25efficient in business, he expressed constant r espeCt to\>"llrd all women,
melt, and children, who in turn shov.-cd lum gratcfuJncs~ amI dt:t:p Ion:.
lie was as-Sadiq, a man of tfUth and of hiS word; h e was aJ-Amin, a truSt-
worthy and dignified person; he had bee n surrounded with signs an-
nouncing his fate; he was rich with extraordinary human qualities that
already poin:ed to his singularity.
Rebuilding the KabaAnother event shows that to his qualitJe5 of hean and his moral distinc-
tion must lx added a sharp intelligence, which he used in the service of
respect and peace bet\l:cen people and between clans. Afte r pro tracted
hesitation due to the interdiction against touching the sacred House, the
Quraysh had finally decided to rebuild the Kaba. They destroyed the
upper part of the walls, down to the fo undations (which were those o f
the initial construction, built by Abraham and Ishmael, and which the)'
left untouched). They rebuilt until they reached the place where the Black
Sto ne was to be enshrined, in onc corner of me Kaba. At that point bit-
ter quarrels b roke out among members of the different clans o\"er wh o
would have tht: hunur uf putting the Black Stone back in its place. Some
were nearly read y to take up arms in o rder to determine to which clan th e
p rivilege would fall. An old man among them suggested that the first man
who entered the sacre d space be asked to judge th e issue, and a consen-
sus formed on that idea. M uhammad was the first to enter the sacre d
space, and clan elders were happy that chance had chosen him to arbitrate
the dispute. He listened to them, then asked for a cloak; he placed the
mack Stone o n it and asked the chiefs of each clan to ho ld th e cloak's
edges and lift th e Slone together. Once they had lifted it to the desire d
height, he himself placed the Black Stone In the required space-to the
satisfaction of all, since nobody had been wronged. T his intuitive intelli-
gence had immediately managed to reconcile me pride of each clan \~th
their need for union. Later, dUring his m issio n, £his characteristic fearure
of his mind was to be often Illustrated by h is ability to maintain the first
Muslim community's unity despite the presence o f "ery strong personali-
ues with widely differing remper.l.mems. In the quest for peace, he con-
stantly strove to achieve again what he had do ne in tlus dtfficuh situation