(144–145) “Muhammad is only a messenger; messengers have passed away before him. If he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels? Whoever turns back on his heels will not harm Allah in the least, and Allah will reward the grateful. No soul can die except by Allah’s permission, at a time already decreed. Whoever desires the reward of this world, We shall give him some of it; and whoever desires the reward of the Hereafter, We shall give him some of it. And We shall reward the grateful.”
Allah Most High says: “Muhammad is only a messenger; messengers have passed away before him.” That is, he is nothing unprecedented among the messengers; rather, he is of the same kind as the messengers who preceded him. Their duty is to convey their Lord’s messages and carry out His commands. They do not live forever, nor is their continued presence a condition for obeying Allah’s commands. Rather, every nation must worship its Lord at all times and in every circumstance. Hence He said: “If he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels?”—by abandoning the faith, striving in Allah’s cause, or anything else that he brought to you.
[Allah] Most High said: “Whoever turns back on his heels will not harm Allah in the least.” He harms only himself, for Allah Most High has no need of him. Allah will uphold His religion and grant might to His believing servants. After rebuking those who turned back on their heels, Allah Most High praised those who remained steadfast with His Messenger and obeyed their Lord’s command, saying: “And Allah will reward the grateful.” ⦗151⦘ Gratitude can be shown only by worshipping Allah Most High in every circumstance.
In this noble verse, Allah Most High guides His servants to remain in such a state that the loss of a leader, however eminent, does not shake their faith or cause them to abandon anything that faith entails. This can be achieved only by ensuring that, for every religious responsibility, several qualified people are prepared to undertake it, so that if one of them is lost, another takes his place. Believers as a whole should aim to establish Allah’s religion and strive in its defense as far as possible, without attaching their cause to one particular leader. In this way, their cause will remain firmly established and their affairs will proceed aright.
This verse also provides the strongest proof of the virtue of Abū Bakr, the greatest of the utterly truthful, and of his companions who fought the apostates after the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for they are the foremost of the grateful.
Allah Most High then stated that the lives of all souls are bound to their appointed terms by His permission, decree, and judgment. Whoever has been irrevocably decreed to die will die even without an apparent cause; and whoever Allah wills to remain alive will not be harmed before his appointed term arrives, even if every possible cause of death befell him (1). This is because Allah has judged, decreed, and recorded it until an appointed time: “When their appointed time comes, they can neither delay it by a single hour nor bring it forward.”
Allah Most High then stated that He gives people of the rewards of this world and the Hereafter according to what their wills seek. He said: “Whoever desires the reward of this world, We shall give him some of it; and whoever desires the reward of the Hereafter, We shall give him some of it.”
Allah Most High said: “To each of them—these and those—We extend from your Lord’s bounty, and your Lord’s bounty is never withheld. See how We have favored some over others; yet the Hereafter is greater in rank and greater in favor.”
“And We shall reward the grateful.” He did not specify their reward, thereby indicating its abundance and greatness, and making it known that the reward corresponds to the extent and excellence of one’s gratitude.