The Seal of Prophets - His Personality and Character — Page 10
10 The Seal of Prophets “He was a man of few words. . . and good faith. They called him ‘Al-Amyn,’ the Trusty. His tending his employer’s flocks; his journeys to Syria; possibly his short-lived friendship there with Sergius or Bahira, a Nastorian Monk; his famous vow to succour the oppressed; his employment by Khadijah in a trade venture, and his subsequent happy marriage with her, are about the only note-worthy external incidents in his early life. ” (Page 75) However in the 1986 edition of the same book, published long! after his death, we see how this has been changed: “Hitherto a man of few words, and with few friends, he was yet noble with his own small circle of truthfulness and good faith. Men called him ‘Al-Amin’, or the Trusty. A rich widow, named Khadija, employed him to go on some trading journeys for her to Syria. The shepherd became a camel driver, and the trust committed to him he discharged with such fidelity and prudence that Khadija offered him her hand in marriage. She some fifteen years older than he; old enough, that is, in that Eastern climate to be his mother. Yet the marriage was one of real affection and respect, and from that time to the day of her death, a period of twenty four years, Mohammed remained faithful to her, and took no second wife, though the universal custom of his countrymen would have countenanced him in so doing. ” (Pages 95-96)