PROPHET MUHAMMAD—PART I

In other words, this is how God’s faithful servant passes the day. The yearning of his soul brings him so close to God that he finds communion with the Lord. Fear of the day of reckoning makes him reckon with himself. At times he is so overawed by the marvels of God’s creation that he starts seeing the splendours of the Creator reflected therein. He spends his time remembering the Lord, introspecting, and contemplating the world around him, while also finding time to cater for his physical needs. These words are a reflection of the Prophet’s own personality, a flash from the light of faith that illuminated his own heart. These “moments” were an integral part of the Prophet’s life. One who has not experienced these states can never describe them in such a lofty manner. The soul from which these words emanated was itself in the state that they describe; through words, that state of spiritual perfection was communicated to others. Before he received the word of God, this world with all its shortcomings and limitations appeared meaningless to the Prophet. God revealed to him that besides this world there was another perfect and eternal world, the real abode of man. With this, life and the universe took on new meaning. He found a new and sublime level for his soul, a life in which he could involve himself totally. The Prophet now found a world where he could put his heart and soul, a target for his hopes and aspirations, a goal for his life’s endeavours. When reality gets rooted, it transforms one by raising one’s level of existence. The Prophet of Islam provides us with a superlative example of this way of life. The greatest lesson imparted by his life is that unless one changes one’s plane of existence, one cannot change one’s plane of actions. When the Prophet Muhammad discovered the reality of the world hereafter, it came to dominate his whole life. He himself became most desirous of the heaven which he described to others, and was most fearful of the hell of which he warned others. Deep concern for the life to come was always welling up inside him. Sometimes it would surge to his lips in the form of supplication, and sometimes in the form of Worldly gain and loss, comfort and distress, did not concern him; what mattered was the all-important question of truth and falsehood.