Ernst suggests that Muhammad is widely known for being a man of many different skills and modes of connection with his followers. For example many Muslims in the region of Southeast Europe describe Muhammad as a devotion aid and they do this through an artistic mode of calligraphy. From your understanding of the different roles and understandings of Muhammad, what is an example you’ve come across in the text that has stood out to you, in accordance with Muhammad and his followers.
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1 thought on “Understanding Muhammad as a multi-faceted man”
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An aspect of Muhammad I found interesting is one that Ernst includes, from the Persian philosopher and leader Jalal al-Din Davani in which Muhammad responds differently to his “opponent” Abu-Sufyan and a woman who came to ask him a request. When speaking with Abu-Safyan, Muhammad is presented as awe-inspiring and the source of “majestic and beautiful divine lights.” This was the same when he was speaking with the woman, but once the woman became frightened he comforted her and said “Do not fear; I am the son of an Arab woman who used to eat dried meat.” I think this is a good example of how Muhammad is a messenger of God but also a normal man. What also struck me is an interesting sense of equity in Muhammad’s treatment of the two people in “treating everyone how he or she deserved.” I wonder if this example or similar ones were ever used to inform the concept of justice within Islamic tradition.