Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): Kindness and Patience in the Record

Quick Answer

• Who: Muhammad (PBUH), born in Mecca around 570 CE, the Prophet of Islam
• Early life: an orphan by six, raised by his grandfather and then his uncle Abu Talib
• Known before prophethood as: al-Amin, the trustworthy, and al-Sadiq, the truthful
• Kindness in the sources: leniency that kept people near him, forgiveness of those who had wronged him for years, and an amnesty at the conquest of Mecca
• Patience in the sources: thirteen years of persecution in Mecca before any power came to him
• Died: in 632 CE in Medina, after an illness, and is buried there

Kindness and patience are easy to preach and hard to document. What makes the Prophet's (PBUH) case different is that both are on the record in specific situations, with named people, in years that can be dated.

The most useful way to read him is not as a list of virtues but as a set of decisions: what he did when he had no power, and then what he did when he had all of it. The contrast is the argument.

Who Was Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)?

He was born in Mecca, in the clan of Banu Hashim of the Quraysh, around 570 CE. His father Abdullah died before or around his birth, and his mother Amina died when he was six, which left him an orphan in a society where a father's name was most of a person's protection. He was raised by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib and then by his uncle Abu Talib.

He received his first revelation at forty, in the cave of Hira, and began preaching publicly around 613. The community was persecuted for thirteen years in Mecca. In 622 he and his followers migrated to Medina, an event that begins the Islamic calendar, and there he united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. He died in 632 in Medina.

The Quran's own summary of his role is one line: We have sent you only as a mercy for the whole world (21:107). Another verse, addressed to him directly, is the one his followers quote about his character: you are truly a man of outstanding character (68:4).

What Was His Reputation Before He Preached?

Two names, both earned before anyone believed he was a prophet.

He was known as al-Amin, the trustworthy, and al-Sadiq, the truthful. The titles were not given by his followers after the fact; they were the labels of a trading city that needed reliable men to handle other people's goods, and he was one of them. The most famous single object in that reputation is the Black Stone, which the clans of Mecca were arguing over who would place, and which they agreed to let him set in position.

This matters for how to read everything after it. When the same city later treated him as a threat, it was not because it had discovered him to be dishonest. It was because his message cost the leading families something.

What Does Kindness Look Like in the Record?

Not gentleness in general. Kindness with a specific cost, in specific incidents.

He was lenient when he could have been harsh. The Quran addresses this as a fact about him rather than a suggestion: it is out of Allah's mercy that you have been lenient with them; had you been cruel or hard-hearted, they would have certainly abandoned you (3:159). The verse then tells him to pardon them and consult them in matters. A leader who consults the people who had just failed him is being given a policy, not a compliment.

He forgave people who had spent years opposing him. At the conquest of Mecca in 630, he entered the city with ten thousand men and declared a general amnesty for past offences, naming only a small group excluded for murder or for having broken the peace, and even some of those were later pardoned. The same man who had been driven out of that city returned to it and did not take it apart.

He was forgiving about personal insult and immovable about public wrong. The sources that praise his patience also record him enforcing penalties when a right had been violated, and refusing intercession for a theft committed by a person of high family. The two behaviours sit in the same reports. Patience in the sources is not indifference to injustice.

The small incidents carry the same weight. He is described greeting children, being gentle with servants, and taking an interest in the worries of the people around him. The reports about him are full of these unspectacular scenes, and they are the ones that make the larger ones believable.

What Does Patience Look Like in the Record?

Thirteen years of it, before he had any power at all.

The Meccan period is the part of his life most often skipped, and it is where the case is strongest. He preached in a city where his own clan had to protect him for the sake of family honour, where his followers were tortured, where a boycott was imposed on his clan, and where the powerful could afford to wait him out. He did not raise a militia, and there was no state to appeal to.

Period	What he had	What the record shows
Mecca, 610 to 622	No state, no army, clan protection only	Thirteen years of preaching under persecution, with no retaliation
The year 619	Losing his wife and his protecting uncle	Rejection at Ta'if, and still no call for revenge
Medina, 622 onward	Tribal authority and thousands of followers	A constitution, a treaty his own people disliked, and an amnesty
Mecca, 630	Ten thousand men and the city that expelled him	A general pardon, with a short list of exceptions
Medina, 632	Most of Arabia converted	Death in a borrowed room, with almost nothing left behind

Two years in the middle of that period took almost everything from him. In 619 his wife Khadija died, and in the same year his uncle and guardian Abu Talib died. With the clan's protection weakened, he went to Ta'if to look for support and was rejected there too.

Then the situation changed completely in 622 with the migration to Medina, and the record of the man after that point is the more revealing one. The same person who had absorbed thirteen years of abuse without retaliation built a constitution with the tribes and the Jewish communities of Medina, negotiated a treaty at Hudaybiyyah that his own followers disliked, and forgave the city that had expelled him. Patience, in this record, is not a personality trait that survived power. It is the thing power did not change.

The Quran sets him as the standard rather than the exception: in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for whoever has hope in Allah and the Last Day (33:21). And it describes the emotional core of it in one of the last verses revealed: a messenger has come to you from among yourselves, concerned by your suffering, anxious for your well-being, gracious and merciful to the believers (9:128).

How Do Kindness and Patience Connect to Karbala?

Through a family line, and through a pattern that repeats.

The Prophet's (PBUH) daughter Fatima (SA) married Ali (AS), and their son Hussain (AS) was killed at Karbala in 61 AH with most of his household, the event laid out in the story of Karbala and its message. The mourning calendar that begins in Muharram is, in one reading, an argument about whether the ethics the Prophet (PBUH) taught could survive the politics that came after him. The answer the tradition gives is the one that keeps the story alive: they did not survive in the state, and they survived in the people.

Two connections are worth naming. The first is the household itself, the five of the cloak, whose place in the story is set out in the life of Bibi Fatima (SA) and in the sayings of Imam Ali (AS). The second is the treatment of captives. Hussain's (AS) family was paraded in Kufa and Damascus, and the Quran's standard for prisoners is what the Prophet (PBUH) had taught: food given to the poor, the orphan and the captive, without expecting thanks (76:8).

How Do These Two Qualities Work in Ordinary Life?

Four ways, all of them testable in a week.

• Leniency is a strategy, not a mood. The Quran's reason for it is stated: harshness drives people away. If the aim is to keep the people around you, patience is the cheaper method.
• Forgive personally, be firm publicly. He did not avenge himself and did not let a public right go. Holding both is harder than choosing one.
• Patience is what you do before you have leverage. Thirteen years of it in Mecca, and the same conduct after Mecca, which is the part that proves it was character rather than calculation.
• Small kind acts are the record. The reports that carry the most weight are the least dramatic: a greeting to children, an unhurried conversation, attention to somebody's worry.

This is also the standard the majlis holds up every year when it narrates the family's story in the first ten days of Muharram.

Key Takeaways

• Muhammad (PBUH) was born in Mecca around 570 CE, orphaned by six, and known as al-Amin and al-Sadiq long before he preached.
• The Quran calls him a mercy for the whole world (21:107) and a man of outstanding character (68:4).
• His leniency is described as the reason people stayed with him, and it came with a command to pardon and consult (3:159).
• At the conquest of Mecca in 630 he declared a general amnesty for past offences.
• His patience was tested for thirteen years in Mecca, and the record is that power did not change it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)?

The Prophet of Islam, born in Mecca around 570 CE and died in Medina in 632 CE. He received his first revelation at forty, preached in Mecca for thirteen years, migrated to Medina in 622, and united its tribes under a constitution.

Why is he called al-Amin?

Al-Amin means the trustworthy. It was the name Mecca's traders used for him before he became a prophet, because he could be relied on with other people's property. Al-Sadiq, the truthful, was used the same way.

What does the Quran say about his character?

Two of the clearest lines are that he was sent as a mercy for the whole world (21:107) and that he is a man of outstanding character (68:4). Another verse describes his leniency as the reason his followers did not abandon him (3:159).

How did he treat the people of Mecca when he returned?

In 630 he entered the city with ten thousand men and declared a general amnesty for past offences, excluding a small number wanted for murder or for breaking the peace, some of whom were later pardoned as well.

What is the connection between his teachings and Karbala?

Family and conduct. His daughter Fatima (SA) and her husband Ali (AS) are the parents of Hussain (AS), who was killed at Karbala in 61 AH. The standards he taught about mercy, prisoners and the treatment of the vulnerable are the ones the later story measures its opponents against.

Which sources are used for his life?

The Quran for his role and character, and the early biographical material for the dated events, including the persecution in Mecca, the migration of 622, the treaty of Hudaybiyyah and the conquest of Mecca in 630.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Muhammad", for his birth around 570, his parents and guardianship, the first revelation, the thirteen years of persecution in Mecca, the migration of 622, the Constitution of Medina, the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the conquest of Mecca in 630 with its amnesty, and his death in 632, at Wikipedia.org.
• The Quran, Surah Al-Anbiya, verse 107, that he was sent only as a mercy for the whole world, at Quran.com.
• The Quran, Surah Al-Qalam, verse 4, that he is a man of outstanding character, at Quran.com.
• The Quran, Surah Ali 'Imran, verse 159, on his leniency being why his followers stayed, with the command to pardon and consult, at Quran.com.
• The Quran, Surah Al-Ahzab, verse 21, on the Messenger of Allah as an excellent example, at Quran.com.
• The Quran, Surah At-Tawbah, verse 128, on the messenger concerned by your suffering and merciful to the believers, at Quran.com.
• The Quran, Surah Al-Insan, verse 8, on feeding the poor, the orphan and the captive, at Quran.com.

Disclaimer: This article distinguishes between verses of the Quran, dated events from the early biographical literature, and general devotional descriptions, and it does not present unverified sayings as his words. Where the tradition reports a scene without a firm early chain, the article leaves it out rather than filling the gap. If you find an error, write to us through the contact page and we will correct it.