Life-of-Muhammad

138Life of Muhammad sapride therefore. Believe in this Prophet sa of God. By GodMoses as did not foretell about Jesus as as clearly as didJesus as foretell about Muhammad sa . We invite you toMuhammad the Prophet sa , just as you Christians invitethe Jews to Jesus as . Every Prophet has his followers.The followers must obey their Prophet. Now that aProphet sa has appeared in your time it is your duty tobelieve in him and follow him. And remember ourreligion does not ask you to deny or disobey Jesus as .Our religion requires everyone to believe in Jesus as ."Hearing this, Muqauqis revealed that he had heard ofthe teaching of this Prophet sa and he felt that he did notteach anything evil nor forbid anything good. He hadalso made inquiries and found that he was no sorcereror soothsayer. He had heard of some of his prophecieswhich had come true. Then he sent for an ivory box andplaced the letter of the Prophet sa in it, sealed it andhanded it over to a servant girl for safe deposit. He alsowrote a letter in reply to the Prophet sa . The text of thisletter is recorded in history. It runs as follows:In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. FromMuqauqis, King of the Copts, to Muhammad sa , son of‘Abdullah. Peace be on you. After this, I say that I haveread your letter and pondered over its contents and overthe beliefs to which you invite me. I am aware that theHebrew Prophets have foretold the advent of a Prophet sain our time. But I thought he was going to appear in Syria.I have received your envoy, and made a present of onethousand dinars and five khil‘ats to him and I send twoEgyptian girls as a present to you. My people, the Copts,hold these girls in great esteem. One of them is Mary ra andthe other Sirin ra . I also send you twenty garments made ofEgyptian linen of high quality. I also send you a mule forriding. In the end I pray again that you may have peacefrom God (Zurqani and Tabari).From this letter it is clear that, though Muqauqistreated the letter with respect he did not accept Islam.