The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 71
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 71 of an inconvenience, even though slight, which he had once suffered at the Prophet’s hands. It was merely that the Prophet’s elbow had by chance once grazed his back. “Come then,” the Prophet offered, “and stick your elbow into my back. ” “But, oh Messenger of Allah, my back was bare while yours is covered. ” The Prophet offered to bare his back, and did so. ‘the man approached, and with great tenderness kissed the Prophet’s back. It was his way of demonstrating his deep love for the Prophet. The end approached. The Prophet expressed great anxiety lest after his death his followers might be tempted to have recourse to practices which might assign him a position above that of a human being, as had been done in the case of some other prophets by their followers. He impressed repeatedly upon those who visited him that he was but a human being to whom God had vouchsafed revelation for the guidance of mankind. He breathed his last with the words: “To the Companion on High, to the Companion on High. ” The Prophet’s death (A. D, 632) struck the Muslims as a fearful calamity, and many of his intimate companions were crushed with grief. Umar drew his sword and said he would cut off the head of any who dared to assert that the Prophet was dead; he could not die. Abu Bakr arrived. Entering the chamber where the Prophet’s body 1ay, he kissed it on the forehead and said: “God will not inflict two deaths upon thee,” meaning that the death of the body was inevitable, but that God would preserve forever the Prophet ’s teaching concerning the Existence and Unity of God. He then came out and asked Umar to desist while he addressed the people briefly. He recited from the Quran: “Muhammad is but a Messenger. All Messengers have passed