47 Quotes by Lesley Hazleton

Suffering, once accepted, loses its edge, for the terror of it lessens, and what remains is generally far more manageable than we had imagined.

Al-Tabari understood that human truth is always flawed – that realities are multiple and that everyone has some degree of bias. The closest one might come to objectivity would be in the aggregate, which is why he so often concludes a disputed episode with that time-honored phrase “Only God knows for sure.

Machiavelli himself famously put it: “All armed prophets have conquered, and unarmed prophets have come to grief.”9.

The word, ‘cube’, comes directly from the Arabic, Kaaba.

Khadija loved him for himself, not for who he would become, and he would never forget her in those later years, turning pale with grief at the sound of any voice that reminded.

Those who are comfortably established in life tend to have no need to ask what it means.

Treated by his own people as one of them yet not one of them, he couldn’t help but be aware of the contradictions inherent in a society that was supposed to be his, but seemed to have no place for him.

Whether you think the words he heard came from inside himself or from outside, it is clear that Muhammad experienced them, and with a force that would shatter his sense of himself and his world.

The cohesiveness and spirit of the community of believers attracted an increasing number of helpers, who would soon outnumber the emigrants. Their requests for guidance rose commensurately, and the revelations began to direct Muhammad on everything from times of prayer to tithing to resolution of marital disputes.