What would Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) Do Today? (Part II)
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg , CA
“All God’s creatures are His family; and he is the most beloved of God who doeth most good to God’s creatures.” - Prophet Muhammad (s)
Leslie explains it (Why the Prophet didn’t nominate his successor?) convincingly and rationally: “… Muhammad knew that the moment he formally appointed a successor, he would be introducing divisiveness into the newly united community of Islam - or, rather, feeding into the divisiveness that already existed. He would set in motion the web of resentments and jealousies that had accumulated as people jockeyed for influence and position, as they will around any man of charisma, let alone a prophet. However hard he may have tried to smooth them over, disagreements that had merely simmered beneath the surface would become all too visible. Factions would form, arguments develop, his whole life’s work teeter on the edge of collapse.”
Divisiveness is what characterizes Muslims these days. They fight over everything, an act the Prophet detested most. The spate of killings in Pakistan mirrors that if people like Suleman Taseer get killed for just saying a word about a man-made law, then no one is safe anywhere. The killer/s forgot that just a few days earlier Suleman Taseer had stated in front of a TV camera, “Life and death are in the hands of Allah. I am a Muslim and I wear Ayatul Kursi amulet around my neck”. And everybody saw that he kissed the text when he said so. So he was not blaspheming against the Prophet, he was talking just against a man-made law which needed to be re-looked over. The accused Asia Bibi who is alleged to have blasphemed against the Prophet keeps saying that she had been trapped. She had a row with a co-working woman. Working in the fields the row developed over drinking water. But who cares in Pakistan? Could the Prophet award the death sentence to a non-Muslim woman just because of that?
In the game of killing, both religious and political leaders are paying the price for holding a difference of opinion. The death of Mufti Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi in Lahore and the murder of Maulana Hasan Jan of JUI Peshawar did not teach any lesson to the JUI leadership that playing with fire does not provide any immunity to the players from not getting burnt one day. The weapon of suicidal missions is beginning to backfire on those who once had sanctified it. After all, it is a double-edged sword.
Benazir Bhutto escaped one murderous attack in Karachi in 2007, but she could not survive another carried out in Rawalpindi. Asfandyar Wali Khan was lucky to survive a suicide attack, but Alam Zaib Khan of his party and Mian Iftikhar Hussain’s son were not. The list goes on and on, and it includes such names as Dr. Mohammad Farooq, vice chancellor of Swat University, who had to die for holding moderate views on Islam. Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, an eminent religious scholar, has had to leave the country to save his life, and the Punjab government minister, Zule Huma Osman had to die for being a woman at a wrong place.
In the words of Omid Safi, one of the dilemmas of contemporary Islam is that most Muslim organizations and speakers claim to be following in the footsteps of Muhammad (s). Every Muslim wants to imbibe and follow the Sunna and paradigm of Muhammadi behavior, but the question is, “ Which is the correct understanding of this paradigm?” Mostly what we hear from scholars and speakers is that Islam is not about terrorism: Islam is not about extremism, Islam is not anti-modernism, or that Islam does not sanction the oppression of women. Hardly any time is spent on explaining what Islam is, what Islam stands for, and what it should stand for, and with God’s grace, what it will stand for. All these questions are intrinsically connected to the memory of the Prophet. The worst injustice that is being extended to our Noble Prophet is coming not from the non-Muslims; it is coming from his own followers, from his own devotees. The murderers as well as the murdered, both are getting tagged together, both are being declared as the custodians of “Namoos-i-Rasool”, the great lovers of the Prophet.
If the Prophet Muhammad (s) revisits his Umma, will he approve the exclusive posture of Islam as it is being propagated by the so-called lovers of him, or would he remind them that he was sent as a source of mercy and compassion, not just for this world, not just for the Muslims, but for all the universes that exist, “Rahmatan lil alamin” Qur’an 21:107
The interesting part is that all Muslims, inclusive of the extremists and radicals, contend that they are following the middle path, and that they are “ Ummat ul Wasata”.
Allah also tells Muslims to follow the middle path in Sura 2:143 , “Thus have We made of you a middle community that ye might be witnesses over the nations and the Messenger a witness over yourselves”, to avoid extremes, to being moderates. Most scholars historically say that the term means that the Muslim community is to be characterized by the quality of justice in its dealings with humanity - that the community of Muhammad is to be a just community. Why do Muslims now appear hellbound to prove on the humanity that they are the most intolerant bigots on earth, that in practice they are the side-walkers, the ambushers?
Imam Tabari presents a very unique interpretation of the term “ Ummat ul Wasata”. “ If Muslims are the middle community, it is because they stand between the world and Muhammad. In other words, the task for Muslims is to deliver Muhammad’s message to the world, as Muhammad stood between the Muslims and the Divine”. It is thus incumbent, according to Safi, on Muslims to embody the qualities of mercy and justice that Muhammad so perfectly emulated, practiced and embodied.
The “ Sunna” today is understood to mean the way in which Muhammad conducted himself. Originally it had some deep interesting and existential meaning: “ the trodden path in a desert”. In an arid context, following a trodden path in a desert means reaching a cool, refreshing and life-giving oasis, and getting away from this path means getting lost among ever-shifting and treacherous sand dunes and possibly dying a miserable death from thirst. When we recite Sura Fatehah and ask for “al-sirat al-mustaqim”, we beseech God to “guide us to and keep us on the Straight Path”, we are basically asking to be guided to Muhammad and he is the cool oasis of faith and serenity on the journey to the Divine Beloved, writes Omid Safi. Allama Iqbal in his Javed Nama wrote a very bold sentence. “You can deny God, but you cannot deny the Prophet”. A Muslim just cannot think of reaching God by by-passing Muhammad (s). So why all this killing in Prophet’s name? Understanding the true character of Prophet is quintessential. (Continued next week)
