The Achievement
"On the day when the earth shall be changed with different earth and heaven as well"
(The Quran 14.48)
Rasulullahﷺ had Allahﷻ only to assist him and his works, therefore, can truthfully be called the work of Allahﷻ. Rasulullahﷺ life, as we have seen, is the noblest record of work, therefore, can truthfully be called the work of Allahﷻ.
Rasulullahﷺ life, as we have seen, is the most nobly and faithfully done. Some authors, describing his achievement, write:
" Rasulullahﷺ democratic thunder was a signal for an uprising of all human intellect against the tyranny of Priests and Rulers," and continues:
"In that world of the wrangling creeds and oppressive institutions when the human soul was crushed under the weight of unintelligent dogmas and the human body trampled under the tyranny of vested interests, Rasulullahﷺ broke down the barriers of caste and exclusive privileges. Rasulullahﷺ swept away with his breath the cobwebs that self-interest had woven in the path of man to Allah. Rasulullahﷺ abolished all exclusiveness in man's relation to his creator," Another writer says: "Rasulullahﷺ persistent and unvarying appeal to reason, Rasulullahﷺ thoroughly democratic conception of Divine Government, the universality of his religious ideal, Rasulullahﷺ simple humanity, all serve to differentiate Rasulullahﷺ from his predecessors."
Thus Rasulullahﷺ saw his task accomplished and felt that his end must be approaching, so Rasulullahﷺ decided to make a farewell pilgrimage to Makkah and went thither, There from Mount Arafat he addressed his people in a soul-stirring speech, the fragments of which are:
"O, My People! listen to my words, for I do not think that I will have another chance of being with you. Your lives and property are sacred and inviolable amongst one another till you appear before Allahﷻ... Remember you shall have to appear before Allahﷻ, Who shall demand from you an account of all your actions. Q! people, you have rights over your wives and your wives have rights over you, treat them with kindness and love, for you have taken them on the security of Allahﷻ and have made them lawful by words of Allahﷻ.
Keep always faithful to the Trust and avoid all occasions to sin...And as for your slaves, see that you feed them with what you feed yourselves and clothe them with what you clothe yourselves and if they commit any offense which you cannot forgive them let them go, for they are the creations of Allahﷻ like you and not to be treated harshly."
"Listen to my words and understand them fully well. Remember that all Muslims are brothers unto one another. You are one brotherhood. Nothing which belongs to one is lawful to the other unless freely given out of goodwill. And do not commit injustice."
This was Rasulullahﷺ last sermon, after which he grew weaker and weaker and finally breathed Rasulullahﷺ last, but with the task completed and mission fulfilled. There is no other to be compared with Rasulullahﷺ, for there are none who so withstood the fire of the world and came unscathed. From a humble preacher, he rose to be the ruler of Arabia, but the same simplicity of spirit and the same nobility of nature, purity of the heart, delicacy of feeling, and devotion to duty remained supreme.
Here again, Before Rasulullahﷺ's Prophethood, darkness lay heavier and thicker on one land than on any other. The neighboring countries of Persia, Byzantium, and Egypt possessed a glimmer of civilization and a faint light of learning, but the Arab peninsula, isolated and cut off by vast oceans of sand, was culturally and intellectually one of the world’s backward areas. Although their highly developed language could express the finest shades of meaning, a study of their literature’s remnants reveals the limited extent of their knowledge. All of this shows their low cultural and civilizational standards, their deeply superstitious nature, their barbarous and ferocious customs, and their uncouth and degraded moral standards and conceptions.
It was a land without a
government, for every tribe claimed sovereignty and considered itself
independent. Robbery, arson, and the murder of innocent and weak people were the
norm. Life, property, and honor were constantly at risk, and tribes were always
at daggers drawn with each other. A trivial incident could engulf them in
ferocious warfare, which sometimes developed into a decades-long and
country-wide conflagration. As one scholar writes:
'These struggles destroyed
the sense of national unity and developed an incurable particularism; each
tribe deemed itself self-sufficient and regarded the rest as its legitimate
victims for murder, robbery, and plunder.'
Barely able to discriminate
between pure and impure, lawful and unlawful, their concepts of morals,
culture, and civilization were primitive and uncouth. They reveled in adultery,
gambling, and drinking. They stood naked before each other without shame, and
women circumambulated the Ka‘ba in the nude.
Their prestige called for
female infanticide rather than having someone “inferior” become their
son-in-law and eventual heir. They married their widowed stepmothers and knew
nothing of the manners associated with eating, dressing, and cleanliness.
Worshippers of stones, trees, idols, stars, and spirits, they had forgotten the
earlier Prophets’ teachings. They had an idea that Abraham and Isma‘il were
their forefathers, but almost all of these forefathers’ religious knowledge and
understanding of God had been lost.
Thus, in that benighted
area, for forty years, Rasulullahﷺ, lived as an
ordinary man among his people. Rasulullahﷺ was not known as a statesman, preacher, or
orator. No one had heard him impart wisdom and knowledge, or discuss principles
of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economy, or sociology. Rasulullahﷺ had no reputation
as a soldier, not to mention as a great general. Rasulullahﷺ had said nothing about God,
angels, revealed books, early Prophets, bygone nations, the Day of Judgment,
life after death, or Heaven and Hell. No doubt he had an excellent character
and charming manners and was well-behaved, yet nothing marked him out as one
who would accomplish something great and revolutionary. His acquaintances knew
him as a sober, calm, gentle, and trustworthy citizen of good nature. But when
he left the Hira cave with a new message, he was completely transformed.
Just as the Prophets’
consensus on the other pillars of belief is a very strong proof of their truth,
it also is a firm testimony of the truthfulness and Rasulullahﷺ history confirms that all sacred attributes,
miracles, and functions indicate the truthfulness, and Rasulullahﷺ, are found in Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, to the
highest degree. Prophets predicted his coming by giving good tidings of him in
the Torah, the Gospels, the Psalms, and other Scriptures (known as “Pages” in
the Qur’an).14 Through their missions and miracles, they affirmed and “sealed”
the mission of Rasulullahﷺ, the foremost and most perfect Prophet.
People usually consider
their own occupations as more important, necessary, beneficial to social life,
and more challenging than others. However, although every occupation has some
degree of difficulty and social use, educating people is by far the most
difficult and necessary for a healthy social life.
Raising really educated
people requires true educators who have clear goals. But if such people are to
succeed, they must embody what they teach and advise their students; they must
intimately know their students’ character and potential, as well as their
desires and ambitions, shortcomings and strengths, and level of learning and
understanding; they must know how to treat them in all circumstances, approach
their problems, and persuade them to replace their bad qualities with good
ones.
People may not live
according to their asserted “strong” beliefs, have only superficial good moral
qualities, or have weak spots (e.g., open to bribery, insensitivity, hoarding).
How should we view educators who transform their students by completely
replacing their bad qualities with good ones, and then proceed to establish a
community to serve as a model for future generations; who transform the base
rock, copper, iron, and coal in their hands into silver, gold, precious stones,
and diamonds? Would such an educator not be considered extraordinary? What Rasulullahﷺ, achieved in his twenty-three
years as the educator of his people is far more than what such educators do.
Not using force is another
important dimension of a good education. Penal sanctions, coercion, and
military and police forces can only succeed in “guiding” people for a short
while. If a transformation is to be permanent, people must undertake it
willingly, meaning that they must be convinced of its truth. No one has ever
known people so comprehensively as Rasulullahﷺ, nor has managed to
transform such pitiless, crude, war-mongering, ignorant, and unyielding
people into a community that provides a perfect and complete life and moral
example for all future generations.
Rasulullahﷺ's Family and Companions,
whose insight, wisdom, and spiritual accomplishment make them the most
renowned, respected, celebrated, pious, and intelligent people after the
Prophets, declared that he was the most truthful, elevated, and honest person.
This was their conclusion after having examined and scrutinized all of his
thoughts and states, whether hidden or open, with the utmost attention to
detail.
Thousands of God’s beloved friends attained truth and perfection, performed wonders, gained insight into the reality of things, and made spiritual discoveries by following the Rasulullahﷺ example. All of them assert Rasulullahﷺ’s truthfulness as Messenger and his Message. Thousands of exacting scholars of purity, meticulous scholars of truthfulness, and believing sages have reached the highest station of learning through the sacred truths brought by this unlettered man.
Many invincible commanders and the most eminent statesmen of human history have appeared in his footsteps. I list only a few of countless such people: such saints and purified, meticulous scholars as Abu Hanifa, Shafi‘i, Imam Malik, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Jalaluddin as-Suyuti, Bayazid al-Bistami, ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Shah Naqshband, Hasan al-Shadhili, Imam al-Ghazzali, Imam Rabbani, and Bediüzzaman Said Nursi; innumerable scientists such as al-Biruni, az-Zahrawi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Ibn Haytham; and hundreds of thousands of literary geniuses, commanders, statesmen, and other stars of humanity. All of them followed in Rasulullahﷺ’s footsteps.
The first peculiarity, then,
which attracts our attention is the subdivision of the Arabs into innumerable
bodies, each independent of the others: restless and often at war amongst
themselves; and even when united by blood or by interest, ever ready on some
significant cause to separate and give way to an implacable hostility. Thus in
the era of Islam, the retrospect of Arabian history exhibits, as in the
kaleidoscope, an ever-varying state of combination and repulsion, such as had
hitherto rendered abortive any attempt at a general union … The problem had yet
to be solved, by what force these tribes could be subdued or drawn to one
common center; and it was solved by
Rasulullahﷺ blended many roles and his own personal excellences
into one personality. Rasulullahﷺ is a man of wisdom and foresight, a living embodiment
of his own teachings, a great statesman and military genius, a legislator and
teacher of morals, a spiritual luminary and religious guide. Rasulullahﷺ sees life
comprehensively, and all that he touches is improved and adorned. His teachings
regulate everything from international relations to eating, drinking, sleeping,
and personal hygiene. Rasulullahﷺ used these teachings to establish a civilization and a
culture that produced such a fine, sensitive, and perfect equilibrium in all
aspects of life that no trace of a flaw, deficiency, or incompleteness has ever
been found in it. What alleged shortcomings and imperfections deny him his
rightful status as Rasulullahﷺ or Messenger of Allahﷻ?
Rasulullahﷺ, brought a law, a religion, a way of life, a code of
worship, a way of prayer, a message, and a faith that was (and remains) unique.
The law this unlettered man brought is matchless in that it has administered,
both justly and precisely, one-fifth of humanity for fourteen centuries. The
daily practices of Islam, which originated in the Qur’an and its own sayings,
precepts, and example, have served for centuries as a peerless guide and
authority for billions of people. They have trained and refined their minds and
souls, illumined and purified their hearts, and perfected their spirits.
What follows is the tribute
of Lamartine, the French historian to the person Rasulullahﷺ of Islam:
Never did a man set himself,
voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim, since this aim was
superhuman: to subvert superstitions which had been interposed between man and
his Creator, to render Allahﷻ unto man and man unto God; to restore the rational
and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured
gods of idolatry then existing. Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond
human power with so feeble means, for Rasulullahﷺ had in the conception as well as in
the execution of such a great design no other instrument than himself, and no
other aid, except a handful of men living in a corner of the desert. Finally, never
has a man accomplished such a huge and lasting revolution in the world, because less than two centuries after its appearance, Islam, in faith and arms,
reigned over the whole of Arabia, and conquered in God’s name Persia, Khorasan,
Western India, Syria, Abyssinia, all the known continent of Northern Africa,
numerous islands of the Mediterranean, Spain, and a part of Gaul.
If greatness of purpose, the smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man to Rasulullahﷺ? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers that often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, and dynasties, but millions of men [and women] in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs, and the souls. On the basis of a Book, every letter of which has become law, Rasulullahﷺ created a spiritual nationality that has blended together peoples of every tongue and of every race. Rasulullahﷺ has left to us as the indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality, the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and immaterial God.
This avenging patriotism against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of Rasulullahﷺ: the conquest of one-third of the earth to his creed was his miracle. The idea of the unity of God proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon its utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic revilings against the superstitions of his country, his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry; his firmness in enduring them for thirteen years at Makkah, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow-countrymen: all these and, finally his incessant preaching, his wars against odds, his faith in his success and his superhuman security in misfortune, his forbearance in victory, his ambition which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayer, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to imposture but to a firm conviction.
It was his conviction
that gave him the power to restore a creed. This creed was two-fold, the unity
of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what Allahﷻ is; the latter
telling what God is not. Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior,
conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the
founder of twenty terrestrial states and of one spiritual state, Prophethood
and Rasulullahﷺ that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which
human greatness may be measured, we may well ask: Is there any man greater than Rasulullahﷺ?
A leader must know his
people thoroughly to educate them and lead them to realize a great cause.
Alexis Carrel, a great twentieth-century French scientist, and philosopher,
still describes human beings as unknown, as the most complex and intricate of
creatures. However, Rasulullahﷺ had
such a comprehensive knowledge of his people that he could educate them in such
a way that they transformed themselves willingly to realize his cause. Knowing
how to act in every situation, his decisions never had to be changed or his
appointments to office rescinded. Rasulullahﷺ succeeded in bringing the most refined,
well-mannered, and civilized society out of an extremely backward, uncivilized,
and rough people.
Not only did he eradicate
his people’s savage customs and immoral qualities to which they were addicted, but he also equipped and adorned these same desperate, wild, and unyielding peoples
with all praiseworthy virtues and made them the teachers and masters of the
world, including civilized nations. Rasulullahﷺ domination was not outward; rather, he
was the beloved of hearts, the teacher of minds, the trainer of souls, and the
ruler of spirits.
Despite all the advanced
techniques and methods, modern communities cannot remove permanently so small a
vice as smoking. However, Rasulullahﷺ quickly removed many ingrained bad habits with little effort and replaced them
with good habits in such a way that they became inherent in his people’s very
being. If people do not believe this, let them go to any part of the modern
civilized world with hundreds of philosophers, sociologists, psychologists,
pedagogues, and educators and see if they can achieve in one hundred years even
one-hundredth of what Rasulullahﷺ achieved in a year in the uncivilized Arabia of fourteen centuries ago.
Rasulullahﷺ met all of his
detractors with a smile. When the Qurayshi leaders told Abu Talib to make his
nephew abandon his mission, Rasulullahﷺ answered:
O, uncle! Should they place
the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, so as to make me renounce
this mission, I shall not do so. I will never give it up; either it will please
God to make it triumph or I will perish in the attempt."
On another occasion, a
deputation of the Qurayshi elite offered him all the worldly glory they could
imagine if he would abandon his mission:
If you want wealth, we will
amass for you as much as you wish; if you aspire to win honor and power, we are
prepared to swear allegiance to you as our overlord and king; if you have a
fancy for beauty, you shall have the hand of the most beautiful maiden of your
own choice.
The terms would be extremely
tempting for anyone, but they had no significance in the eyes of Rasulullahﷺ.
He responded:
I want neither wealth nor
power. Allahﷻ has commissioned me as a warner to humanity. I deliver His Message
to you. Should you accept it, you shall have felicity in this life and eternal
bliss in the life Hereafter. Should you reject the Word of Allahﷻ, surely Allahﷻ will
decide between you and me.
The faith, perseverance, and
resolution with which Rasulullahﷺ carried his mission to ultimate success prove the
supreme truth of his cause. Had there been the slightest doubt or uncertainty
in his heart, he could not have withstood the opposition that continued for
twenty-one long years.
Rasulullahﷺ was the foremost practitioner of all forms of Islamic
worship and the most God-conscious believer. Rasulullahﷺ perfectly observed all details
of worship, even when in danger. Rasulullahﷺ never imitated anyone, and excellently
combined the beginning and end of spiritual perfection. He is unparalleled in
prayer and knowledge of Allahﷻ. In his supplications and prayers, he describes his
Lord with such a degree of Divine knowledge that no believer has ever attained
a similar degree of knowledge and description of Allahﷻ.
His faith was so
extraordinarily strong, certain, miraculous, elevated, and enlightened that no
contemporary prevalent (and opposed) idea, belief, philosophy, or teaching ever
caused him to doubt or hesitate. Moreover, all intellectually and spiritually
elevated people of all times, primarily his Companions, benefited from his
faith, which they admit to being of the highest degree. This fact proves that his
faith is matchless.
In spite of his
unparalleled greatness and achievements, Rasulullahﷺ behaved like an ordinary man with all people and lived as the poorest
of his community. All of his resources were used to spread Islam. Rasulullahﷺ sought no
reward or profit to compensate him for his life-long struggles and endeavors,
and left no property for his heirs, for he lived to serve all humanity. Rasulullahﷺ did
not ask that anything be set aside for him or his descendants and forbade his
progeny from receiving zakah so that neither he nor his Family or progeny
should benefit from his mission materially.
No one in human history
has ever been loved as much as Rasulullahﷺ,
has been loved by his Companions and Community. What follows is only one
example to show how deeply he is loved:
A group from the Adal and
al-Qarah tribes, who were apparently from the same ancestral stock as the
Quraysh and who lived near Makkah, came to Rasulullahﷺ during the third year of
the Islamic era and said: “Some of us have chosen Islam, so send a group of
Muslims to instruct us what Islam means, teach us the Qur’an, and inform us of
Islam’s principles and laws.”
Rasulullahﷺ selected six
Companions to go with them. Upon reaching the Hudhayl tribe’s land, the group
halted and the Companions settled down to rest. Suddenly, a group of Hudhayli
tribesmen fell upon them like a thunderbolt with 186 An Introduction to Islamic
Faith and Thought their swords drawn. Clearly, the mission either had been a
ruse from the beginning of its members had changed their minds en route. At any
rate, they sided with the attackers and sought to seize the six Muslims. As
soon as the Companions were aware of what was happening, they grabbed their
weapons and got ready to defend themselves. Three were martyred, and the rest
were tied up and taken to Makkah, where they were to be delivered to the Quraysh.
Near Makkah, ‘Abdullah ibn Tariq رضي الله عنه managed to free his hand and reach for his sword. However, his captors saw what he was doing and stoned him to death. Zayd ibn al-Dathina رضي الله عنه and Hubayb ibn Adiy رضي الله عنه were carried to Makkah, where they were exchanged for two Hudhayli captives. Safwan ibn Umayya al-Qurayshi bought Zayd رضي الله عنه from the person to whom he had been sold so that he could avenge the blood of his father, who had been killed during the Battle of Badr. He took him outside Makka to kill him, and the Quraysh assembled to see what would happen.
Zayd رضي الله عنه came forward with a courageous gait and did not even tremble. Abu Sufyan, a spectator who wanted to use this chance to extract a statement of contrition and remorse or an avowal of hatred of the Prophet, stepped forward and said: “I adjure you by God, Zayd, don’t you wish that Muhammad was with us now in your place so that we might cut off his head, and that you were with your family?” “By Allahﷻ,” said Zayd, “let alone wishing that I do not wish that even a thorn should hurt his foot.” Abu Sufyan, astonished, turned to those present and said: “By Allahﷻ, I swear I have never seen a man so loved by his followers as Muhammad.”
After a while, Hubayb was
taken outside Makkah for execution. Requesting the assembled people to let him
perform two Rakat of prayer, to which they agreed, he did so in all humility,
respect, and absorption. Then he spoke to them: “I swear by Allahﷻ that if I did
not think that you might think that I was trying to delay my death out of fear,
I would have prolonged my prayer.”
After condemning Hubayb to
crucifixion, his sweet voice was heard, with a perfect spirituality that held
everyone in its spell, entreating God with these words: “O God! We have
delivered the message of Your Messenger, so inform him of what has been done to
us, and tell him my wish of peace and blessings upon him.” Meanwhile, Allahﷻ’s
Messenger was returning his peace, saying: “Upon you be God’s peace and
blessings, O Hubayb!”
• The following account
shows the indelible mark that Allahﷻ’s Messenger has imprinted on people of every
age:
One of Ibn Sina’s students
told Ibn Sina that his extraordinary understanding and intelligence would cause
people to gather around him if he claimed prophethood. Ibn Sina said nothing.
When they were traveling together during winter, Ibn Sina woke up one morning
at dawn, woke his student, and asked him to fetch some water because he was
thirsty. The student procrastinated and made excuses. However much Ibn Sina
persisted, the student would not leave his warm bed. At that moment, the cry of
the muezzin (caller to prayer) called out from the minaret: “God is the
greatest. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”
Ibn Sina considered this a
good opportunity to answer his student, so he said:
You, who averred that people
would believe in me if I claimed to be a prophet, look now and see how the
command I just gave you who have been my student for years and have benefited
from my lessons, has not had the effect of making you leave your warm bed to
fetch me some water. But this muezzin strictly obeys the 400-year-old command
of the Prophet. He got up from his warm bed, as he does every morning together
with hundreds of thousands of others, climbed up to this great height, and bore
witness to Allahﷻ’s Unity and His Prophet. Look and see how great the difference
is!”
Rasulullahﷺ’s name has been
pronounced five times a day together with that of Allahﷻ for 1,400 years all over
the world.22
