12 in the 100tJtps <1 the ProphttConsidering the exemplary nature of the prophetic experience, the sec-
ond spiritual teaching emanating from these verses is valid for each
human being: never to fo rget one's past, one's trials, one's environment
and origin, and to turn one's experience into a positive teaching for one-
self and for others. MuhammaJ's past, the One reminds him, is a school
from which he must draw useful, practical, and concrete knowledge to
benefit those whose lives and hardships he has shared, since he knows
from his own experience, better than anyone else, what they feel and
endure.
An Education, and N ature
Life in the desert was to fashion the man and his outlook on creation and
rhe elements of the universe. \'7hen Muhammad came to the desert, he
was able to learn from the Bedouins' rich ora] tradition and rheir renown
as speakers to develop his own maslery of the spoken language. Later on,
the Last Prophet was to stand out through the strength of his words, his
eloquence, and above all his ability to convey deep and universal teachings
through short, pithy phrases Uawami al-kalitn). The desert is often the
locus of prophecies because it natura!]y offers to the human gaze the
horizons of the inflnite. For nomads, forever on the move, ftnitude in
space is aHied to a sense of freedom blended, here again, with the experi-
ence of fleetingness, vulnerability, and humility. Nomads learn to move
on, to become strangers, and to apprehend, at the heart of the linear
infinity of space, the cyclical finitude of time. Such is the experience of
the believer's life, which the Prophet was later to describe to young
Abdullah ibn Vmar in terms reminiscent of this dimension: "Be in this
world as if you were a stranger or a wayfarer.,,1 0
In the first years of the Prophet's life he developed a specific relation-
ship with nature that remained constant throughout his mission. The uni-
verse is pregnant with signs that recall the presence of the Creator, and
the desert, more than anything else, opens the human mind to observa-
tion, meditation, and initiation into meaning. Thus, many verses of the
Quran mention the book of creation and its teachinb>S. The desert, appar-
ently devoid of life, repeatedly shows and proves to the watchful con-
sciousness the reality of the miracle of the return to life: