So Said The Promised Messiah (as) — Page 64
owed any duties or rights to other~). Sympathy and well- wishing had been wiped out. And it is not only the rights of the fellow beings that were trampled, the rights of God had also been covered up in still a greater darkness. The stones, the plants and the stars had been given the attributes of God the Almighty. Various types of,atheism were prevalent. Weak human beings and even their private parts were being wor- shipped. Were a good-natured person to picture this situation before his eyes, he would find a very dreadful scene oftyrrany. It is one side of the human body that is paralysed, but this paralysis had affected both the sides (of the body of huma- nity). There was total disorder in the land. Peace and security were not to be found either on the land or on the sea. Let us look at the Holy Prophet, sallallaho alaihi wa sallam, in that dark age. It was he who put the two sides of the scale right. He put the rights of the human beings as well as the rights of God, in their proper place. One can realise the excellence of the morals of the Holy Prophet sallallaho alaihi wa sallam, by looking at the dark age in which he lived (and the changes that he brought about). His opponents tortured him and his followers-and this torture was really great-yet when he had the power to do to them whatever he liked, he showed great magnanimity. No hardship can be thought of which Abu Jahl and his companions did not place in the way of the Holy Prophet, sallallaho alaihi wa sallam. The poor Muslim ladies were tied to the camels and the camels made to run to opposite sides; thus splitting the bodies of those Muslim ladies; their only offence was that they had believed in la ilaha illallah (there is none worthy of worship except Allah). Despite all this, the Holy Prophet, sallallaho alaihi wa sallam, exercised 64