The Devotion of Life — Page 288
288 As soon as the people of Medina extended the invitation for migration people started accepting Islam in huge numbers and they simply left their homes and went to Medina. History tells us that in the daytime complete neighbourhoods would be deserted because people would just leave overnight. So although on the face of it the first twelve years appear of no use, however, they were not so. Rather, it was as a consequence of these years that the people of Mecca were turned towards Islam and as soon as the way to migration was opened they instantly started to accept Islam. The truth of Islam had been manifest to them even before but they could not identify themselves out of fear. With the way to migration open, they became fearless and started accepting Islam most rapidly. It is the law of Allah the Exalted that in the rudimentary stages the sacrifice of certain things appears of no use, however, at a later time with the materialisation of its results man finds out that the sacrifice had not gone in vain. ” The Example of Corals “There are some islands in the world that are called coral islands; coral is a sea creature. As a lesson for humans, Allah the Exalted has created a system that huge clusters of corals sink to the bed of the sea and die. Further clusters come and sink on top of them and die. For several decades, up to a hundred years, they keep perishing in this manner with layers continuing to form until they take the shape of reefs. If corals possessed intelligence, if corals had