Sublime Character

SUBLIME CHARACTER breaking with those who break with them, wronging those who wrong them, and harming those who harm them. But the higher character level is based on the principle: do as you would be done. Those of such a character deal with friend and foe in the same principled manner, irrespective of how they have been treated. They are reconciliatory, even joining with those who break with them. They are compassionate, even to those who seek to harm them. They are forbearing, even towards those who wrong them. According to the French philosopher Voltaire (1694– 1778), “No one is a hero to his valet.” This is because a valet has access to a person’s private life; in private life, no one is perfect. Therefore, those close to a person usually do not hold him in such high esteem as those further off. That is why they cannot think of him as a hero. But this does not hold good for the Prophet Muhammad. On the contrary, history shows that the closer one came to him, the more one was impressed by his fine qualities. Once, some members of the tribe of Banu Qayn ibn Jasr attacked the camp of the Banu Ma’an, a branch of the Tay tribe. While plundering, they captured an eight-year-old boy called Zayd, whom they sold as a slave at the fair of ‘Ukaz. It so happened that the latter came into the service of the Prophet, having been presented by his buyers to Khadijah shortly before her marriage to the Prophet. The boy’s father and uncle soon learnt of his whereabouts and came to Makkah to recover and take him home. They met the Prophet and said they would give any compensation he