MUHAMMAD ﷺ- THE UNIVERSAL MESSENGER, LETS KNOW HIM
The best solution to unawareness and misunderstanding is education. Now, more than ever, Muslims need to answer to such questions as: "Who was Muhammad?"
"Why is he loved so much by some and hated so much by others?" "Was he
really a prophet of God?" "What did he teach?" "Did he live up to his
claims?" "Did he encourage war and terrorism?" "What is the truth about
this man?
An introduction to the Messenger of Allah i.e., Muhammad Bin Abdullah (May
Allah honour Him and grant Him Peace), who was sent 1400 years ago to
call all mankind to follow the true path, no matter where or when; no
matter if white or black, his message is for all whether Muslim or
Non-Muslim, Male or Female.His message is the last and the lasting one,
no messenger will come after him, he is the last Messenger. Success in
the hereafter is only possible through the way which He has shown.And
seek knowledge about Him with an open mind rather than biased western
sources. Before going in detail about Him let’s know about the religion Islam first.
The religion Islam is based on the teachings of Qur’an and Sunnah.
Qur’an is the verbatim words of Allah (Glory be to Him) and Sunnah is
the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and grant Him
Peace). The word "Islam" is an Arabic word which is derived from two
root words i.e., Salaam and Silmun, Salaam means Peace and Silmun means
Submission. In the Islamic context, Islam means peace acquired by
submitting one’s will to the will of Allah (Glory be to Him). This means
to act on what Allah (Glory be to Him) commands all of us to do (In the
Quran) and what His beloved Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and grant Him Peace) demonstrated through his Sunnah (His Lifestyle and His Sayings) as per the understanding and practice of His Sahaba (Companions of Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and grant Him peace)).
Islam is based on five Pillars i.e.,
(1) To give witness about Allah and His Messenger Muhammad (Shahadah),
(2) Compulsory prayers (Salah),
(3) Almsgiving (zakat),
(4) The pilgrimage to Makkah (Hajj) at least once in a lifetime if one has ability to do so and
(5) Fasting during Ramadan (Sawm). (Sahih Al Bukhari Vol 1:7)
The first pillar of Islam is ‘to give witness’ or ‘to testify’ in the oneness of Allah (Glory be to Him) and His last Messenger Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and grant Him Peace) who was sent for the entire mankind. Therefore practicing Islam by Muhammad’s (May Allah honour Him and grant Him Peace) way is the basic and the utmost requirement in all departments of life. [1]
Criteria for acceptance of any form of worship in Islam are when the following is true
A form of worship is only acceptable when the following is true:
- One dedicates it to Allah alone, with a desire for the Hereafter. It cannot be done with the intention of being seen among men or for worldly gain.
- One follows the Prophet's example, in words and deeds. This cannot accomplished except knowledge of the Sunnah. [2]
Qur’an
Criteria for paradise
All of mankind must believe in him and follow his sharee’ah in order to enter the Paradise of their Lord: “and whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and grant Him Peace)) will be admitted to Gardens under which rivers flow (in Paradise), to abide therein, and that will be the great success”[Qur’an.Surah Nisa 4:13]
Allah
(Glory be to Him) praises those among the People of the Book who
believe in the Messenger, and He gives them the glad tidings of a
two-fold reward, as He says (interpretation of the meaning): “Those to
whom We gave the Scripture [i.e. the Tawraat (Torah) and the Injeel
(Gospel)] before it, they believe in it (the Qur’an).
Sunnah
The
Prophet (May Allah honour Him and grant Him Peace) said: "Whoever obeys
me, he obeys Allah, and whoever disobeys me, he disobeys Allah, and
whoever obeys the ruler I appoint, he obeys me, and whoever disobeys
him, he disobeys me." Sahih Al Bukhari Vol 9: 251, Sunan Nasai Vol 5: 4198
He (May Allah honour Him and grant Him Peace) also said:"All of my followers will enter Paradise except those who refuse." They said: 'O Allah's Messenger! Who will refuse?' He said, "Whoever obeys me will enter Paradise and whoever disobeys me is the one who refuses (to enter it)."Sahih Al Bukhari Vol 9: 384 [4]
History of Mankind
Allah (Glory be to Him) Almighty repeatedly commands the Muslims in the Quran to
observe, consider, and reflect upon the lessons from the history of
bygone nations. The fact that majority of Allah's Final Message consists
of stories of moral struggle of earlier peoples is an indication of the
significance of learning history, and learning it with the right
perspective of seeking lessons. Successful teachers and preachers of Islam always have a good grasp of history.
According to the Quran,
Allah (The God) (Glory be to Him) has created the universe with a
certain purpose, and all its parts are strictly under His control,
carrying out His divine scheme without the slightest deviation.
Similarly, man too has been created with a certain purpose. Yet man, is
completely free to do what he wants, and act upon his own decisions.
However, in spite of this freedom, he is watched constantly by Allah
(Glory be to Him), for He does not allow any such deviation over a long
period that would nullify the plan of His creation.
After
creating a favorable world in the form of the Earth, Allah (Glory be to
Him) created the first man Prophet Adam (Peace be upon Him) and his
feminine counterpart, Hawwa (Peace be upon Her). Adam (Peace be upon
Him) was the first man as well as the first Prophet. The way of Allah
(Glory be to Him) is to select a man as His Messenger from amongst human
beings themselves, in order to send His revelations to humankind.
Therefore, Allah (Glory be to Him) revealed to Prophet Adam (Peace be
upon Him) through an angel the purpose of man's inhabiting the earth.
Muslims believe in all the prophets and messengers sent by Allah (Glory be to Him). The Qur'an states
that prior to its revelation, at least one prophet or messenger had
been sent at some time to every nation. Every prophet was an outstanding
man in his community, both morally and intellectually. Each one stated
clearly that what he conveyed was not from himself, but an inspiration
from Allah (Glory be to Him) for the benefit of mankind.
Each
was supported by miracles granted by Allah (Glory be to Him) as proof
of his prophethood. Prophets were human beings who, during particular
periods of world development, conveyed a divine message to their
peoples, supported by signs and miracles. All prophets were inspired
with guidance which they taught exactly as they were commanded.
Finally the last Prophet and Messenger sent to the world was named Muhammad bin
Abdullah (May Allah honour Him and grant Him peace). He was a
descendant of Prophet Ishmael, the son of Ibrahim (Peace be upon them).
And was from the Arab tribe of Quraysh. All good qualities and virtues
were perfected in him even though he had not received any formal
education or training.
The
Messenger of Allah (May Allah honour Him and grant Him peace), as he
was called, was appointed to instruct all of mankindandinvite humanity
to the same objective as did by the prophets before him i.e., to worship Allah alone without associates or intermediaries. And the Qur'an confirms the finality of his prophethood, stating that he is the "seal of the prophets", Qur’an.Surah Ahzab 33:40.
Allah's message of Tawheed,
monotheism, in history and the various human responses to it. After
about 1000 years, the perversion became so all pervading that they were
completely distanced from the path of the Sharee'ah (Divine Law) as
shown by Prophet Adam (Peace be upon Him). Allah (Glory be to Him)
subsequently sent Nuh (Noah) as His Messenger. He was granted an
exceptionally long life of 950 years, during which he continued to show
people the right path, generation after generation. In this way a long
period elapsed between Adam and ‘Eesaa (Jesus); whereas earlier Allah's
Messengers continued to come to the world in almost every generation.
However, only a few people believed in them while the majority rejected
these prophets in every age.
The Reasons for Perversion
What
were the reasons for this continued transgression? There were two main
reasons: political absolutism and ignorance about the world of nature.
The other factor was ignorance. In ancient times, man knew too little
about the world and its phenomena. Political absolutism had placed an
almost total ban on scientific research. Therefore, all kinds of
superstitions prevailed regarding natural phenomena. It was generally
held that the Sun, Moon and the stars possessed supernatural powers.
Summary of Events
World Before Prophethood
Before the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him), humanity was going through one of the worst periods in
its history, a truly “dark age” and humankind was immersed in a state of
degeneration. Nothing was untouched by this darkness. It pervaded the
lives of the people in every way: religiously, morally, socially,
politically, and economically. Humanity was going through endless
turmoil. Ignorance pervaded all aspects of a life typified by vain
desires, deficiency, bigotry, and deviance.
The
effects of the divinely revealed teachings of before had all but
disappeared. They had become corrupted with alterations and
substitutions to such an extent that they lost their relevance as
Allah’s Message to humanity. The adherents of these faiths engaged in
ideological conflicts with each other caused by the effects of human
interference with the original religious teachings. This often led to
violent wars between them. Those who remained on the uncorrupted faith
were extremely few. They found no place for themselves in the societal
framework in which they lived. Therefore, they preferred to be reclusive
and live a life of seclusion.
The
people who possessed the scripture had thrown the true teachings of
their religion behind their backs, inventing religious laws for
themselves in which Allah (Glory be to Him) had vested no authority.
They the East and another in the West. In the East there was the Persian
Empire, and in the West, the Roman were barely a footnote in the
history of world events. There existed two great powers on earth: one in
Empire.
Arabs during this Time
The
Arabs were living under no better conditions. They were families and
tribes comprising different attitudes and feelings; but they were all
similar in one respect: they were slaves of habits and impulses. They
used to take pride in invasion and plunder. Moreover, they were so low
in their moral affairs that a number of them used to bury their
daughters alive.
Their
hearts were enamored with the legacy of their forefathers. They would
slavishly follow in their ways and traditions of their forefathers, no
matter how misguided, twisted, or corrupt some of those traditions might
have been. This is why they worshipped idols. Each tribe had its own
patron idol. They had replaced the monotheism of Ibraheem with the
worship of idols, stars and demons, turning the Ka'bah, which was built
for the One and Only Creator, into a pantheon of idols. In addition,
tribal rivalries and blood feuds ran among them like the burning desert
sands of Arabia.
Along
with these major idols, there were countless minor ones, some of them
seasonal. Abu Raja’ al-`Utaridi recalled: “We used to worship stones.
When we saw a stone that was choicer than the one we had, we would
discard our stone and substitute it with that one. When we could not
find a stone, we would pile together a mound of dirt. Then we would
bring a sheep and milk it over the mound. Then, we would circumambulate
the mound.” [Sahih Al-Bukhari]
Though they claimed that their idols merely acted as intermediaries between them and Allah, these
false gods had taken complete possession of their hearts, their deeds,
their behavior, and every aspect of their lives. Their consciousness of
Allah was very weak.
Allah
says: “And they assign to Allah a share of the tilth and cattle that He
created. They say, according to their whims: ‘This is for Allah and
this is for Allah’s partners.’ But the share of their “partners” does
not reach Allah, while the share of Allah reaches their ‘partners’! Evil
is the way they judge!” [Qur’an.Surah An’am 6:136]
Even
what remained of the religion of Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him)
was not free from corruption and substitution. The pilgrimage had become
a season for boasting, fostering enmity, and competing with one
another. What remained of the pure beliefs of that religion had become
weak and obscure, having been distorted by superstitions and fables that
cut them off from their noble origins.
Nevertheless,
no matter how corrupt people become and no matter how far they stray
from guidance, as long as there remains a group of people on Earth who
forbid corruption and proclaim the truth openly, clearly, and without
hesitation, neither faltering nor fearing anyone, then success will be
theirs, one way or another. Success will continue to alternate between
truth and falsehood in the ongoing conflict between truth and unbelief.
Allah (Glory be to Him) says: “Such days we give to people in turns.” [Qur’an.Surah Imran 3:140]
The
people of Makkah used to practice usury on a large scale with very high
interest rates -- sometimes a hundred percent. When the debtors were
not able to repay -- and that was most often the case -- they were
enslaved or obliged to force their wives and daughters to commit certain
sins, in order to be able to collect enough money to repay the debt.
World during this time
Ignorance
was not confined to the Arabs alone. On the fringes of Arabia where the
desert gives way to hospitable lands, met the ever-changing borders of
'world arrogance', the two super powers of the age: the Persian and the
Roman Empires.
The
fire-worshipping Persians, with their strange concept of dualism were
further plagued by the still weirder Mazdakite doctrine (i.e. a
socio-religious movement that flared up in the Sasanian Kavad (488-531
CE) founded by Mazdak son of Bamdad), that advocated communal ownership
and even ruled that women were the common property of all men. Like Mani
a few centuries earlier, who had claimed a new religion by combining
the teachings of Jesus and Zoroaster, Mazdakite's movement was also a
reaction to the corruption of the traditional priestly class. Both
creeds died away after the execution of their proponents, who more or
less depended on royal patronage. On the other hand, the Sasanian
aristocracy aligned with the Zoroastrian clergy was steeped in
pleasures, burdening the oppressed masses with heavy taxes and
oppression.
At
the other end was the Byzantine world, which though claiming to profess
a divinely revealed religion, had in fact polluted the monotheist
message of Prophet Eesa (Jesus) (Peace be upon Him) with the sediments
of ancient Greek and Roman pagan thoughts, resulting in the birth of
Christianity. In 381 CE, the Greco-Roman Church council rejected the
doctrine of Arius of Alexandria, to which most of the eastern provinces
of the empire adhered, and in its place the council had coined the
belief that God and Jesus are of one substance and therefore
co-existent. Arius and his followers had held the belief in the
uniqueness and majesty of God, Who Alone, they said has existed since
eternity, while Jesus was created in time.
There
were colonies of Jews scattered across West Asia and North Africa, to
whom several Messengers had been sent by Almighty Allah (Glory be to
Him). However, even these divine favors had failed to reform them. The
laws sent to Prophet Moses had been distorted and tampered with.
Further
to the east lay the once flourishing cultures of China and India, which
were groping in darkness. Confucianism was spread the Chinese, robbing
their minds of any positive thinking. On the other hand, Hinduism had no
universal pretensions whatsoever, and was peculiar to the geographical
confines of India, or more properly Northern India and its Aryan
invaders. Conversion of foreigners was difficult because one had to be
born in a particular caste and it was the mystery of ‘Karma’that determined one's fate.
In
short, wars, bloodshed, slavery, oppression of women and the deprived
held sway everywhere, might ruled over right. The world was in dire
distress but no one seemed capable of delivering it from darkness. No
religion, ideology, creed or cult during those times, could offer any
hope to the agonies and frustrations of humankind.
None
of the religions in currency had any universal outlook or even
pretensions and were limited to insurmountable geographical and
psychological barriers, preaching discrimination and the narrow-minded
superiority of a particular race.
Need for Prophet
In
short, wars, bloodshed, slavery, oppression of women and the deprived
held sway everywhere, might ruled over right. The world was in dire
distress but no one seemed capable of delivering it from darkness. No
religion, ideology, creed or cult during those times, could offer any
hope to the agonies and frustrations of humankind.
None
of the religions in currency had any universal outlook or even
pretensions and were limited to insurmountable geographical and
psychological barriers, preaching discrimination and the narrow-minded
superiority of a particular race.
Thus,
it was in such a chaotic state of depression that Almighty Allah (Glory
be to Him) sent His last great Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honour Him
and grant Him peace), with the universal Message of Islam to save
humankind from disbelief, oppression, corruption, ignorance and moral
decadence that was dragging humanity towards self-annihilation.
Differences
and disputes arose among the Children of Israel. They introduced
alterations and changes in their beliefs and laws. Thus truth was
extinguished and falsehood prevailed, oppression and evil became
widespread, and people needed a religion that would establish truth,
destroy evil and guide people to the straight path, therefore Allah
(Glory be to Him) sent Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) as Allah said (interpretation of the meaning):
“And
We have not sent down the Book (the Qur’an) to you (O Muhammad, except
that you may explain clearly unto them those things in which they
differ, and (as) a guidance and a mercy for a folk who believe” [Qur’an.Surah Nahl 16:64]
Lineage of Prophet Muhammad to Ibrahim (Peace be upon them)
With
respect to the lineage of Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and
grant Him peace), there are three versions: The first was authenticated
by biographers and genealogists and states that Muhammad’s genealogy has
been traced to ‘Adnan. The second is subject to controversies and
doubt, and traces his lineage beyond ‘Adnan back to Prophet Ibrahim. The
third version, with some parts definitely incorrect, traces his lineage
beyond Prophet Ibrahim back to Prophet Adam (peace be upon them).
The
first part: Muhammad bin ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abdul-Muttalib (who was called
Shaiba) bin Hashim, (named ‘Amr) bin ‘Abd Munaf (called Al-Mugheera) bin
Qusai (also called Zaid) bin Kilab bin Murra bin Ka‘b bin Lo’i bin
Ghalib bin Fahr (who was called Quraish and whose tribe was called after
him) bin Malik bin An-Nadr (so called Qais) bin Kinana bin Khuzaiman
bin Mudrikah (who was called ‘Amir) bin Elias bin Mudar bin Nizar bin
Ma‘ad bin ‘Adnan. [Ibn Hisham 1/1,2; Talqeeh Fuhoom Ahl Al-Athar, Rahmat-ul-lil'alameen 2/11-14,52]
Prophet
Ibrahim (peace be upon Him) is widely regarded as the Patriarch of
monotheism and the common father of the Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Through his second son, Isaac, came all Israelite prophets including
such towering figures as Yakub(Jacob), Yousuf(Joseph), Musa(Moses),
Dawud(David), Suleman(Solomon) and Eesa(Jesus), (May peace and blessing
be upon them all). The advent of these great prophets was in partial
fulfillment of Allah’s promises to bless the nations of earth through
the descendents of Prophet Ibrahim(Peace be upon Him), Qur’an.Surah Jumu’ah 62:2.
Such fulfillment is wholeheartedly accepted by Muslims whose faith
considers the belief in and respect of all prophets an article of
faith.
After
Jesus, the last Israelite messenger and prophet, it was time that
Allah’s promise to bless Prophet Ismael (Peace be upon Him) and his
descendants be fulfilled, Qur’an.Surah Baqrah 2:129.
Less than 600 years after Jesus, came the last messenger of Allah,
Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and grant Him peace), from the
progeny of Prophet Ibrahim (Peace be upon Him) through Prophet Ishmael
(Peace be upon Him). Prophet Muhammad (May Allah honour Him and grant
Him peace) was a descendant of Prophet Ismail (Peace be upon Him)
through the lineage of his second son Kedar. Allah’s blessing of both of
the main branches of Ibrahim’s family tree was now fulfilled.
No comments:
Post a Comment