2 Preface وَرَأَيتَ النّاسَ يَدخُلونَ في دينِ اللَّهِ أَفواجًاYusuf AliAnd thou dost see the people enter God’s Religion in crowds,1The Prophet migrated from Mecca to Medīna, a hunted and persecuted man. In Medīna all the forces of truth and righteousness rallied round him, and the efforts by the Meccans and their confederates to destroy him and his community recoiled on their own heads. Gradually all the outlying parts of Arabia ranged themselves round his standard and the bloodless conquest of Mecca was the crown and prize of his patience and constant endeavour. After that, whole tribes and tracts of country gave their adhesion to him collectively, and before his earthly ministry was finished, the soil was prepared for the conquest of the wide world of Islam. What was the lesson to be learnt from this little epitome of the world’s history? Not man’s self-glory, but humility; not power but service; not an appeal to man’s selfishness or self-sufficiency, but a realisation of God’s Grace and Mercy, and the abundant outpouring of God’s Praises in word and conduct.