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

RmJtontt, Huf/tiliry, and Exilt

Jewish dignitaries about the nature and truthfulness of this new Revelation.
The Yathrib Jews were known to p rofess this same idea of the One God,
and j'vluhammad often referred to Moses, their prophet; they were there-
fore best suited to express an opinion or even to suggest a strategy.
Consulted about the new pro phet, the rabbis suggested th e people of
Mecca shouJd ask him three key questions in order to find out whether
what he said was actually revealed o r whether he was a fraud. The first
ques tion involved the knowledge of a sto rr ahom a group of young men's
exile from their people; the second was about a g reat traveler who had
reached the confines of the universe; the third was a direct request to
define ar-mh (the soul). The QUNysh d elegation left, co nvinced that ther
now had the means to entrap Muhammad. Back in Mecca, they went to
him and asked him the three questions. He replied almost instantly: "I
shall answer your questions to m o rrow!"!!
But the next day, the Angel Gabriel did not appear. There was no
Revelation. Nor did th e angel come the day after, o r during the next fo ur-
teen days. The Quraysh g lo ated, certain they had at last managed to prove
th e duplicity o f the so-called prophet, who couJd no t answer th e rabbis'
ques tions. As for Muhammad, he was sad , and as the days went by, he was
increasingly afraid o f having been fo rsaken: without do ubting God, he
again underwent the experience of self-doubt amplified by his oppo nents'
sneers. Two weeks later, he received a Re\·elation and an explanation:

Never say o f anything, " 1 shall do that tOmorrow," except: " I f God so

wills," and remember rour Lord [Robb, "Educator'1 when you forget, and

say: " I hope that my Lord will gwde me ever doser than this to the right

course.,,12

T his Re\"elation once again involved a reproach and a teaching: it

reminded the Prophet that h is status, his knowledge, and his fate d epend-

ed on his &bb, on the One and Sovereign God, and that he must never

forget it. This is how one sho uld understand the meaning of the phrase

in Ihn Allab, "if God so wills": il expresses the awareness of limits, the

feeling of humility of one who acts while bowing that beyond what he

or she can do o r say, God alone has the powcr to make things happen.

This is by no means a fatalistic m essage: it implies not that one should not

act but, on thc contrary, that o ne should never Stop acting while always