Every religion of the world has the founder or bringer of the religion, which the followers follow and consider him and only him as the ultimate source of guidance and the best of human beings. For Muslims also it is the personality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who has no equal and He is the best in character.

A person can find all the best humanly character attributes in the personality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was loving, caring, just, righteous and so on. Besides the other general personality traits, the two most prominent and the best known are the mercy and tolerance of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The lines below discuss the mercy of tolerance of Prophet (PBUH) in the light of Quran, hadith and the life of Prophet (PBUH).
 

Before moving on to the mentions of His mercy and tolerance the thing to mention is what Allah Almighty has to say about the character of Prophet (PBUH). Allah says in Quran:
 

“And verily, you (o Muhammad) are on an exalted (standard of) character.” (68:4)
 

From this ayah it is clear that no matter from whichever perspective and angle the personality of Prophet (PBUH) is to be viewed, one will always find Him as the best of character. Therefore, if mercy and tolerance is to be viewed in someone, there can be no better or no greater example of that than the personality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
 

Pertaining to the mercy of Prophet (PBUH), Allah Almighty said in Quran:
 

“And We have not sent you forth but as a mercy to mankind.” (21:107)
 

Thus, from this ayah one can deduce that Prophet (PBUH) is nothing but mercy for all of the creation. This mercy of Prophet (PBUH) is not only limited to the people who were around Him, the companions whom He guided in the most merciful manner, the neighbors whom He taught to treat with kindness and all of humanity, rather the mercy goes beyond the limits of humanity and takes animals into its wings as well. Prophet (PBUH) taught the followers to treat animals with kindness as well and be merciful to them when it comes to using them for need fulfillment.
 

As far as the tolerance of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is concerned, He was an epitome of tolerance. All His life He faced severe opposition from His relative and whoever He preached about truth. He was forced to immigrate from His birth place to the other city, people caused Him all kinds of difficulties and harms, they would lay spikes on the way from which He passed, they would throw trash on Him, He had to fight battles with people, bear injuries and people would make His life as miserable as possible. However, regardless of all that, He never even prayed against anyone, rather He tolerated all of it for Allah Almighty and always prayed for their well being and that Allah would provide them guidance to the right path. Regarding this, He said in one of His hadiths:
 

“I have not been sent to lay a curse upon men but to be a blessing to them.” (Muslim)
 

In short, if the crux of the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is to be deduced, the ultimate fact would come that He was the most merciful and tolerant person to have lived on this earth Who despite all His authority, statues and reverence always dealt with people with kindness and mercy.
 

Anisa Fatima works at QuranTutor.com where teaching Quran online classes are offered to Muslims so that they don’t have to leave home for learning Quran.