Life-of-Muhammad

132Life of Muhammad sapartner with Him, and that some of us take not others forlords beside Allah.' But if they turn away, then say, ‘Bearwitness that we have submitted to God' " (Zurqani ).The invitation to Islam was an invitation to believethat God is One and that Muhammad sa is HisMessenger. Where the letter says that if Heracliusbecomes a Muslim, he will be rewarded twice over, thereference is to the fact that Islam teaches belief in bothJesus as and Muhammad sa .It is said that when the letter was presented to theEmperor, some courtiers suggested it should be torn upand thrown away. The letter, they said, was an insult tothe Emperor. It did not describe the Emperor asEmperor but only as Sahibul Rum, i.e., the Chief ofRome. The Emperor, however, said that it was unwise totear up the letter without reading it. He also said thatthe address, 'Chief of Rome', was not wrong. After all,the Master of everything was God. An Emperor was onlya chief.When the Prophet sa was told how his letter had beenreceived by Heraclius, he seemed satisfied and pleasedand said that because of the reception which the RomanEmperor had given his letter, his Empire would besaved. The descendants of the Emperor would continuelong to rule over the Empire. That is in fact whathappened. In the wars which took place later, a largepart of the Roman Empire, in accordance with anotherprophecy of the Prophet sa of Islam, passed out of thepossession of Rome; yet for six hundred years after this,the dynasty of Heraclius remained established inConstantinople. The Prophet's sa letter remainedpreserved in the State archives for a long time.Ambassadors of the Muslim King, Mansur Qalawun,visited the court of Rome, and were shown the letterdeposited in a case. The then Roman Emperor showingthe letter said it had been received by a forefather of hisfrom their Prophet sa and had been carefully preserved.