Prophet Muhammad by P.Zainul Abideen - HTML preview

he gladly named him after his noble ancestor, Ibrahim

(Abraham). But his happiness did not last longer because his only

son, Ibrahim died when he was just sixteen months old.

We went with God’s Apostle (p.b.u.h) to the blacksmith Abu Saif,

and he was the husband of the wet-nurse of Ibrahim (the son of

the Prophet). God’s Apostle took Ibrahim and kissed him and

smelled him and later we entered Abu Saif’s house and at that

time Ibrahim was in his last breaths and the eyes of God’s

Apostle (p.b.u.h) started shedding tears. ‘Abdur Rahman bin ‘Auf

said, 'O God’s Apostle, even you are weeping!' He said, 'O Ibn

‘Auf, this is mercy.' Then he wept more and said, 'The eyes are

shedding tears and the heart is grieved, and we wil not say

except what pleases our Lord, O Ibrahim! Indeed we are grieved

by your separation.'

Narrated by Anas bin Malik (May God be pleased with his

deeds)

Buhari 2.390

110

We see how deep he was moved by the love for his son. On the

day of his son’s death in Madinah there was solar eclipse. The

people of those days were not knowledgeable enough to

understand the reason for the occurrence of solar or lunar

eclipse. They had been wrongly believing out of gross superstition

that eclipse occurred to announce the death of some great

person on earth.

Even though they might not know exactly who died, yet they

guessed the eclipse had occured to announce the death of the

son of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

The Prophet heard this. He could have simply ignored it! This

would only improve his image among the people making the

ignorant people wonder ‘what great power this Man Supreme

must be having. Then they would imagine that there is so much

happening in the heaven just for the death of his beloved little

son.’ And they would believe it too. His mood was not in a state

to condemn the people for what he heard.

Even the people who are used to condemning anyone at the

first occurrence of any fault would ignore such fault of others

when they are in deep sorrow and in bereavement. The loss may

appear greater than their act of condemning others. They might

think that they are not in a proper mind to judge a thing however

serious it may be.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) was also in a state of great

loss.

But the people’s slipping in to the darkness of ignorance

appeared to be a greater loss than the loss of his beloved son.

111

He gathers all the people at once and eradicates the

ignorance.

On the day of Ibrahim’s death, the sun eclipsed and the people

said that the eclipse was due to the death of Ibrahim (the son of

the Prophet). God’s Apostle said, 'The sun and the moon are two

signs amongst the Signs of God. They do not eclipse because of

someone’s death or life. So when you see them, invoke God and

pray til the eclipse is clear.'

Narrated by Al Mughira bin Shuba (May God be pleased with his

deeds)

Buhari 2.168

He explained that eclipse does not occur for announcing the

death or the birth of anybody. Hence the eclipse had nothing to

do with death of his beloved son.

We witness these days in some parts of the world; when a

political figure visits a place and there is rain the people of the

locality felicitate him or her on the stage saying that there was

good rain because of his or her presence at their place. They

praise the political leader right on the face. The faces of the

praised ones also glitter. Flattering!

This is the quality that the Prophet (pbhu) ever detested most.

112

Both rationalists and agnostics seem to enjoy this sort of

felicitations without any reservation!. If these words are so sweet

to these politicians who claim themselves to be total y against

any divinity on man then just imagine the elation a spiritual

leader would be experiencing with these sort of felicitations.

But Prophet, the Man Supreme, who is both a political head and

a unique spiritual leader, was disgusted at such follies.

His advice revealed that his son’s death would be in no way the

reason for such occurrences as an eclipse, solar or lunar.

Keeping aside al his sorrows for the time being the Prophet gives

first preference to the eradication of superstition flaring up

suddenly among his people. Has anyone ever come across such

a wonderful man in the human history? No matter how hard you

search for a man like the Prophet, we only sight the Prophet

(peace be upon him) in the realm of history who never deceived

anybody, any time, even to an atom’s weight. He only mended

people although he had al the opportunities to deceive them

easily. He never failed to warn his close associates who used to

praise the Prophet (peace be upon him) at times, out of love or

out of sheer ignorance. He always kept teaching them that they

should never honour him more than a man.

Sometimes, a man of our confidence would predict it would rain

today. Although it does not happen very often, it does rain at

times as he predicted exactly. We tell him, ' it has rained as you

predicted.' We don’t mean that any thing would happen

exactly as he says. We tell him like this despite the fact that it is

just a coincidence that it rained exactly as he said.

113

Anything the Prophet predicts on the basis of the revelation

would take place accordingly. But when he predicts anything in

the capacity of a man, it does not occur always as he says and

at times the guess is seen in reality. Then his disciples used to

remark, ' This is according to the Wil of God and according to

your thought.'

We make compliments when a man of our liking predicts some

thing and sometime it takes place exactly as he said in a guess.

Similarly the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him)

used to pass these sort of remarks. The compliments made by the

companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) sounded more

divine and the meaning was much closer to the act of

remembrance of God.

114

STRICT MONOTHEISM

The Companions pronounced God first and the Prophet (peace

be upon him) later. As they were pretty sure that the Prophet

Muhammad (peace be upon him) was not divine in any way,

the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not bother to prevent

them from their using these phrases to compliment him.

A priest came to the Prophet and said 'Oh Prophet! If you don’t

associate paral el (to God) you wil be the best society in the

world.' The Prophet said, 'Glory to God.' (The Prophet used to say

like this when he wants to express his astonishment) he inquired

what he meant by this. The Priest said, 'When you want to

promise something you promise us by Kaaba. This is what I mean.

The Prophet was silent for a while. He addressed the Muslims, 'if

and when you have to promise you must say By the Lord of the

Kaaba.' The priest again said, 'Oh! Prophet, If you don’t even in

your imagination associate any thing equal to God then you are

the best community.' He said in wonder, 'Glory be to God. What

is that we are associating?' The priest said, 'Your people are

saying, God thought and you thought.' The Prophet was silent

and said to Muslims, 'The priest has commented. If any of you

(Muslims) say it is according to God’s Wil , you should give a

pause and say then you thought.'

Ahmed

115

Just because they said like that, it does not mean that they

equated Muhammad (peace be upon him) to God. However,

Christian priest points out that this phrase suggests as though the

disciples associate paral el to God. Accepting the suggestion

from the non-Muslim clergy the Prophet (peace be upon him)

instructs his companions to say: It is according to God’s Wil . Then

you thought of it.

Had the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) said

with any evil intention he would have barred them immediately

from pronouncing such phrase.

Yet he accepts the suggestion from the priest, as his argument

seemed fair enough. He could have argued with priest, saying

they never meant to equate him to God. He could have

established that he was divine because he was a spiritual leader.

This is how the spiritual leaders endeavour to establish themselves

as though they are something above human being, at the

slightest chance. The Prophet advised that this kind of phrase

should never be applied in their daily discourse. After this he

severely condemned it if anyone repeated the same or similar

phrase even by force of habit.

After the amendments the Prophet encouraged his companions

to use the phrase ‘This is what God thought. Later you thought of

it’ let them use the phrase to address any one as they pleased.

He never wanted to reserve it for himself.

(See: Ahmed and Abu Dawood)

It is witnessed round the world that prime honour is paid to

people supposed to be spiritual leaders.

116

Even a ruler of a sovereign state stands in attention before his

favourite spiritual leader. The highest authorities of a nation fal

prostrated before a spiritual head. This has been the case ever

since man began to live as a society.

The spiritual leaders are honoured in such ridiculous manner that

they bow down, prostrate to these men, wash the spiritual

leaders’ feet with water or other palatable fluids and drink the

same with utmost devotion.

We may forgive the political leaders who allow them to be

honoured like this. But we should never forgive the spiritual

leaders facilitating these kind of ridiculous acts because these

leaders are supposed to be much more matured and

enlightened to guide the people away from gross superstition

and the darkness of ignorance and steer them into the right

mode of conduct.

Spiritual leaders should be much humbler than al others, not

expecting special honours and respect.

A sensible man must think that any man who demands undue

respect from others lack maturity.

But most people don’t possess or apply this basic knowledge.

Even the spiritual heads lack this. Prophet Muhammad (peace

be upon him) is one spiritual head (peace be upon him) in the

world who adhered to this principle of conduct very strictly.

The Prophet (peace be upon him), a Statesman never al owed

anyone to prostrate before him in order to honour him nor did he

ever fail to stop anyone trying to prostrate and adore him.

117

I went to al-Hirah and saw them (the people) prostrating

themselves before a satrap of theirs, so I said: The Apostle of God

(peace be upon him) has most right to have prostration made

before him. When I came to the Prophet (peace be upon him), I

said: I went to al-Hirah and saw them prostrating themselves

before a satrap of theirs, but you have most right, Apostle of

God, to have (people) prostrating themselves before you. He

said: Tel me, if you were to pass my grave, would you prostrate

yourself before it? I said: No. He then said: Do not do so. If I were

to command anyone to make prostration before another I

would command women to prostrate themselves before their

husbands, because of the special right over them given to

husbands by God

Bais bin Zadh (May God be pleased with his deeds)

Abu Dawood 2135

The Prophet (peace be upon him) quotes the general rule that

no man should prostrate to any other man, and no man should

allow this on him. He says that only God is worthy of prostration

and the prostrating ones and the prostrated ones in this world

are just the same mortals.

Those days women folks used to fal prostrated upon their

husband’s feet, which is in practice even now in some ignorant

quarters of this planet. The Prophet (peace be upon him) says,

'when I don’t al ow even this how can I al ow any one to adore

me by prostration.'

118

Since the dawn of human civilisation there have been many

reformers who condemned and struggled against those who in

the name of spiritual leadership were cheating the people with

false sacraments, rituals and ceremonies. They even succeeded

in stripping out the false masquerade of the spiritual leaders. But

it is disgusting to see when similar rituals and ceremonies are

performed for the reformers themselves by their followers, these

selfish impostors simply accept them all with a smile.

Instead of stopping the erection of statues under any banner,

the reformers enjoy the erection of statue for them by the

ignorant people. We also come across reformers who have left

with the insistence on erection of statues for them posthumously.

These people approve the same acts shamelessly, which were

once vehemently opposed by them. Eventually they lose their

credibility among their own followers.

But Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the only person

who, as a spiritual leader, strictly abolished erection of statues

forever.

When people asked for his permission to prostrate he was afraid

that these people might worship his grave after his death. He

prevented it too. While he was alive he left the strict warning not

to transform his grave into a place of worship

God’s Apostle in his fatal il ness said, 'God cursed the Jews and

the Christians, for they built the places of worship at the graves of

their prophets.' And if that had not been the case, then the

Prophet’s grave would have been made prominent before the

people.

Narrated by Aisha (May God be pleased with his deeds)

Buhari 2.472

119

Aisha said, 'The Prophet in his fatal il ness said, ‘God cursed the

Jews and the Christians because they took the graves of their

Prophets as places for praying.’ ' ‘Aisha added, 'Had it not been

for that, the grave of the Prophet (p.b.u.h) would have been

made prominent but I am afraid it might be taken (as a) place

for praying.'

Narrated by Urwa (May God be pleased with his deeds)

Buhari 2.414

No day of remembrance has been observed before his grave for

fourteen centuries. Nobody prostrates or worships or adores at his

grave. This clear admonition makes him a shining star worthy of

whole-hearted acceptance as the leader by the entire human

race.

120

SELF-RESPECT

Besides his insistence that man should never lose his self-respect,

the Prophet (peace be upon him) stressed that no one should

sacrifice his self-respect even for the Prophet’s sake.

Some people preach that there is no power attached to any

statue. The same people lose their self-respect by erecting

statues for their leaders. They even go to the extent of

announcing publicly that they worship the graves of their

leaders.

Even after knowing that dead persons in the grave do not sense

anything, some people sprinkle flowers and lay wreaths on their

graves. They do it even after knowing very well that these acts

are irrational and superstitious.

The rational thinking has turned into utter superstition within a

time span of fifty years of this current century. But it has never

happened like this with the society of the Prophet.

 The society that loves the Prophet (peace be upon him)

more than their lives has never erected any statue for

him.

 At his grave no worship nor adoring is performed

 No day of remembrance is celebrated.

 Neither flowers are sprinkled nor wreaths are laid on his

grave.

121

 There is no damage to anybody’s self–respect even to an

atom’s weight on account of him.

 Leave alone prostrating to him, he never accepted any

symbol of respect, even to a lesser degree.

People stand up as a mark of respect to elders, teachers,

leaders, owners, rulers and high officials. This is a common scene

everywhere.

People having the upper hand do enjoy such gestures. We don’t

see any leader think, ‘After all anyone that stands up before me

is also a man like me! Wil it not damage his self-respect if he gets

up for me to pay respect?’

The scene is very common on public stages and dais. The dais is

fil ed with lieutenants waiting for the chief guest who himself

advocates self-respect. As soon as he arrives at the dais these

lieutenants stand up to honour their leader.

But no such leader seems to have addressed his lieutenants. 'Hi. I

am also a man just like you. Isn’t it an insult. Doesn’t it damage

your self-respect to raise up for me?

Politicians don’t say this. Self-esteemed leaders don’t say this.

Spiritual leaders too never care to say like this.

But Prophet, the Man Supreme, orders that no man should stand

up for the sake of paying respect to any other man.

122

AbuMijlaz said: Mu’awiyah went out to Ibn az-Zubayr and Ibn

Amir. Ibn Amir got up and Ibn az-Zubayr remained sitting.

Mu’awiyah said to Ibn Amir: Sit down, for I heard the Apostle of

God (peace be upon him) say: Let him who likes people to stand

up before him prepare his place in Hell.

Narrated by Mu’awiyah (May God be pleased with his deeds)

Thirmizhi 5210

People should not stand up even for the king. And no Muslim

should expect others to stand up to pay respect to him. This is the

lesson the great teacher Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon

him) taught the people.

He preached others. Did he expect that people should stand up

and respect him alone because he was a spiritual head? No, the

Prophet (peace be upon him) is dearer than our life and nobody

on earth has been dearer to us than him and yet we don’t get

up to respect him. He hates it very much. Anas who served the

Prophet (peace be upon him) for ten long years reports this:

No mortal has been so much loved as the Prophet Muhammad

(peace be upon him) is loved by people. Nevertheless he had

ordered that no body in an assembly should get up from his seat

to pay respect. He did not want even the average gesture as a

mark of respect that is exchanged among men because these

gestures served as mark of respect turns to be the powerful tool

to render man into slavery again. The Prophet was very careful

not to damage other’s self-respect.

123

The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) was il and we said

prayer behind him and he was sitting. And Abu Bakr (May God

be pleased with his deeds) was making audible to the people his

takbir. As he paid his attention towards us he saw us standing

and (directed us to sit down) with a gesture. So we said our

prayer with him in a sitting posture. After uttering salutation he

said: You were at this time about to do an act like that of the

Persians and the Romans. They stand before their kings while they

sit, so don’t do that; follow your Imams. If they say prayer

standing, you should also do so, and if they say prayer sitting, you

should also say prayer sitting.

Narrated by Jabir ibn Abdul ah (May God be pleased with his

deeds)

Muslim 824

When the Prophet (peace be upon him) sat and prayed, the

people also sat to pray. We understand this from a hadidh.

When one is not able to stand and pray due to physical

problems he is al owed to sit and pray. The Prophet sat and led

the prayer only on this basis. But when any of the followers did

not have any physical difficulty he stood up and led the prayer.

People stand behind prayer leader not to respect him but it is

one of the manners of prayer. Then there was no reason to be

strict about standing behind him.

124

Nevertheless, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) leads the

prayer sitting, the people follow him standing in prayer, because

none of them had any physical difficulty in standing before the

Prophet. It looks as though the people were made to stand

before the Prophet while he was sitting, in order to behave in a

manner to respect a king. It is not true. The Prophet does not

want such an arrogant manner for his people. So he orders them

to sit like he does, to pray. It is chil ing to see the greatness and

purity of heart in this man who did not want even an

appearance which shows as though the people are standing

while he is sitting, to honour him. He hated even the

resemblance of any act of slavery.

This is the Man Supreme, worthy of following. He is so honest that

any one can blindly follow him without a tinge of doubt of being

misled by any chance. One can be sure of this man who is

trustworthy and who would not use anybody for his even trivial

selfish reason.

Here is an incident to prove this where the Muslims should

understand properly.

One may get up to welcome someone. One may stand up to

show love to someone. But no one should stand up to pay

respect to anyone. When his children visited him the Prophet

(peace be upon him) used to rush to the door to receive them.

What do we mean by reception? When someone visits us we