The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 82
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 82 the winds, and exclaimed: “Why don’t you say, `Allah is the Most High, the Most Exalted’ ?” The shouts went up and convinced Abu Sufyan and the Meccans that the Prophet was alive. The Meccans thereupon held a council whether they should attack the small party round the Prophet and put an end to all of them. But they thought better of it, and cal ling it a day, withdrew from the field. On the day of Hunain when the Prophet had at the very start of the battle been left alone with only a dozen supporters, even Abu Bakr could not restrain him from spurring forward his mule toward the enemy, proclaiming that he was a true Prophet and no impo stor. With him God always came first. So much was this so that even his enemies in Mecca were wont to say, “Muhammad is intoxicated with love of God. ” Such is the testimony of man and events. What of the testimony of God, Who had commanded him to shoulder the responsibility of conveying His message to mankind and of leading them back to Him? The Prophet’s enemies did not believe in his mission nor that w hat he proclaimed as revelation was received by him from God, but even for them God’s testimony concerning him became conclusive in the sense that it was openly and widely proclaimed. They found it so true that on no occasion and in no particular did they ever call it in question. It was a standing challenge to his opponents. They never took it up. The Prophet was commanded to proclaim: “If Allah had so willed I should not have recited the Quran to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I have indeed lived among you a