In Praise of Muham­mad, the Mer­cy to All the Worlds

Twen­ty-six years ago I became a Mus­lim large­ly because I fell in love with a beau­ti­ful human being. ​“I was only sent to per­fect noble char­ac­ter,” said the man declared as a ​“mer­cy to all the worlds.”

As time passed, this love grew as my knowl­edge of him increased. I painful­ly watched his reli­gion hijacked by some for their own ends dis­tort­ing his mes­sage and for­get­ting that he was indeed a mer­cy to all the worlds. I am trou­bled by the media’s por­tray­al of him some­times in the worst of lights. How could the man I came to know and love to be so vil­i­fied and maligned by those who claim to rep­re­sent him and also by those who aim to be unbi­ased interpreters ?

Muham­mad, peace be upon him, was a shy, ret­i­cent man who lived among his peo­ple with such high moral char­ac­ter they called him al-Amîn — the Trustworthy.

The Prophet of Islam was born in the city of Mec­ca, Ara­bia, into a poor but noble branch of an aris­to­crat­ic clan known as Quraysh, a peo­ple who despised treach­ery, lies and stu­pid­i­ty, while hon­our­ing brav­ery in bat­tle, gen­eros­i­ty in par­ty­ing, and clev­er­ness in poetry.

Some fam­i­lies, were so ashamed of their baby girls, that they would bury them alive instead of suf­fer­ing the pos­si­ble indig­ni­ty of future dis­hon­our. The reli­gion of the Arabs at the time was a hodge-podge of super­sti­tion, div­ina­tion and idol­a­try. To them, man’s life end­ed with his death and his after­life was based on his mil­i­tary exploits might be immor­tal­ized by a poets tongue.

The Prophet Muham­mad, peace be upon him, was born into this world on April 9th, 570, Chris­t­ian era in the lunar month of Rabi’a al-Aww­al. His father, Abdal­lah died dur­ing his mother’s preg­nan­cy. And for the first four years, he was raised in the rel­a­tive puri­ty of the desert by a Bedouin woman named Hal­imah. After which he returned to his moth­er, Ami­nah. But in his sev­enth year, his moth­er died leav­ing him in the care of his grandfather.

At the age of twen­ty-five, he was employed as a com­mer­cial agent by Lady Khadi­jah, a suc­cess­ful wid­ow from his own clan. She soon rec­og­nized his hon­esty and good nature and pro­posed mar­riage. Although fif­teen years younger than she was, he accept­ed her pro­pos­al and fathered six of his sev­en chil­dren with her.

At the age of forty, it had become his cus­tom to escape the idol­a­try of Mec­can soci­ety by seek­ing soli­tude in a cave on the moun­tain known as ​“the Moun­tain of Light.” In the soli­tary con­fines of his small cave, a voice pierced his con­scious­ness declar­ing : ​“Recite!”

Alarmed and shiv­er­ing he fled to his wife, beg­ging her to wrap him in a cloak. He feared for his san­i­ty, con­cerned that a desert spir­it or poet­ic muse might be pur­su­ing him. More rev­e­la­tions soon fol­lowed and Muham­mad came to the under­stand­ing that he was not only a prophet in a long line of prophets but that he was the last of them who was sent with a uni­ver­sal message.

As the days passed his rev­e­la­tions increased and they were pow­er­ful­ly rhyth­mic punc­tu­at­ed with intox­i­cat­ing mes­sages that chal­lenged lis­ten­ers to reflect on every­day mir­a­cles such as the alter­na­tion of the night and day

These rev­e­la­tions revealed to Muham­mad, peace and bless­ings be upon him, came to be known as the Qur’an, the Mus­lim holy book. For thir­teen years he invit­ed his clan to wor­ship one God, sit with slaves in spir­i­tu­al sol­i­dar­i­ty, respect women as soul-full equals and the source of human mer­cy, care for the wid­ow, the orphan, the weak and the oppressed.

At first, peo­ple ridiculed his mes­sage and accused him of attempt­ing ​“to make the gods one.” His mes­sage threat­ened his people’s finan­cial con­trol of the mar­kets of Mec­ca where pil­grims from all over Ara­bia came to spend their wealth.

When his clan failed to stop his preach­ing they plot­ted to kill him in his sleep. But he was warned by the Angel Gabriel and told to flee in the cov­er of dark­ness to Mad­i­na with his beloved friend and life­long com­pan­ion Abu Bakr.

Set­ting out, the two sought refuge in a cave to escape the skilled track­ers of Mec­ca hot on their trail. The boun­ty hunters quick­ly came upon the cave, but a spider’s web had already cov­ered the entrance and a dove with her young rest­ed in a nest above it.

When the posse left and the two felt safe again, they con­tin­ued their jour­ney to the city of Yathrib. And as they entered it the young girls and chil­dren of Bani Naj­jar came out chant­i­ng lines of poet­ry which are still sung all over the world in remem­brance of this aus­pi­cious occasion.

The name Yathrib was changed to Med­i­na, the city of hope. It became a city found­ed on the broth­er­hood of virtue. The Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, enact­ed a treaty unit­ing the once war­ring groups. He secured the rights of the Jew­ish minor­i­ty by grant­i­ng them full cit­i­zen­ship and free­dom to prac­tice their reli­gion with­out constraint.

Days after his arrival in Med­i­na he began the con­struc­tion of a mosque, a sanc­tu­ary of prayer and med­i­ta­tion, in the cen­tre of the city. And he had his com­pan­ions ; the Mus­lims cre­ate their own mar­ket­place in order to ensure eco­nom­ic strength.

The Mec­ca­ns, sens­ing that a ris­ing pow­er was now emerg­ing in the penin­su­la, plot­ted ways of sub­vert­ing the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, and his grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of believers.

And the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, who had prac­tised strict paci­fism in Mec­ca for thir­teen years and dis­liked the use of coer­cive force, was now giv­en per­mis­sion by God to defend against any attacks by his ene­mies. The Qur’an declared, ​“Fight­ing has been pre­scribed for you and you detest it, but per­haps you detest some­thing and in it is much good. And per­haps you love some­thing and in it is much harm, and God knows and you do not know.“Qur’an 2:216

The Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, said, ​“Nev­er desire to meet your ene­mies, rather ask God for peace and well-being ; but should you be forced to meet them, then act coura­geous­ly.“Sahih al-Bukhari

Mus­lims are not ashamed of their Prophet’s teach­ing about war. On the con­trary, for us, it is a great source of pride. He was coura­geous as a great lion against the strong and oppres­sive yet gen­tle as a shep­herd with the weak and the oppressed.

The true object of a war fought for God should always be peace. What the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, taught is that Mus­lims fight for a just cause only. In this world, there are only two choic­es : two sides, truth and jus­tice or false­hood and oppres­sion. You don’t have to be a Mus­lim to under­stand that.

After years of con­flict between mem­bers of his clan and his fol­low­ers, the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, had a rev­e­la­tion that he should vis­it the sacred mosque. In the eighth year after his migra­tion to Med­i­na the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, set out for Mec­ca but his adver­saries refused to allow him in. They sent out an arbi­tra­tor to strike an agree­ment that would bring the stand-off to an end. And on every point of this treaty the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, com­pro­mised his own posi­tion in pur­suit of peace.

On the jour­ney back to Med­i­na some of the com­pan­ions were deeply trou­bled by what had just tak­en place and dis­ap­point­ed that they were thwart­ed from vis­it­ing the sanc­tu­ary. When asked to explain, the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, replied, ​“Did I say it was going to be this year?”

And so the fol­low­ing year, in accor­dance with the treaty, the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, and his fol­low­ers per­formed a pil­grim­age com­plete­ly unmo­lest­ed. But soon his clan the Quraysh broke their end of the deal, mas­sacring anoth­er clan with an alliance to the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, attack­ing them even in the sacred precinct. Abu Sufyan, the head of the Prophet’s ene­mies, attempt­ed to restore the truce but it was too late. News of the mas­sacre enraged the believ­ers and the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, sum­moned all of the Mus­lims capa­ble of bear­ing arms to march on Mec­ca. When the near­ly ten thou­sand Mus­lims arrived on the out­skirts of the city, the Quraysh real­ized they did not stand a chance and peo­ple either fled or stayed in their homes.

And so it was, after years of per­se­cu­tion, the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, marched tri­umphant­ly into the city of his birth at the head of the largest army ever assem­bled in Ara­bi­an his­to­ry. With his head bowed in humil­i­ty he declared a gen­er­al amnesty and grant­ed war crim­i­nals refuge.

His over­whelm­ing mag­na­nim­i­ty of char­ac­ter led to a mass con­ver­sion among the cit­i­zens of Mec­ca. Even Abu Sufyan, his arch­en­e­my, embraced the reli­gion of the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him. In the months that fol­lowed, almost all of Ara­bia dis­patched rep­re­sen­ta­tives to swear alle­giance to this Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, and to enter in the faith of Islam. In a peri­od of twen­ty-three years Muham­mad, peace be upon him, had suc­ceed­ed in unit­ing a feud­ing peo­ple trapped in cycles of vio­lence into one peo­ple with a sense of des­tiny and a mis­sion that would trans­form the world.

He ele­vat­ed the low, and he low­ered the ele­vat­ed that they might meet in that mid­dle place known as broth­er­hood. He infused in them a love of learn­ing unleash­ing a cre­ative pow­er that would lead to some of the most extra­or­di­nary sci­en­tif­ic break­throughs in human history.

He died on the same day he was born, in the same house he had lived in for ten years in Med­i­na, on a small bed made of leather stuffed with palm fibres, in the arms of his beloved wife Aishah. His dying words were, ​“Treat your women well, and do not oppress your ser­vants, the prayer, the prayer, don’t be neglect­ful of the prayer. O God, my high­est com­pan­ion, O high­est companion.”

But the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, was more than just a great his­tor­i­cal per­son, he was a father and friend, a hus­band, a com­pan­ion and above all, he was a human being. The Prophet’s unique phys­i­cal appear­ance, his high char­ac­ter and will­ing­ness to sac­ri­fice for oth­ers, are often at the essence of any descrip­tion of him. He was once described by a con­tem­po­rary in the fol­low­ing words :

“The Mes­sen­ger of God was impos­ing and majes­tic. His face was lumi­nous like a full moon. He was taller than medi­um but not exces­sive in height. He had wavy hair, which he part­ed and it nev­er went beyond his shoul­ders. He was light-skinned with a high brow. He had full eye­brows and a small space between them. He had a fine, aquiline nose. His beard was full, his eyes black. His physique was sup­ple and lithe, with a full chest and broad shoul­ders. When he walked, he was deter­mined and his pace was as if he was walk­ing downhill.

When he spoke he was always brief and reflec­tive. He spoke when he saw ben­e­fit and spent long peri­ods in silent con­tem­pla­tion. His speech was com­pre­hen­sive being nei­ther wordy nor lacon­ic. He had a mild tem­pera­ment and was nev­er harsh nor cru­el, coarse nor rude. He expressed grat­i­tude for every­thing giv­en to him no mat­ter how insignif­i­cant. When he spoke, his com­pan­ions low­ered their heads as if birds were perched upon them. When he was silent, they felt free to speak. He nev­er crit­i­cized food or praised it exces­sive­ly. He nev­er swore, nor did he find fault in peo­ple. He did not flat­ter peo­ple but praised them when appropriate.

Peo­ple entered his gath­er­ings as seek­ers and left enlight­ened. He would ask about his com­pan­ions when they were absent often mak­ing inquiries about people’s needs. He nev­er stood nor sat with­out men­tion­ing the name of God. He nev­er reserved a spe­cial place for him­self in a gath­er­ing and sat where the space pro­vid­ed. He gave each of those who sat with him such full atten­tion that every­one felt that he was the most impor­tant per­son in that gath­er­ing. Voic­es were nev­er raised in his pres­ence. The aged were respect­ed for their age and the young were shown com­pas­sion for their youth.”

The Qur’an reminds Mus­lims that when they are slan­dered by those who reject them they should bear it patient­ly and be for­giv­ing. I yearn for a deep­er under­stand­ing of this man, his gen­tle­ness towards chil­dren, his love of ani­mals, his con­cern for the weak and oppressed, his sense of jus­tice tem­pered always with mercy.

I per­son­al­ly love his humour and his sense of tom­fool­ery. He said once, ​“I joke but always tell the truth.” His wife Aishah said, ​“he was always mak­ing us laugh in the house.” One of his names is ad-dah­hak — the smil­ing one. His humour and cheer­ful­ness even in the face of the most dif­fi­cult of times are so need­ed today in our trou­bled world. I imag­ine him telling those of us who don’t laugh enough to light­en up, to show more grat­i­tude even in what appears to be dif­fi­cul­ties. And as for those who laugh too much and do so inap­pro­pri­ate­ly, I imag­ine that he would ask that they reflect deep­er on the con­di­tion of human­i­ty and nur­ture com­pas­sion in their hearts.

“Those who sin while laugh­ing enter hell cry­ing,” he once said.

Once an old woman asked him if she would enter par­adise and he replied, ​“Old peo­ple don’t go to heav­en!” The woman was crest­fall­en with the answer he had pro­vid­ed, to which he added with a smile, ​“You shall enter par­adise in the prime of your youth.”

The Arabs believed dates made eye infec­tions worse. His com­pan­ion Suhayb was eat­ing dates one day while his left eye was infect­ed. The Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, said, ​“Suhayb do you eat dates and your eye is infect­ed?” To which Suhayb said, ​“I am eat­ing with my right eye only O Mes­sen­ger of God.” To which the Prophet, peace be and bless­ings be upon him, laughed heartily.

And once a gruff desert Bedouin came into the mosque and prayed out loud say­ing, ​“O God for­give me and Muham­mad and don’t for­give any­one else.” Hear­ing this the Prophet, peace and bless­ings be upon him, laughed and said to him, ​“You are lim­it­ing the vast mer­cy of God.”

I feel so incred­i­bly grate­ful and blessed to have come to know him and to learn from him. A day of my life has not gone by that I haven’t felt indebt­ed to him for the wis­dom he has giv­en me in mak­ing sense of my life and my world.

Every day my love for Muham­mad, peace and bless­ings be upon him, increas­es. Like the vast major­i­ty of my fel­low believ­ers across the world and through times he is, indeed, the Beloved — the Praised One.

To the solace of his name, sim­ply say­ing Muham­mad, has an incred­i­bly sooth­ing effect on me.