Allah states in the Qur’an that the number of believers unearth would be always very few and that only this minority of believers would attain Paradise. For this reason, faith is one of the favours that could be granted to a person. However, during our Prophet’s (saas) time, once having faith, certain people attempted to lay our Prophet (saas) under obligation, as if they had done him a favour. In order to explain this very erroneous logic—”They think they have done you a favour by becoming Muslims!”—our Prophet (saas) was commanded to speak thus:
Say: “Do not consider your Islam a favour to me. No indeed! It is Allah Who has favoured you by guiding you to faith, if you are telling the truth.” (Surat al-Hujurat, 17)