The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page cclxxxii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION will, by living longer, be able to achieve greater good; and if he is evil, he may, if given time, be able to repent of his evil ways and start on a good way. His love for, and devotion to, God found expression in many ways. For instance, whenever after a dry season the first rain drops began to descend, he would put out his tongue to catch a raindrop and would exclaim: "Here is the latest favour from my Lord. " He was constantly occupied in praying for God's forgiveness and beneficence, more particularly when he was sitting among people so that those who were in his company or were connected with him and Muslims generally should save themselves from divine wrath and should become deserving of divine forgiveness. The consciousness that he was always in the presence of God never deserted him. When he used to lie down to sleep, he would say: "O Allah! let me die (go to sleep) with Thy name on my lips and with Thy name on my lips let me rise. " When he woke up, he would say: "All praise is due to God who has brought me to life after death (sleep) and one day we shall all be gathered unto Him" (Bukhārī). He constantly yearned for nearness to God and one of his oft-repeated prayers was "O Allah! Do Thou fill my heart with Thy light and fill my eyes with Thy light and fill my ears with Thy light and put Thy light on my right and put Thy light on my left and put Thy light above me and put Thy light below me and put Thy light in front of me and put Thy light behind me and do Thou, O Allah, convert the whole of me into light" (Bukhārī). Ibn 'Abbās relates: "Shortly before the Holy Prophet's death, Musailimah (the false prophet) came to Medina and proclaimed that if Muḥammad would appoint him his successor he would be prepared to accept him. Musailimah was accompanied by a very large retinue and the tribe with which he was connected was the largest among the tribes of Arabia. When the Holy Prophet was informed of his advent he went to meet him, accompanied by Thābit bin Qais bin Shams. He had in his hand a dried palm twig. When he arrived at Musailimah's camp he went and stood in front of him. In the meantime some more of his Companions had come up and ranged themselves round him. Addressing Musailimah he said, "It has been conveyed to me that you have said that if I were to appoint you my successor you would be ready to follow me, but I am not willing to bestow even this dried palm twig upon you contrary to God's commands. Your end will be as God has appointed. If you turn your back on me God will bring you to naught. I perceive very clearly that God will deal out to you what He has revealed to me. " He then added: "I will now retire. If you have anything further to say, you may talk to Thābit bin Qais bin Shams, who will act as my representative. " He then returned. Abū Hurairah was also with him. Somebody inquired of the Prophet what he meant by saying that God would deal out to Musailimah what had been revealed to him. The Holy Prophet replied: "I saw in a dream two bracelets around my cclvi