MUHAMMAD THE IDEAL CHARACTER

~ 5 ~ unimpeachable. In fact it had earned for him the title of al-amin, —faultless custodian, unfailing trustee. On the occasion of his marriage at the age of twenty five, his uncle, Abu Talib, made a speech in the course of which he said, “Compare my nephew Muhammad, son of Abdullah, with anyone you know: he will outshine him in nobility, gentility, eminence and wisdom. By God, he has a great future and will reach a very high station”. Abu Talib did not attach to these words the sense in which later events proved them to be true; he meant, of course, that anyone possessing such virtues and such a versatile personality was bound to rise in the world and to acquire a distinguished position in its affairs. Little did he realize in what an otherworldly and non-material sense all of this would come true. The would-be Prophet possessed great potentialities, which he could have turned to advantage. His qualities had greatly impressed a rich, forty-year-old widow called Khadijah, who offered herself to him in marriage. She had been the