Moral Pattern Par-Excellence (Part 2)

Al-Amin: The Embodiment of Uprightness

The very first bright gem that arrests attention in the Prophet’s ﷺ personality was his straightforwardness, uprightness and integrity. He was straight in thought, straight in word, straight in deed. He was an embodiment of the kind of qualities which in the rich Arabic language are summed up in the word Al-Amin. Al-Amin is the man that you can always trust, the man who will never betray confidence, the man who will never let you down, the man of transparent sincerity and good faith who says what he means and means what he says, the man who is always just and fair and square in his dealings. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was so thoroughly identified with this amalgam of multiple moral virtues in the minds of the people, that he was given the title of Al-Amin ever since he was a young man, living the common life of a plain man. Let us recall few incidents from his life which highlight this particular trait of the Prophet’s ﷺ character.

First of all, let us picture a lonely figure standing at the top of Mt. Safa, a small hill just outside the town of Makkah. The look in his eyes and the gravity of his appearance bespeak him to be there on no mean errand. Anxiety is writ large on his face, as if overwhelmed by the sense of the momentous mission he is charged to fulfil. Summoning all his strength, he cries at the top of his voice, calling one by one the various clans of his kith and kin. For this was the usual way in Arabia of warning a people against an impending danger. Again and again, he shouts till the people assemble to learn what the matter is.

”Have you ever heard me tell a lie?” this is the very first question he puts to the assembled people. With one voice the reply comes:

“No, never! We have always found you truthful”.

“Beware, then,” re-joins this strange warner. “1 forewarn you against the approach of an enemy that is round the corner to bring about your destruction. That enemy is the evil ways of your life. The wrath of Allah will shortly overtake you unless you give up those ways”.

The warning, as was to be expected, went unheeded. The Prophet’s ﷺ cry for the moment proved a cry in the wilderness. A people long addicted to all sorts of evil ways were incapable of lending an ear to this strange new voice. They dismissed it as the raving of a visionary. But what is noteworthy is that not one man out of this hostile crowd, already alienated by his preaching and his denunciations of their self-made deities, could withhold from him his life-long reputation for being a man who would never utter an untruth. They all acclaimed him is a man who had always been truthful. This is a tribute, mind you, paid to the Prophet’s ﷺ life-long reputation by people by no means well-disposed towards him. The Prophet ﷺ had already proclaimed his mission as God’s messenger. He had been unsparing in his denunciation of the numerous idols they worshipped as so many deities. For this he was being subjected to all sorts of persecutions.

No stone was left unturned to bring his preaching to naught. And yet when the Prophet ﷺ in the usual manner of the day raised the alarm from the top of the neighbouring hill, they all rushed out to listen to him. They knew he was not the man who would shout for nothing. They listened to him with all the respect that only a man of his life-long integrity could demand. And what is more, they all bore testimony to the fact that he had been truthful all his life. Such is the irresistible force of truth. It wins the mead of recognition even from the enemy.

This should give us our first glimpse of this aspect of the Prophet’s ﷺ life as Al-Amin of which we will essay in these lines to recapture some more glimpses.

M.Y.K.

(The Light – 1st.November 1958)