Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
7. The Revolution of the Prophet
~ 154 ~
for her husband and said that everything was fine
with them; they had much to be thankful for.
Abraham set off, and told her to convey his
greetings to Ishmael, and to tell him to “keep his
threshold.” This wife was ideally suited to the task
in hand; Ishmael should keep her in wedlock.
15
So it was that, in the solitude of the Arabian Desert,
the seeds of the progeny that was to be known as
the Children of Ishmael were sown. These were the
initial states of preparation of a people who, 2500
years later, were to provide the Final Prophet with
the support he needed in performing history’s most
mammoth task.
The qualities of the nation that grew up in the
barren expanses of the desert around Makkah can
be summed up in one word—
al-muru’ah
(manliness). This was the word of highest esteem
that Arabs used to describe essential human
qualities in a person. As an ancient Arab poet has
written:
If a person fails to achieve manliness when young,
then he will find it hard to do so when he grows
old.
