Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 61
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 61 errors. If I must face death in this cause, I am ready to submit to it gladly. My life is devoted to this cause and I cannot restrain myself from declaring the truth out of fear of death. Uncle, if you apprehend trouble on my account, you may withdraw your protection from me, but I shall not stop the propagation of that which is revealed to me. If these people were to place the sun on my right, and the moon on my left, I would not desist from doing my duty. I shall persist in it till God enables me to disch arge it fully, or till I perish in the attempt. ’ The Holy Prophet delivered himself of these sentiments with such sincerity and emotion that his face appeared to be shining. Having said his say he turned away, but Abu Talib called him back and, with tears in his eyes, said to him: ‘Son of my brother, con tinue with the discharge of thy function; I shall support thee to the limit of my power so long as I am alive. ’ Then Quraish had recourse to another stratagem. They again approached Abu Talib and brought with them a bright youth, Ammarah bin Waleed, who belonged to a noble family of Quraish, and said to Abu Talib: ‘We have brought you Ammarah bin Waleed and you know that he is one of the best young men of Quraish. We propose that we shall hand over this youth to you and you may derive such benefit from him as you may wish. You may adopt him as your son, if you like; we are ready to surrender to you all our rights in him. We desire that in his place you may hand over Muhammad to us who has created great disorder among us by his attacks against our inherited faith, so that we might deal with him as we may wish. In this manner, a life will be rendered in place of a life and you will have no grievance. ’ Abu