An honest man, as the saying goes , is the noblest work of God, Mohammad was more than honest. He was human to the marrow of his bones. Human sympathy, human love was the music of his soul. To serve man, to elevate man, to purify man, to educate man, in a word to humanize man-this was the object of his mission, the be-all and end all of his life. In thought, in word, in action he had the good of humanity as his sole inspiration, his sole guiding principle. He was most unostentatious and selfless to the core. What were the titles he assumed? Only true servant of God and His Messenger. Servant first, and then a Messenger. A Messenger and Prophet like many other prophets in every part of the world, some known to you, many not known. If one does not believe in any of these truths one ceases to be a Muslim. It is an article of faith with all Muslims.
"Looking at the circumstances of the time and unbounded reverence of his followers" says a western writer "the most miraculous thing about Muhammad is, that he never claimed the power of working miracles." Miracles were performed but not to propagate his faith and were attributed entirely to God and his inscrutable ways. He would plainly say that he was a man like others. He had no treasures of earth or heaven. Nor did he claim to know the secrets of that lie in womb of future. All this was in an age when miracles were supposed to be ordinary occurrences, at the back and call of the commonest saint, when the whole atmosphere was surcharged with supernaturalism in Arabia and outside Arabia.
He turned the attention of his followers towards the study of Nature and its laws, to understand them and appreciate the Glory of God.The Qur’an says:
"We created not the Heavens, the earth, and all between them, merely in (idle) sport . We created them not except for just ends: but most of them do not understand."
The world is not an illusion, nor without purpose. It has been created with the truth.The number of verses inviting close observation of Nature are several times more than those that relate to prayer, fasting, pilgrimage etc. all put together. The Muslims under its influence began to observe Nature closely and this gave birth to the scientific spirit of the observation and experiment which was unknown to the Greeks. While the Muslim Botanist Ibn Baitar wrote on Botany after collecting plants from all parts of the world, described by Mayer in his Gesch der Botanikas, a monument of industry, while Al Byruni travelled for forty years to collect mineralogical specimens, and Muslim Astronomers made some observations extending even over twelve years.
Aristotle wrote on Physics without performing a single experiment, wrote on natural history carelessly stating without taking the trouble to ascertain the most verifiable fact that men have more teeth than animal.
Galen, the greatest authority on classical anatomy informed that the lower jaw consists of two bones, a statement which is accepted unchallenged for centuries till Abdul Latheef takes the trouble to examine a human skeleton. After enumerating several such instances, Robert Briffault concludes in his well known book The Making of Humanity, "The debt of our science to the Arabs does not consist in starting discoveries or revolutionary theories. Science owes a great deal more to Arabs culture; it owes its existence." The same writer says "The Greeks systematized, generalized and theorized but patent ways of investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute methods of science, detailed and prolonged observation, experimental inquiry, were altogether alien to Greek temperament. What we call science arose in Europe as result of new methods of investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of Mathematics in form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and these methods, were introduced into the European world by the Arabs”, concludes the same author.
It is the same practical character of the teaching of Prophet Mohammad that gave birth to the scientific spirit, that has also sanctified the daily labours and the so-called mundane affairs. The Qur’an says that God has created man to worship Him but the word worship has a connotation of its own. God’s worship is not confined to prayer alone, but every act that is done with the purpose of winning approval of God and is for the benefit of the Humanity comes under its purview. Islam sanctifies life and all its pursuits provided they are performed with honesty, justice and pure intents. It obliterates the age-long distinction between the sacred and profane. The Qu’ran says if you eat clean things and thank God for it, it is an act of worship. It is saying of the Prophet of Islam that Morsel of food that one places in the mouth of his wife is an act of virtue to be rewarded by God. Another tradition of the Prophet says "He who is satisfying the desire of his heart will be rewarded by God provided the methods adopted are permissible." A person was listening to him exclaimed 'O Prophet of God, he who is answering the calls of passions, is only satisfying the craving of his heart. Forthwith came the reply, "Had he adopted an awful method for the satisfaction of his urge, he would have been punished; then why should he not be rewarded for following the right course."
This new conception of religion that it should also devote itself to the betterment of this life rather than concern itself exclusively with super mundane affairs, has led to a new orientation of moral values. Its abiding influence on the common relations of mankind in the affairs of every day life, its deep power over the masses, its regulation of their conception of rights and duty, its suitability and adaptability to the ignorant savage and the wise philosopher alike are characteristic features of the teaching of the Prophet of Islam.
But it should be most carefully borne in mind his stress on good actions is not the sacrifice of correctness of faith. While there are various schools of thought, one praising faith at the expense of deeds, another exhausting various acts to the detriment of correct belief, Islam is based on correct faith and righteous actions. Means are important as the end and ends are as important as the means. It is an organi c Unity. Together they live and thrive. Separate them and both decay and die. In Islam faith can not be divorced from the action. Right knowledge should be transferred into right action to produce the right results. How often the words came in Qur’an. Those who believe and do good thing, they alone shall enter Paradise. Again and again, not less than fifty times these words are repeated. Contemplation is encouraged but mere contemplation is not the goal. Those who believe and do nothing cannot exist in Islam. Those who believe and do wrong are inconceivable. Divine law is the law of effort and not of ideals. It chalks out for the men the path of eternal progress from knowledge to action and from action to satisfaction.
But what is the correct faith from which right action spontaneously proceeds resulting in complete satisfaction? Here the central doctrine of Islam is the Unity of God. There is no God but one God is the pivot from which hangs the whole teaching and practice of Islam. He is unique not only as regards His divine being but also as regards His divine attributes.
As regards the attributes of God, Islam adopts here, as in other things too, the law of the golden mean. It avoids on the one hand, the view of God which divests the divine being of every attribute and rejects, on the other, the view which likens Him to things material. The Qur’an says, On the one hand, there is nothing which is like Him, on the other, it affirms that He is Seeing, Hearing, Knowing. He is the King who is without a stain of fault or deficiency, the mighty ship of His power floats upon the ocean of justice and equity. He is the Beneficent, the Merciful. He is the Guardian over all . Islam does not stop with this positive statement. It adds further which is its most special characteristic, the negative aspects of problem. There is also no one else who is guardian over everything. He is the mender of every breakage, and no one else is the mender of any breakage. He is the restorer of every loss and no one else is the restorer of any loss whatsoover. There is no God but one God, above any need, the Maker of bodies, Creator of souls, the Lord of the day of judgment, and in short, in the words of Qur’an, to Him belong all excellent qualities.
Regarding the position of man in relation to the Universe, the Qur’an in verses 12 -13 of its Surah 45 says very clearly:
“It is Allah Who has subjected the sea to you, that ships may sail through it by His command, that ye may seek of His Bounty, and that ye may be grateful.And He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on the earth: Behold, in that are Signs indeed for those who reflect”.
But in relation to God, the Qur’an says in 67:2
He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best indeed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving
Inspite of free will which he enjoys, to some extent, every man is born under certain circumstances and continues to live under certain circumstances beyond his control. With regard to this God says, according to Islam, it is my Will to create any man under condition that seem best to Me. Cosmic plans finite mortals cannot fully comprehend. But I will certainly test you in prosperity as well in adversity, in health as well as in sickness, in heights as well as in depths. My ways of testing differ from man to man, from hour to hour. In adversity do not despair and do not resort to unlawful means. It is but a passing phase. In prosperity do not forget God. God-gifts are given only as trusts. You are always on trial, every moment on test. In this sphere of life there is not to reason why, there is but to do and die. If you live in accordance with God; and if you die, die in the path of God. You may call it fatalism. But this type of fatalism is a condition of vigorous increasing effort, keeping you ever on the alert. Do not consider this temporal life on earth as the end of human existence. There is a life after death and it is eternal. Life after death is only a connection link, a door that opens up hidden reality of life. Every action in life however insignificant, produces a lasting effect. It is correctly recorded somehow.
Some of the ways of God are known to you, but many of his ways are hidden from you. What is hidden in you and from you in this world will be unrolled and laid open before you in the next. The virtuous will enjoy the Blessing of God which the eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men to conceive of them. They will march onward reaching higher and higher stages of evolution. Those who have wasted opportunity in this life shall under the inevitable law, which makes every man taste of what he has done, be subjected to a course of treatment of the spiritual diseases which they have brought about with their own hands. Beware, it is terrible ordeal. Bodily pain is torture, you can bear somehow. Spiritual pain is hell, you will find it unbearable. Fight in this life itself the tendencies of the spirit prone to evil, tempting to lead you into iniquitious ways. Reach the next stage when the self-accusing sprit in your conscience is awakened and the soul is anxious to attain moral excellence and revolt against disobedience. This will lead you to the final stage of the soul at rest, contented with God, finding its happiness and delight in Him alone. The soul no more stumbles. The stage of struggle passes away. Truth is victorious and falsehood lays down its arms. All complexes will then be resolved. Your house will not be divided against itself. Your personality will get integrated round the central core of submission to the will of God and complete surrender to His divine purpose. All hidden energies will then be released. The soul then will have peace. God will then address you:
"O thou soul that art at rest and restest fully contented with thy Lord return to thy Lord.He is pleased with thee and thou be pleased withHim; So enter among my servants and enter into my Paradise."
This is the final goal for man; to become, on the one hand, the master of the Universe and on the other, to see that his soul finds rest in his Lord, that not only his Lord will be pleased with him but that he is also pleased with his Lord. Contentment, complete contentment, satisfaction, complete satisfaction, peace, complete peace shall prevail. The love of God is his food at this stage and he drinks deep at the fountain of life. Sorrow and defeat do not overwhelm him and success does not find him in vain and exulting.
The western nations are only trying to become the master of the Universe. But their souls have not found peace and rest.
Thomas Carlyle, struck by this philosophy of life writes "and then also Islam-that we must submit to God; that our whole strength lies in resigned submission to Him, whatsoever he does to us, the thing he sends to us, even if death and and worse than death, shall be good, shall be best; we resign ourselves to God." The same author continues.
"If this be Islam, says Goethe, do we not all live in Islam?" Carlyle himself answers this question of Goethe and says:"Yes, all of us that have any moral life, we all live so.This is yet the highest wisdom that Heaven has revealed to our earth." Carlyle continues:
”The word of such a man (Muhammad) is a voice direct from Nature’s own Heart; Men do and must listen to that, as to nothing else; all else is wind in comparison...”
During the centuries of the crusades, all sorts of slanders were invented against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). But with the birth of the modern age, marked with religious tolerance and freedom of thought, there has been a great change in the approach of Western Authors in their dislineation of his life and character. The views of some of the non-muslim Scholars regarding Prophet Muhammad, given hereunder, justify this opinion.
But the West has still to go a step forward to discover the greatest reality about Muhammad and that is his being the true and the last Prophet of God for the whole humanity. Inspite of all its objectivity and enlightment there has been no sincere and objective attempt by the West to understand the Prophethood of Muhammad (pbuh). It is so strange that very glowing tributes are paid to him for his intergrity and achievment but his claim of being the Prophet of God has been rejected explicitly or implicitly. It is here that a searching of the heart is required and a review of the so-called objectivity is needed.The following glaring facts from the life of Muhammad (pbuh) have been furnished to facilitate and unbiased, logical and objective decision regarding his Prophethood.
Upto the age of forty Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator. He was never seen discussing the principles of Metaphysics, Ethics, Law, Politics, Economics or Sociology. No doubt he possessed an excellent character, charming manners and was highly cultured. Yet there was nothing so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary in him that would make men expect something great and revolutionary from him in the future. But when he came out of the Cave (Hira) with a new Message, he was completely transformed. Is it possible for such a person of the above qualities to turn all of a sudden’an impostor’ and claim to be the Prophet of Allah and invite all the rage of his people ?
One might ask: for what reason did he suffer all those hardships ? His people offered to accept him as their King and to lay all the riches of the land at his feet if only he would leave the preaching of his religion. But he chose to refuse their tempting offers and go on preaching his religion single handedly in the face of all kinds of insults, social boycott and even physical assault by his own people. Was it not only God’s support and his firm will to disseminate the message of Allah and his deep rooted belief that ultimately Islam would emerge as the only way of life for the huminity, that he stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and conspiracies to eliminate him?
Furthermore, had he come with a design of rivalry with the Christians and the Jews, why should he have made belief in Jesus and Moses and other Prophets of God (Peace be upon all of them),a basic requirement of faith without which no one could be a Muslim?
Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his Prophethood that in spite of being unlettered and having led a very normal and quiet life for forty years, when he began preaching his message, all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder and was bewitched by his wonderful eloquence and oratory? It was so matchless that the whole of Arab legion of Arab poets, preachers and Orators of highest calibre failed to bring forth its equivalent. And above all, how could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature contained in the Qur’an that no other human being could possibly have developed at that time?
Last but not the least, why did he lead a hard life even after gaining power and authority? Just ponder over the words he uttered while d ying. “We the community of the Prophets are not inherited. Whatever we leave is for charity”.
As a matter of fact Muhammad pbuh) is the last link of the chain of Prophets sent in different lands and times since the very begining of the human life on this Planet.
Lamartine, the renowned historian speaking on the essentials of human greatness wonders:
“If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the hree criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad ? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only.They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes.This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls... his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma.This dogma was twofold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with the words.
Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he ? ”
Lamartine, Histoire de la Turquie, Paris 1854 Vol. II, pp. 276-77