The
Message of the Prophet's Seerat
by
Abdul A'la Mawdudi
(
This address was delivered in the University (new
Campus) at the invitation of thePunjab University
Students' Union on October 22, 1975)
I
have been invited to speak in this assembly on the
Message of the Holy Prophet(pbuh). To deal with this
subject in the framework of logic,there is one obvious
question which arises first: why the message of the
Seerat of the Prophet(pbuh), and none other?Why, in
particular , that of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
and not that of any other Prophets or the founders of
other religions? We must deal with this question at
the outset. So that our minds may be fully satisfied
that we can, in fact, obtain guidance not from any
other ancient or modern personality, but from the
character and personality of a Messenger of God alone.
And of all theMessengers of God and the leaders
of religion, it is the life of Muhammad(pbuh) alone
which offers true and comprehensive guidance. Guidance
of which we stand in dire need today.
Need
for the Guidance of Allah
It
is an undeniable fact that the source of all knowledge
is Almighty Allah Who made this universe and created
man to populate it. Who else but Him can know the
realities of this universe. Who else possesses the
knowledge of human nature and its true elements? The
Creator alone knows His creatures.Human awareness is
circumscribed by what has been revealed by the
Creator, for man has no independent means of his own
to get at the truth.
In
this connection, the difference between two different
aspects of reality must be fully grasped so as to
avoid any fallacy in discussion. There are things
which you perceive through thesenses, and having
gathered a body of knowledge by means of these senses,
you can proceed to classify this information with the
help of reflection, argumentation, observation or
experimentation and to deduce laws from them.
For
this type of information no revelation from heaven is
needed. This is the province of your personal
discoveries, explorations, meditations, reflections,
research and deductions. It has been left to you to
explore the world around you and discover the forces
which operate; to understand the laws under which
these realities function, so that you may stride
forward along the path of development. Yet in this
matter too, your Creator has not deprived you of His
help.
All
through the course of history, Allah has been
unfoldingbefore you, no matter how imperceptibly, His
created world through an evolutionary process. He has
opened up new vistas of knowledge before you, and at
certain points of history He has inspired men to
invent new techniques or to discover new laws. But the
fact remains that in this domain man must gather
knowledge by himself, without the help of a Divine
Messenger or a Divine Book. Man has been endowed with
all the resources to collect the information necessary
in this sphere.
But
the second category of reality is transcendental ,
beyond the reach of our perception; things which we
are powerless to comprehend; things which cannot be
weighed or measured by scales, nor discovered by
pressing into service any of the instruments for
acquiring knowledge which we have at our disposal. The
theories of philosophers and scientists on this
subject are mere conjectures and they do not come
under the scope of knowledge. Here our ultimate
Realities and rational theories about them cannot be
taken as definitive even by the very expounders of
these theories. But if the authors of these theories
possess any awareness of the boundaries of their
limited knowledge, they cannot have faith in the
validity of their notions. Nor can they call upon
others to believe them.
Need
for Following the Precedent of the Prophets(pbut)
Knowledge
is obtained through the Guidance of Allah, for Allah
alone is aware of realities. Allah offers this
knowledge to man by means of Revelation. Revelation is
transmitted to none but the Prophets (pbut). Allah has
never published a Book and, having distributed to each
individual, told him to study it to ascertain for
himself the reality of his own existence and that of
the universe. To realize his role in the practical
world in the context of this reality. Allah has always
appointe the Prophets(pbut) to convey this message to
man, so that the Prophets(pbut) should not rest
content with merely propagating their mandate, but
driving it home, demonstrating it in action, recalling
to the right path, those who defy the Divine mandates
and organizing the believers into a society where
every aspect bears practical evidence of this
knowledge.
It is
evident from this brief exposition that, for Guidance,
we are wholly dependent upon the character displayed
to the world by a Prophet of God(pbuh) A non-Prophet
who does not believe in a Prophet is not eligible to
be our leader, even though he may be a sage, a deeply
learned and wise man. This is because such a person
bereft of this knowledge is incapable of devising a
true and just system of life for us.
Why
we cannot obtain Guidance from the Prophets other than
Muhammad (pbuh)
Let
us now consider the question of why,of all of the
venerable men whom we know as Prophets, and all
the and all the leaders of religions who conceivably
may have been Prophets, we prefer to seek a message
from the character of Muhammad (pbuh). Is this
predjudice or is there a reasonable ground for doing
so?
I
submit that there is a rational basis for this. We
certainly acknowledge and believe in the Prophethood
of all those who have been named in the Holy Quran as
Prophets. But, we lack reliable information by
authentic sources on their teaching and their
character. There is no doubt about the Prophethood of
Hadrat Noah, Ibrahim, Ishaque, Yusuf, Moses and Jesus
Christ(peace be upon them ) and we believe in all of
them. But none of the Scriptures revealed to them has
come down to us in its original form so that we may
benefit from its pristine message. Similarly, the
life-history of none of these Prophets (pbut) has been
handed down by any authentic means enabling us to
follow their example in the various spheres of
individual and collective existence.
A
person who undertakes to prepare an account of the
teaching and characters of all these Prophets (pbut)
cannot write more than a few pages and these too,
entirely with the help of the Qur'an , for nowhere
else is authentic material extant about them except in
the Holy Qur'an.
The
Jewish Scriptures and the Prophets (pbut)
It is
said that an account of Moses and the later Prophets (pbut)
and of their teachings is contained in the Old
Testament. But consider the Bible from the historical
viewpoint. The original text of the Torah, as revealed
to Hadrat Moses (pbuh), had been destroyed at the time
of the sack of Bait-ul-Maqdas in 6 BC, and along with
it the scriptures of the former Prophets (pbut) had
perished. In 5 BC, when the tribe of Israel arrived in
Palestine after their release from the Captivity in
Babylon, the Prophet Ezra (pbuh), assisted by
some venerable collaborators, prepared an account of
the life of Moses (pbuh) as well as a history of the
tribe of Israel. In this work were incorporated in
appropriate places such verses of the Torah as were
readily available to the author and his associates.
In
the period falling between the fourth and second
century BC, Various authors penned down the Scriptures
( from which sources we know not) of those Prophets
who had preceded them by several centuries. In 300 BC,
to cite an instance, an unknown writer wrote a book in
the name of Hadrat Yunus (pbuh) and incorporated it in
the Bible, despite the fact that Hadrat Yunus was a
Prophet of the 8th century BC. The Zubur
(Psalms) were commited to writing five centuries after
the death of Hadrat Da'ud (pbuh) and to them were
added sonnets composed by some hundred poets. We have
no knowledge of the sources from which the compilers
of the Zubur (Psalms) had gleaned those Sonnets.
Hadrat
Sulaiman (pbuh) died in 933 BC, and Amsal-i-Sulaiman (
An Anthology of Soloman's Proverbs) was compiled in
the year 250 BC which also incorporated the maxims of
several other sages.
In
short, no book of the Bible bears an authentic
connection with any Prophet to whom it is ascribed.
Furthermore, even these books of the Jewish Bible
perished at the second sack of Bait-ul-Maqdas in 70
AD, leaving only their Greek translation extant, a
translation dating back to the period falling between
258 BC and the first century BC.
In
the second century AD, the Jewish scholars prepared a
Jewish Bible with the help of manuscripts which had
survived the vicissitudes of time. The oldest copy of
this Bible now extant dates back to 916 AD. Apart from
this, no other Jewish manuscript exists anywhere
today.
The
Jewish scrolls discovered in the cave of Qumran on the
Dead Sea are not older than the first and second
century BC, and even those contain a few scattered
fragments of the Bible.
The
earliest manuscript comprising the first five books of
the Bible current among the Samaritans was written in
the eleventh century AD. The Greek translation
prepared in the second and third century BC was marred
by countless errors. A retranslation from Greek into
Latin was done in the third century AD. By what
standard can we judge this material as an authentic
source of the life-histories and teachings of
Moses (pbuh) and the later Prophets of the Jews?
Finally,
there were certain unwritten legends known as oral
law, current among the Jews. For a span of thirteen or
fourteen centuries they remained unwritten until, in
the later part of the second and the beginning of the
third century AD, a priest known as Yahuda B. Sham'un
committed them to writing under the title of ' Mishnah.'
Commentaries on this work by the Palestinian Jewsih
scholars under the name of ' Halaka' and by
Babylonian scholars under the title ' Haggada '
appeared in the third and fifth century respectively.
The ' Talmud' is, in fact, an anthology of these three
works. Significantly, authoritative evidence which may
reveal the chain of transmission is lacking in the
case of all traditions incorporated in these books.
Christian
Scriptures
A
similar state of affairs exists in the case of Hadrat
Isa's character and teachings. Jesus (pbuh) conveyed
orally to the people the Bible which God originally
revealed to him. His disciples, too, propagated it
among the people by the spoken word in such a manner
that they presented an admixture of their Prophet's
life-story and the revealed verses of the Bible. None
of this material was put into writing during the
lifetime of Jesus (pbuh) or even in the period
following him. It fell to the lot of the Christians
whose vernacular was Greek to transform these oral
traditions into writing. It must be borne in mind that
Christ's native tongue was Syriac or Aramiac and his
disciples spoke the same language as well.
Most Greek-speaking authors heard these traditions in
the Aramiac vernacular and committed them to writing
in Greek. None of these writings is dated prior to the
year 70AD; there is not a single instance in these
works where the author has cited an authority for an
event or maxim attributed to Hadrat Isa (pbuh) in
order that we might construct a chain of transmission.
Furthermore, even these works have not survived.
Thousands of Greek manuscripts of the new Testament
were collected, but none of them is older than the
fourth century AD; the origin of most of them does not
go beyond the period spanning the 11th to the 14th
centuries.
Some scattered papyrus fragments found in Egypt can
lay claim to no greater antiquity than the third
century. We cannot say when the Bible was translated
from Greek into Latin. Nor do we know the writer's
name.
In
the fourth century AD, the Pope commissioned a review
of the Latin translation. In the sixteenth century,
this version was discarded and a fresh translation
from Greek into Latin was prepared. The Four Bibles
were most probably rendered into the Syriac language
from Greek in 200 AD, but the oldest Syriac
manuscript extant was written in the 4th century. A
handwritten copy dated back to the 5th century AD
contains, in frequent parts, a different version.
Among
the Arabic translations made from the Syriac none is
known to have been prepared before the 8th century AD.
It is curious that some seventy different versions of
the Bible were prepared, four of which were approved
by the leaders of the Christian religion, while the
rest was rejected. We have no information concerning
the grounds for their approval or rejection. But can
this material be credited to any extent with
authenticity as regards the character and message
(gospel ) of Jesus (peace be upon him)? With regards
to other leaders of religion the situation is not
dissimilar. Take, for example, Zoroaster whose birth
date is not shrouded in mystery. The most that can be
said about him is that there is evidence of his
existence some 250 years before the subjugation of
Persia by Alexander. In other words, his life can be
dated some five centuries before Christ(pbuh). His
book"Avasta," in its original language, is
extinct today; the language in which the book was
originally written or orally propagated is dead.
In
the 9th century AD, a translation of "Avasta"
was published in nine volumes, out of which the first
two volumes perished. The earliest surviving
manuscripts of the book dates from the middle of the
13th century.Such is the condition of Zoroaster's
book. As for his character, our information does not
extend beyond the detail that he began preaching his
religion at the age of fourty. Two years earlier, King
Gustaph became his disciple and Zoroaster's creed
turned into a State religion. Zoroaster lived to be
77, and after his death, as time went on, legends were
spun around his life, all of them apocryphal.
One
of the renowned religious personalities of the world
was Buddha. Like Zoroaster, he might have been a
Prophet. Yet he left no boo, nor did his followers
claim that he had given one. A hundred years after his
death, a movement was started which lasted for several
centuries to collect his maxims and the account for
his life. But no compiler of the Buddhist scriptures
produced during this period furnishes a chain of
evidence for the maxims and teachings of Buddha. It is
evident that even if we wished to turn for guidance to
other Prophets(peace be upon them) and religious
leaders, we could not come by a reliable source from
which might be derived authentic and unassailable
information on their history and teachings.
We
are left with no alternative but to turn to the Holy
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who left a trustworthy Book
free of any excisions or adulterations; the Prophet (pbuh)
whose detailed history, sayings and practises were
transmitted to us by authoritative sources so that we
would be guided by his example. In the entire course
of history such a leader could only be found in the
sublimely gifted person in Muhammad (pbuh). The Holy
Prophet(pbuh) put forth a Book ( the Holy Quran) with
the definite claim that it was the Word of God which
had been revealed to him. On scrutiny, we positively
feel that this Book is free of interpolations. The
Book does not incorporate a single maxim of the Holy
Prophet(pbuh) ; rather, the inclusion in this Book of
any sayings of the Prophet(pbuh) has been scrupulously
avoided.
In
this Book, the Holy Prophet's life(pbuh) , the history
of the Arabs and the events which occured during the
period of the revelation of the Qur'an have not been
mingled with the Divine verses, as is the case with
the Bible. The Qur'an is the pure Word of God. Not one
word therein is not divine. Not a single word has been
deleted from its text. The Book has been handed down
to our age in its complete and original form since the
time of Muhammad(pbuh). From the time the Book began
to be revealed, the Holy Prophet(pbuh) had dedicated
its text to the scribes. Whenever some Divine Message
was revealed, the Holy Prophet(pbuh) would call a
scribe and dictate its words to him. The written text
was then read to the Holy Prophet(pbuh), who having
satisfied himself that the scribe had committed no
error in recording, would put the manuscript in safe
custody. The Holy Prophet(pbuh) also used to instruct
the scribe about the sequence in which a revealed
message was to be placed in a particular Surah. In
this manner, the Holy Prophet(pbuh) continued to
arrange the texts of the Quran in systematic order
until the end of the chain of revelations. Again, it
was ordained from the beginning of Islam that a
recitation of the Holy Qur'an must form an integral
part of worship. Hence the illustrious Companions (pbut)
would commit the Divine verses to memory as soon as
they were revealed. Many of them learned the entire
text by heart and an even greater number memorized
different portions of it.
Besides,
those of the Companions(pbut) who were literate used
to keep a written record of several portions of the
Holy Qur'an. In this manner, the text of the Holy
Qur'an was preserved in four different ways during the
lifetime of the Holy Prophet(pbuh):
-
The
Holy Prophet(pbuh) had the whole text of the
Divine Messages from beginning to end committed to
writing by the scribes of revelations.
-
Many
of the Companions(pbut) learned the entire text of
the Qur'an, syllable upon syllable, by heart.
-
All
the illustrious Companions(pbut), without
exception, had memorized at least some portion of
the Holy Qur'an, for the simple reason that it was
obligatory for them to recite it during worship.
An estimate of the number of the illustrious
Companions(pbut) may be obtained from the fact
that one hundred forty thousand Companions(pbut)
participated in the Last Pilgrimage performed by
the Holy Prophet(pbuh).
-
A
considerable number of the literate
Companions(pbut) kept a private record of the text
of the Qur'an and satisfied themselves as to the
purity of their record by reading it out to the
Holy Prophet(pbuh).
It is
an incontrovertible historical truth that the text of
the Holy Qur'an extant today is, syllable for syllable
exactly the same as the Holy Prophet(pbuh) had offered
to the world as the Word of God. After the demise of
the Holy Prophet(pbuh), the first caliph Hadrat Abu
Baker(pbuh) assembled all the Huffaz (those who
have memorized the Qur'an) and the written records of
the Holy Qur'an and had the whole text written in Book
form.In the time of Hadrat ' Uthman (pbuh) copies of
this original version were made and officially
dispatched to the capitals of the Islamic world. Of
these copies extant in the world today, one is in
Istanbul and the other in Tashkent. Whoever is so
inclined may compare any printed text of the Holy
Qur'an with those two copies. He shall find no
variation. And how can one expect any disscrepancy,
when there have been several million Huffaz in every
generation since the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh)
and in our own time? Should anyone alter one syllable
of the original text of the Qur'an, these Huffaz would
at once expose the mistake. In the last century, an
Institute of Munich University in Germany collected
forty-two thousand copies of the Holy Qur'an including
manuscripts and printed texts produced in each period
in the various of the Islamic world. Research was
carried out on these texts for half a century, at the
end of which the researchers concluded that apart from
copying mistakes, there was no discrepancy in the text
of these forty-two thousand copies, though they
belonged to periods spanning the first century Hijrah
to the 14th century Hijrah and had been procured from
all parts of the world. This Institute, unfortunately
was destroyed in the bombing raids on Germany during
World War ll , but the findings of the research
project survived. Another point that must be kept in
view is that the word in which the Qur'an was revealed
is a living language in our own time. It is still
current as the mother tongue of some hundred million
people from Iraq to Morocco.In the non-Arab world also
hundreds of thousands of people study and teach this
language.
The
grammar of the Arabic language, its lexicon, its
phonetic system and its phraseology, have remained in
tact for fourteen hundred years.
A
modern Arabic speaking person can comprehend the Holy
Qur'an with as much proficiency as did the Arabs of
fourteen centuries ago. This, then, is an important
attribute of Muhammad(pbuh), which is shared by no
other Prophet or Leader of Religion. The Book which
God revealed to him for the guidance of mankind today
exists in its original language without the slightest
alteration in its vocabulary.
Authenticity
of the Character and Precedent of the Holy
Prophet(pbuh)
Now
take the second attribute of the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
by which he stands unique among all Prophets (pbut)
and leaders of religion. Just as the Book transmitted
to him, amounts of his character have also been
preserved to serve as a beacon for us in all walks of
life. From early childhood to theclose of his life, a
large number of those who saw him, witnessed the
events of his life and heard his conversation,
addresses, exhortations or warnings, had retained them
in memory and passed them onto their successors. Some
of the research scholars believe that the number of
those who had passed on to the next generation
eyewitness accounts or reports of events that they had
heard during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
number a hundred thousand people. The Holy Prophet (pbuh)
himself dictated some commands and handed or
dispatched them to certain people. These were later
bequeathed to the succeeding generations.
There
were at least six Companions (pbut) who had recorded
the Traditions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and tested
the authenticity of their records by reading them out
to the Holy Prophet(pbuh). These writings were also
inherited by posterity. After the death of the Holy
Prophet(pbuh), some fifty Companions (pbut) undertook
to collect accounts of the circumstances and incidents
of the Prophet's life and his holy utterances. The
material gathered from this source also came into the
hands of those who later accomplished the task of
collecting and compiling the Traditions of the Holy
Prophet (pbuh).
Besides,
as I have mentioned earlier, the number of the
Companions who transmitted orally their knowledge of
the Holy Prophet's character(pbuh) runs to one hundred
thousand, according to theestimate of some
researchers. Little wonder, when we take into account
the fact that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) performed his
last Hajj, known as the Farewell Pilgramage, in the
company of one hundred and forty thousand people! All
these believers saw him at the time of Hajj, learned
from him the rituals of Hajj and listened to the
addresses which the Holy Prophet (pbuh) delivered
during this last Pilgramage. It is improbable that
when this assembly, who had attended such an important
occasion as the Hajj, disperse to their own homes,
their friends, relations and fellow-citizens should
not have questioned them on the circumstances of their
journey or failed to ascertain from them the
injunctions about Hajj. One can well judge from this,
after the Holy Prophet (pbuh) had departed from the
world, how eagerly the people must have questioned
those who had seen him and listened to his speech, on
the details of his life, his sacred utterances,
commands and instructions.
The
procedure that had been adopted from the beginning
regarding the traditions bequeathed to the later
generations by the illustrious Companions(pbut) was
that whoever ascribed an event or saying to the Holy
Prophet(pbuh) had to state his source and furnish a
chain of evidence. In this way, the sources of a
particular tradition were traced through all
connecting links back to the time of the Holy
Prophet(pbuh) in order to determine whether their
connection with the person of the Prophet of God (pbuh)
was demonstrably true. If any links were found to be
missing in the chain of transmission, the authenticity
of the tradition fell into suspicion. When in the
caseof a tradition, a complete line of evidence had
been set up to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh), and
even one of the reporters along the line had been
recognized as unreliable, the tradition was discarded.
If you ponder this a while, you will realize that
circumstances relating to no other man in history have
been recorded with such rigorous scrutiny. It is the
distinction of Muhammed (pbuh) that no tradition
ascribed to him has been accepted, save on authority.
And while looking for the authority of a tradition, it
was not considered sufficient to establish a chain of
evidence up to the time of the Holy Prophet(pbuh) ,
but each one of the successive transmitters was
carefully scrutinized as well so as to determine his
or her reliability. For this purpose, the
circumstances of all the reporters were thoroughly
investigated and full-scale books were compiled.
Setting forth details as to who was trustworthy and
who was not; what sort of character and personality
each of them had; whose memory was sound and whose
weak. Furthermore, the reporter who had actually met
the source from whom he had derived the tradition was
distinguished from the one who merely named the source
without ever having met him. Information about all
these reporters has been documented on such a
comprehensive scale that today we can easily determine
in the case of each tradition whether it has been
derived from trustworthy or fake sources. Is there any
other person in the history of mankind whose life
story has been derived by such authentic means? Is
there another single instance in which, while
discovering the history of one individual person,
comprehensive books were compiled on the life stories
of thousands of reporters who had narrated some
tradition about that person? The primary motive behind
the vigorous campaign of the modern Christian and
Jewish scholars is to cast doubt on the authenticity
of the tradition is jealousy, for they know full well
that the authority on the genuineness of their own
Scriptures as well as for that of the histories of
their Prophets is non-existent. It is owing to this
jealousy that they have dispensed with all
intellectual honesty in their criticisms on Islam, the
Holy Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
All
Aspects of the Holy Prophet's(pbuh) Life Are Open and
Fully Known
The
authenticity of the sources for a reconstruction of
this life and character is by no means the only
distinction of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). Anothet factor
which distinguishes him from all others is that we
have access to far more details about each and every
aspect of his life than we have with respect to other
historical personages:His family background; the kind
of life he led before the announcement of his
Apostolic Mission; how he was invested with
Prophethood; how the Divine Messages were transmitted
to him; how he preached islam; in what manner he faced
opposition and resistance; how he prepared and trained
his Companions; his domestic life; his conduct as a
husband and father;his dealing with friends and foes;
his precepts and practises, commands and warnings; the
practises to which he did not object as well as the
practises which he curbed- all these in their minute
details may be read in the Books of Traditions and in
the works on his pious life and character. The Holy
Prophet(pbuh) was an ideal military general and we
possess detailed accounts of all the battles fought
under his command. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) was the
head of state, and a complete history of his reign is
available to us. He (pbuh) was a judge, and full
proceedings of all the cases tried by him, along with
the judgements awarded by him in those cases, are
extant. The Holy Prophet(pbuh) visited the markets and
watched how the people conducted their business. He (pbuh)
forbade all he found to be unfair and fraudulent,
while approving of all that was found to be just and
equitable. In short, there is no sphere of life
regarding which he did not lay down comprehensive
guidelines. It is on this basis that we assert with
full knowledge and conviction and without any
predudice that of all the Prophets(pbut) and religious
leaders, it is the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) alone to
whom humanity can turn for advice and guidance,
because the Book as presented by him has been
preserved in its original text in its pristine form
and his character, with all such details as are needed
for guidance, has been reported to us through the most
authentic and reliable sources. We shall now see what
message and instruction his pious character bears for
us.
The
Message of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) Is for All Mankind
The
foremost featue we observe in his apostolic mission is
that he (pbuh) addresses man in his capacity as a
human being, setting aside all distinctions of color,
race, language or country. He (pbuh) propounds tenets
for the welfare of all mankind. Whoever has faith in
these tenets is a Muslim and enters the fold of the
universal brotherhood of Islam. Black or white,
belonging to the East or the West,the Arab or the
non-Arab, wherever a human being may be living,
whatever the country, nation or race in which he is
born;irrespective of the tongue he speaks or the color
of his skin, the call of the Prophet (pbuh) is
addressed to everyone. Taboos, inequality, racial or
class distinctions, linguistic, territorial or
geographic bias-nothing that divides man from man has
any place in the society of Islam.
The
Best remedy for Racial Prejudice or Color Bar
On
reflection, one comes to appreciate that this is a
great blessing vouchsafed to mankind through the
Arabian Prophet, Muhammad (pbuh). It has been this
differentiation between man and man that has , more
than anything else, ruined mankind. In some places,
man was declared to be polluted and it was argued that
since he was an untouchable he could not enjoy the
same rights as the Brahmans. Then, according to some,
man was considered to be good only for destruction,
for he had the misfortune to be born in America,
Australia, or Palestine in an age when the foreign
immigrants badly wanted his eviction from the land. In
places, man was hunted, enslaved and forced to work
like an animal merely for the offense of being born in
Africa and the color of his skin ,black. In other
words, these distinctions of nationality, country,
race, color and language have, from time immemorial,
been highly detrimental to mankind. These
differentiations have caused wars. They have served as
the basis of aggression by one country against the
other. They have provoked a people to plunder another
people. Generations of human beings have been
subjected to ruthless genocide for the satisfaction of
these predjudices . The Holy Prophet (pbuh) treated
this malady so effectually that the enemies of Islam
now admit that never were the problems of color
distinction, racial prejudice and national bias so
successfully solved as in the religion of Islam. When
the famous leader of the African- born nationals of
America, Malcolm X, who at one time led an extremist
Black Nationalist Movement against the Whites,
undertook Hajj (pilgramage to Makkah) after embracing
Islam, he saw people of all races, colors and
nationalities speaking different languages and
converging at one central place from the East and the
West and from the North and the South. They all wore
the same garment, the Ihram, all chanted Labbaik, in
the same language; all mingled to perform
circumambulation, and they all formed one compact
congregation under the of one leader to offer worship.
Malcolm X observed this and exclaimed that it was the
only correct answer to the questions of race and color
and that the measures hitherto adopted by his
compatriots were wrong. Malcolm X was murdered, but
his autobiography survives to bear witness to the
profound impact Hajj had made on him.
Hajj
is but one of the articles of worship in the Islamic
faith. Whoever surveys the Islamic religion as a whole
with open eyes will not find even the smallest point
to which he can refer and say that here Islam has
tilted the balance in favor of a particular nation,
tribe, race or class. The entire code of Islam
testifies to the fact that it is applicable to the
whole of humanity. It affirms that all human beings
who acknowledge the principles of Islam and enter the
fold of the universal brotherhood of Islam are equal.
nay, the conduct of Islam towards the non- Muslim
presents a happy contrast to the treatment of the
Blacks by the Whites, and highlights, by contrast, the
conduct of the imperialists toward the slave peoples
as well as the behavior of the Communists governments
towards their non-Communist subjects or toward their
own dissident party members.
Let
us now turn to the rules for human welfare which the
Holy Prophet (pbuh) propagated through the teachings
of Islam and the seizure of power to enable him not
only to guarantee human well-being but to unite all
human beings in one Ummah.
Widest
Conception of the Oneness of God
The
foremost of these principles is the belief in the
Oneness of God, not just in the sense that God exists,
nor merely that there is only One God, but in the
sense that the Creator, Master, and All-Wise Sovereign
of this universe is Allah alone. There is no
comparable authority in the whole universe which is
soveriegn and has the right to command or forbid; or
has the power to make certain things lawful and others
unlawful by decree. These powers are vested in no one,
save Allah. It is the sole prerogative of the Creator
and master to allow certain things in this world at
Will and to prohibit certain things at Will. Islam
preaches that the belief in Allah signifies the
acknowledgement of all these Powers of God. The belief
in Allah is tantamount to the affirmation that we show
allegiance to no one except Him and that no power on
earth has the right to enact a law that is inimical to
His Commandments. The belief in Allah implies that
man's head is made to bow to God alone and is
consequently rendered incapable of bending down before
anyone else. The belief in God carries the meaning
that only Allah has the power to make or unmake our
destiny; that He has absolute power in regard to life
or death. He can take away our life whenever He
pleases and He can keep us alive as long as it pleases
Him. When he chooses to end our life, no power on
earth can save us from death; when He chooses to give
us life, no power on earth can put us to death. This,
then, is the Islamic concept of God. According to this
concept, the whole universe which stretches from the
earth to the heavens operates under orders from Allah.
It, therefore, behooves man, who subsists in this
universe, to devote his life to carrying out the Will
of God. Should man obtain a license to do what he
likes or own obedience to some other power, his
pattern of life would run counter to the entire system
of the universe. This may be expressed in other words
better to grasp the point. That the whole universe
functions under orders from God is an established fact
which is unalterable by any power. Hence, if we carry
out the behest of some authority other than Allah or
follow an independent course of our own choice, our
life would move in the direction opposite to the one
the entire universe is taking. In this way, we shall
be in a state of constant collision with the system of
the universe.
Let
us view this from another angle as well. The Islamic
concept of God Affirms that the only valid way of life
for man is to abide by the Will of Allah, for man is
the creature and Allah is his Creator. As a creature,
it is wrong on the part of the man to be independent
of his Creator. It is also betrayal for him to offer
worship to any other than the Creator. Either of these
acts is opposed to reality. Whoever defies reality
comes to grief. The reality stands inviolate.
The
Call to Worship the Lord
The
Holy Prophet (pbuh) calls for an end to this defiance.
He (pbuh) teaches that the rules and patterns of our
life should conform to the system which governs the
whole universe. A person should neither assume the
right of legislation nor acknowledge the prerogative
of any other person to enact laws for God's creatures
living on God's earth. The only valid law is the law
given by the Lord of the Universe.All other laws are
false and void.
The
Call For Rendering Obedience To the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
We
now come to the second point of the Holt Prophet's (pbuh)
message. He (pbuh) categorically declared: "I am
the Messanger of Allah. Allah has sent His mandate for
mankind through me. I, too, am subject to this
mandate.I can make no alterations in it. I have been
appointed to obey the mandate, not to introduce
innovations into it. The Qur'an embodies the Law which
Allah has revealed to me and my practice is the law
which I promulgate by the order and sanction of
Allah.I am the first render obedience to the Law of
God, and having done so, I call upon all men to
relinquish their allegience to every other law and
abide by the Law of God alone."
Next
to God, Obedience is due to the Messenger of God (pbuh)
No
one should feel cynical as regards the query: How
could the Holy Prophet (pbuh) be deemed to have obeyed
and followed his own practise when it was really his
personal precept or action? The truth of the matter is
that just as the source of the Quran was God, so the
source of all exhortations, prohibitions and
regulations propagated by the Holy Prophet (pbuh) was
also God. This is denoted by the term " Sunnah of
the Prophet." The Holy Prophet (pbuh) himself
followed the Sunnah in the same manner as it is
obligatory for all the believers to follow it. This
point was made abundantly clear on occasions when, in
certain matters, the illustrious Companions (pbut)
used to ask: "Alllah's messenger, are you
conveying the Will of God or is this your personal
view? " The Holy Prophet (pbuh) used to observe:
" No, this is not the Will of God; it is my
opinion." On such occasions, the illustrious
Companions (pbut) differed with the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
and put forth their own way of thinking and the Holy
Prophet (pbuh) allowed their suggestions to supercede
his own opinion. Similarily, this point also became
obvious on occassions when the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
took counsel with his illustrious Companions (pbut).
This consultation in itself was proof positive that
Allah had revealed no mandate regarding the matter
under consideration, for had the DivineWill been known
in the matter, it could not have become subject for
discussion. Such occasions, which have been
elaborately recorded in the collections of Traditions,
often arouse in the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
The illustrious Companions(pbut) themselves have
reported: " Never did we see a person who was
engaged in councel more often than the Holy Prophet (pbuh)."
If you reflect on this point, you will realize that
holding councel in matters which God had not revealed
His Will was also the Sunnah (Traditions) of the Holy
Prophet (pbuh). When the Holy Prophet (pbuh) himself
did not deem it proper to impose his personal opinion
on the people as an inexorable law, what authority is
there for another ruler to enforce his will upon the
people? Thus did the Holy Prophet (pbuh) teach his
Ummah to conduct their affairs by consultation and
instructed the people to render unqualified obedience
to the Will of God in those matters in which the Lord
had not manifested His Will, the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
exhorted the people to exercise their right of
freedom of speech without fear.
True
Charter of Freedom
This
is the " Charter of Freedom" which only the
true religion has conferred upon mankind. The creature
of Allah should be the slave of Allah alone and owe
service to none else, nay, not even as a servant of
the Holy Prophet (pbuh). This charter freed man from
offering worship to all others, save One God; and it
terminated the divinity of man over man once and for
all. Simultaneously, the greatest blessing conferred
by this mandate upon mankind is the Supremacy of the
Law, the Law which no monarch, dictator, democratic
parliment or assembly of believers in Islam is
empowered to tamper with for the purpose of altering
it. This law bestows on man permanent values of Good
and Evil, and no one has the power to transmute these
values with a view to changing Good into Evil or vice
versa.
The
third message which the Holy Prophet (pbuh) preached
to the servants of God was: " You are all
answerable to God. You have been given unchartered
freedom to act as you deem fit and to forage whatever
pasture you like without being answerable to anyone.
Rather you shall be held accountable before your
Creator for each act, each word, in fact, for the
whole course of your life wherein you have been given
limited autonomy. You will be raised after death and
presented in the court of your Lord for
reckoning." When human conscience is permeated
with such a stupendous moral force, it will be as if
every human being were being guarded by a sentinel who
challenges every evil thought that enters one's mind
and hinders all action that may arise from an evil
thought. Irrespective of the existence or
non-existence of a vigilant police force and a
retributive government in the external world, a censor
will always preside over the human soul, and fear of
seizure will deter a person from transgressing the
Will of God even in privacy, in darkness or in a
deserted wasteland. No greater means than this can be
devised for the moral degeneration of man and for the
forging of a stable human character. All other means
which purport to reform the moral aspects of human
character do not go beyond the dicta that is in this
world " Good begets good and Evil begets Evil
" and " Honesty is the Best Policy."
Carried to the logical conclusion it clearly implies
that if evil and dishonesty be found profitable for
policy reasons, these should be freely practised
without compunction. It is in consequence of this
philosophy of life that the same person who behaves
well in his private life turns to being faithless,
deceptive, rapacious, callous and ruthless in the
conduct of his public life-nay, even in their private
life, such people are good only in certain respects
and very wicked in many other ways. You will find
that, on the one hand, these people are fair and
courteous in their business dealings, while on the
other hand they are the worst drunkards, fornicators
and gamblers, being the most depraved and wicked of
people. Their motto is that a man's public life and
his private life are two different spheres, distinct
from each other. To one who accosts them on some
faults in their private life, they offer a tailor-made
answer, " Mind your own business." Contrary
to this, there is the belief in Eternity which enjoins
that evil remains evil in all circumstances,
regardless of whether it proves profitable or
disadvantageous in the world. The dichotomy between
public and private spheres cannot exist in the life of
a person who has a sense of accountability to God.
This person does not adopt honesty just because it is
the best policy, but because the person has cultivated
honesty in his soul and nothing could be more distant
from his thoughts than the practise of dishonesty. His
belief teaches him that dishonesty must debase him to
a level inferior to that of animals. As the Holy Quran
observes: "We created Man in the finest form and
then We turned him upside down and degraded him to a
position lower than the lowest." In this way, by
the kindly favor of the Holy Prophet's (pbuh)
guidance, man has not only obtained an immutable law
embodying permanent moral values, but also an
unshakeable foundation on which to build individual
and national moral character. Man, therefore, does not
require the agency of a government, a police force or
a court of law to deter him from crimes and keep him
on the right path.
Practise
of Morality in the Mundane Activities of Life: Monasticism
Rejected
The
Holy Prophet's (pbuh) call bears yet another important
message for us, which is that morality is not the
preserve of the monks, to be practised in the
monasteries, nor the priviledge of the mystics, to be
observed within the precincts of the shrines. Morality
is meant for practical application in all spheres of
life. The highest spiritual and moral standards which
the world sought in monks, priests and the mystics
were transferred to the Holy Prophet (pbuh) to the
seat of Government and the Judges' bench. He (pbuh)
exhorted the businessmen to fear God and practise
honesty in their dealings and transactions. He (pbuh)
taught the policemen and the soldiers the lesson of
piety and restraint. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) dispelled
man's misconception that one who renounced the world
and commemorated God in the wilderness was the friend
of God.
He (pbuh)
denied that true fellowship with God consisted in
being a hermit. On the contrary, true saintliness
consisted in participating in the affairs of the world
as a ruler, magistrate, army commander, police
inspector, businessman, industrialist. In fact,
displaying through all other activities of the
temporal life, a pious and honest character whenever
one's faith is put to the test. In this way, the Holy
Prophet (pbuh) retrieved morality and spirituality
from the restrictions of monasticism and brought them
into all spheres of practical life. He (pbuh) enforced
morality and spirituality in economic, social and
political affairs and in the conduct of peace or war,
establishing the supremacy of the righteous moral code
in all these fields of life.
The
Blessings of the Holy Prophet's (pbuh) Teaching
It
was through this blessed guidance that those whom the
Holy Prophet (pbuh) had found to be thieves at the
beginning of his Prophethood were transformed into
trustworthy protectors of life, prospect and honor of
the common people by the time the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
departed from the mortal world; those whom he had
found usurpers of rights were remolded by him into
upholders, protectors and champions of the rights of
the people. Prior to his time, the world had known
only rulers who issued their "Divine Writs"
from magnificent palaces and held their subjects down
by repressive measures. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) gave
the world rulers who walked in the bazaars like
ordinary people and held sway over the hearts of the
people through an administration of justice and
equity.Before him, the world had known armies
penetrating into a country carrying fire and steel in
all directions, raping the women of the prostrate
people. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) introduced the world
to the armies which after a triumphant entry into a
city molested none except the enemy troops; and after
a departure from a captured city returned the very
taxes already received from its inhabitants. Human
history is replete with accounts of conquests and
victories over cities and countries. But the conquest
of Makkah has no parallel in history. The Holy
Prophet's (pbuh) triumphant entry into the city whose
inhabitants had persecuted him and his adherents for
thirteen long years was marked by glorious humanity,
his sacred forehead leaning on the saddle of his camel
in a posture of bowing before God. In his demeanor
there was no trace of pride and arrogance.When the
same people who had tormented him for thirteen years
and forced him to migrate from the city of his birth,
and even after his migration, had fought battles
against him for eight years, were brought before him
as supplicants, they begged him for mercy. Instead of
wreaking vengence upon them, the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
observed: " Today there is NO censure upon you,
now go, you are free."
Anyone
who wishes to assess the impact of this precedent of
the Holy Prophet(pbuh) on the Muslims should look at
the pages of history. He should compare the behavior
of the Muslim conquerors as they entered Spain with
the conduct of the Christians as they subjugated the
Muslims; and he should observe the contrast between
the treatment meted out to the Muslims when the
Christians sacked Bait-ul-maqdas during the Crusades
and the dispensation which the Christians received
when the Muslims recaptured Bait-ul-Maqdas from them.
Gentleman!
The personality of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) is a vast
ocean of wisdom, and no work, however elaborate, can
encompass it. A single address could hardly do justice
to this subject. Nevertheless, I have endeavored to
focus attention on some of the outstanding aspects of
the Holy Prophet's (pbuh) personality. Fortunate,
indeed, are those who follow the lead of this Supreme
Guide.
In
the end, we should say that all Praise is due to
Allah, the Lord of the Universe.
