|
What is Islam, asked a stranger. To obey Allah and to
love His Creation, replied the Prophet.
When another person asked him why he had been sent as
Prophet, he answered: To perfect human conduct.
Some Orientalists have painted negative image of Islam
in the past. The fear of the expanding Muslim Empire had
haunted the west and it prevented the orientalists from
being objective about the Muslim faith. They did not
refrain from discrediting Islam as a blasphemous faith,
and its Prophet as a pretender. After the tragic
incident of 9/11, the western media has found further
excuse to portray Islam as a violent and fanatical
faith.
The information age has turned world into a global
village. Quite naturally, the internet and other
technology is expected to bring the people of the world
closer together. However, the scourge of extremism, the
terrorist attacks, rise of the neo-cons in America and
their aggressive and hostile ideology, aided and abetted
by the Rightist Christians and the Evangelist church and
the anti-Islamic media in the west have served only to
polarize the people of faith.
The only way to restore peace in these turbulent times
is to provide just and equitable solution to the
political issues of Palestine, Kashmir and Iraq (which
have provided breeding ground for the extremism
phenomenon). Several Muslim and non-Muslim organizations
in the west have launched movements to promote and
encourage inter-faith dialog and understanding, which
must be supported. Caricaturing all Muslims as
terrorists must stop and stereotyping of Islam must give
way to a better understanding about the faith as well as
its adherents.
Lately there is an upsurge of books on Islam and
translations of Quran in English and Spanish are
available in any good Book Store. Yet surprisingly there
are not any significant biographies of the Prophet
available to the general reader. In order to understand
Islam, a person must first try to understand the
spiritual aspect of the Prophet's life.
Who was Muhammad ? Quran gives us a very clear
description of his life before he had received his
prophetic vision at age 40.
" Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter ?
Did He not find you unable to see and guide you ?
Did He not find you needy and suffice you ?
(al-Zhuha 93:6-8)
Born an orphan (his father Abdullah bin Abd al- Muttalib
bin Hashim had died a few moths before his birth), in
Makkah, he was only 6 years, when his mother, Aminah
also passed away. He grand father, Abd-al-Muttalib took
charge of him; he too passed away after two years. His
most beloved uncle, Abu Talib now took him in his
guardianship. He loved him more than his own children.
He was only 10 when he accompanied his uncle, Abu Talib
on a business trip to Syria. It was during this journey
when a Christian Monk, Bahirah, looking at the young
boy's face, exclaimed that he discerned signs of his
future greatness. He cautioned Abu Talib to be more
careful about him because he was to receive a Divine
Call.
The young Muhammad (s) earned good name in Mecca. He was
called al-Amin due to his integrity and great trust he
always inspired in others. At 25, he accepted a proposal
to marry Khadijah, a virtuous and righteous
business-woman who had engaged him to watch her business
interests in travels to Syria where he accompanied her
trading caravans to sell things to the local traders.
Impressed by the accounts of his honest and square
dealings and an excellent conduct during the long
travels, Khadija offered to seek his companionship for
life. The uncle, Abu Talib recited the nuptial sermon.
Khadija remained his only wife until her death after 25
years of married life. She left behind the only
daughter, Fatima (a), the apple of her father's eye. He
loved her so much that every time she would enter the
room, he used to stand up as a mark of respect, some
thing unheard of in Mecca, a male-dominated society with
little or no respect for women. She was wedded to Ali,
the valiant son of Prophet's loving uncle, Abu Talib. As
destiny would have it, the progeny of the Prophet, known
as Sayyids were to spring from this noble union.
The grief and sorrow of Muhammad was compounded by the
fact that just three days before Khadija's death, his
uncle who had been his great support along with his
wife, had also died. The Prophet used to call that year,
Am al Huzn, the year of grief because of the loss of his
two great comforters and helpers.
" Read in the the name of thy Lord who creates--Creates
man from a clot, Read and thy Lord is Most Generous, Who
taught by the Pen, Taught man that he knew not "--
it was ten years before the sad demise of Khadija and
Abu Talib that Muhammad (s) had been revealed this most
splendid message from God through archangel Gabriel
during one of his solitary meditations in a cave on the
Mount Hira in the precincts of Mecca. He had just turned
40. He had been asked to admonish the pagans of Mecca,
the idol worshippers as well as his clan, the
Ishmaelites, who had drifted from the Abrahamic faith,
making it subservient to the rituals and superstitions.
They believed in Il-ah, one God but their belief was
shallow. Their practical life belied their claim. A
hodge-podge and plethora of rituals and sinister
superstitions, essentially stemming from their
convoluted belief that God had delegated the control and
administration of the universe to others in whom he had
vested all powers, such as healing the sick, granting
children and removing famine and epidemic. This was the
central idea of their faith, like the decadent societies
of the yore.
They worshipped ordinary objects of stone and wood as
holy. They would prostrate before them, and offer meals
and sweets and sacrifices to them. There were also among
them who compounded their jahiliyya (ignorance) by
associating the evil and good with the stars and that
their destiny and their fortune was controlled by the
movements of the star. This was no small act for a man
coming from such precarious circumstances as him that
the Prophet Muhammad (s), may Allah's blessings be on
him and his family, stripped not Mecca alone but the
whole Arabia from such debasing idolatry and decrepit
rituals immersed in superstition and ignorance, in just
23 years before he passed away at age 63 in Madinah.
The Prophet of Islam had to face great difficulties
after the passing away of Khadija and Abu Talib. The
Makkans would chase him, yelling and ridiculing all the
time. But it only strengthened the belief and conviction
of the Prophet even more and he continued his efforts
unabated to help reform the immoral, corrupt and
iniquitous society around him. His anguished and
sorrowful soul turned to another place, Taif hoping
people there would listen to him. But the Taifians
pelted stones at him and forced him, while injured and
bleeding, to leave the town.
In a state of utter helplessness, the Prophet turned to
His Creator. As if to comfort His messenger in this
moment of deep sorrow, an amazing thing happened. God
called him as His own guest in the Celestial regions of
the Heavens. This event is called Mera'j
Mera'j, the ascension of the Prophet Muhammad to the
Celestial regions, the union of the Lover with the
Beloved, is one of the most significant events of the
last prophet's life. It has fascinated the minds and
hearts of the believers, including mystics and poets,
over the last fourteen hundred years. Notwithstanding a
small minority of believers who look at the Meraj of the
Prophet as a spiritual, not physical experience, most
Muslims--all Shias and majority of Sunnis--believe it
was Prophet's actual and physical experience. Mera' j
also has a special meaning and significance in the life
of a Sufi. To him it is a real experience, the highest '
Maqam ' a person could achieve in ' Salook ', a final
meeting with the ' Mahbub ' , the Beloved; a
Lover-Beloved union indeed ! Rumi, like other
contemporary scholars believed in the actual physical
transportation of the Prophet to the ' Sidratul
Munta'h'aa ', the Highest Point.
" Glory be to Him who carried His servant by night from
the sacred mosque (of Mecca) to the Distant Mosque,
whose surroundings
We have blessed, so that We show him some of our Signs.
He alone hears all and observes all. " ( Quran 17:1 )
The venerable poet-philosopher Iqbal , also a true '
Arif ' of Quran and a great admorer of Rumi , further
confirms the generally held belief of most Muslims as
well as Rumi, in this verse:
Mila hey nukta yehy Meraj-e Mustafa se mujhey
Keh alam-e bashriyat ki zad mein hai gardo'n
( The ascention of Mustafa has revealed to me
that the heavens are within man's reach )
In another of his poems, Iqbal says,
sitaron se a'age jahan aur bhi nein
abhi ishq ke imtehan aur bhi hain
( there are other universes beyond the Stars
there are other trials of ishq (Love) ahead ! )
The traditions reveal that the Prophet narrated the
accounts of his supernatural travel through the space
onto the celestial regions unknown to man, as his
personal experience, not as a vision or dream. This is
quite evident from the shocking reaction of the Makkans,
including some of his companions who, according to the
Egyptian biographer of the Prophet, Mohammad Husain
Haykal, turned apostate on hearing accounts of the
Prophet's Celestial travel. Accustomed to the routine
and the ordinary, they were unable to fathom the
esoteric nature of the Divine grace. For a Sufi, it is
not difficult to comprehend the mira' j because he knows
that the norms are for the ordinary man. The
love-journey is the journey to the extra-ordinary.
Prophets are no ordinary men. They are breakers of
norm-- the norm of the ordinary. Prophet Muhammad was no
ordinary person. According to Quran , .he was the Seal
of the Prophethood. Being the Last Prophet, his
prophet-hood was not confined to a certain people,
certain place or certain time. God called him the '
Rahmatul lil A'alimeen ' ---- the Blessing for the
Universes; the jurisdiction of this
' Rahma ' extends to the galaxies, the farthest parts of
the universe. That explains Iqbal's
proverbial verse, " Sitaron se a'age jahan aur bhi hein
".
So no wonder, Muhammad was made to ascend into the space
with a lightning speed unknown to his contemporaries and
a continuing challenge for the future man. Indeed an
eternal Miracle of the Prophet of the Universe ( Rasulal
Thaqlain) ! A miracle that will never be equaled or
humbled. The Almighty made his servant (abd) ascend into
the Space, beyond the earthly hemisphere, farther than
the galactic clusters of the yet unknown stars, deep
into the Seventh Heaven, closest to the Ultimate Love (ishq-e
haqiqi), ' at a distance of two bows length or yet
nearer still '.
" Hence he (Muhammad) took an overviewing position while
he was in the highest horizon. Then he drew nearer, and
became pending. Thus was he at a distance of two
bows-length or yet nearer still. Then He revealed onto
His servant......"
The cosmic transcendency of the Prophet in timelessness
puts him in a unique position in the universe; it also
also points to the widening horizon of human knowledge
of the universe. His bodily ascension to an
infinitismaly distant destination (maqam) where " he was
in the uppermost horizon (ufqul a'ala 53:7)., yet his
return to his earthly home , all within a night ,
perhaps without any loss of time , points to
possibilities, so far unfulfilled, of transcending time.
" For you (God) subjected all that is in the heavens and
on the earth,
all from Him. Behold ! in that are are the Signs for
people who reflect. “
( Quran 45:13 )
I will like to conclude this humble tribute to the
Prophet (s) with a quote from the opening chapter of
Syed Ameer Ali's 'The Spirit of Islam', a book that I
recommend to all readers, particularly the Muslim Youth
growing up in the West:
" At the dawn of the seventh century of the Christian
era, in the streets of Mecca, might often be seen a
quiet thoughtful man , past the meridian of life, his
Arab mantle thrown across his shoulders, his tailasan
(scarf) drawn low over his face; sometimes gently
sauntering, sometimes hurrying along, heedless of the
passer-by, heedless of the gay scenes around him, deeply
absorbed in his own thoughts--yet withal never forgetful
to return the salutation of the lowliest, or to speak
kindly word to the children who loved to throng around
him. This is al-Amin, the Trustee. " He has so honorably
and industriously walked through life, that he has won
for himself from his compatriots the noble designation
of the true and trustee. But now, owing to his strange
preaching, his fellow-townsmen are beginning to look
suspiciously upon him as wild visionary; a crazed
revolutionist, desirous of leveling the old hallmarks of
society, of doing away with their ancient privileges, of
making them abandon their old creeds and customs."
|