Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
4. Sublime Character
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you.’ The Prophet told ‘A’ishah not to answer back
in this manner. “God is gentle,’ he said, “and He
likes gentleness in every matter.’ In truth, there is
no more effective method of winning a person’s
heart than by returning soft words for harsh. It is
possible to withstand armed onslaught, but noble
conduct is a force in itself that no one can resist. It is
sure to prevail in all situations.
What a terrible thing it must have been for a man
such as the Prophet when, as night was falling, he
found the urchins of Ta’if chasing him out of town
and pelting him with stones. Ta’if was the place
where the Hijaz aristocracy used to while away
their summer days and the Prophet had made the
fifty-mile trip from Makkah to call them to Islam.
But the lords of Ta’if did not listen to his well-
meaning words; instead they set the street-urchins
on him, and they kept on chasing him until night
had cast a veil between them and God’s Prophet.
His body was covered in wounds. Bleeding from
head to foot and utterly exhausted, he took refuge
in a vineyard. This, even for the most ordinary of
men, would have been a traumatic experience. The
Prophet once told his wife, ‘A’ishah, that it had
