Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 187Upon this the Companions said, "We will say thatyou delivered well the Message of Islam and devoted allyour life to the service of the Faith. You had the mostperfect passion for the good of man: We will say: Allah,give him the best of rewards."Then the Prophet sa asked, "Do you bear witness thatGod is One, that Muhammad sa is His Servant andProphet sa , that Heaven and Hell are true, that death iscertain, that there is life after death, that the JudgementDay must come, and that all the dead will one day beraised from their graves, restored to life andassembled?""Yes," said the Companions. "We bear witness to allthese truths."Turning to God, the Prophet sa said, "Be Thou also awitness to this—that I have explained Islam to them."After this Pilgrimage, the Prophet sa was very busyteaching and training his followers, trying to raise theirmoral standard and to reform and refine their conduct.His own death became his frequent theme and heprepared the Muslims for it.One day, rising for an address to the Faithful, hesaid, "Today I have had the revelation:When the help of Allah comes, and victory, and thou seestmen entering into the religion of Allah in troops, extol thouthe glory of thy Lord, with His praise, and seek forgivenessof Him. Verily He is Oft-Returning with compassion "(110: 2-4).That is to say, the time was coming when, with thehelp of God, multitudes were to join the Faith of Islam.It was then to be the duty of the Prophet sa —and of hisfollowers—to praise God and pray to Him to remove allobstacles in the way of the establishment of the Faith.The Prophet sa made use of a parable on thisoccasion: God said to a man, 'If it please you, you mayreturn to Me, or you may work a little longer atreforming the world.' The man said that he preferred toreturn to his Lord.