introductionco mmunity, h e often in sisted on each believer's responsibility in his or her
dialogue and relationship with the One. Mu hammad simply reminds the
faithful of God's presence: he initiates them into His knowledge and dis-
closes the initiatory path of spirituality through which he teaches his
Companions and community that they must transcend the respect and
love they have for him in the worship and love they must offer to and ask
of the One, who begets not and is not begotten.
To those who, in his lifetime, wanted miracles and concrete evidence
of his prophethood, Revelation ordered him to reply: " I am but a man
like yourselves; the inspiration has come to me that your God is One
G od."2 T his same Revelation also infotms the believers, for aU eternjty, of
the singular status of this Mes~enger who, while chosen by God, never
lost his human qualities: ''You have indeed in the Messenger of God an
excellent example for he who hopes in God and the Final Day, and who
remembers G od much.,,3 These two dimensions-the man's humanity
and the Prophet's exemplarity-setve as the focus of our interest in the
present biography.
This is not going to be a detailed account of historical facts, great
achievements, or famous wars. Classical biographies of the Messenger
give abundant information about such matters, and we see no profit in
dealing with them exhaustively. Our attention is mainly focused, through-
out the natration of the story of his life, on situations, attitudes, or \vords
that could reveal Muhammad's personality and what it can teach and coo-
vey to us today. \'{'hen Aishah, his wife, was once questioned about the
P rophet's personality, she answered: " His character [the ethics underlying
his behavior] was the Quran.,,4 Since the Book addresses the believing
consciousness through the ages, it seemed essential to observe how the
man who best incarnated it in his behavior could "speak" to us, guide, us
and educate us nowadays.
The initial idea was therefore to plunge into the heart of the Prophet'S
life and draw out its timeless spiritual teachings. From his birth to his
death, his life is strewn with events, situations, and statements dlat point
to the deepest spiritual edification. Adherence to faith, dialogue with G od,
observing nature, self-doubt, inner peace, signs and trials, and so on are
themes that speak to us and remind us that basically nothing has changed.
The Messenger's biography points to primary and eternal existential ques-
tions, and in this sense, his life is an initiation.