasing and giving freedom to Moslem slaves, who were persecuted by their masters for their religion.  He was an influential man among the Koreish.  This powerful tribe, the rulers of Mecca, who from the first treated Mohammed with contempt, gradually became violent persecutors of him and his followers.  Their main wrath fell on the unprotected slaves, whom they exposed to the scorching sun, and who, in their intolerable thirst, would sometimes recant, and acknowledge the idols.  Some of them remained firm, and afterward showed with triumph their scars.  Mohammed, Abu Bakr, Ali, and all who were connected with powerful families, were for a long time safe.  For the principal protection in such a disorganized society was the principle that each tribe must defend every one of its members, at all hazards.  Of course, Mohammed was very desirous to gain over members of the great families, but he felt bound to take equal pains with the poor and helpless, as appears from the following anecdote:  “The prophet was engaged in deep converse with the chief Walid, for he greatly desired his conversion.  Then a blind man passed that way, and asked to hear the Koran.  But Mohammed was displeased with the interruption, and turned from him roughly."[392] But he was afterward grieved to think he had slighted one whom God had perhaps chosen, and had paid court to a reprobate.  So his remorse took the form of a divine message and embodied itself as follows:—­