Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 297
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 297 As he repeated the last two words, he raised his voice high and loud. With all the Muslims, he suffered the pangs of hunger as severely as they. On one occasion, a digging party encountered a piece of rock embedded in the earth, which could no how be broken or moved by the famished diggers. In the end, they approached the Holy Prophet and mentioned their difficulty to him. He was in no better case than themselves, yet he proceeded to the spot and, lifting a pick - axe, struck the piece of rock pronouncing the name of Allah. The iron striking on stone raised a spark, whereupon the Holy Prophet called out ‘God is Great’ in a loud voice, and observed, ‘I have been bestowed the keys of the kingdom of Syria and have beheld the red - stone palaces of that country. ’ His stroke had crushed a portion of the piece of rock. He wielded the pick - axe a second time and struck the rock, again pronouncing the name of All ah, and again a spark was struck from the stone, on which he called out ‘God is Great’ and observed, ‘Now I have been bestowed the keys of Iran, and have beheld the white palaces of Madaen. ’ This time a larger portion of the rock was crushed. The same happ ened a third time, and when the spark was struck, the Holy Prophet called out ‘God is Great’ and observed, ‘This time I have been bestowed the keys of Yemen, and I have beheld the doors of San’a. ’ The rock was finally crushed and the broken pieces were rem oved out of the way. The Holy Prophet’s three visions that he was vouchsafed were prophetic as presaging the future victories of the Muslims and their prosperity, whereby the drooping spirits of the Muslims were uplifted. The disaffected, when they heard a n account of these visions, jeered at them and