“Allaah has endeared the faith to you, and has given it favour in your hearts, and has made unbelief and wickedness and disobedience hateful to you”
(Chapter 49, Section 1)
COMPANIONS OF THE HOLY PROPHET AFTER ISLAM
Before embracing Islam, the Arabs believed that their deities were daughters of God; but after Islam, they proclaimed to the whole world;
“Say, He is one God; God of whom nothing is independent and who has no equal; He begets not and is not begotten, and there is none like unto Him.” (Chapter 112).
Those who, a few years before, had so far lowered the dignity of Human nature as to bow down before inanimate objects as having power and control over their destinies, owned, now, no power in heaven and earth except the power of Allaah.
“God; there is no God but He; the Living who gives life to all, the self-subsisting by Whom all things subsist; neither slumber seizeth Him nor sleep; to Him belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that can intercede with him but by his own permission? He knows what is present with His creatures and what is yet to befall them; nought of His knowledge do they comprehend, save what He wills. His throne extends over the Heavens and the earth, and the upholding of both burdens Him not; He is the High, the Great.”
(Chapter 2, Section 34)
Constancy and faithfulness are the first requirements to true purity of life, for if a man has not the power to face all hardships and trials on the way of Allaah, he is certainly devoid of power which can enable him to overcome evils. Unless a man is cast into the crucible of Allaah’s love, his soul is not purged of the dross of earthliness and his transformation is incomplete. Now the followers of the Holy Prophet, (peace and blessings of God be upon him and his followers), had their faith put to the severest test on numerous occasions and they were found firm as a rock. They were thrown into all sorts of dangers and trials, but nothing daunted them. While at Mecca, they were thrown naked on burning sand and stones under the scorching heat of a midday tropical sun and in that state, they were scourged. But, even when senseless, they did not recant and the only voice that escaped their lips was that there is no God but Allaah. The persecution for women was simply horrible. Women belonging to the middle and lower ranks of society were put to death by their two legs being tied to the legs of two camels which were then made to run in opposite directions.
After suffering these severe hardships for several years, they had to leave all their possessions and seek shelter in foreign lands. But their cruel persecutors followed them even in their new abode, with the sword in their (enemies’ hands. They (the Muslims) had now to fight in self-defence, but notwithstanding their marked deficiency in number as well as military skill, they stood by the side of the Holy Prophet to the last and laid down their lives as if they were nothing in comparision with the cause which they supported. Thus from the beginning of the Holy Prophet’s career to the end, his followers had to face the severest difficulties and hardest trials, but they were as firm to the last as on the day when they first embraced Islam. A very lengthy period of hardships, extending over no less than a quarter of a century, was unable to shake them in their faith and they stood by the side of the Holy Prophet as constant as the pole Star. Such faithfulness under such long suffering, which was the direct effect of the perfect personality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him), is not met with anywhere else. It is not only unparalleled in profane history, as William Muir admits, but that even sacred history fails to afford an instance of it.
COMPLETENESS OF RELIGION
The most wonderful thing about the transformation wrought by the Holy Prophet is its completeness. The old order of things seemed all to have been swept off and to have given place to a new order. What as regards their social and moral codes and their political condition, all underwent an entire change. Their nightly carousals gave place to heart-felt prayers with tears in their eyes, and the times of drunken revelries were changed into the times of humble prayers. Their savage haughtiness gave place to an angelic meekness. For the darkness of ignorance they had the light of knowledge now; their evil nature seemed to have entirely gone away and given place to a virtuous disposition. The love of the evil changed for an earnest living for virtue. The Qur’aanic verse heading this page described the same. A full description of the transformation wrought by the Holy Prophet can be seen in the last three sections of Chapter 25 of the Holy Qur’aan. (See the chapter please).
This is the transformation which the Holy Prophet brought about in the lives of those who accepted him. If any one can point out a single instance in which men so degenerate and sunk so deep in errors and immorality were, within such a short time, raised to such heights of social, moral and spiritual perfection, I promise that I will no more say that Islam is the only true religion in this world.
Nazir Ahmad (Simab) Muslim Missionary.
(COPY) NO. 18 San Juan, Dated the 15th , September, 1939.
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