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S.3 A.141-144
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141. Allah's object also is to purge458 Those that are true in Faith And to deprive of blessing Thosc that resist Faith. 142. Did ye think that ye Would cntcr Heaven 459 Without Allah testing Those of you who fought hard (In His Causc) and Remained steadfast'! 143. Ye did indeed Wish for Death Bcforc ye encountcred it: Now yc have seen it With your own eyes, (And ye flinch!)
SECfION 15. Muhammad is no more oWl Than a Messcngcr: many Wcrc thc Mcssengers that passed away Bcfore Him. If he dicd
458. The purge or purification was in two senses. (I) It cleared out the Hypocrites from the ranks of the Muslim warriors. (2) The testing-time strengthened the faith of the weak and wavering: for suffering has its own mission in life. The Prophet's examplewounded but staunch, and firmer than ever-put new life into the Community. 459. Cf. ii. 214.
460. This verse primarily applies to the battle of U~ud, in the course of which a cry was raised that the Messenger was slain. He had indeed been severely wounded, but Tal~a, Abii Bakr, and Ali were at his side, and his own unexampled bravery saved the Muslim army from a rout. This verse was recalled again by Abu Bakr when the Messenger actually died a natural death eight years later, to remind people that Allah, Whose Message he brought, lives for ever. And have need to remember this now and often for two reasons: (I) when we feel inclined to pay more than human honour to one who was the truest, the purest, and the greatest of men, and thus in a sense to compound for our forgetting the spirit of his teaching, and (2) when we feel depressed at the chances and changes of time, and forget that Allah lives and watches over us and over all His creatures now as in a history in the past and in the future.
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