Muhammad: The Ideal Character
MUHAMMAD The Ideal Character
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of describing it with such sublimity of expression.
These are the utterances of a perfect soul who
wishes in his goodness to guide others to this same
state of perfection.
Before God’s revelations began to be made to the
Prophet, the world with all its shortcomings, faults
and limitations appeared meaningless to him. But
when God revealed to him that there is a world
other than the present one, a world which is perfect
and eternal—the real abode of man—he found new
meaning and purpose both in this life and in the
universe. He found the world not just a place where
he could subsist, but a place of wonder and
fascination. It was a world now on which he could
pin his hopes and for which he could make plans
for the future, even taking into account its
ephemerality. For him now, the world was a place
which had to be tilled so that men might reap their
rewards in the hereafter, and all his actions were
oriented towards this end. He attached real value to
the life beyond the grave, for he had become keenly
aware of the fact that this world is not our final
destination, but only the starting point and path
leading to the future life. Everything we did here in
