Life-of-Muhammad

196Life of Muhammad sahistory we find that it was only in the case of the HolyProphet sa of Islam that his people conferred the titles of"The Trusty" and "The True". This is proof of the factthat the Holy Prophet sa possessed these qualities in soeminent a degree that within the knowledge and thememory of his people no other individual could beregarded as his equal in these respects. The Arabs werewell known for their keenness of mind and what theychose to regard as rare must in truth have been rareand unique.When the Holy Prophet sa was summoned by, God toassume the burden and responsibilities of prophethood,his wife, Khadija ra , testified to his high moral qualities—an incident which has been related in the biographicalportion of this General Introduction. We shall nowproceed to illustrate some of his high moral qualities sothat the reader may be able to appreciate even thoseaspects of his character which are not generally wellknown.THE PROPHET'S sa PURITY OF MIND ANDCLEANLINESS OF BODYIt is related of the Holy Prophet sa that his speech wasalways pure and that he was (unlike most of hiscontemporaries) not given to the use of oaths (Tirmidhi).This was something exceptional for an Arab. We do notimply that the Arabs at the time of the Holy Prophet sahabitually indulged in foul language, but there is nodoubt that they were in the habit of punctuating theirspeech with a generous measure of oaths, a habit thatpersists among them even to this day. The HolyProphet sa , however, held the name of God in suchreverence that he never uttered it without fulljustification.He was very particular, even punctilious, with regardto physical cleanliness. He used to brush his teethseveral times a day and was so keen on the practice that