Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
3. Exemplary Conduct
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mind. What is our true role in life? What does the
Lord require of us, as His servants? Whence do we
come and whither will we go after death? Unable to
find answers to these questions in the centres of
human activity, he betook himself 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
tranquility 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
