f. Their sufferings and death are meritorious, taking away sin and helping all their people into Paradise or Heaven.

aa. 'We thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead' (2 Cor. v. 14).
'Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed' (1 Pet. ii. 24).
'Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him' (Heb. v. 8, 9).

bb. 'It is an accredited tradition that Abd Allah Ibn Masud said, I went to the Apostle of God, when the fever had seized him; and, on laying my hand upon his face, it was so burning hot that my hand could not bear it. I said, "O Apostle of God, thou hast a wonderfully hot fever." His Excellency responded, "Yes, and the truth is, that the violence of my fever is as great as that of any two of you, suffering from fever, put together." I said again, "O Apostle of God, then thou acquirest also a double merit and reward." His Excellency rejoined, "Yes, so it is; and by that God in whose mighty hand my soul is, no one suffers pain or affliction from illness or anything else, without casting off his sins, like a tree in autumn casts off its leaves."

'When Bilal, soon after Mohammed's death, sounded the call for prayer and thereby caused a universal weeping in Medina, he added, "O friends, for you are these glad tidings that every eye which weeps for his Excellency, the apostle, shall never see hell-fire." It is known that this virtue is not confined to his Excellency's contemporaries, but we have the hope that it extends to all believing people, until the day of the resurrection, if, touched and moved by that prince's death, they weep over his trouble and departure, they all reap the same benefit, for it is established that his death is the calamity of the entire people. ¹ Ibn Abbas declares, I heard the Prophet say, "Every one of my people who loses two children by death will, at God's behest, be taken to Paradise, when he dies, by those two precursors." Aisha said, "But if only one child

has died, what then?" The Prophet answered, "Then the one precursor shall be reckoned for two." Aisha asked again, "But if any one has had no precursor at all, what then?" The Prophet answered, "Then I am in the stead of the precursor, that is, I am my entire people's precursor (taking them to Paradise), so that no such calamity is to befall them, as the calamity of my own death."' (R.)

g. In their suffering of death Satan had no power over them.

aa. 'Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, ¹ and hath nothing in me' (John xiv. 30).

bb. 'When Om Bishr visited Mohammed in his last illness, he asked her, "O Om Bishr, what do the people say about my illness?" She replied, "They say that thou hast the pleurisy." Upon this, his Excellency said, "It is not consistent with the goodness and kindness of the Most High to let that illness seize on His Prophet. The illness thou hast mentioned arises from Satanic influences; but Satan has no power over me. My illness is the effect of the poisoned meat I ate in Khaibar, together with thy son."' (R.)

h. Their death-agonies were so extreme, that in their distress they called out aloud after God.

aa. 'Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour; and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli! Eli! lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?... Jesus, when he had cried out with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost' (Matt. xxvii. 45-50).

bb. 'It is reported that the death-struggle of that Excellency was so painful and violent, that he at times turned red; at times, pale; sometimes pulled away his right hand, sometimes his left; and that his illustrious face streamed with the sweat of death; and he dipped his blessed hand into a cup of water standing there, to moisten his face, and