The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page cclxvi
GENERAL INTRODUCTION him. ¹ I think I shall soon receive the Call and I shall depart. O my Companions, I shall have to answer God, and you will have to answer also. What will you then say?" Upon this the Companions said, "We will say that you delivered well the Message of Islam and devoted all your life to the service of the Faith. You had the most perfect passion for the good of man. We will say: Allah, give him the best of rewards. " Then the Prophet asked, "Do you bear witness that God is One, that Muḥammad is His Servant and Prophet, that Heaven and Hell are true, that death is certain, that there is life after death, that the Judgement Day must come, and that all the dead will one day be raised from their graves, restored to life and assembled?" "Yes," said the Companions. "We bear witness to all these truths. " Turning to God, the Prophet said, "Be Thou also a witness to this—that I have explained Islam to them. " After this Pilgrimage, the Prophet was very busy teaching and training his followers, trying to raise their moral standard and to reform and refine their conduct. His own death became his frequent theme and he prepared the Muslims for it. One day, rising for an address to the Faithful, he said, "Today I have had the revelation: When the help of Allah comes, and victory, and thou seest men entering into the religion of Allah in troops, extol thou the glory of thy Lord, with His praise, and seek forgiveness of Him. Verily He is Oft- Returning with compassion (110:2-4). That is to say, the time was coming when, with the help of God, multitudes were to join the Faith of Islam. It was then to be the duty of the Prophet and of his followers- -to praise God and pray to Him to remove all obstacles in the way of the establishment of the Faith. The Prophet made use of a parable on this occasion: God said to a man, 'If it please you, you may return to Me, or you may work a little longer at reforming the world. ' The man said that he preferred to return to his Lord. Abu Bakr was among the audience. He had been listening to this last address of the Prophet, with fervour and anxiety-the fervour of a great believer and the anxiety of a friend and follower who could see in this address the portents of the Prophet's death. On hearing the parable Abu Bakr could contain himself no longer. He broke down. The other Companions, who had 1 This was not meant as a general law. It referred only to the Holy Prophet. A tradition puts down the age of Jesus at one hundred and twenty or so. As he had already attained to sixty- two or sixty-three, he thought his death must be near. —Ed. ccxl