19 Preface وَأَنَّهُ لَمّا قامَ عَبدُ اللَّهِ يَدعوهُ كادوا يَكونونَ عَلَيهِ لِبَدًاYusuf Ali“Yet when the Devotee1 of God stands forth to invoke Him, they2 just make round him a dense crowd.”The Devotee of God: the Prophet Muḥammad.They. The immediate reference was to the Pagan Quraish who were then in possession of the Ka‘ba and who put all sorts of obstacles and indignities in the way of Prophet for preaching the One True God and denouncing idol-worship. They used to surround him and mob him and to treat him as if he was guilty of some dreadful crime. But the wider application refers to the habit of the world to make a marked man of any who diverges from the beaten paths of their favourite sins and who pleads earnestly for the cause of truth and righteousness. They ridicule him; they surround him with jeers and obloquy; and they try to make the physical condition of his life as difficult for him as possible.