Page 50 - The Struggle of the Messengers

48 The Struggle of the Messengers

Actual Assaults against Messengers

When a Messenger tells the people about Allah's religion, the
unbelievers' leaders react more and more ferociously. When they
see the true religion continue to spread despite all of their
accusations and calumnies, they resort to what they consider to be
more "effective," such as setting traps.
In the Qur'an one "plot" against the Messenger is revealed as

follows:
When those who do not believe were plotting against you to
imprison, kill, or expel you: they were plotting and Allah was
plotting, but Allah is the Best of Plotters. (Surat al-Anfal, 30)
The unbelievers' goal is to have the Messenger arrested,

martyred, or expelled. The word "plot" here is thought-provoking:
Instead of confronting a Messenger openly, the unbelievers resort
to plots in an attempt to achieve the above-mentioned goal. But as
the verse says, their plots can never harm a Messenger, for Allah
will protect His Messenger until his work is completed. In the
Qur'an it is revealed that nearly all of the Messengers were
threatened with martyrdom, prison, or torture and that the
unbelievers' threats often turned into actual assaults.

Attempts to exile Messengers

As revealed in the Qur'an, exile is one of the methods
unbelievers foolishly think they can use to silence the Messengers.
They think scattering a Messenger and his followers by driving
them away from their homes will cause them to become

powerless and that this will enable them to neutralize them. For
example, they tried to exile the Prophet Lot (as) and his family