Sura 3, al-Imran, Medina

The Quranic text and Ali’s version

وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلاَّ رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ...

3:144. Muhammad is no more than a Messenger: many were the Messengers that passed away before him.

C460. This verse primarily applies to the battle of Uhud, in the course of which a cry was raised that the Messenger was slain. He had indeed been severely wounded, but Talha, Abu Bakr, and Ali were at his side, and his own unexampled bravery saved the Muslim army from a rout.

This verse was recalled again by Abu Bakr when the Messenger actually died a natural death eight years later, to remind people that Allah, Whose Message he brought, lives for ever. And have need to remember this now and often for two reasons:

1. when we feel inclined to pay more than human honour to one who was the truest, the purest, and the greatest of men, and thus in a sense to compound for our forgetting the spirit of his teaching, and

2. when we feel depressed at the chances and changes of time, and forget that Allah lives and watches over us and over all His creatures now as in a history in the past and in the future.

...أَفَإِن مَّاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ انقَلَبْتُمْ عَلَى أَعْقَابِكُمْ ...

if he died or were slain, will ye then turn back on your heels?

...وَمَن يَنقَلِبْ عَلَىَ عَقِبَيْهِ فَلَن يَضُرَّ اللّهَ شَيْئًا...

If any did turn back on his heels, not the least harm will he do to Allah;

...وَسَيَجْزِي اللّهُ الشَّاكِرِينَ ﴿١٤٤﴾

but Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly reward those who (serve him) with gratitude.