The Personality of the Prophet of Islam

In this healthy and favourable atmosphere generation succeeded generation over a long period of two thousand five hundred years. This culminated in the final Prophet being raised among these people. His was a historic generation, which produced those high-calibre individuals, noble souls known as the sahaba, the Prophet’s companions, numbering about one lakh. The Quran calls them ‘the best people,’ while certain orientalists have called them a “community of heroes” in view of the extraordinary feats performed by them. This example of Prophet Abraham shows that in any age where the corruption of an evil civilization predominates, and it appears that the people living in that atmosphere will not be able to remain aloof from the general perversion of values, the only course is to find a safe haven far away from bad influences. These special arrangements may be made for the training and education of children and young people. If this plan is properly carried out, as the history of Prophets Abraham and Ismail tells us, this training center of nature may once again produce such noble souls as are well-equipped to change the course of history, so that it may be re-directed along healthier lines. Another incident which pertains to a prophet is recounted in the Quran. It concerned Prophet Yunus, who was sent to communicate the message of monotheism to the idolaters of Nineveh, an ancient city of Iraq. After doing dawah work there for a period of time, he felt that his hearers were not going to believe in God’s message, and so deserved divine punishment for their denial of monotheism. Arriving at this conclusion on his own, he left Nineveh. The people of Ninevah remained unaffected, while Prophet Yunus was swallowed up by a whale. He suddenly found himself in the whale’s belly, and there was no way out of this plight. What was the reason behind this? The reason was that a community may be adjudged deniers of monotheism only when they have had the message of dawah conveyed to them in full. A lack of success after performing dawah work for only a limited period of time does not warrant the stigmatizing of a people as deniers of God’s message. Therefore, when Prophet Yunus (Jonah) found himself in the whale’s belly, he gave himself up to introspection. Then it was revealed to him that he had abandoned his people before the completion of his task. The sunnah (way) of the prophets is that they leave their people only after the dawah work has reached its completion. When he realized his mistake, he sought forgiveness from God and prayed. God granted his prayer. The whale then brought him to a dry land and regurgitated him. After this, Prophet Yunus came back to his people and began calling them again to the path of monotheism. This time, almost all of his people entered the fold of the religion of monotheism. Such an event as relating to a prophet has an extremely important lesson for believers. This incident has been thus described in the Quran: