Muhammad (saw) – The Perfect Man — Page 941
Muhammad sa The Perfect Man 941 (12) Professor Emeritus of Semitic Literature, Princeton University, U. S. A Philip K. Hitti "Arabia, which had hitherto never bowed to the will of one man, seemed now inclined to be dominated by Muhammad and be incorporated into his new scheme. Its heathenism was yielding to a nobler faith and a higher morality. . . . Even in the height of his glory Muhammad led, as in his days of obscurity, an unpretentious life in one of those clay houses consisting, as do all old-fashioned houses of present-day Arabia and Syria, of a few rooms opening into a courtyard and accessible only from there. He was often seen mending his own clothes and was at all times within the reach of his people, thus by one stroke the most vital bond of Arab relationship, that of tribal kinship, was replaced by a new bond, that of faith; a sort of Pax Islamica was instituted for Arabia. The new community was to have no priesthood, no hierarchy, no central see. . . . Within a brief span of mortal life Muhammad called forth out of unpromising material, a nation never united before, in a country that was hitherto but a geographical expression; established a religion which in vast