Muhammad the kindred to Humanity — Page 3
3 come forward and lead their people. Why can they not say the same about our Holy Prophet? Of the great teachers who have had their advent in India, Buddha provides an obvious example. When he left his home, his beloved wife was asleep. He did not even wake her up to say good-bye to her, lest her loving eyes should keep him from going out. . He left his hearth and home with the determination not to return until he had found God. Would there be a Hindu,. Christian or a Muslim so hard-hearted as not to have his eyes bedewed with tears on reading so tender a story as that of. Gautama Buddha? He went wherever he could. In Gaya where he attained to a great spiritual eminence, people would come to him and ask him to accept them as his devotees. . But he continued to refuse until the word of God raised his brooding head and told him to go forward and preach to the people. In the same way, Moses occupied a position of dignity and respect amongst his people. Nevertheless, lie did not aspire for leadership. In fact when he received God's summons he submitted that the Divine Commission had better been entrusted to his brother Harun. It was when God finally chose him, and not his brother, that Moses consented to come forward. Similarly when the first revelation came to our Holy. Prophet saying "Read!" he replied, "I cannot. . . . . ". We know from the commentaries that the Holy Prophet, at the time of the revelation, was not presented with anything to read. He was only asked to repeat certain words. But it was only after Gabriel had repeated three times the divine injunction to read that the Holy Prophet gathered courage to do so. All this meant that he himself was not aspiring for leadership. It was God who wanted to make of him a leader for all the world, and if God so wants, who is there to stop Him ?. In this respect, our Holy Prophet so closely resembles the teachers of other religions that if their followers take but a glance over their lives, they will at once realize that this aspect of the life of the Holy Prophet (on whom be peace) classes him with the Apostles of God, not with the men of the world.