The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 83
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 83 whole lifetime before this. Will you not then understand?” (10: 17). Thus God put forward the purity and righteousness of the Prophet’s life, which those who opposed him so bitterly had observed at close quarters, as proof that he was not capable of utteri ng a lie against God. Not without reason had his fellow townsmen bestowed upon him the title “El - Ameen,” the Trusty, the Faithful. Faced squarely with this challenge, not one of them ever attempted to assert that Muhammad had on any occasion been guilty of saying or doing that which was not utterly true, completely righteous. Yet all the time he had to stress that he was but a man like the rest, lest, observing the security that he enjoyed in the midst of constant danger, the success that he extracted even from persecution and defeat, and the ultimate triumph of his cause to wh ich the whole of Arabia was witness, some might be tempted to ascribe to him supernatural capacities and powers or superhuman status. “Say: `I am but a man like yourselves. I have received revelation that your God is only One God. So let him who hopes to m eet his Lord act righteously, and let him join no one in the worship of his Lord” ` (18:111) When challenged by his opponents to show them a sign, like causing a spring to gush forth from the earth, or causing the heavens to fall upon them in pieces, or ascending to heaven and bringing down with him a book which they could read, he was commanded t o reply: “Holy is my Lord. I am but a man sent as a Messenger” (17:91 - 94). It was necessary to stress this both in view of what had happened in the case of some previous prophets who were exalted