Glimpses of Certain Aspects of Islam by Nasim.A.Jafarey

Glimpses of Certain Aspects of Islam by Nasim.A.Jafarey

10. Mission of the Prophet

Only within ten years of the migration of the Muslims from Makkah to Madina in 622 A.D., those who had come as persecuted refugees in a dire strait were able to lay the foundations of a new polity which would enable them to govern a huge empire for over a thousand years. But this enormously successful effort had taken its toll, and the strain of translating the ineffable word of God into human language must have been very close to the ultimate limits of human endurance.

In this context it is also very important to take note of the fact that some of the most crucial decisions taken by the Prophet (peace be upon him) in these ten years, such as the decision to fight at Badar, to expel the Jewish tribes from around Madinah and the signing of the Treaty of Hudaibya were not based on direct Wahi from Allah. In fact these decisions were taken by the Prophet on the basis of his own judgement with help and advice from his close trusted companions.

As Karen Armstrong writes in her sympathetic and perceptive biography of the Holy Prophet,"Islam was a practical and realistic faith which saw human intelligence and divine inspiration working harmoniously side by side." At the same time it was obvious that reconstructing human society according to God’s plan can be both difficult and dangerous.

By 632 AD the holy Prophet became increasingly conscious of approaching death and gave an indication of this by asking his companions to undertake a longer Aitikaf than usual during Ramazan, and deciding to undertake what turned out to be his last Hajj. the This last Pilgrimage and the last sermon which he delivered form the top of Mount Arafat remains a monumental event in the history of the Muslim Ummah. After his return to Madinah from the farewell Pilgrimage, the Prophet (SAW) began to experience incapacitating headaches. One day as he walked into Hazrat Aisha’s ‘hujrah’ (quarter) she was moaning with a severe headache. When she mentioned this to the Prophet he stated that he himself was having persistent headache. The prophet, however, did not allow this disability to stop him from leading the prayers or addressing the people, and before doing so he would often wrap a cloth round his aching temples.

On one occasion after praying for a long time he said "God has given one of his servants the choice between this world and that which is with God and he has chosen the latter." Course No one understood the significance of this utterance except Hazrat Abu Bakar who started weeping bitterly. The Prophet consoled him by saying ‘gently, gently Abu Baker.’

The pain got worse and eventually the Prophet collapsed Ravenfields in Hazrat Maimunah’s hujrah. All his wives who gathered round him noticed that he kept asking, "Where will I be tomorrow." Soon they realised that what the Prophet wanted was to be taken to Hazrat Aisha’s hujrah immediately, whose turn it was for the Prophet to come to her the next day. All the wives agreed that this should be done immediately. The Prophet lay in Hazrat Aisha’s hujrah who nursed him assiduously and in the beginning he still went out for the public prayers. However when he got too ill he asked Hazrat Abu Bakr to lead the prayers for him. Somehow the people were reluctant to obey this decision and the Prophet had to speak sharply to them. It make them to obey these instructions.

On 12th Rabiul Awal (8th June 632) the Prophet went to the Mosque and people noticed that he looked much better. After sitting beside Hazrat Abu Bakr who was conducting the prayers he went back to Hazrat Aisha’s hujrah and lay down again. After some time Hazrat Aisha noticed that the Prophet was lying more heavily in her lap and seemed to be losing consciousness. Due to her inexperience Hazrat Aisha did not realise that the Prophet was dying in her arms. The Prophet’s last words which Hazrat Aisha remembers were "Nay the most Exalted companion is of paradise." The Prophet passed away at noon on that day, and as soon as Hazrat Aisha realised what had happened she placed the prophet’s head on a pillow and started crying. The prophet’s other wives came in on hearing Hazrat Aisha’s cries and soon the whole of Madinah knew what had happened.

Hazrat Abu Bakr was somewhere else when this happened and he hurried back and when he went to the mosque, he found Hazrat Umar telling the crowd that he did not believe the Prophet had died. After failing to persuade Hazrat Umar to stop speaking to the crowd, Hazrat Abu Bakr went a little distance away and started addressing the crowd himself. And during the address he uttered those memorable words which epitomise the Muslim faith so beautifully and so comprehensively.

"O men, if anyone worships Muhammad, Muhammad is dead" he said, and ended by saying "if anyone worships God, God is alive, immortal." he then quoted the words of the Quran revealed after the battle of Uhud. " Muhammed is naught but a messenger, many messengers have passed away before him. Why if he should die or is slain will you turn upon your heels" (Ayat 144 surah AlImran). On hearing these words the crowd was almost stunned, and even Hazrat Umar confessed that on hearing these words from Hazrat Abu Bakr he realised that the Apostle was indeed dead.

It is possible to go on with details of various events as they took place after the prophet’s death, but in the present degenerate state of the Muslim Ummah, it appears to be more desirable and appropriate to remind ourselves of some memorable utterances of the successors of the Prophet about statecraft and how the Muslim Ummah should organise itself to meet the challenges of today in this world.

First the remarkable words of Hazrat Abu Bakr uttered after he was elected as Caliph "obey me as long as I obey God and His apostle, and if I disobey then you owe me no obedience." And then there is an extract from Hazrat Ali’s instructions given to Malik Ashter when he was being silent to Egypt as governor. "Truly the destruction of the earth only results from the destitution of its inhabitants, and its inhabitants Software become destitute only when the rulers concern themselves with amassing wealth, when they have misgivings about the endurance of their own rule, and when they profit little from warning examples."

Although these memorable thoughts were expressed almost fourteen hundred years ago they are as relevant and appropriate for the environment in which the Muslim Ummah lives today as they were in the seventh century. There is no ruler of a Muslim country today who has even made such pronouncements before his people much less truly and sincerely act upon them. With a very few exceptions such as Hazrat Umar bin abdul Aziz and Salahuddin Ayubi, hardly any Muslim Caliph or Sultan has adhered with the same passion as that of Builder the Khulfa_i_Rashedeen to the principles of egalitarianism and justice, and this is perhaps the principal reason for the decline and degeneration of the Muslim Ummah.

However, immediately after the prophet’s death, the continuing success of the Muslim armies vindicated the political effort and showed clearly that in Islam the political aspect of communal life is as important as the spiritual. It also demonstrated that if a society was reorganised according to God’s will it would prevail. The spectacular successes of the Muslims in those early years were also due to the sense of unity and brotherhood which they had developed as a result of their devotion to the Prophet and the intense desire to follow his example in every sphere most assiduously.

The prophet’s mission in this world became a symbol which not only showed God’s activity in this world but also "illustrates the perfect human surrender to God." Karen Armstrong concludes her biography of the Prophet with these highly topical and relevant words and the last two sentences of her beautifully written book are as follows:

"If Muslims need to understand our Western traditions and institutions more thoroughly today, we in end the West need to divest ourselves of some of our old prejudices. Perhaps one place to start is with the figure of Prophet Muhammed, a complex, passionate man who sometimes did things that it is difficult for us to accept, but who had genius of a profound order and founded a religion and a cultural tradition that was not based on the sword despite the Western myth and whose name ‘Islam’ signifies peace and reconciliation."

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11. Belief In the Hereafter

Index

Home Page

Preface

1. Theory & Practice of Islamic Socialism

2. Islamic Economic System

3. Islamic Financing

4. Quranic Commandments about Justice

5. The Quranic View-point about Tolerance

6. Interest on Production Loans : A case for Ijtihad

7. Moral Re-armament