What would Prophet Muhammad do?

09 February 2006, The Free Lance-Star

What would Prophet Muhammad do?

You do not do evil to those who do evil to you, but you deal with them with forgiveness and kindness ~ Sahih Al-Bukhari

That description of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is a summary of how he reacted to personal attacks and abuse.

Islamic traditions include a number of instances of the prophet having the opportunity to strike back at those who attacked him, but refraining from doing so.

These traditions are particularly important as we witness outrage in the Islamic world over cartoons, initially published in a Danish newspaper, that were viewed as intentional attacks on the prophet.

Peaceful and not-so-peaceful protests have occurred from Gaza to Indonesia.

Boycotts have targeted companies based in Denmark, and in other nations that reprinted the offensive caricatures.

We all, Muslims and people of other faiths, seem to be locked into a downward spiral of mutual mistrust and hostility based on self-perpetuating stereotypes.

As Muslims, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, "What would the Prophet Muhammad do?"

Muslims are taught the tradition of the woman who would regularly throw trash on the prophet as he walked down a particular path. The prophet never responded in kind to the woman's abuse.

Instead, when she one day failed to attack him, he went to her home to inquire about her condition.

In another tradition, the prophet was offered the opportunity to have God punish the people of a town near Mecca who refused the message of Islam and attacked him with stones.

Again, the prophet did not choose to respond in kind to the abuse.

A companion of the prophet, Sahih Al-Bukhari, noted his forgiving disposition. He said: "I served the prophet for ten years, and he never said 'uf' [a word indicating impatience] to me and never blamed me by saying, 'Why did you do so or why didn't you do so?'"

Even when the prophet was in a position of power, he chose the path of kindness and reconciliation.

When he returned to Mecca after years of exile and personal attacks, he did not take revenge on the people of the city, but instead offered a general amnesty.

In the Quran, Islam's revealed text, God states: "When [the righteous] hear vain talk, they withdraw from it, saying: 'Our deeds are for us and yours for you; peace be on to you. We do not desire the way of the ignorant.'

"O Prophet [Muhammad], you cannot give guidance to whom you wish, it is God who gives guidance to whom He pleases, and He is quite aware of those who are guided" (28:55-56).

The Quran also says: "Invite [all] to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knows best who have strayed from His Path and who receive guidance" (16:125).

Another verse tells the prophet to "show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant" (7:199).

These are the examples that Muslims should follow as they express justifiable concern at the publication of the cartoons.

This unfortunate episode can be used as a learning opportunity for people of all faiths who sincerely wish to know more about Islam and Muslims.

It also can be viewed as a "teaching moment" for Muslims who want to exemplify the prophet's teachings through the example of their good character and dignified behavior in the face of provocation and abuse.

As the Quran states: "It may well be that God will bring about love [and friendship] between you and those with whom you are now at odds" (60:7).

IBRAHIM HOOPER is national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

a positive response

CAIR is responding to the furore surrounding the Danish cartoons issue in this manner. Kudos to CAIR.

Say what?

There will be a regular "Say what?" section on this blog from now on, due to the increasing frequency with which our esteemed politicians manage to articulate the stupidest things.

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown, in response to the video allegedly showing British troops abusing a group of Iraqis:

...speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, Chancellor Gordon Brown said the "loyal, hard-working, decent troops" in Iraq...

Me thinks he is from planet Neptune.

some soothing lines of poetry

i read these lines to myself usually when i am feeling down.

falak kai dasht main taaron ki aakhri manzil
kahin tau ho ga shab-e sust mauj ka sahil
kahin tau ja kai rukay ga safina-e gham-e dil.

abhi girani-e shab main kami nahin ayi
najaat-e deeda-o-dil ki ghari nahin ayi
chalay chalo kai woh manzil abhi nahin ayi.

~faiz ahmed faiz

"Prophet brought peace and mercy for us all"

"Prophet brought peace and mercy for us all", Abid Ishaq, 10 February 2006, Khaleej Times

"Grievous to him is what you suffer, anxious for you, compassionate is he, merciful to the believers." (Quran, 10:128)

Dear readers, the above verse of the Holy Quran points to the noblest of all humans; Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Not only does this divine verse direct us towards the compassionate and merciful attitude of the Prophet, it also expresses the depth of compassion and mercy he exercised on a daily basis.

It is related that a Bedouin once came asking for something from him. He gave the man something and said, "Have I been good to you?" The Bedouin said, "No, you have not and you have not done well." The Muslims became angry and went for him. The Prophet indicated that they should hold off. Then the Prophet got up and went into his house. Then the Prophet sent for him and added something to his gift and said, "Have I been good to you?" The Bedouin replied, "Yes, may Allah repay you well in family and tribe."

The Prophet said, "You said what you said and that angered my Companions. If you like, say what you said in my presence in their presence so as to remove what they harbour in their breasts against you." He said, "Yes." He came back later and the Prophet said, "This Bedouin said what he said and then we gave him more. He claims that he is content. Isn’t that so?" He said, "Yes, may Allah repay you well in your family and tribe."

The Prophet said, "The example of this man and me is like a man who has a she-camel who bolts from him. People chase it and they only make it shy away more. The owner calls to them to stay clear of him and his she-camel, saying, ‘I am more compassionate and better to it than you.’ He goes in front of it and takes some clods of dirt and drives it back until it comes and kneels. He saddles and mounts it. If I had given you your heads when the man said what he said, you would have killed him and he would have entered the Fire."

In another incident, when the Prophet's people rejected him, Arch Angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to him and said, "Allah has heard what your people say to you and how they reject you. He has ordered the angels of the mountains to obey whatever you tell them to do." The angel of the mountains called him, greeted him and said, "Send me to do what you wish. If you wish, I will crush them between the two mountains of Makkah." The Prophet said, "Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins those who will worship Allah alone and not associate anything with Him." (Muslim, Bukhari and the Six Books)

The Prophet's compassion and mercy are not merely historical facts. The very message of Islam and the compassionate character that the Prophet communicated applies just as much to us in rural and urban neighbourhoods today as it did to the Bedouin in the desert fourteen centuries ago. This is because Allah, the Creator, sent the Last Prophet to all humanity for all times to come and thus protecting the Prophet's character is the right of every Muslim. This protection however needs to be planned, objective-oriented and effective due to the great importance that Allah has placed on the seal of all prophets; Muhammad, peace be upon him.

When Muslims protect the noble Prophet's exemplary character by reacting violently, somewhere along the line, the teachings of the compassionate and merciful Prophet are lost. Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) anxiety and suffering for us increases when we resort to impatience and hatred and we fail miserably in justifying the Prophet’s reply to the angel of the mountains. Muslims need to educate themselves and others on the Prophet's life and teachings and not resort to means that drive others away from Islam. Allah says regarding the Prophet: "We sent thee not, but as a Mercy for all the worlds." (Quran, 21:107)

Here we go again.

31 January/01 February. Muslims around the world, depending upon their unique time zones, celebrated the Islamic New Year on those dates. What a horrible start for Muslims, what a dreadful way to usher a new year.

i was watching the news a few days back, saw the pictures of protests, SOME British Muslims calling for a repeat of 7th July, people around the world wondering 'why are they so backwards? why can't they take a joke? Those mozlims still live in the 8th century' and i just started crying. Where the hell did we go wrong? From Ibn Sina to Ibn Rushd, from algorithms to algebra to alchemy, to Muslim rulers having larger libraries in their homes than all of European libraries put together, to translating ancient, classical Greek medical texts into Arabic (whilst Europe was busy burning them for fear of their blasphemous contents), and now --- THIS. A plurality of dictatorships around the world are governed by Muslim rulers; the levels of corruption in Muslim countries is well-known to those who have lived there; at the start/end of Ramadan, we wonder at which sect is going to open fire at which other sect in a mosque; when the US and UK (and a smattering of small countries) invade Iraq, the Muslim world for the most part sits and watches. When a ferry sinks in the Red Sea, with hundreds upon hundreds of innocent passengers (including children), we lack the technical expertise to deploy rescue personnel immediately - rather it takes the Egyptian government ten hours to get off its rear and for Egyptian rescue personnel to arrive at the scene. TEN hours. How many lives could have been saved had they left earlier? While some of those who claim to be Islam's "custodians of the most holy places" party in Switzerland and earn titles such as 'Playboy princes', victims from Pakistan's earthquake continue to shiver and starve in plastic tents high atop the mountains.

Instead of calling for a repeat of 7th July, instead of setting fire to Norwegian and Danish embassies, instead of making placards that warn non-Muslims of the bloodbaths to come, how hard would it have been to sit down for a few minutes, take a deep breath, and think --- how would Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) have reacted? The very figure we claim to be defending with our impotent signs and banners, the very man whom we claim to be protecting while we smash windows of a foreign embassy and burn effigies of different ambassadors, would **he** be pleased with our actions? Or might he have suggested a different course of action based upon what Allah Revealed in the Quran...

"Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching, and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knows best who have strayed from His Path and who receive guidance." {16:125}

"show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant" {7:199}

"It may well be that God will bring about love (and friendship) between you and those with whom you are now at odds." {60:7}

Non-Muslims who watch us waving placards calling for more terrorist attacks, wonder at our hypocrisy. They wonder - rightly - how many times Jews have been caricatured in Muslim newspapers, how many times anti-Jewish material has been printed in Muslim media. Does that not smack of hypocrisy? Are we - the ummah - that weak that we cannot engage in some real, honest self-introspection? God, are we that weak?! So much for repudiating the cartoons' messages. Our actions have reinforced the very stereotypes caricatured by the cartoonists.

Rather than setting fire to embassies and threatening to kidnap anyone who looks 'white', our sanctified custodians of Islam's holiest places, our very own Playboy Princes might have funded (IF they could have tolerated spending time away from their partying and gambling) a symposium in Copenhagen - something along the lines of "Discover Islam". Invite people like Yusuf Islam, Hamza Yusuf, King Abdullah and his wife, Musharraf, Bush, Prince Charles, Christian theologians from around the world, the Pope, yes even Angelina Jolie to give the event some PR appeal and ensure media coverage, to present speeches about how to revitalize Muslim societies - economically, culturally, politically. One part of the exhibition would have focused on the 'past' (the glorious civilization) but other parts of the exhibition would be focused on the present and the future. There would be speakers to present talks aimed at shattering misperceptions of Islam. There would be sections of the exhibition depicting art and architectural examples from some of our finest mosques. Prince Charles could give talks about his Islamic garden. Yusuf Islam on how to re-engage with our Muslim youths.

But no - that calls for brains. Let's set fire to a foreign embassy, let's wave around violent banners. THAT is how to protect our Prophet (pbuh).

Truly, we have the best faith with the worst followers. i weep for our selfishness, i weep for our corruption, i weep at how far we have strayed from the righteous path, i weep for our lack of faith.