In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

Thr Mustl)!,t tlnd Adt'llnity

[of justice] in order that you may not transgress [due] balance. So establish

weight with justice and do not fall shan in the balance. It is He \xrho has

spread out the earth for [His] creatures: in it are fruit and date palms, pro-

ducing spathes; also corn, with its leaves and stalk for fodder, and sweet-

smclJing plants. Then wh.ich of the favors of your Lord will you [humans

and jinnsJ deny?7

H e Slalus of the Quran

41

From nature to the requirement of ethics and equity in human behavior,
everything points to remembrance of the Creator, whose primary mani-
festation is goodness and mercy. indeed, H e has tevealed the text itself in
the name of His benevolence toward people. Revelation is both a gift and
a burden, and this, from the very beginning, introduces the second axis of
early I slamic teachings. The status of the Quran-which in the verses
quoted above establishes the link between God and humankind-is one
of the essentials of the Muslim creed (al-aqidab).8 The Quran is the di vine
word revealed as such to humankind-in "Arabic pure and elear"-and it
is all at once a reminder, a light, and a miracJe.^9 It is a reminder of the
mono theistic messages of the past, the light of divine guidance for the
fu ture, and the miracle of the eternal and inimitable word conveyed to
human beings at the heart of theit history.
From the outset, the Quran presents itself as the mirror of the universe.
T he term that the first \X!estern translato rs rendered as "verse"-referring
to biblical vocabulary-literally means, in Arabic, "sign" (~Jab). T hus, the
revealed Book, the written text, is made up of signs (qp/), juSt as the uni-
verse, like a text spread o u t before our eyes, is teeming with signs. When
the heart's intelligence, and not only analytical intelligence, reads the Quran
and the world, then the twO texts address and echo each other, and each o f
them speaks of the other and of the One. The signs remind us of what it
means to be bo rn, to live, to think, to feel, and to die.
By its highly evocative form and contents, as well as by its spiritual
power, the Quran is I slam's miracle. i t also represents a huge, twofold
responsibility for Muslims: both o n the level of the ethical demands that
Quranic teachings impress upon them and in their capacity as witnesses
of those same teachings before humankind. This dimension is present
from the earliest Revelations: thus, the surah "Al-Muzzammil" (The