The Light

Prophet Muhammad (s) (the Paragon of Virtue)

Muslims throughout the world will be celebrating the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (s) during the month of Rabi-ul-Awwal, beginning on 12th and culminating on 17th. In fact, the Maulid ceremonies continue to be observed throughout the month in various mosques, religious institutions, and even in the private homes.

By Dr. Ja'far Tijani

The Prophet (s) was born in 570 A.D. He appeared at a time when the society was prepared for him. Not only the Arabian peninsular but the whole world at large was prepared for his coming.

In fact, the whole ancient world was longing for the appearance of a man to guide them. History bears witness that he established the most creative of all faiths, and the most profound for the cultivation of knowledge and spirituality:

"Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave."

"Seek knowledge even if it were in China."

"Seeking knowledge is incumbent on every Muslim man and a Muslim woman."

The Prophet (s) awakened to new life the dormant minds of human beings and created a suitable environment for their cultivation. He drove away the idol worshippers and instructed them in the mysteries of, profession of the unity of God and how to live and die with dignity. As a result of his teachings the idolaters gave way to monotheism; ignorance yielded to knowledge and sciences; brotherliness, compassion and other human virtues took the place of hostility, hatred and discord.

The messenger of Allah was the paragon of virtue as echoed by the verses of the Qur'an.

"Verily in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent pattern (of conduct)." (33:21)

"And lo! You (Muhammad) are of a tremendous nature." (68:4)

Allah has presented a beautiful pattern of conduct and character of the Prophet (s).

He has been sent into this world as the greatest exemplar and the perfect model and the best pattern of a flawless righteous life on earth. The sublime moral excellence of the Prophet (s) manifested in every aspect of his life, private as well as public. He himself has said:

"Indeed I have been sent to accomplish noble traits of character. He is also reported to have said:

"Allah has inculcated in me refined manners and He has embellished my moral example."

No one could read the excellence in the qualities that Prophet Muhammad possessed. His virtue, the magnanimity of his character, and his love for mankind were recognised even during his lifetime. His conduct on the one hand, and the verses of the holy Qur'an on the other, he conveyed the message that he had been ordered to deliver.

He proclaimed clearly and loudly the revelations he had received. He conveyed the message in the midst of the society where people's mind revolved exclusively around eloquent speech and the composition of beautiful poetry and literacy excellence. Under these conditions Allah equipped Muhammad (s) with a weapon, the holy Qur'an, which possessed unique characteristics that were beyond the capacity of human being to reproduce.

The verses of the Qur'an filled the hearts of the Arabs with new feeling and perception. As they were fully versed in the art of rhetoricthey readily realized that the eloquenceof the Qur'an was beyond the power of man to produce. In fact, the Prophet (s) challenged them to produce even one surah like that.

"And if you are in doubt concerning that which We revealed to Our servant then produce a chapter like it, and call your witnesses besides Allah if you are truthful." (2:23)

In a society where poetry could be more powerful than swords, the exquisite style of the Qur'an and its inimitability - could be very convincing indeed. Everyone who heard it had to acknowledge that its language was extraordinarily powerful.

The Arabs of that age who were addressed by the Qur'an could never have doubts about its extraordinary eloquence. It is intended to be an eternal miracle. A permanent message must display to mankind a permanent and everlasting miracle one which advances with time, so that just as it offered convincing proofs to the people of the past, it can also offer these proofs to the people of the future.

A short - lived miracle cannot be a source of reference for the future. For this reason, the Qur'an is presented as permanent and universal message. "It is not poetry, though it is hard to say whether it be or not, it is beyond poetry.

It is not history, not metaphysical dialectics like the Buddhist sutras nor the sublime homiletics like Plato's conference on the wise and foolish teachers. It is a Prophet's cry, Semitic to the core, yet of meaning so universal and so timely that all the voices of the age take it up, willing or unwilling, and it echoes over palaces and deserts, over cities and empires, first kindling its chosen hearts to the world conquest, then gathers itself up into a reconstructive force that penetrates the dark, glooms of Greece and Asia when Christianity was the Queen of Night."

The verses of the Qur'an give out very important guiding factors for those who sincerely long for the right guidance. Indeed, the Prophet is guidance personified as was rightly versified by the Egyptian poet, Ahmad Shawqi in his famous qasidah.

"Born is the right guidance blazing the whole Universe with glow and brightness." Ka'b bin Zuhayr, author of the famous panegyric on the Prophet (s), composed almost sixty verses in praise of him in the Jahiliyyah style beginning: "Su'ad has gone away, so my heart today is distracted and enslaved to her, unrequited and in fetters."

When Ka'b reached the following verses:

The messenger is indeed a light from whom enlightenment is sought; he is an unsheathed Indian sword from amongst the swords of Allah.

"At the head of the company of Quraysh whose spokesman said in the valley of Makkah, when they became Muslims, "Go forth!" "They went forth, but the weak and the defenders in the fray and those who sat badly in the saddle and those unarmed did not go forth."

"They walk with the gait of pure white camels - a blow protects them, when dwarfish black ones take flight in fear."

"Holding their heads high, heroes whose coats of mail in the fray are breast plates of (Nabii) Da'ud's weave."

"Shining and foil, whose rings have been knit together as though they were the close-woven rings of al-Qaf a plant." "They do not exalt if their spears pierce an enemy and they are not. despairing when they are speared."

"They thrust (lances) only in their throats (i.e. they never show their backs to the enemy) and for them there is no flying away and shrinking from the pools of death, the Prophet (s) threw his own burda - a mantle, a sort of a cloak at him (Ka'b bin Zuhayr)."

The supplication of Nabi Ibrahim (a) while building the Ka'bah was answered: "Our Lord! And raise up in their midst a messenger from among them who shall recite unto them Your revelations, and shall instruct them in the Scripture and in wisdom and shall purify them. Lo! You, only You, are the Mighty, the Wise. (2: 129)"

And the glad tidings of Nabi Isa came true: "And when Isa, son of Maryam said: O Children of Israel, Lo! I am the messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was (revealed) before me in the Torah, and bringing glad tidings of a messenger who will come after me whose name is Ahmad. (61:6)"

Indeed it was a man who brought forth the Arabs from Jahiliyyah (ignorance) into the faith and devotion of one God.

References:-

1. The Holy Qur'an : Mir Ahmed Ali
2. The Holy Qur'an : Abdullah Yusuf Ali
3. Lessons on Islamic Doctrine: Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari.
4. Muhammad, the Prophet: Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi.
5. Noldeke: Delectus carminum aribicorum. "Verily in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example" 33:21