FAITH THAT MOVES MOUNTAINS: The Way of
Peaceful Warrior is a great book that would allow people to see how they can cause change. It is written by Dan Millman who brings us following from another of his books that are all worth contemplation.
"On an otherwise ordinary day, an angel appeared to a young merchant and former camel herder, known by all in city where he was born. The angel's words filled him with awe and dread--it told him that he was to defy his people's ancestral religion, to denounce 360 deities carved in stone and worshipped for centuries, to declare himself prophet of a single God, to abolish a way of life upon which countless lives and beliefs were founded--and establish a new religion out of nothing. Surely, he would be met with incredulity, rejection, violent persecution, and exile. Could his seemingly mad quest bring anything but failure--or at best, a martyr's death?
Or would this mortal, obedient to divine command of an angel, achieve a victory beyond any that reason could have foretold?
He was born in Mecca in A.D. 570. His father died before his birth. His devastated mother, unable to nurse him, named Muhammad and gave him to a nursemaid--a shepherdess in a band of Bedouins. Muhammad spent his first five years with these nomads, living a hardy open-air existence following grazing flocks through desert grass and scrub, sleeping in tents beneath a vast desert sky. Once weaned, he drank camel's milk and ate mostly rice, dates, wild birds, and locusts fried in oil. From beginning, desert claimed Muhammad as its own. He would always be a Bedouin at heart.
At age six, he returned to his mother, but she died later that year. He ended up living with an uncle, a caravan merchant. In years that followed, Muhammad traveled throughout Arabia with his uncle's caravans, learning wisdom of desert, ways of business, and art of war as they fought off bands of marauders. His travels took him into close contact with various tribes and religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Arab sects who worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses in form of stone idols. These experiences made a deep impression on this thoughtful, introspective youth. From these early threads, tapestry of his fate was woven.
He grew into a handsome young man admired for his strong character, moral integrity, and sharp mind. But he had come to a merchant's life more by chance than choice. Disinterested in money and drawn to solitude, he left caravan to work as a shepherd in desert for months at a time.
When he was 25, Muhammad took a position in a trading company owned by a beautiful woman 15 years his senior. Her name was Khadija. For two years, he led Khadija's caravans throughout Arabia, rising to position of company manager. Not surprisingly, Khadija fell in love with him. Finally, she proposed to him through an intermediary. Their marriage, which blessed them with six daughters, would last until Khadija's death 21 years later.
But almost as soon as wedding ceremony had ended, Muhammad's mind again turned inward. His encounters with so many cultures and religions had planted hidden seeds within him that began to grow. He found himself pondering how 360 stone gods in temple of Mecca could save souls. Such questions drew him to once again search his own soul in solitude of desert.
Muhammad began spending his days in a cave in hills outside Mecca, fasting, praying, and meditating. Sleeping little, he began to enter altered states {Seems a man away from a woman having visions who is a shepherd and poor person, might have begun to prove appealing in literary tradition.} and have waking visions--to experience inner life of a mystic. At times, violent trembling seized him and he lost consciousness. A practical man of robust health who had endured many grueling journeys across desert, he found these phenomena strange and disturbing. But these inner quakes {Buddha's story includes lots of this kind of thing. What would happen to them today?} that he feared might be harbingers of failing health were actually premonitory tremors of a great awakening.
One night in holy month of Ramadan in his 40th year, while fasting and praying in his desert cave, Muhammad heard a voice calling him with great urgency. Looking up in darkness of his cave, he saw an angel standing before him, emanating a dazzling light. Muhammad fainted with fear, when he awoke, he found angel still standing there.
'Read, thou,' angel commanded him in a voice of stern authority.
'I cannot,' Muhammad stammered, for he could barely read.
'Read, thou,' angel commanded him again in verse, 'in name of Lord who created all things, who created man from a clot. Read in name of Most High who taught man use of pen and taught him what before he knew not.'
In awe, Muhammad repeated these words, memorizing each one. Then angel said, 'Muhammad, thou art messenger of Allah and I am his angel, Gabriel.'
