Exemplary Conduct

EXEMPLARY CONDUCT Nine things the Lord has commanded me. Fear of God in private and in public; Justness, whether in anger or calmness; Moderation in both poverty and affluence; That I should join hands with those who break away from me; and give to those who deprive me; and forgive those who wrong me; and that my silence should be meditation; and my words remembrance of God; and my vision keen observation.15 These were not just glib words; they reflected the Prophet’s very life. Poignant and wondrously compelling words of this nature could not emanate from an empty soul; they indicate the speaker’s status; they are an outpouring of his inner being, an unquenchable spirit revealed in verbal form. Even before the dawn of his prophethood, the Prophet’s life had followed the same pattern. The motivation, however, had been subconscious; now, it came on to the level of consciousness. Actions previously based on instinctive impulses now became the well-conceived results of profound thinking. This is the state of one who reduces material needs to a minimum, whose life assumes a unique pattern, who in body lives in this world but in spirit dwells on another plane. The Prophet once said,