MUHAMMAD THE IDEAL CHARACTER

~ 12 ~ of describing it with such sublimity of expression. These are the utterances of a perfect soul who wishes in his goodness to guide others to this same state of perfection. Before God’s revelations began to be made to the Prophet, the world with all its shortcomings, faults and limitations appeared meaningless to him. But when God revealed to him that there is a world other than the present one, a world which is perfect and eternal—the real abode of man—he found new meaning and purpose both in this life and in the universe. He found the world not just a place where he could subsist, but a place of wonder and fascination. It was a world now on which he could pin his hopes and for which he could make plans for the future, even taking into account its ephemerality. For him now, the world was a place which had to be tilled so that men might reap their rewards in the hereafter, and all his actions were oriented towards this end. He attached real value to the life beyond the grave, for he had become keenly aware of the fact that this world is not our final destination, but only the starting point and path leading to the future life. Everything we did here in