Life-of-Muhammad

210Life of Muhammad sasave themselves from divine wrath and should becomedeserving of divine forgiveness. The consciousness thathe was always in the presence of God never desertedhim. When he used to lie down to sleep, he would say:"O Allah! let me die (go to sleep) with Thy name on mylips and with Thy name on my lips let me rise." When hewoke up, he would say: "All praise is due to God whohas brought me to life after death (sleep) and one day weshall all be gathered unto Him" (Bukhari).He constantly yearned for nearness to God and oneof his oft-repeated prayers was "O Allah! Do Thou fill myheart with Thy light and fill my eyes with Thy light andfill my ears with Thy light and put Thy light on my rightand put Thy light on my left and put Thy light above meand put Thy light below me and put Thy light in front ofme and put Thy light behind me and do Thou, O Allah,convert the whole of me into light" (Bukhari).Ibn ‘Abbas ra relates: "Shortly before the HolyProphet's sa death, Musailima (the false prophet) came toMedina and proclaimed that if Muhammad sa wouldappoint him his successor he would be prepared toaccept him. Musailima was accompanied by a very largeretinue and the tribe with which he was connected wasthe largest among the tribes of Arabia. When the HolyProphet sa was informed of his advent he went to meethim, accompanied by Thabit bin Qais bin Shams ra . Hehad in his hand a dried palm twig. When he arrived atMusailima's camp he went and stood in front of him. Inthe meantime some more of his Companions had comeup and ranged themselves round him. AddressingMusailima he said, "It has been conveyed to me that youhave said that if I were to appoint you my successor youwould be ready to follow me, but I am not willing tobestow even this dried palm twig upon you contrary toGod's commands. Your end will be as God hasappointed. If you turn your back on me God will bringyou to naught. I perceive very clearly that God will dealout to you what He has revealed to me." He then added:"I will now retire. If you have anything further to say,