56. Wronged for ALLAH’s sake: Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was persecuted and even banished by the faithless people. So were the Prophets before him. “Thus it is that their recompense (who persecuted you) is hell, because they disbelieved and held My Revelations and My Messengers in mockery” (Quran 18:106). “We only send the Messengers to give Glad Tidings and to give Warnings: But the unbelievers dispute with vain argument, in order therewith to weaken the Truth, and they treat My Signs as a jest, as also the fact that they are warned!” (Quran 18:56).
– Makarios is you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. (Matthew 5:11). [See: Barclay, op. cit., 1998]
57. Persecuted as the Prophets who were before Him: Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) has indeed been persecuted as the Prophets who were before him. Verily, ALLAH truly, says in the Quran: “And there came not to them a prophet but they mocked at him” (43:7). “Never came there unto them a revelation of the revelations of ALLAH but they did turn away from it. And now they reject the Truth when it reaches them: but soon shall they learn the Reality of what they used to mock at. Do they not consider how many a generation We have destroyed before them, whom We had established in the earth as We have not established you (O people), and We sent the clouds pouring rain on them in abundance, and We made the rivers to flow beneath them, then We destroyed them on account of their faults and raised up after them another generation. If We had sent unto thee (O Muhammad, on whom be peace) a written (message) on parchment, so that they could touch it with their hands, the Unbelievers would have been sure to say: “This is nothing but obvious magic!” They say: “Why is not an angel sent down to him?” If we did send down an angel, the matter would be settled at once, and no respite would be granted them. Had We appointed him (Our messenger) an angel, We assuredly had made him (as) a man (that he might speak to men); and (thus) obscured for them (the truth) they (now) obscure. Mocked were (many) Messengers before thee (O Muhammad, on whom be peace); but their scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked. Say (O Muhammad, on whom be peace, unto the disbelievers): Travel in the land, and see the nature of the consequence for the rejecters! Say: Unto whom belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth? Say: Unto ALLAH. He hath prescribed for Himself Mercy, that He may bring you all together to the Day of Resurrection whereof there is no doubt. Those who ruin their souls will not believe” – (Quran 6:4-12).
– Obviously, in the beatitude, Jesus (on whom be peace) does not talk about the angel of the heaven or the saint of the Cathedral but Jesus (on whom be peace) delivers this sermon to herald the tidings of the coming of another Prophet after him, whose name shall be MUHAMMAD and AHMAD (on whom be peace). Instead of Makarios, we urge originally Jesus (on whom be peace) might have used the proper name of the Prophet Muhammad (on
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