2 Preface وَأَنتَ حِلٌّ بِهٰذَا البَلَدِYusuf AliAnd thou art a freeman1 of this City;—Ḥillun: an inhabitant, a man with lawful rights, a man freed from such obligations as would attach to a stranger to the city, a freeman in a wider sense than the technical sense to which the word is restricted in modern usage. The Prophet should have been honoured in his native city. He was actually being persecuted. He should have been loved, as a parent loves a child. Actually his life was being sought, and those who believed in him were under a ban. But time was to show that he was to come triumphant to his native city after having made Medīna sacred by his life and work.