Muhammad the kindred to Humanity — Page 22
22. Sensitiveness to Others' Distress. The third excellence of our Prophet pointed out by the. Quran is contained in the words "Hard for him to bear is your distress. " The original which I have rendered as "hard" contains the further sense that the Prophet wants to see you raised high up in the moral scale. Both senses are important. . I propose to show how solicitous the Prophet was about the distress of others and how equally solicitous he was about seeing his people raised to a great moral and spiritual height. . On one occasion, Abu Bakr was talking to a Jew. The. Jew claimed superiority for Moses over Muhammad, upon which Abu Bakr gave him a blow. The Jew brougnt the complaint to the Prophet who admonished Abu Bakr saying, "Don't quarrel for my superiority over others. " It has been said by some that the incident belongs to the earlier part of his life, to a time in fact, when he did not regard himself superior to Moses. This, however, is a mistake. The Prophet knew from the first day the distinctiveness of his rank. . In the admonition to Abu Bakr he taught his followers not to say things which may hurt others' feelings. Great therefore was his concern for the feeling of others. What he meant when he admonished Abu Bakr was that his superiority such as God had conferred on him, was something to be properly inculcated in the course of preaching, not something to quarrel about in an excited discussion. If this caution was not observed the respect which he wanted. Muslims to pay to the great teachers the world has known, was liable to be obscured. The Prophet taught us to respect the teachers respected by others, and not to talk lightly of them, nor to find faults with them. He even forbade disrespect to idols, the gods set set up by their worshippers as being equal to the One True God. Says the. Quran:. Do not talk disrespectfully of even the idols of others, for their worshippers will in turn talk lisrespectfully of Allah and will thus unknowingly