Here is the text of the Prophet's letter...

Here is the text of the Prophet's letter: "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. This is a letter from Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah to Musaylimah, the Liar. Peace be upon the followers of guidance. The earth belongs to Allah and He gives it to those pious servants of His, whom He wishes. And the pious persons meet a good end.[^1] A Short Biography Of Musaylimah He was one of those persons, who came to Madina in the tenth year of migration and embraced Islam.

However, after his return to his birthplace he himself claimed to be a prophet and some simple-minded and also some fanatical persons responded to his call. His popularity in Yamamah was not a manifestation of his real personality. Some people had gathered round him knowing that he was a liar and their logic was this: "A liar of Yamamah is better than a truthful person of the Hijaz".

This sentence was uttered by one of the supporters of Musaylimah when he asked him: "Does an angel descend on you?" He said: "Yes. Its name is Rahman". The man asked: "Is that angel in light or in darkness?" Musaylimah replied: "In darkness". The man said "I testify that you are a liar.

However, a liar of the Rabi'ah tribe of Yamamah is better than a truthful person of the Mazar tribe of the Hijaz" (By the truthful person of Mazar he meant the Prophet of Islam.) It cannot be gain said that this man claimed to be a prophet and gathered some persons round him.

However, it is not at all established that he planned to contend with the Holy Qur'an, and the sentences and verses which have been quoted in the historical texts as examples of his contention with the Qur'an cannot be the logic and wording of an eloquent person like Musaylimah, because his usual words and sentences carry great firmness and self-possession.

In view of this it may be said that whatever has been attributed to him is like the sentences which have been attributed to his contemporary Aswad bin Ka'b 'Unsi who claimed to be a prophet in Yemen simultaneously with Musaylimah[^2] and it is not improbable that all these may be mere embellishments, in both the cases, resorted to with some specific motives.

The reason for holding this view is that the Holy Qur'an possesses such an unusual greatness and eloquence that nobody can pick up courage to think of contending with it and every Arab knew clearly that it was humanly impossible to imitate.