A STRIVER, WITH SOUL IN HAND

      The foregoing story continues here by the coming of a new character upon the stage. A young carpenter named HABIB,came running from the outskirt of the town and said:- ``O, people! Follow the apostles. Follow them who do not ask you any reward, and who are guided.''

      The young man was threatened by the arrogant chiefs and influentials who were among the audience. They told him to stop and leave the apostles to whom they had augured ill omen superstitiously. But the young man insisted upon his assertion saying:-

      ``Why should I not worship Him who has created me and all of you will have to return to Him? Should I take your false gods apart from Him, that if the Merciful Lord intended a loss. Their intercession will not avail me anything, nor can they deliver me? In that case I would be in a manifest error.''

      Some of the rascals by the order of their arrogant chiefs rushed upon him when he bravely said:-

      ``I have believed in your Lord! Then hear me you all!''

      The rascals and mean fellows, beat him to death, and he was martyred.

      As soon as Habib was killed for the cause of God, it was said to him enter the kingdom of your Merciful God, which is typified in Qurän by gardens of rest and beauty. In his utmost happiness the clear, noble soul, exclaimed:-

      ``O, would that the people who killed me could only know that my Lord forgave me and brought me among the honoured ones.''

      After that, it was not needed to seize them by an armed force, for retaliation against their crime. Only a single cry of terror rang harshly in their inner or outer self, and vibrated them to such a resonance that they became noiseless and silent for ever!

ANTIOCH

      Most of the commentators believe that the place in which the above incident of apostles happened was ANTIOCH, but none of them have given a satisfying reason to prove that. Some other deny that, and think that the place referred to, must have been a village in the suburb of the city, or somewhere such as Iconium, Lystra, or Darb. In the above verse (NO.18) the apostles were threatened by their addressees of being stoned if they did not stop. In the Gospel-Acts 14:1-7 we read of the same threat thus:- Then some Gentiles and Jews together with their leaders, in Iconium decided to ill-treat the apostles and stone them. Wherever the incident was, we will give some explanation of Antioch's history here to help our reader in more understanding:-

      Antioch was the ancient capital of the Seleucid dynasty of Syria, on the Orontes river 20 miles from its Mediterranean port. The city was founded by SELEUCUS NICATOR around 300 B.C., and named for his father ANTIOCHUS. The city was strategically placed to control all the north-south traffic at this point. It soon became one of the largest commerical centers, and one of the most magnificent cities in the world. Celebrated for the splendor of its architecture, it was embellished first by the Seleucid kings, and later by Roman Emperors.

      It served as the capital of Roman Empire in Asia, and at that time claimed a population of nearly half a million Greeks-Jews and Aramaeans, whom the Romans regarded as noisy, untrustworthy, fickles and morally lax.

      In size and importance it was the third city of Roman Empire. ANTIOCH became the chief center of Christianity outside Palestine in the first century A.D. It was here that the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians, and here that AGABUS and BARNABAS commissioned for their missionary journeys. (ACTS-11:25-30)

      Saul too, was called by BARNABAS. The Gospel of MATTHEWS is thought by many scholars to have been written here. According to historical evidences ANTIOCH flourished after the apostles and became a center of Christianity and churches. It turned to a second place of the Christian believers after Palestine, just as Medina became the second Moslem town after Mecca.

      In the Gospel ACTS-13:49, we read about the state of the city with the apostles:-

      ``The word of Lord spread everywhere in that region, but the Jews stirred up the leading men of the city and the Gentile women of high social standing who worshipped God. They started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of the region. The apostles shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went from there to ICONIUM. The believers in ANTIOCH were full of joy and Holy Spirit. In ICONUM the apostles spoke in such a way that a great number of Jews and Gentiles became believers, but the Jews who would not believe, stirred up the Gentiles and turned them against the Christian believers...then the people of the town were divided, some were for the Jews, and some for the apostles. Then some Gentiles and Jews together with their leaders, decided to ill-treat the Apostles and to stone them.'' In this incident we read in S-36:18 of Qurän that, the non-believers said to the apostles:-

      ``We augur ill omen of you! If you do not desist we will stone you...''

EXTRACTED FROM: 1) NEW TESTAMENT

2) INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE