Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 113
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 113 Quraish should have accounted these revelations as the ravings of a madman. There was not the slightest indication in any direction that the Holy Prophet and the small body of believers would ever be delivered from the perils that confronted them in all di rections. But they believed firmly that Allah, the All - Knowing and All - Powerful, having promised them deliverance and ultimate triumph, would most surely fulfil all His promises to the full. A Western biographer of the Holy Prophet has observed (Sir William Muir, The Life of Muhammad, p. 126): Muhammad thus holding his people at bay; waiting in the still expectation of victory; to outward appearance defenceless; and with his little band as it were in the lion’s mouth; yet trusting in His Almighty Power Whose Messenger he believed himself to be, resolute and unmoved; presents a spectacle of sublimity paralleled only by such scenes in the sacred records as that of the Prophet of Israel when he complained to his Master: I, even I only, am left. Nay, the spectacle is in one point of view even more am azing…. It is this, which brings if possible into still bolder prominence the marvellous self - possession and enthusiasm which sustained Muhammad on his course. Say unto the unbelievers, such was the reiterated message from On High, Work ye in your place. W ait in expectation; We too in expectancy are waiting (11:123). And again: Say: Each of us awaiteth the issue; wait therefore, hereafter shall ye surely know who they are that have chosen the straight path, and who hath