Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 372
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 372 worship save Allah, the One, without associate, and that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger. I invite you to the Call of Allah, as I am the Messenger of Allah to the whole of mankind, so that I may warn every living person and so that the truth may beco me clear and the judgment of God may overtake the disbelievers. I call upon you to accept Islam and thus make yourself secure. If you turn away, you will bear the responsibility for your subjects also. ’ Abdullah bin Hudhaifa has related that when, on receiving permission, he presented the Holy Prophet’s letter to the Chosroes, he directed his interpreter to read it out to him. On hearing it read out the Chosroes was outraged and, snatching the letter from the hand of the interpreter, tore it into bits, exclaiming, ‘How dare a subject of mine address me in such words!’ When the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, received the report of this incident, he observed, ‘As regards these [meaning the Iranians], they wi ll be broken to bits, and as regards those [meaning the Byzantines], they will be granted respite. ’ This pronouncement of the Holy Prophet was literally fulfilled regarding the empire of the Chosroes within a few years, but the empire of Byzantium, despite the loss of its eastern provinces, continued for centuries. The Chosroes did not confine his wrath against the Holy Prophet to tearing his letter to bits, but directed his Governor of Yemen, Badhan, to dispatch two strong emissaries to the Hedjaz who should apprehend this claimant of prophethood and produce him bef ore the Chosroes. Accordingly Badhan selected one of his secretaries, Banweh, for this purpose, and dispatched