PROPHET MUHAMMAD—PART I

threw open to him a vast field of business in Arabia and beyond. The Prophet had every opportunity to lead a successful and comfortable life. But he forsook these, opting for something quite different. Intentionally he took a road that could only lead to worldly ruin. Before marriage, the Prophet had earned his living in different ways. He now relinquished all such activities, and dedicated himself to his lifelong vocation—the pursuit of truth. He would sit for hours and ponder over the mysteries of creation. Instead of socializing and trying to gain a position for himself among the nobles of Makkah, he wandered in the hills and dales of the desert. Often he retired to the solitude of a cave in Mount Hira’—three miles from Makkah— for prayer and meditation. He visited home only to replenish his supplies, He beseeched the Maker of the heavens and the earth for answers to the questions surging in his mind. What is our true role in life? What does the Lord require of us, His servants? Whence do we come and whither will we go after death? Unable to find answers in the midst of human bustle, he betook to the stillness of the desert; perhaps there the answer would be forthcoming. The Romanian orientalist Konstan Virgil George (b. 1916) writes in his book, The Prophet of Islam: Until one has spent some time in the wilds of Arabia and the Middle East, one cannot begin to understand how the vastness and tranquillity of the desert expands the human intellect and fortifies the imagination. There is a great difference between European and Arabian plants. There is no plant in the arid reaches of the desert that does not exude a sweet fragrance; even the acacia trees of this land are aromatic. The desert stretches for 3,000,000 square kilometres. Here it is as though man comes into direct contact with God. Other countries are like buildings in which massive walls obstruct one’s view; but there is nothing blocking one’s vision of reality in the vast open reaches of Arabia. Wherever one looks, one sees endless sands and fathomless sky. Here, there is nothing to stop one from consorting with God and His angels. The Prophet had every opportunity to lead a successful and comfortable life. But he forsook these, opting for something quite different.