Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 462
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 462 faults. Surely, God is Most Forgiving, Merciful’ (3:32). When Aisha said that the character of the Holy Prophet was the Quran, she meant that the Holy Prophet illustrated in his own person to the fullest degree the excellences that the Quran teaches. It wa s because he had become a living example and illustration of the highest excellences that man is capable of achieving, that God’s testimony affirmed, ‘Verily, you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar, for him who fears Allah and the Last Da y, and who remembers Allah much’ (33:22). In short, the whole of the Holy Prophet’s life – his every thought, every movement, every action, his very being – was devoted to God in the effort to seek closer communion with Him. This is also clearly affirmed by divine testimony. He was commanded to sa y, ‘My Prayer and my sacrifices and my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of the worlds. He has no associate. So am I commanded, and I am the first of those who submit wholly to Him’ (6:163 - 4). The West has, with a few honourable exceptions, through fourteen centuries consistently ignored all that was patently good and beneficent in the life of the Holy Prophet and in Islam and, when confronted by his example and his doctrine, has taken shelter b ehind flimsy and untenable excuses. Its favourite objection has been that the sword spread Islam. By whose sword? The Holy Prophet was but one man against the whole world. Through thirteen long years of his ministry at Mecca, under the severest persecution and the gravest provocation, he and his small band of followers set the example of steadfast law - abiding citizens, who offered no violence against violence. Finally, some