I asked ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers, “Tell me about the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” She replied, “Do you not recite the Qur’an?” I said, “Indeed I do.” She said, “His character was the Qur’an.” (1)

Imām Aḥmad also transmitted—through Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah, from Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī—who said: ʿĀʾishah was asked about the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and she replied, “His character was the Qur’an.” (2)

Likewise, Imām Aḥmad—through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī (3); al-Nasāʾī through his chain (4); and Ibn Jarīr (5) through the narration of Ibn Wahb—all relate from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Abū al-Zāhiriyyah, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, who said: “I performed the pilgrimage, then entered upon ʿĀʾishah and asked her about the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. She answered, ‘His character was the Qur’an.’” (6)

We have already mentioned that, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whatever the Qur’an commanded he fulfilled, and whatever it forbade he avoided. Allah fashioned him upon magnificent innate qualities such that no human being has ever possessed, nor will ever possess, anything more perfect. He legislated for him the great religion that He had not legislated for anyone before, and yet he is the Seal of the Prophets—after him there is no messenger and no prophet. ﷺ Within him were modesty, generosity, courage, forbearance, clemency, mercy, and every perfected trait beyond measure or description.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Sulaimān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us; Zayd ibn Wāqid narrated to us; from Busr ibn ʿUbayd Allāh; from Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī; from Abū al-Dardāʾ, who said: “I asked ʿĀʾishah about the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and she said, ‘His character was the Qur’an; he was pleased with what it is pleased with and angered by what angers it.’” (7)

Al-Bayhaqī said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; Aḥmad ibn Sahl, the jurist of Bukhārā, informed us; Qays ibn Unayf informed us; Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān narrated to us; from Abū ʿImrān; from Yazīd ibn Bābanūs, who said: “We said to ʿĀʾishah, ‘O Mother of the Believers! How was the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?’ She replied, ‘The character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the Qur’an.’ Then…"