The Prophet Muhammad A simple Guide to his Life
The Prophet in the Qur’an
~ 36 ~
Nothing prevents men from having faith when
guidance is revealed to them but the excuse: ‘Could
God have sent a human being as an apostle?’
(17:94)
Here is an Arabic saying that will help to clarify
these verses. That is, things can be understood
properly only by their opposites. When we look at it
in the light of this principle, two pictures of the
Prophet, very different from one another, appear
before us. One picture, according to the above
verses, is that which was before his contemporaries.
The other, the one we have today, has grown
tremendously in stature over the fifteen centuries,
which have elapsed since his coming to the world.
In the ancient picture, the Prophet appears to be a
common man standing all alone. In vivid contrast,
the picture of him that has emerged after 1500 years
has become so sublime that modern attempts to
describe him, if they are to do him Justice, have to
include such expressions as “the pride of all
existence,” “the emperor of both the worlds”,
“leader of the Universe”, “the crown king of
Arabia”, and so on.
