The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) – Volume III — Page 170
Seal of the Prophets - Volume III 170 basis, and did not preach Islām publicly. 1 Hence, it is necessary to subtract these first three years from the 18½ year period. In his manner, the actual time of the effort and striving of preaching during an era of conflict equals 15½ years. Therefore, the result is that during the 15½ years of conflict 1,450 men became Muslim. In contrast to this, in 2 years of peace this number was increased by 8,550. As such, the average of both these eras is that the rate of growth during conflict equals 1450 ÷ 15½ = 2900/31 (or 93. 55 per year) and the rate in an era of peace and harmony equals 8550/2 (or 4,275 per year). The resulting calculation can be made by even a child, in that the ratio between these two eras is 1:46. In other words, if the result of the power of preaching in a time of conflict equals 1 then in comparison, the result of the power of preaching in a time of peace would be 46. This is exactly the relation which our Master, may peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him, has described between a normal believer and a Prophet of Allāh. As such, the Holy Prophet sa states: ِ اَلرُّوْیَا الْحَسَنَة ُ مِن َ الرَّجُل ِ الصَّالِح ِ جُزْء ٌ مِن ْ سِتَّة ٍ وَّاَرْبَعِیْن َ جُزْءًا مِن َ النُّبُوَّة “The true dream of a believer is one of the forty-six parts of the prophethood of a prophet. ” 2 Now ponder, what a strange, astonishing, and subtle relationship this is. In the early history of Islām, its power of the era of war, in comparison to its power of the era of peace precisely corresponds to the relation between a Prophet of Allāh and a normal believer. This is a fine spiritual point which sheds fundamental light on many important issues. For example: 1. This proves that in actuality, the spiritual power of Islām lies in its preaching during an era of peace, and not in its conquest by war. Moreover, rationally speaking, so should it be. Indeed, only that peaceful preaching by which the beauty and superiority of Islām is proven through reason, argumentation and clear signs, is the flag-bearer of the inner strength of Islām. In contrast to this, an environment of war is merely an outer reality, which is only produced as a result of the enmity of disbelievers. Furthermore, it is obvious that the actual inner strength, which is as if, the innate 1 Tārīkhul-Khamīs Fī Aḥwāli Anfasi Nafīs, By Ḥusain bin Muḥammad bin Ḥasan, Volume 1, p. 287, Dhikru Ma Waqa‘a Fis-Sanatith-Thāniyati Wath-Thālithati, Mu’assasatu Sha‘bān, Beirut 2 Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābut-Ta‘bīr, Bābu Ru’yaṣ-Ṣāliḥīn, Ḥadīth No. 6983