The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam — Page 214
208 of true sympathy, had devoted his life to labour for the welfare of mankind and through supplications and exhortations and enduring their persecution and by every proper and wise means had laid down his life and sacrificed his comfort in this cause; as God the Glorious has said: لَعَلَّكَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفْسَكَ أَلَّا يَكُوْنُوْا مُؤْمِنِينَ فَلَا تَذْهَبْ نَفْسُكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسَرَاتٍ 241 Haply thou wilt risk death grieving that they do not believe; and: Let not thy soul waste itself in sighing after them. Thus the wise way of laying down one's life in the service of one's people is to endure hardship in their service in accord with the beneficial law of nature, and to spend one's life working out appropriate projects to that end, and not to strike one's head with a stone because of the perilous situation of one's people resulting from their errors or afflictions, or to depart this life after swallowing two or three grains of strychnine imagining that through this absurd device one would open the way of salvation for one's people. This is not a manly method, but is a feminine tendency. It has always been the way of faint-hearted people that 240. Haply you will grieve yourself to death because they believe not. (The Holy Quran, as-Shu'ara' 26:4) 241. So let not your soul waste away in sighing for them. Surely Allāh knows what they do. (The Holy Quran, Fāṭir 35:9)