Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
16. The Companions of the Prophet
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To believe in the Qur’an under such circumstances
was like seeing future events as if they had already
happened. It required vision enabling one to see a
concealed truth before it had become established in
the eyes of men. How difficult it must have been,
then, to make the Qur’an the basis of one’s
preaching mission. To do so amounted to a
negation of personal greatness and the acceptance
of the greatness of another—one whose greatness
had not yet been accepted by the world. When the
famous Arab poet Labid accepted Islam, he gave up
writing poetry. When someone asked why he had
done this, he replied; “What? After the Qur’an?” If a
poet today was to relinquish his writing for the
same reason, he would be accorded tremendous
acclaim and popular respect. In saying, “How can I
write poetry after the advent of the Qur’an,” he
would be looking at a Qur’an with a glorious
history behind it. Labid said these words at the very
beginning of the Qur’an’s history. There is no
comparison between acknowledging the greatness
of something after history has cast a mantle of
greatness upon it, and doing so beforehand. The
Qur’an has explained the difference in these words:
