It is a great shame for anyone to listen to the accusation that Islam is a lie and that Muhammad was a fabricator and a deceiver. We saw that he remained steadfast upon his principles, with firm determination; kind and generous, compassionate, pious, virtuous, with real manhood, hardworking and sincere. Besides all these qualities, he was lenient with others, tolerant, kind, cheerful and praiseworthy and perhaps he would joke and tease his companions. He was just, truthful, smart, pure, magnanimous and present-minded…
Ask the people who actually lived alongside Prophet Muhammad ﷺ what he was like, and the answers line up. Honest. Kept his word. Treated the poor, the enslaved and the people who had wronged him with the same patience he gave everyone else.
People trusted him before they believed a word he preached. They left their valuables with him. They noticed that he listened properly, gave away what he had, and put others first when he had every excuse not to.
His companions loved him as more than a prophet. He was their leader and their friend. Fourteen centuries on, Muslims still copy the small things: how he greeted people, how he ate, how he forgave.
A Messenger of Compassion and Mercy
Mercy is not a footnote in his story. The Quran sums up his entire mission in a single word, and that word is mercy. You see it in how he dealt with animals, children, prisoners of war, and the people of Ta’if who ran him out of their city with stones.
“And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds.”
“I have been sent to perfect good character.”
Trusted Before He Was Believed
Makkah called him Al-Amin, the Trustworthy, years before he claimed prophethood. That was not a title people handed out lightly. It meant you could leave your valuables with him and walk away without thinking about it again.
When the first revelation came, he went home shaking and told his wife Khadija what had happened. She did not doubt him for a moment. Her reasoning was simple: Allah would never humiliate a man who kept ties with his family, carried the weak, and told the truth.
Plenty of his companions accepted him for the same reason. They had known him for forty years. A man who had never once lied to them was not about to start lying about God.
“The best among you are those who have the best manners and character.”
The woman and the trash
There was a woman who dumped her rubbish in front of his house. Not once. Every day, on his way past.
Then one morning it was not there. He noticed, asked after her, and found out she was ill in bed. So he went to visit her.
She was braced for anything except that. She accepted Islam.
He never lectured her about the rubbish. He just turned up when she was unwell.
Beloved by All
His companions did not simply follow him. They loved him, and they said so out loud. Many of them came to Islam after meeting him rather than after winning an argument about it.
The people who fought him hardest usually had something to lose. Makkah made good money from the idols. Pilgrims came, pilgrims paid, and a man preaching one God was bad for business.
Narrated by Anas bin Malik: “A man came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and said, ‘O Allah’s Messenger! Who is the most beloved person to you?’ The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, ‘Aisha.’ The man then asked, ‘Among the men?’ The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied, ‘Her father (Abu Bakr).’”
You Could Not Pick Him Out of the Room
He led a community, an army and a state, and he kept asking people what they thought. Before Uhud he wanted to stay and defend Madinah from the inside. Most of the companions wanted to march out and meet the enemy. He went with them.
Visitors kept running into the same problem. They would walk in looking for the leader and could not work out which man he was. No throne, no raised seat, no better clothes than anyone else in the room.
“Allah will elevate some people with this book (the Quran) and abase others.”
This is the man Muslims are asked to follow, and not only in worship. How you greet someone at the door. How you handle being wronged. That is where his example actually lands.
Proofs of his prophethood