The story of Prophet Muhammad comes from the hadith, although it is referred to in the Qur'an in Surah Muddathir:

74:1 O you wrapped up (in your mantle)!

74:2 Arise and deliver your warning!

The story goes that after the Prophet received the first revelation, an experience that was both awesome and terrifying, he ran down the mountain where he had been meditating, home to his wife and called for her to wrap him up in his cloak. When she asked what had happened he told her and said that he feared for his self. This has been interpreted variously to mean that he feared he was possessed, or going insane, or that if it were indeed true that hardships would befall him. Either way, Khadija comforted him assuring him that this was truly a revelation from God, and that he was honored, not in danger with the words, ""By God, God will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kith and kin, you help the poor and the destitute, you serve your guests generously and you assist the those who have been afflicted with calamity."

These stories of the doubts of the Prophets have always served to set my own heart at ease when I feel doubts or questions about God rising in my chest. If men who had seen angels, who had experienced miracles (this story about Abraham is said to have occurred after he was saved from the fire by God's mercy), then no one can expect your average human being to live doubt free, certainly not God whose own messengers had their own questions. This acknowledgement of the nature of faith, the acceptance that it is not unwavering, nor without it's vagaries is the sort of practical, down to earth understanding of human nature that drew me to Islam.

Beyond this, the Qur'an is full of stories in which people questioned their old beliefs, and with admonitions not to simply follow blindly in the faiths of our forefathers. It tells us over and over to ponder the verses, to observe history, the natural world, to use our brains. These direct commands to always have a questioning mind give us permission, indeed, require us, to question the entire mass of inherited wisdom, to ask whether the scholars got it right when they made their interpretations and rulings. They require us to approach the Qur'an for ourselves, with our own eyes, to understand it for our ourselves, not necessarily as someone else understood it. They require us to look at the shari'ah critically and, again, to find our own understanding of what it means to live according to the Divine Will, indeed to find our own understanding of what the Divine Will is.

This call to free-thinking was another of the fundamental aspects of Islam that appealed to me greatly.

It also one of the fundamental aspects of Islam that seems to have been most badly betrayed. All too often, the Muslim community will not challenge the classical rulings that have been handed down from previous centuries, thus the shari'ah as implemented in various countries remains outdated, and at times outrageous. Classical commentary remains sacrosanct. Even the hadith, which are a very problematical set of texts, are becoming sacrosanct.

One can only hope that more of the Muslim community rediscovers the individualism in the Qur'an, and the calls to question tradition.