Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 438
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 438 return to life. The truth now bursting upon them, they sobbed aloud. Umar himself would relate, ‘By the Lord, it was so that, when I heard Abu Bakr reciting those verses, I was horror - struck, my knees trembled, I dropped down, and I knew of a certainty tha t the Prophet was indeed dead. ’ It was now towards the afternoon, when someone came running hastily towards the Mosque to say that the chief men of Ansar, with S’ad bin Ubadah at their head, had assembled in one of the halls of the city and were proceeding to choose S’ad for their leader. On hearing this report, Abu Bakr, after arranging that the family of the Holy Prophet should not be disturbed while they washed the corpse and laid it out, hurried, in company with Umar and Abu Obaidah, to the hall where the people had assembled. There w as urgent necessity for their presence. ‘Let them have their own chief,’ was the general cry of Ansar, ‘but as for us, we shall have a chief for ourselves. ’ S’ad, who lay sick and covered over in a corner of the hall, had already been proposed for the chie fship of Ansar, when Abu Bakr and his party entered. Umar, still in a state of excitement, was about to speak, when Abu Bakr, afraid of his impetuosity, held him back, and himself addressed the people. ‘Ye Ansar,’ he said, ‘all that ye speak of your own ex cellence is true. There are no people upon earth deserving all this praise more than ye do. But the Arabs will not recognise the chief command elsewhere than in Quraish. We are the Ameers; ye are our Wazeers. ’ ‘Not so,’ shouted Ansar, ‘but there shall be a n Ameer from amongst us, and an Ameer from amongst you. ’ ‘That can never be,’ said Abu Bakr; and repeating his previous formula in a firm commanding voice he added, ‘We are