THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN

WHEN the Great Patriarch Abraham and his son Ishmael were rebuilding the Sacred House of Ka’ba, he prayed to the Most High God, saying:

رَبَّنَا وَٱجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِنَآ أُمَّةً مُّسْلِمَةً لَّكَ وَأَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَآ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلتَّوَّابُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ

Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:128

“Our Lord! Make us both submissive to Thee….and raise from our offspring a nation, bowing to Thy Will”.

Abraham, with the help of his prophetic eye, had also foreseen that a time would come when corruption and contamination would prevail among his children to a dreadful degree, and Mecca would become the city of 360 idols, and Jerusalem the city of indecency and abomination. So, he further implored the Most High God “to raise amongst them an Apostle of their own who shall recite to them Thy communications and teach them the Book and Wisdom and purify them”.

رَبَّنَا وَٱبْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَـٰتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:129

The Patriarch’s prayer was answered. A great nation sprang up from the seed of Ishmael, the present-day Arab nation, and the Great Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, (peace and blessings of God be upon him) was raised amongst them as an Apostle of their own. Said he: I am the answer of my father Abraham’s prayer.

Before the Prophet’s advent the whole human race had been seized with dreadful death, mental, moral and spiritual, and darkness prevailed everywhere. Said the Word of God: “Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea on account of what the hands of men have wrought” (30:41)

ظَهَرَ ٱلْفَسَادُ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِى ٱلنَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُم بَعْضَ ٱلَّذِى عَمِلُوا۟ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

Ar-Rum (The Romans) 30:41

Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, all the religions of the world had ceased to exercise healthy and wholesome influence on the lives of their followers. But the worst of it was that vice itself had come to be looked upon as virtue, and sins of the most vicious and vile type were committed to earn merit in the eye of the Lord. History, therefore, has given it the name of the Dark Age. Arabia, of all the world was the darkest spot in that darkest age.  Drink, debauchery, and gambling; murder, infanticide and robbery, were the pride and plume of the Arabs. “There were no moral, religious or social restrictions, no limits to marriage, no restraints on divorce.” Sons treated the widows of their fathers as their wives. In a word, no evil nor any wickedness can be imagined which was not practised in Arabia in those days. And if this world ever needed a Prophet, it was most surely at the time of which a mention has been made in the foregoing lines.

It was under such chaotic conditions that the Prophet ﷺ of Islam made his appearance on the stage of the world. Prophets ﷺ, the Last Book of God tell us, had been raised from time to time in every nation and in every country, prior to the Holy Prophet’s advent, for the guidance of the human race. But their message was restricted to their own respective people. The main object of the ministry of Moses was the liberation of the Children of Israel from the Egyptian bondage, which he did accomplish; and the mission of Jesus was likewise limited to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel who, of course, did “hear his voice ” in far-off Eastern land, after he had escaped from death on the Cross. But the Prophetﷺ of Arabia brought a grand universal message, the great and glorious Gospel for the upliftment of the entire human race. He reclaimed not only the lost people of the Patriarch’s vision but gave a universal guidance, a Perfect Law, for the evolution of human consciousness. He proclaimed: “Ye nations of the world! I am the Apostle of Allah to you all.” Muhammad ﷺ is the World-Prophet, and his message is of quite a different type from that of the national prophets who went before him. He speaks of man as a class and tells of the highest aim that man can get to and reach and teaches the ways and means by means of which this sublime object of human life can be acquired and achieved.

Muhammad ﷺ is by far a practical Prophet, an excellent exemplar. He is not content with mere sermons or impracticable theories of morality. But whatever he taught to the people, he acted upon it himself, and not a single injunction there is in the Holy Qur’an which the Prophet did not himself put into his own practice. Words until they are translated into action, cannot carry the conviction that the speaker thereof himself possesses the moral virtues preached by him. And for this purpose, he must have proper occasions and opportunities to give his teaching a practical shape. The Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, in this respect, stands unique in the history of the world. From an orphan to a king, he passed through all the stages and shades of human life. A king, a statesman, a warrior, a general, a lawgiver, a judge, a conqueror, a persecuted fugitive, a tradesman, a friend, a son, a father, a husband, a neighbour, a man in adversity and in prosperity – all these different states of human life have been so excellently illustrated in his life that Muhammad ﷺ is the One Universal Model for the entire human race. Very few of the Guides of Humanity were granted all these conditions to be able to set a specimen for their followers to do the like and emulate. For instance, Jesus who never married himself, could not be a model for the married life, nor for a king, for he never had any kingdom to rule over, neither for a general, for he never had to go to battle and cross swords.

Muhammad ﷺ is the Prophet in human colours, and therefore a fit pattern for human beings to follow. Like a man he faces the problems of life and solves them with means within the human reach. All distinction and undue reverence for him he has discouraged vehemently, saying, I am only a man like unto you (18:110). He worked willingly with the Companions in their manual labour. When the First Mosque was being built in Medina after the Flight, the Prophetﷺ worked as a labourer, and carried bricks. “Our lives be sacrificed for your!” said Companions with love and affection, “why do you take the trouble of working? What are we for? “But they could not dissuade him from his work. In the battle of Ahzab, trenches were being dug, the Prophet ﷺ of God worked like an ordinary labourer, and a layer of dust could be seen on his body and forehead. Once the Prophet ﷺ with his Companions was on a journey. When the time for cooking came, the work was divided, and the Prophet ﷺ took upon himself the task of gathering firewood. The Companions said to him respectfully, “O Prophet of God, we would do this work as well.” But the Prophet ﷺ said in reply: “That is quite true, but I do not like to place myself above you. God does not love one who places himself above his companions.” Exaggeration and undue veneration of holy men is one of the chief causes of polytheism. The Prophet ﷺ took all care to safeguard against it in his own case. He admonished his Companions saying, “Do not utter exaggerated words of praise for me, as the Christians do in honour of Ibn Maryam (i.e., son of Mary). I am nothing more than a servant of God and His Apostle.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3445).

Such is Muhammad ﷺ, the Apostle of God, the Heavenly Light that alone can, in this stormy sea of darkness and disbelief, guide us to the haven of safety and peace if the world rally round him.

M.Y.Khan

(The Light – Wednesday, September 16, 1959)