QUOTE : He stood firm, insisting that the Quraysh leaders acknowledge no god but God and abandon all the totems and lesser gods. By way of reply, abu-Sufyan and the others simply threw their hands up in frustration and stalked out of the sickroom, leaving Muhammad alone with his dying uncle. What abu-Talib said then is still a matter of debate. In one account he whispered, “Nephew, why did you go too far with them?” But in another he said, “Nephew, you did not ask them for too much,” and it is this second version that reflects the hope of many pious Muslims that the man who had led his clan through hardship to protect Muhammad did in the end die a believer. Certainly both accounts agree that Muhammad took his uncle’s hand as the life began to fade from his eyes and urged him to say the shahada, to accept islam and testify that there was no god but God: “Say it, uncle, and then I shall be able to witness for you on the Day of Judgment.