The Message of Islam — Page 15
The Life of The Holy Prophet of Islam 15 he again fell asleep on his way to the city till morning. Thus he escaped temptation and no more sought after such diversions. All the authorities agree in ascribing to the youth of Muhammad saw a modesty of deportment and purity of manners rare among the people of Makkah. It was quite in keeping with his character that he should have shrunk from the coarse and licentious practices of his youthful compatriots. Endowed with a refined mind and delicate taste, reserved and meditative, he lived much within himself, and the ponderings of his heart supplied occupation for leisure hours spent by others of a lower stamp in rude sports and profligacy. The fair character and honourable bearing of the unobtrusive youth won the approbation of his fellow citizens; and by common consent, he received the title Al Ameen, meaning The Faithful. After the Divine Call came to him, and his message was treated with ridicule and suspicion, he was urged by God to challenge his opponents in the words: ْدَقَف ُتْثِبَل ْمُكْيِف اًرُمُع ْنِّم ٖهِلْبَق١ؕ اَلَفَا َنْوُلِقْعَت … …I have spent a whole lifetime among you before this; will you not then understand? ( Surah Yunus, 10:17) Not even his bitterest enemy could point to a single incident in his previous life to which exception could have been taken. When he arrived at the age of maturity, his uncle recom- mended him to Khadijah ra, a wealthy, highly respected widow among Quraish, who, like most of her contemporaries, had a sub- stantial interest in the trade caravans that travelled from Makkah to Yemen in the south, and to Syria in the north, so that she might employ him as her agent in a caravan that was about to set out for