before we move one more step and meditate on the last days of the messenger of allâh’s life, we ought to cast a quick glance at the great work that was a peculiarity of his. that very peculiarity that made him excel all other prophets and messengers and made him so superb that allâh made him atop the formers and the latters. it was him that was addressed by:

"o you wrapped in garments (i.e prophet muhammad [pbuh])! stand (to pray) all night, except a little." [al-qur'an 73:1,2]

and said:

"o you (muhammad [pbuh]) enveloped (in garments). arise and warn!" [al-qur'an 74:1,2]

so he arose and kept on like that for over twenty years. during those years he undertook to carry the burdens of the great expectations on his shoulders for the sake of the whole mankind and humanity, the faith and jihad in various fields.

the messenger of allâh [pbuh] undertook the burdens of struggle and al-jihad in the conscience of mankind which was then drowning in the illusions of al-jahiliyah and its images that were loaded with the ground weights and gravitations. he took upon his shoulder to free man’s conscience which was chained with desires and lusts. as soon as he had freed the conscience of his companions from the burdens and heaps of al-jahiliyah and earthly life, he started another battle in another field or rather successive battles against the enemy of allâh’s call, and against those who conspired against it. it was a battle against those who conspired against the believers and against those who were so careful to tend that pure plant in its implantation before it grew up and stretched its roots in soil and extended its branches up into the air and thus dawned upon other areas. no sooner had he finished the battles in the arabian peninsula than the byzantines began preparations to destroy this new nation on the northern borders.

the first battle — i.e. the battle of conscience — was not over yet. it was in fact a perpetual one. satan, who was its leader did not spare a moment without exercising his activity in the depth of human conscience. muhammad [pbuh], on the other hand was attending on calling to allâh’s religion there and he was keen on fighting that perpetual battle in all fields in spite of their hard circumstances and the world’s conspiracy against him. he went on calling effectively and actively surrounded by the believers who were seeking security through ceaseless toil and great patience.

the companions acted perpetually and patiently by day and they spent the night worshipping their lord, reciting and memorizing the qur’ân glorifying and magnifying allâh and imploring him by night; all that at the behest of their lord, the all-mighty. [fi zilal al-qur'an 29/168,169]

for over twenty years the messenger of allâh [pbuh] had been leading that progressive steady battle, disregarding any other affairs that kept him off that noble goal. he went on that way till the islamic call proved to be successful on a large scale that puzzled all men possessed of good reason.

the islamic call eventually prevailed all over arabia. it removed all traces of al-jahiliyah from the horizon of the peninsula. the sick minds of al-jahiliyah grew healthy in islam. they did not only get rid of idol-worship, but they also knocked them down. the general atmosphere began to echo "there is no god but allâh." the calls to prayers were heard five times a day penetrating space and breaking the silence of the dead desert and bringing back life through the new belief. reciters and memorizers of the qur’ân set out northwards and southwards reciting verses of the qur’ân and carrying out allâh’s injunctions.

scattered people and tribes were united and man moved from man’s worship of man to man’s worship of allâh. there were no more oppressors nor oppressed; no masters nor slaves, nor people bound to other people, nor aggressors that would practise aggression. all people were slaves of allâh. they were beloved brothers obeying allâh’s rules. thanks to allâh they disposed of arrogance and the boastful spirit:

"an arab is no better than a non-arab. in return a non-arab is no better than an arab. a red raced man was not better than a black one except in piety. mankind are all adam’s children and adam was created from dust."

thanks to the islamic call, the arab unity had become a reality, and so was the case with human unity and social justice as far as their earthly and heavenly affairs were concerned. the time course of events had changed, the features on the earth’s surface and the crooked line of history had grown straight and the mentality had been rectified.

the spirit and the corrupted conscience of people, the distorted values and measures of al-jahiliyah had overwhelmed the whole world during that period of al-jahiliyah. the prevalence of slavery, injustice, extravagant luxury, adultery, depression, deprivity, disbelief, stray from the straight path and darkness; all of those were fait accomplis in spite of the existence of the heavenly religions. the teachings of those religions had grown weak and lost all influence on men’s souls and spirits and became mere lifeless ritual traditions.

when this call had accomplished its role in human life, it freed mankind’s spirit of superstitions, illusions, white slavery, corruption and man’s worship of man. islam had freed the human society of filth, dissolution, injustice and tyranny. there were no more social distinctions, nor clergymen’s or governors’ dictatorship. islam had set up a world built on solid virtuous and clean foundations, it was based on positivity, righteous construction, freedom and renewal. truth, faith, dignity active steady deeds, the development and improvement of means of living and reclaim of rights were all bases upon which the islamic state was built. [madha khasira al-'alam bi-inhitatil-muslimeen p.14]

thanks to these evolutions, arabia witnessed such an unprecedented blessed resurrection, since construction and establishment found its way to it. never had its history been so religious, pious and brilliant as it had been during those peculiar days of its life.

the invasion and the conquest of makkah was — as we have already stated — a decisive battle that destroyed paganism utterly. the arabs as a result of that battle were able to differentiate the truth from the error. delusion no longer existed in their life. so they raced to embrace islam. ‘amr bin salamah said: "we were at a water (spring) where the passage of people was. so when camel riders passed by us we used to ask them: ‘what is the matter with people? what is this man (i.e. the prophet) like?’ they would say, ‘he claims that allâh has revealed so and so.’ i used to memorize those words as if they had been recited within my chest. the arabs used to ascribe their islamization to the conquest. they would say: ‘leave him alone to face his people. if he were a truthful prophet he would overcome them.’ so when the conquest took place, peoples hastened to declare their islam. my father was the quickest of all my people to embrace islam. arriving at his people he said: ‘by allâh i have just verily been to the prophet [pbuh]. and he said: ‘perform so a prayer at such a time, and so and so prayers at such and such time. when the prayer time is due let one of you call for the prayer and appoint the most learned of the qur’ân among you to be an imam (leader) of yours. [sahih al-bukhari 2/615,616]" this prophetic tradition manifests the great effect of the conquest of makkah on the phase of events. it certainly shows the influence of the conquest of makkah upon the consolidation of islam as well as on the arabs’ stand and their surrender to islam. that influence was absolutely confirmed and deeply rooted after the invasion of tabuk. a clear and an obvious evidence of that influence could be deduced from the great number of delegations arriving in madinah successively in the ninth and tenth years of al-hijra. the immense crowds of people who raced to embrace the religion of allâh and the great army which included ten thousand fighters in the invasion of the conquest of makkah had grown big enough to include thirty thousand fighters sharing in tabuk invasion. it was only in less than a year after the conquest of makkah that this growth in islamic army had taken place. a hundred thousand or a hundred and forty four thousand muslim pilgrims shared in hajjatul -wada‘ (i.e. farewell pilgrimage); it was such an enormous number of muslims surging — as an ocean of men — round the messenger of allâh [pbuh], that the horizon echoed their voices and the expanses of land shook whereby while saying labbaik (i.e. lord, here we are worshipping), glorifying and magnifying allâh, and thanking him.