What would Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) Do Today?
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg, Ca
“Whoever is kind to His creatures, God is kind to him; therefore be kind to man on earth, whether good or bad; and being kind to the bad, is to withhold him from badness, thus in Heaven you will be treated kindly.” - Prophet Muhammad (s)
Ann Schimmel, in her book, “And Muhammad Is His Messenger”, on page 239 writes, “When Muhammad spoke, those present bowed their heads in such a manner, as if birds were sitting on their heads. They did not shift about, as birds will fly away on the slightest move.” In mystic literature, birds always stand for the soul and spirit. Such was the level of devotion of the followers of the Prophet that when he spoke, they felt like the spirit-birds were descending on their heads. A slightest distraction could disturb the flow.
The above captioned title I have gratefully borrowed from Omid Safi’s wonderful book, “Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet matters”, and a good portion of the material in this article is based on this, and on Lesley Hazleton’s insightful book, “After the Prophet”, which I just finished reading.
I could not read Lesley Hazleton’s book any further, and had to stop on page 16 of Chapter One where she describes the peril-scenario of the night when the Prophet prepared to migrate from Mecca to Medina . The underlined words shook me in my soul. She writes, “While the would-be assassins lay in wait outside his house for him to emerge at dawn - even in their murderous intent, they obeyed the traditional Arabian injunction barring any attack on a man within the confines of his own home -Ali had arranged for Muhammad to escape along with Abu Bakr, and stayed behind as a decoy”.
Even during the times of Jahiliyya people had some ethical lines drawn, and they maintained some ethical dignity. With all the murderous-intent they still did not enter the house of their enemy. Now in the 21 st century Muslims kill Muslims in broad daylight in the name of the Prophet and feel no moral qualms. They do so not only in their homes and in the shopping centers, in schools, but also in the mosques, churches and temples.
The death of the Punjab governor, Mr. Suleman Taseer is the latest murder carried out in broad daylight in the capital of the country and that too in the name of religion, and for the sake of “Namoos- i -Rasool”, the “ Protection of the Good name of the Prophet”. What an irony?
Imam Ghazzali was very right when he underpinned the cause of the moral degradation of the Muslims. About the ulems he said, “…Worst of all they are fault-finders, but detect none in their own self. They preach from the pulpit the virtues of patience, gratitude, firmness in faith, truthfulness, sincerity in dealing with others, but are themselves completely devoid of them”. Shibli page 207.
If the Prophet were to come today, what would he say to Muslims? Straight away he would distance himself from the modern-day custodians of the religion of Islam. He would definitely ask them to unlearn all what they have learned or what they are practicing about Islam. He would be sad and would be very disappointed on seeing his followers suffering from all sorts of social-economic and moral ailments and yet claiming to be good Muslims, because they pray, fast and perform Hajj. Nothing would hurt him more than the sanctification of genocide being carried out in his name. He would be very upset when he would remind them that he had declared the killing of one human being as the death of humanity, while the present day Muslims have made killing as their national sport.
Karen Armstrong is very right when she says, “As a paradigmatic personality, Muhammad has important lessons, not only for Muslims but also for Western people. His life was a jihad; as we shall see, this word does not mean ‘holy war’, it means ‘struggle’. Muhammad literally sweated with the effort to bring peace to war-torn Arabia, and we need people who are prepared to do this today. His life was a tireless campaign against greed, injustice, and arrogance. He realized that Arabia was at a turning point and that the old way of thinking would no longer suffice, so he wore himself out in the creative effort to evolve an entirely new solution”. Today Pakistan stands at that turning point. Its survival is connected to a fresh mode of re-thinking. Revenge, killing and exclusiveness in a globally linked world are not going to work. Knowledge combined with the spirit of co-existence is the solution.
The Prophet said, “If the Hour is imminent and anyone of you has a palm shoot in his hand and is able to plant it before the Hour strikes, then he should do so and he will be rewarded for that action”. It speaks volumes for the Prophet’s concern for others welfare. As regards suicidal missions justified under so many ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, let this be further heard. The Prophet had said this about a wounded soldier who had participated in the Battle of Badr. When his pain became unbearable, he pressed his chest against his own sword and killed himself. “He was so near the Jinnat that through this act he made his way to the Hell”.
How would he put up with what is happening in the Islamic world, especially in Pakistan? Just in the last few weeks, three to five year girls were picked up from Narowal, Lodhran, Karachi, Multan and many other cities and were gang-raped and killed and dumped outside. Not a single word of protest from any Mufti, Sahibzada or Mullah was heard. These and many more social and moral evils in which the whole Umma is embroiled hardly fall in the purview of action of these religious leaders. They are too busy in ‘safe-guarding” the good name of the Prophet.
Bahlul, the wise fool once happened to meet the caliph Harun al-Rashid who asked him, “Where are you coming from like this, Bahlul?” “From Hell,” replied Bahlul. “What for you had gone to the Hell?” asked the caliph. “To borrow some fire”, Bahlul promptly replied, “but I did not get any because the angel in-charge over other there told me that there was no fire in the Hell”. Bahlul further continued, “How come? Isn’t Hell the place of fire?” The Angel answered, “I tell you, there really is no fire down here. Everybody brings his own fire with him when he comes”. Who made Pakistan a living Hell? The answer is simple: two classes of people, the politicians and the religious scholars. The others were just helpers.
Allah and His Prophet put the faith of a Muslim at default if he felt that he had no obligation to help his fellow human beings. “”Have you ever seen a person who denies the (Islamic) way of life (and the Judgment to come? He’s the one who pushes the orphan aside and doesn’t support the feeding of the poor. So ruined are the people who pray, but who are careless about (the meaning of) their prayers; who (pray only) for show, and who refuse to share even the smallest kindnesses”. Al- Maun.
When there is so much injustice, suffering and helplessness in the country, why didn’t Mufti Muneeb, Maulana Fazl-ul-Rahman, Qazi Hussain, Sahibzada Abul Khair and other religious leaders who deck their names with all kinds of prefixes and suffixes start a crusade against such widespread corruption, against wholesale target-killings, against blatant economic injustices, against maltreatment of the minorities, and against the other social evils, the way they had done on Friday, December 31, by arranging a payyaha-jam strike all over the country, threatening a direct action if anyone attempted to even touch the controversial blasphemy law?. Sulemain Taseer’s death is the net-result of such acts.
The country has reached such a level of intolerance that a shut-up call now means total elimination of the adversary. Muslim history is full of instances when the followers of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) passed through such phases. The Prophet taught the followers of Islam that “ the poor, the orphaned, the enslaved - all were equal in the eyes of God… what tribe you were born to, what clan within that tribe what household within that clan - none of this mattered. No one group had the right to raise itself up above others. To be a Muslim - literally to submit yourself to God’s will - was to forsake all the old divisiveness. It meant no more tribe against tribe or rich against poor. They were one people, one community, bound together in the simple but stunning acknowledgement that there was no god but God”, writes Leslie Hazelton on page 14. “I t was an egalitarian message, as revolutionary in its time and place as that of an earlier prophet in first-century Palestine”.
The Prophet tired himself all his life to end divisiveness and to foster unity and empathy in his followers. Leslie provides the answer to a centuries old question that split the Muslims into Sunnis and Shias. The Sunnis as well as the Shias both have ample referential evidence which both deem valid to fight over the issue of Prophet Muhammad’s legitimate (PBUH) successor. (Continued next week)
