Spirit of Islam, 2019

An ordinary character is based on the principle: do as you have been done by. NOBLE ATTRIBUTES OF THE PROPHET A Sublime Character T HE QURAN describes Prophet Muhammad as one possessing a “sublime character.” (68: 5). Here are two sayings of the Prophet which throw light on what this “sublime character” consists of: “Never debase your character by saying that if people treat you well, you will treat them well, and if they harm you, you will do worse to them. Rather, become accustomed to being good to those who are good to you, and not wronging those who harm you.” (Mishkat ul-Masabih) “Join hands with those who break away from you, forgive those who wrong you, and be good to those who harm you.” The sublime character described here was displayed—in its most lofty form—by the Prophet himself. Such character is required of ordinary Muslims as an accessory, but with the Prophet it was a basic requisite. This is clear from this statement of the Prophet: “Nine things the Lord has commanded me: Fear of God in private and in public; Justness, both in anger and in 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.” There are two levels of character, an ordinary and a superior level. An ordinary character is based on the principle: ‘do as you have been done by’. Such a character might be termed a “knee-jerk character”, for one possessed of such a character offers only reflex responses to treatment by others, breaking with those who break with him, wronging those who wrong him, and harming those who harm him. But the higher level of character is based on the principle: ‘do as you would be done by’. One possessed of such a character deals with both friends and foes in the same principled manner, irrespective of how he