Muhammad The Great Exemplar — Page 50
Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad 50 is extraordinary to note is how, on occasion, the beauty of the Prophet’s sa character lights the flame of insight and perception even in his eyes, and he too can be seen succumbing to the delightful charms [of the Holy Prophet sa ]. This marksman of Christianity fires his arrows at the Prophet sa like one driven by madness. And yet the heart cannot be but moved to see him fervently prostrate towards the earth and respectfully caress the blood his arrows have spilled. At such junctures, he embodies the contradictory emotions which arise when enmity and astonishment weave in coalescence in the manner of a [thunder] cloud which nature has at once invested with fire and water. And when these moments pass, Muir again reaches for his arrows. Many opponents of Islam allege the Holy Prophet sa was a product of his time. That is to say, they claim he did not impact the age of his existence, but was forged by the circumstances of his life. [According to their argument, the Prophet sa ] came when the people of Arabia were disillusioned and increasingly drawn to Christianity. They were eager to be reformed and needed only a mould to fashion them according to its prescription—and that mould was the Holy Prophet sa who had been readied by the environment of his time. The hearts of the Arabs followed him and adopted a new