Mohammad: The Prophet of Islam Vol

So successful was the Prophet’s life that, during his lifetime, he became the ruler of the whole of Arabia right up to Palestine. Whatever he said, as the messenger of God, was accepted as law. He was revered by his people as no other man has ever been revered. Urwa Ibn Masud was sent as an envoy of the Quraish in the negotiations that preceded the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (6 AH). He was amazed to see that the Muslims would not let any water used by the Prophet for ablution, fall on the ground, but would catch it in their hands, and rub it on their bodies. Such was their veneration for him. Anas, the Prophet’s close companion, says that in spite of the great love they had for the Prophet, they could not look him full in the face. According to Mughira, if any of the Prophet’s companions had to call on him, they would tap on the door with their fingernails. One night, when the moon was full, the Prophet lay asleep, covered in a red sheet. Jabir Ibn Samra says that sometimes he would look at the moon and sometimes at the Prophet. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that Prophet was the more beautiful of the two. The Muslims had the worst of the fighting in the initial stages of the Battle of Hunayn. Arrows rained down on the Prophet from the enemy ranks, but his followers formed a ring around him, letting the arrows strike their own bodies. It was as though they were made of wood, not flesh and blood; indeed the arrows hung from the bodies of some of them like thorns of a cactus tree. Devotion and veneration of this nature can produce vanity in a man and engender a feeling of superiority, but this was not the case with the Prophet. He lived among others as an equal. No bitter criticism or provocation would make him lose his composure. Once a desert-dweller came up to him and pulled so hard at the sheet he was wearing that it left a mark on his neck. “Mohammad!” he said. “Give me two camel-loads of goods, for the money in your possession is not yours, nor was it your father’s.” “Everything belongs to God,” the Prophet said, “and I am His servant.” He then asked the desert-dweller, “Hasn’t it made you afraid, the way you treated me?” He said not. The Prophet asked him why. “Because I know that you do not requite evil with evil,” the man answered. The Prophet smiled on hearing this, and had one camel-load of barley and one of dates given to him. The Prophet lived in such awe of God that he was always a picture of humility and meekness. He spoke little and even the way he walked suggested reverence for God. Criticism never angered him. When he used to put on his clothes, he would say: “I am God’s servant, and I dress as befits a servant of God.” He would sit in reverential posture