Life of Ahmad — Page 768
JIHAD as 768 and all this in obedience to the commandment of the Lord. The followers of no other Prophet can stand a comparison in this respect with the Companions of our Prophet sa. Where shall we seek for a people, who in spite of being a body possessing strength, energy, the power of retaliation and all the accomplishments of soldiership, bore with calmness the exquisite tortures and atrocities of a ferocious enemy? It should not be imagined that the forbearance shown by our Master sa and his Companions in bearing these hardships was due to any weakness or cowardice. Nay, at the time of these persecutions the faithful Companions of the Prophet sa possessed the same strong hand whose iron grip was after the permission of jihad so severely felt by their enemies. Not seldom did one thousand Muslims put to flight a hundred thousand warriors of the enemy. These feats of strength sufficiently indicate that the forbearance shown by the Muslims in Mecca was not the result of any langour or want of courage, but that in obedience to the Lord’s mandate they offered themselves to be slaughtered like sheep. The tranquillity, the calmness of mind and the self-control shown here is unparalleled in the history of any other Prophet and the lives of his followers. Whenever we are told of the forbearance of any of the early sages, the attendant circumstances