Surah ash-Shu`ara' (The Poets ) 26 : 51

Explanatory Note

Indeed, even if you kill us all, you will not harm us, because we will return to our Lord. Whatever happens on this earth will end here. Our hopes and aspirations are all centred on what will happen in the life to come where we “certainly hope that our Lord will forgive us our sins, since we are the first who have believed.” What splendid effect faith has on a believer’s mind, and how it brightens his soul, pouring reassurance and contentedness on it. Thus man, who originates from an essence of clay can attain the sublime. When faith settles in the heart, it enriches it to the extent that all that this world can offer seems trivial and worthless.

Here, the curtains fall to retain both the effect of this splendid scene and its majestic rhythm. It is given here in this way so as to make it a lesson to be fully appreciated by the new Muslims in Makkah as they faced the Quraysh unbelievers’ torture and persecution. It remains a lesson to all advocates of faith as they suffer persecution anywhere and in every generation.