6 Preface فَلَعَلَّكَ باخِعٌ نَفسَكَ عَلىٰ آثارِهِم إِن لَم يُؤمِنوا بِهٰذَا الحَديثِ أَسَفًاYusuf AliThou wouldst only, perchance, fret thyself to death, following after them, in grief,1 if they believe not in this Message.In a reasonable world the preaching of a reasonable Faith like that of Islam would win universal acceptance. But the world is not altogether reasonable. It caused great distress to the unselfish Preacher of Islam that his Message met with so much opposition. He wanted to point the way to salvation. He only got, in the Meccan period, abuse from the chiefs of the Meccans-abuse and persecution, not only for himself but for the Truth which he was preaching. A heart less stout than his might have been appalled at what seemed the hopeless task of reclaiming the world from falsehood, superstition, selfishness, wrong, and oppression. He is here consoled, and told that he was not to fret himself to death: he was nobly doing his duty, and, as later events showed, the seed of Truth was already germinating, although this was not visible at the time. Besides, these “chiefs” and “leaders” were only strutting in false plumes: their glory was soon to fade forever.