The stress and strain of twenty-five years’ incessant labour was now telling on a constitution which was by no means robust. Ever since he had come to Medîna he had been engaged in an unceasing struggle with paganism, a struggle in which was involved the very existence of the little community over whom he was called to preside—a struggle from which, says the Moslem, divine help alone enabled him to emerge with safety. At the end, when success had crowned his ministry, and he saw the hosts of Arabia flocking to the fold of God, it left him exhausted; he felt that his work was finished and the end was near. Had it not been told him, ‘When thou seest men enter in hosts the religion of God, then utter thou the praise of thy Lord and implore His pardon, for He loveth to turn in mercy to those who seek Him.’[34] The poison given to him some years before by a Jewess was also undermining the system. But up to the last he maintained his usual calmness and serenity of mind; and officiated at the public prayers until within three days of his death. The last time he appeared at the public service amidst the tears and sobs of the people, he recommended to all the observance of religious duties, and the practice of peace and good-will. He implored Heaven’s mercy for all those present, and all who had fallen in the persecution of their enemies, and concluded with the following words of the Koran, ‘The dwelling of the other life we will give unto them who do not seek to exalt themselves on earth or to do wrong; for the happy issue shall attend the pious.’ The exertion, however, was too much for the feeble frame, and on his return to his apartments he lay down fainting on his bed, never to rise again. =Death of the Prophet, 632 A.C.=—On Monday the 8th of June 632 A.C., whilst praying in whispers, the spirit of the Prophet took flight to ‘the blessed companionship on high,’ the last words which fell from his lips. Thus disappeared from the scene one of the greatest, if not in very truth the greatest, of God’s servants, who have lived and worked for the good of mankind. He found the bulk of his own people sunk in the grossest fetishism, decimated by tribal feuds, addicted to infanticide and the worst forms of pagan practices. Here and there individuals had broken away from the old cults, but were still groping in darkness in search of the road to truth and salvation, unsatisfied spirits to whom neither Judaism nor Christianity brought any solution to the enigmas of life. In less than a decade he not only stamped out the pagan ways and habits which held the heart of Arabia, but infused into his folk a new life, imparted to them a new conception of duty, of moral responsibilities of which they had been wholly devoid before. The beneficence of his work was not confined to his own countrymen. His words revived the religious spirit of surrounding nations, whose moral abasement was equally deplorable.