Exemplary Conduct

EXEMPLARY CONDUCT countries are like buildings in which massive walls obstruct one’s view, but there is nothing blocking one’s vision of reality in the vast open reaches of Arabia. Wherever one looks, one sees endless sands and fathomless sky. Here, there is nothing to stop one from consorting with God and His angels.12 It was no small matter that a young man should be taking up this course in the prime of his life. He renounced worldly happiness and chose a way fraught with difficulties and sorrow. He had all possible means and opportunities for a comfortable life, but his turbulent soul did not find satisfaction in them. He attached no value to them and could not rest content until he had unravelled the mysteries of life. He sought to delve beyond external appearances and seek out the reality of life. Worldly gain and loss, comfort and distress, did not concern him; what mattered to him was the all-important question of truth and falsehood. This phase of the Prophet’s life is referred to thus in the Quran: Did he not find you wandering and guide you?13 The word used in this verse for “wandering” (“dhallan”) can also be used to describe a tree standing alone in an empty desert. The Prophet was like a lone tree standing amidst the vast wilderness of ignorance that was Arabia of the time. The idea of consolidating his position in this society was abhorrent to him. He sought the truth, and nothing less than the truth could satisfy his soul. His quest had reached