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      THE KEY TO THE PROPHET’S CHARACTER

      EVERY PERSON has a key to his or her character. When the key is identified, it is easy to deal with that person. This key allows us to explain their attitudes and behaviour, and to anticipate their reaction to events. This is just like a house key: it may be small, but it opens into a spacious place with all its contents. Without the key, the inside of the house remains unknown, and we can only hazard a blind guess as to what it contains. Similarly, the key to a person enables us to understand their behaviour, even when they act in a way that others find odd.

      For the Prophet, we can only look for a key to his personality on the basis of his life before prophethood, that is, before he started to receive Divine revelations. At that time he acted on his own, knowing nothing about a Divine message that was to be assigned to him. Later, when he began to receive his message, he assumed a role that was unlike any other, and he was also receiving guidance from on high. His mission, responsibilities and actions benefited from this guidance and were based on it. Non-Muslims who wrote about his life in isolation of this fact came up with explanations that Muslims find problematic. Some of these accounts are unbiased, and some even admire him. Nevertheless, studying his life in ordinary human terms, giving no weight to the Divine guidance he received, will show some of his actions as questionable, and perhaps unjustifiable. His attitude in the negotiations with the Quraysh leading to the Ḥudaybiyah peace agreement appeared odd, even to his closest Companions. He consulted no one, which was contrary to his previous patterns of behaviour, and he accepted all of the terms that were imposed by the enemy. In any human situation, what would historians, critics or analysts say about a negotiator who declared at the outset – as the Prophet did – that they would accept any offer, and who actually sought no concession from the other side in return for agreeing to their terms?

      When we set about looking for the key to Muhammad’s personality in his life prior to the start of revelations, we soon discover that we will have some difficulty, as the reports we have of that period provide insufficient details and may be unreliable. Only those reports that the Prophet or his close Companions mentioned about his early years can be verified with regard to their authenticity. For example, one report states that as a suckling baby, Muhammad used to take his feed from only one of the breasts of his wet nurse. Muslim historians suggest, “it was as if he was made to do so by God to leave the other breast full for Ḥalīmah’s own son.” How can we verify this in the absence of later confirmation by the Prophet or by Ḥalīmah?

      The reports that can be considered reliable point to a particular quality that we can consider to be the key to the Prophet’s personality: the pursuit of right. When we examine Muhammad’s personal history, we find this quality is consistent in his character, both before and after prophethood. This quality was even enhanced by the Divine message he delivered to mankind. As mentioned in Chapter 1, Muhammad was twenty years old when he took part in forging the noble ‘al-Fuḍūl’ alliance, which committed the Quraysh clans to stand united in support of anyone who was subjected to injustice in Makkah, whether this person belonged to Makkah or was a visitor. This was a bright moment in his pre-Islamic life, and one that he mentioned with fondness after prophethood. He was settled in Madinah when he said that he would not exchange his participation in that alliance for anything in the world; he stated that he would even honour it under Islam, should anyone appeal to him for help under its terms. The fact that this alliance was concluded in pre-Islamic days by idolatrous people did not detract from the fact that it was a noble alliance that aimed to give everyone their rights. This declaration by the Prophet confirms a sense of honour and integrity that can only be nurtured by a man who pursues what is right and stands up for it.

      Throughout his life, Muhammad consciously maintained a very high standard of integrity. He would not knowingly tell a lie. In many societies, people do not look with abhorrence at telling lies. Of course, no one openly says that lying is something to be proud of, but people often advise a relative or a friend to lie in order to get out of a tricky situation. In the Arabian society of pre-Islamic days, lying was not a matter of great concern. Today, many societies expect a person to tell the truth in formal situations: for example, a witness who gives a false testimony in court is prosecuted. However, in small matters of daily life people do not give a second thought about telling a lie when it serves their purpose. They even admit to the lie and do not expect to be censured; others often laugh or express approval. Muhammad, however, was widely known among his people for speaking the truth in all situations. The testimonies to this are numerous, coming from friend and foe alike.

      In the fifth year of Muhammad’s prophethood he advised a large number of his Companions to immigrate to Abyssinia. Fearing the consequences of such immigration, the Quraysh sent a delegation to Negus, the ruler of Abyssinia, requesting their extradition. The delegation tried hard to get Negus to order such extradition without questioning the immigrants. Negus, however, was a fair man. Therefore, he called the immigrants to his court and asked them about their religion. Their spokesman, Jaʿfar, described their conditions before Islam. He then went on to say: “Then God sent us a Messenger whom we have always known to be a man of truth and honesty.”¹

      Those who opposed the Prophet in Makkah had no hesitation in stating that he was a man of truth. When Muhammad received God’s order to advocate Islam in public, he stood on the hill of al-Ṣafā in the centre of Makkah and called on all clans to come over to him. When they had gathered, he said to them:

      “If I were to tell you that armed horsemen are beyond this valley heading towards Makkah to attack you, would you believe me?”

      “You are trustworthy, and we have never known you to tell lies,” they answered.

      “Well, then,” he said, “I am sent to you to warn you against grievous suffering.”²

      Shaykh Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Hasani Nadwi says that the Arabs’ first answer in Makkah was evidence of their realistic and practical approach. They were responding to a man whom they had known to be honest and truthful and to always give sincere advice. He was standing on top of a hill where he could see what was beyond. In their position, they could not see anything beyond what was in their valley. They had no reason not to believe him, whatever he said. This was a natural opening, which secured a testimony: in other words, it established Muhammad’s credentials, which were well known to his audience.³

      An example of testimony from his adversaries occurred at the time when the Prophet and his Companions went to Makkah for their compensatory ʿUmrah (mini-pilgrimage). As noted in Chapter 2, according to the peace agreement signed a year earlier between the Prophet and the unbelievers in Makkah, the Prophet and his Companions were to be allowed entry in Makkah and a stay of three days, but they were to have no armament other than swords in their sheaths. As the Muslims were about to start their journey from Madinah, the Prophet ordered that sufficient armament should be carried with them, so that they would be ready in case the Quraysh were bent on mounting a treacherous attack. When the Muslims were drawing near to Makkah, its people were informed by their advance party that the Muslims carried their armament with them. The Quraysh immediately sent Mikraz ibn Ḥafs with a few of its dignitaries to determine

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