The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 86
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 86 directed by the Prophet, awaiting his instructions. Presently they saw him riding into the town from the plain. He had already been out to investigate, and assured them that there was no danger, that they could go back to sleep. He was the most alert of th em at all times concerning their security, as a good shepherd should be concerning his flock. Passing along one afternoon he noticed a freed man sweating over his task. The Prophet approached him quietly from behind and covered his eyes with his hands as children sometimes do in sport. The man put up his hands to his eyes and from the softness of t he hands covering them concluded that this intimate and affectionate gesture could come only from the Prophet. The Prophet began to laugh and removed his hands from the eyes of the man. This was his way of bringing comfort to one who might have considered himself lonely and friendless and might have been weary of his task. On shaking hands with a laborer and perceiving that his hands were rough and calloused from hard toil, the Prophet held the man’s hands within both of his and massaged them gently, repeating several times: “These hands are very dear to God. '” That is why God affirmed that the Prophet possessed the highest moral excellences (68:5) and that God’s Grace had been bestowed upon him in abundance (17:88). The highest yearning of the human soul is to win the love of God through its own devotion to, and love of, Him. The Quran succinctly points the way for the satisfaction of that yearning. The Prophet was commanded to say: “If you love God, follow me: then will God love you and forgive you your faults. Surely, God is Most Forgiving, Merciful” (3:32).