Islam As It Is
Islamic Character
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those he dislikes. He reserves his praise for those
who agree with him, but roundly condemns those
who disagree.
These are the different aspects of a degraded
character. God and His Prophet have commanded
believing Muslims to ennoble their characters by
first suppressing all such baseness in themselves.
NOBILITY OF CHARACTER
The Prophet Mohammed himself was of a very fine
character, and he made it his mission to exhort
others to cultivate in themselves all that was noble
and altruistic. In his
Muwatta,
Imam Malik records
the Prophet as saying:
“I have been sent to perfect excellence of
character. “
In other versions of this statement, the words
“righteousness of character” and “graciousness of
character” are used. What is meant by this
‘graciousness of character’, which the Prophet was
sent to inculcate? As the Prophet himself made clear
in another statement, it consists of three virtues:
