"'Thus We sent Our second warning, and so you entered the Mosque and utterly annihilated anything that opposed you. If you heed your Lord he will show mercy to you. If you should turn back from the task He appoints, you will find Hell a confinement for disbelievers! We have reserved painful torment for those who do not believe in the word of the Lord of the Waste. "

Mohammed paused, the sound of his voice hanging in the air like the tolling of a great bell. He saw that the faces of the Sahaba were filled with awe and open, like flowers turning toward the rising sun. He knew the effect the words of the God had upon him, but he could not ken their weight to others. It seemed as he searched their faces, that they felt some small echo of the power that filled his mind when the voice came. He hung his head, feeling a wretched sensation of inadequacy. How could his mortal voice convey what he had felt and experienced in the distant temple?

But the voice had bade him recite, to speak to the many. He cleared his throat.

"This is what was said: 'We have granted night and day as twin signs. We blot out the sign of night, and grant the sign of daylight to see by, so you may seek bounty from your Lord and know how to count the years and other such reckoning. Everything We have set forth in detail.

" 'We have tied each man's fate around his neck; and We shall produce a book for him on Resurrection Day that he will find spread open: " Read your book; today there will be none but yourself to call you to account!"

" 'Anyone who submits to guidance will be guided only so far as he himself is concerned, while anyone who strays away, only strays by himself. No burdened soul shall bear another's burden.

" 'We have never acted as punishers until We have dispatched some messenger to warn those who have strayed from the Straight Path. Yet whenever We find that our guidance has been ignored by the depraved and the evil, We do not shrink from annihilation. How many generations did We destroy since the Drowning? Sufficient is it for your Lord to be Informed, Observant of His servants' sins!

" 'For anyone who desires only the fleeting present, We grant this wish. Then Hell waits for him; he will roast in it, condemned, disgraced. Anyone who accepts the Hereafter and makes a proper effort to achieve it while he is a believer will have their effort gratified. Each We shall supply, these as well as those, with a gift from your Lord: your Lord's gift will never be withheld.

"'What is the law that guides the Straight Path? How may a man walk it, and escape Hell? "

There was a great rustling in the darkness, for the sun had set in a blaze of gold and yellow and saffron in the west. All those men and women that stood in the High Place knelt, for each had pondered the same question since they had pledged themselves to follow the chieftain.

They had seen his power. They knew that his words were the truth.

Among them, at the back, near the twin stone pillars that marked the end of the nine hundred and ninety-nine steps, a young well-dressed man settled to his knees. On the ground before him, he placed a scabbard of plain beaten copper, painted black. A saber hilt jutted from it, wrapped with wire and then a taut covering of linen. He knew, in his heart of hearts, that the balance of the blade was perfect. The swordsmiths of Mekkah, upon learning the destination of this weapon, had excelled themselves. The young man had watched over their process with an eagle eye, for he knew that such a gift needed to dare perfection.

They had done well, though Khalid Al'Walid had not drawn the sword from its sheath since the eldest of the Mekkan guild masters had placed it there with reverent hands. Only one pair of hands should ever touch this weapon or draw it in anger.

"This is the way: Do not place any other deity alongside God, lest you sit back, condemned, forsaken.

"Your Lord has decreed that you should worshipnothing except Him, and show kindness to your parents; whether either of them or both of them should attain old age while they are still with you, never curse or scold them. Speak to them in a generous fashion. Protect them carefully from the cruelty of the world, and say 'My Lord, show them mercy, just as they cared for me when I was a little child!

"Your Lord is quite aware of anything that is on your minds; if you behave honorably, then He will be forgiving toward those who are attentive.

"Render your close relative his due, as well as the pauper and the wayfarer. Yet do not squander your money extravagantly; spendthrifts are the devil's brethren, and Shaitan has always been ungrateful toward his Lord. Yet if you have to avoid them, seeking some mercy that you may expect from your Lord, still speak a courteous word to them. Your Lord extends sustenance to anyone He wishes, and measures it out; He is Informed, Observant of His servants and their doings.

"Do not kill your children in dread of poverty; We shall provide for both them and you. Do not commit adultery. This is an evil thing, and abhorrent in the eyes of the God that formed men and women from clots of blood.

"Do not kill any soul whom God has forbidden you to, except through the due process of law. We have given his nearest relatives authority for anyone who is killed unjustly- yet let him not overdo things in killing the culprit, in as much as he has been so supported.

"Give full measure whenever you measure out anything, and weigh with honest scales; that is better and the finest way of acting.

"Do not worry over something you have no knowledge about: your hearing, eyesight, and vital organs will all be questioned concerning it.

"Do not prance saucily around the earth; you can neither tunnel through the earth nor rival the mountains in height.

"All that is deemed evil by your Lord is to be hated. Such is some of the wisdom your Lord has revealed to you.

"Do not place any other deity alongside your God lest you be tossed into Hell, blamed, rejected.

"The Seven Heavens and Earth, as well as whoever is in them, glorify Him. Nothing exists unless it hymns His praise; yet you do not understand their glorification. Still He has been lenient.

"Wrongdoers will say: 'You are following a man who is bewitched. Watch what sort of stories they make upabout you. They have strayed away from the Straight Path and are unable to find a way back. They say: 'When we are bones and mortal remains, will we be raised upin some fresh creation?

"Become stones or iron or any creation that seems important enough to fill your breasts; so they will say: 'Who will bring us back to life? Say: 'The One Who originated you in the first place.

"They will wag their heads at you and say: 'When will this come to pass? Say: 'Perhaps it is near! Someday He will call on you, and you will respond in praise of Him. You will assume you have lingered for only a little while."

Now Mohammed paused, for the weight of the words in his heart had become quite heavy. His fingers gripped the staff, their knuckles turning white with the effort. His voice rolled like thunder, for now the compassionate and the merciful one demanded recompense for the favors He had done the race of men.

Even below, in the gorge of the Siq, where men stood closely packed, shoulder to shoulder, their helmets removed, they could hear the voice ringing in the clear air. It filled the night and settled in their hearts. Each man knew that the excursion of the Sahaba into the lands of the Empire was no raid. That had been clear for weeks. A task had been set them, something mighty. Now they strained to hear of it, their blood slowly building to the race.

Among them, standing in the doorway of the graven temple at the gate of the canyon, Odenathus of Palmyra knelt, the hilt of his sword pressed to his forehead. He had spent many days in the company of the captains of the desert host; he had heard the Young Eagle, Al'Walid, speak of the power and miracles that sprang from the heart of the Quryash. He had seen the utter devotion and loyalty that the hardened mercenaries of the Tanukh afforded the chieftain.