Yes, Mohamed was a Prophet -- but also a family man, merchant, and politician. Iman Hamam extols the example of a very human messenger The story goes like this: when Prophet Mohamed was a young child, he was playing in the desert with his foster brother. Two angels (or two men in white) appeared, opened his chest, took something out and then washed him with snow from a golden basin. Petrified, his foster brother ran home, proclaiming that Mohamed had been murdered. But when his wet nurse Halimah came to investigate, she found the young boy alive and well, if a bit pale-faced; she also saw no sign of any such operation. The story, familiar to many, captures a fantastical element that sets the tone for many people's conception -- and understanding -- of the nature of the Prophet, affirming his designation as the perfect human being, free of the black clot of impurity that ordinary people are supposed to have. According to Mohamed Hussein Heikal, Egypt's most popular biographer of the Prophet, the Quranic verses that have been interpreted as evidence of this story -- "Had we not revived your spirit [literally 'opened your chest'] and dissipated your burden which was galling your back" -- are in fact "pointing to something purely [spiritual] that means to describe a purification of the heart as preparation for receipt of the divine message, and to stress Mohamed's over-taxing burden of prophethood." The difference between Heikal's interpretation and the commonly told story is significant. It reveals a tendency to literalise messages that may be more useful when read figuratively. The combination of celestial purity and earthly difficulties encountered throughout his life -- both before and after he received his first revelation -- illuminate the Prophet's nature. Before he was introduced to the angel Gabriel, who informed him of his mission, the Prophet was, by many accounts, already destined for great things. He was a special child, according to a Christian monk named Bahira, who witnessed a small, low- hanging cloud move slowly above Mohamed's head and stop when he halted; trees and rocks were also said to have prostrated in his presence. Indeed those who were close to him were well aware of his inimitable characteristics. But it is in this context -- portrayed as a perfect human being -- where potential dangers lie. For this image of perfection points towards a tendency to attach superhuman attributes to his being, which would seem to contradict, or at least in some sense undermine, the strictly monotheistic tenets of the faith. According to Hadeer Abul-Naga, a professor at Al-Azhar University, "some people have focused on the prophet's perfection as an excuse not to follow his example, on the premise that he was more than human." Such a tendency might come perilously close to deification -- something that Muslims since the earliest times have gone to great measures to avoid -- by banning figurative images of the Prophet, for example. For the founder of a religion that battled against idolatry, this is hardly surprising. At the same time, it is argued that the Prophet's image as the perfect human being serves as a focus for love of God and religion, as well as love of the person who provided access to them, in the form of the holy Quran. As American University in Cairo history professor Mark Sedgwick succinctly puts it, "the closer one comes to the example of the perfect man, the closer one comes to perfection". Yet stories such as the one related above might also have a distancing effect -- placing the prophet on a pedestal to the point of transforming him into a figure that hinders or obstructs his chief purpose as a messenger of God. It was Mohamed's utterance of the Quranic verses that were revealed to him, combined with confidence in his person, which led the first believers to embrace Islam. Such confidence constitutes a significant portion of Islamic practice, based on his actions ( sunna ) and sayings ( hadith ). The prophet's human characteristics, Sedgwick reminds us, "are the same as the great spiritual virtues -- tawba (repentance), taqwa (piety), and so on. In fact, he was the exemplary articulation of the central message." Insistence on the fact that the prophet was a messenger, who received revelations from God (either directly or mediated through Gabriel), affirms that the potency of the religion lies in the verses relayed. This was a time when poetry was considered to be the most respected and powerful skill, and there were many who were highly proficient in its form. In everyday interaction, eloquence was greatly valued. Later in life, when the non-Muslim leaders of Quraysh were desperate to ward off pilgrims from being converted to Islam by the prophet, one of the accusations they made against him was that he was a "magician whose craft was eloquence". It was, in fact, his very character that clearly refuted accusations that he was either a man possessed, or a wicked sorcerer. Before prophethood, he was already known as Al-Amin (the faithful or the trustworthy); he was sociable and friendly, but at the same time withdrawn and detached. Concerned with the deviance of those around him, he rarely participated in their activities. He was trusted to take charge of the goods of merchants who were unable to travel, and soon became a successful trader. He thus established a reputation for himself as an honest, reliable, decent and hardworking person, and this -- along with his good looks -- led to his marriage to Khadija, a rich and powerful woman who was 15 years older than him. Nevertheless, his encounter with the angel Gabriel on Mount Hira' was still somewhat unexpected. Informed of his role as messenger, Mohamed was confronted on all sides with the image of the angel, outstretched across the horizon. When he got home, he was panic-stricken and shaking with fear. Seeking support from his wife he asked her to give him a blanket with which he could wrap himself. He was so overwhelmed and filled with self-doubt, that he was driven to despair. This reaction -- signifying his need for reassurance -- underlines the importance of human contact and family relations later stressed in Islam. This image of a trembling prophet is one we might consider focusing on, in that it also places the prophet's role in perspective. His status as prophet did not, significantly, exempt him from having to abide by the rules laid down by the Quran, and the emphasis on his human nature was essential. On one occasion, the prophet was presented with three questions formulated by some Jewish rabbis to discern the validity of his claim to prophethood. Having told the rabbis that he would respond to their queries the next day, Mohamed went home to await revelation. For 15 days no help came from above, and the prophet became distraught. Then, the following verse was brought to him by the angel Gabriel: "And say not of anything: verily I shall do that tomorrow, except thou sayest: if God will." The central lesson was that the prophet -- like all of us -- was, in the final analysis, at the mercy of God's will. Such stories serve to demonstrate that the Prophet sometimes faltered, or felt weak; the point is that his trust in God was absolute and unwavering. He remained determined to the end, driven by his sole purpose, the message that he delivered with kindness and clarity. The emphasis, then, is on this -- and on how he translated the message of God into practice; how up to the present day and for generations to come, he remains an important human role model loved and revered by Muslims throughout the world. His political innovations were clearly manifest in how he dealt with crisis situations. He consulted with his companions, and as Abul-Naga explains, "established the Islamic nation which encompassed people of many different ideologies and from various places". Being a prophet did not make him an exception, in that he remained subject to difficulties and hardship. If, however, his supernatural attributes take priority -- resulting in a lack of emphasis on him as a man of good manners and strong will, a man who was gentle, considerate, humble, modest, honest and hardworking -- then, sadly, these much more attainable human characteristics may end up being ignored. As Abul-Naga points out, "the most important characteristics of the Prophet are his capacity to combine such amazing qualities. He was not just a prophet, but a kind person, an intelligent man, and above all a worshiper of Allah."
