By Naseer Ahmed,
New Age Islam
15 March 2019
Allah says in the Quran, (21:107) “We sent you not (O Muhammad), but
as a Mercy for all the worlds.” The creation of Adam and his progeny,
distinct from every other creature, in their cognitive abilities, was a great
favour of Allah on the progeny of Adam. Further, Allah sent Messengers all
through the ages, to guide mankind on the straight path to success in this life
and in the Hereafter. This process of guidance through revelations
culminated with Muhammad (pbuh), and the revelation of the Quran containing the
perfected and complete religion. With it was also complete the granting of full
autonomy to man in making moral choices and therefore the Quran proclaimed,
“Let there be no compulsion in religion”. Hereafter, war was ordained only to
fight injustice and oppression. The people of the previous scriptures and all
people who submit to Allah (by any name) and do good deeds are assured of their
reward with Allah.
(2:112) Nay,-whoever submits His whole self to Allah and is a doer
of good,- He will get his reward with his Lord; on such shall be no fear, nor
shall they grieve.
There is a misconception even among
some Muslims who are more familiar with the Bible than the Quran, that the
Quran only recognizes “Abrahamic” religions. This is not true as it should be
evident from the verse cited above. Besides, the Quran names two other
non-Abrahamic religions, the Sabians directly and the Buddhists indirectly and
there are several non-Abrahamic prophets mentioned in the Quran that do not
find a mention in the scriptures of other “Abrahamic” religions as they were
not from the Bani Israel or from the progeny of the Prophet Jacob/Yaqub.
The Prophetic mission of Muhammad
(pbuh) was distinct from the mission of every previous messenger. Despite the
intense opposition whipped up by a few, all the remaining people ended up
accepting Islam, and proved to be very dedicated Muslims who made great
sacrifices and spread the religion far and wide in a very short period. Those
killed fighting, was of the order of 2% of the population and they were among
the most vicious enemies of the religion.
Islam does not make any claim of being
a new religion and connects with all previous scriptures and religions that
preach submission to one God (by any name). It confirms part of what was
revealed in the earlier scriptures, and omits what is no longer relevant,
necessary or abrogated. It also contains portions that were not revealed
before. This is so since the process was progressive revelations based on the
times and the maturity of the people to receive guidance and continued until
the people had reached a level of maturity to whom the “perfected and complete
religion could be revealed”
Mankind owes an enormous gratitude to
Allah for the distinctive abilities Allah has granted to the progeny of Adam,
and guided them through the ages, and finally giving them the perfected and
complete religion through Muhammad (pbuh). By honouring the Messenger, we
honour Allah, and by showing gratitude to the Prophet, we show gratitude to
Allah and if we disrespect or dishonour the Messenger ever so slightly, we
disrespect and dishonour Allah. It is not possible to be a good Muslim while
not respecting, honouring and loving the Prophet (pbuh).
(3:164) Allah did confer a great favour on the believers when He
sent among them a messenger from among themselves, rehearsing unto them the
Signs of Allah, sanctifying them, and instructing them in Scripture and Wisdom,
while, before that, they had been in manifest error.
Allah Demands Unquestioning Belief and
Obedience to the Messenger
The Messenger is
Allah’s partner in the revelatory process and indeed belief in Allah and His
Book is not possible without belief in the Prophet. Since the Prophet is acting on behalf of
Allah, obedience to the Prophet becomes obedience to Allah and rejection of the
Prophet is rejection of Allah. You cannot honour, help, obey, love Allah
without honouring, helping, obeying and loving the Prophet
(49:15) Only those are Believers who have believed in Allah and
His Messenger, and have never since doubted…
(4:80) He who obeys the Messenger, obeys Allah. (3:132) And obey
Allah and the Messenger; that ye may obtain mercy. (33:71)
He that obeys Allah and His Messenger, has already attained the highest
achievement. (24:51) The answer of the
Believers, when summoned to Allah and His Messenger, in order that He may judge
between them, is no other than this: they say, "We hear and we obey":
it is such as these that will attain felicity.(33:36) It is not fitting for a
Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His
Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah
and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.
(9:62)…. it is more fitting that they should please Allah and His
Messenger, if they are Believers. (33:57) Those who annoy Allah and His
Messenger - Allah has cursed them in this World and in the Hereafter, and has
prepared for them a humiliating Punishment.
(58:20) Those who resist Allah and His Messenger will be among
those most humiliated. (8:13) If any contend against Allah and His Messenger,
Allah is strict in punishment. (9:80) ….Allah will not forgive them: because
they have rejected Allah and His Messenger: and
Allah guideth not those who are perversely rebellious.
How Do We Show Honour the Prophet (Pbuh) and
Show Gratitude?
(33:56) Allah and
His angels send blessings on the Prophet: O ye that believe! Send ye blessings
on him, and salute him with all respect.
We are asked to
send blessings or durud on the Prophet. We must recite durud excessively and
always whenever the Prophet’s name is mentioned. Without developing respect and
love for the Prophet, we cannot have faith in Allah. The moment we lose respect
and love for the Prophet, we lose our faith. We should therefore be extremely
careful about what we think and say about the Prophet. As Muslims, we are
commanded to put the best construction on anything that we hear and not
entertain evil thoughts about anyone, least of all the Prophet.
Enemies of Islam
The enemies of
Islam are forever trying to turn Muslims into apostates. The simplest way is to
make them doubt their Prophet or make him look bad. They therefore look for
stories that can make their Prophet look bad. The Quran says about people who
calumniate chaste men and women and bring evil charges against them:
(24:11) Those who
brought forward the lie are a body among yourselves: think it not to be an evil
to you; On the contrary it is good for you: to every man among them (will come
the punishment) of the sin that he earned, and to him who took on himself the
lead among them, will be a penalty grievous.
(12) Why did not
the believers - men and women - when ye heard of the affair,- put the best
construction on it in their own minds and say, "This (charge) is an
obvious lie"?
The charge they
often bring against the Prophet is based on verse 33:37 which we shall discuss
shortly.
“Relations” Based Only On Our Manner of
Speaking Are Derecognized
(33:4) Allah has not made …. your wives whom ye divorce by Zihar
your mothers: nor has He made your adopted sons your sons. Such is (only) your
(manner of) speech by your mouths. But Allah tells (you) the Truth, and He
shows the (right) Way.(5) Call them by (the names of) their fathers: that is
juster in the sight of Allah.
The tyranny of relationships based on
merely our manner of calling, extended to divorce by Zihar which the Quran
abolished. In addition, Pagan Arab society had the same taboos that Hindu
Society has against marrying anyone whom one has at any time called
mother/father, aunt/uncle or sister/brother although not related biologically.
We know now, that adopted children are
susceptible to psychological trauma when they discover that their natural
parents are different from their adopted parents. This is particularly likely
during adolescence, as the child begins to explore his or her identity and
question his or her place in the world. It is therefore better that they know
all along their true and adopted identities and are made comfortable with it.
The most compelling reason why adopted children should not change their name is
they should not be ashamed of their past. This is the wisdom from psychology
today which the Quran informs us 1400 years ago. Contrary to popular belief,
the Quran does not abolish adoption, but only giving the adopted child your
name. The adopted child continues to be the child of its natural parents and
must continue to bear their name.
The True Story Of Zaid, the Prophet’s
“Adopted” Son
Zaid was a slave gifted to Muhammad by
his first wife Khadija (RA). He was fifteen years younger than Muhammad. Zainab
was the Prophet’s cousin and a divorcee. The Prophet freed Zaid but he refused
to leave Muhammad for his natural parents, declaring the Prophet to be his
father. The Prophet sent Zaid’s marriage proposal for the hand of Zainab. Her
parents first refused on account of the social stigma attached to a former
“slave”. Zainab on hearing this, said that since the proposal had come from the
Prophet, it cannot be refused and agreed to marry Zaid. The marriage however
proved to be disastrous and Zaid wanted to divorce his wife. Allah had His
plans and indicated to the Prophet to marry Zainab after she had been divorced
by Zaid and after the due formalities of Iddat etc. as a duty to Allah (verse
33:38). The Prophet was uncomfortable for two reasons:
Zainab was his cousin and was known to him
from her childhood. He never had any intention to marry Zainab which is why he
had asked for her hand for Zaid rather than for himself.
The strong taboo against marrying the divorcee
of one’s son applied in Arab Pagan society to the adopted son’s wife as well.
He therefore feared the adverse reaction of the people if he married Zainab as
commanded by Allah.
Since the command
of Allah was to marry Zainab after Zaid divorce her, in order to avoid marrying
her, the Prophet was trying to prevail upon Zaid not to divorce his wife
saying, “Retain thou (in wedlock) thy
wife, and fear Allah." While doing so, what he was hiding in his
heart, was that Allah was not averse to the divorce, and in fact had indicated
to the Prophet to marry Zainab after the divorce as a duty to Allah. This is
what Allah finally revealed or made manifest. The following verses should now
be clear:
(33:37) Behold!
Thou didst say to one who had received the grace of Allah and thy favour:
"Retain thou (in wedlock) thy wife, and fear Allah." But thou didst
hide in thy heart that which Allah was about to make manifest: thou didst fear
the people, but it is more fitting that thou shouldst fear Allah. Then when
Zaid had dissolved (his marriage) with her, with the necessary (formality), We
joined her in marriage to thee: in order that (in future) there may be no
difficulty to the Believers in (the matter of) marriage with the wives of their
adopted sons, when the latter have dissolved with the necessary (formality)
(their marriage) with them. And Allah´s command must be fulfilled.
(38) There can be
no difficulty to the Prophet in what Allah has indicated to him as a duty. It
was the practice (approved) of Allah amongst those of old that have passed
away. And the command of Allah is a decree determined.
(39) (It is the
practice of those) who preach the Messages of Allah, and fear Him, and fear
none but Allah. And enough is Allah to call (men) to account.
With this marriage, the taboo against
marrying relations based on simply our “manner of speaking” but not by blood,
was abolished.
The questions that are asked are, ‘why
couldn’t this be done through a verse” rather than by making the Prophet do
what was obnoxious in that society. The simple answer is that much of the
teaching of the Quran is through “experiential learning”. The lesson is taught
with an example or real-life event. There could not have been guidance on the
conditions under which to migrate without a migration. There could not have
been guidance on how to wage war and on how to behave in victory without fighting
and winning a war. There could not have been guidance on treaties without
treaties.
The stronger the taboo, the greater
was the requirement to make the Prophet do what was considered obnoxious to
break the taboo. We know how tyrannical this taboo is when we see boys hiding
to avoid being tied a Rakhi by an unrelated girl.
The question is similar to ‘why was
Prophet Ibrahim (pbuh) asked to sacrifice his son? Did not Allah know about his
unquestioning loyalty to the commands of Allah?’ The social evil that Allah
abolished through the “sacrifice” (that did not take place) is child sacrifice.
This was by demonstrating that Allah does not require such sacrifice even from
His prophets.
Another similar question is, ‘why was
Jesus born to virgin Mary? What has God to do with procreation? Why could he
not be born the normal way with a father.’ The simple answer is because God
wanted to provide proof of Adam’s creation without parents with the
‘miraculous’ birth of Jesus.
Another example is the verse: (65:1)” O Prophet! When ye do divorce
women, divorce them at their prescribed periods…….” Why is this verse
addressed to the Prophet and not to “The Believers” like every other
legislative verse? This is because the Prophet never divorced any of his wives
and there was a danger that the people may have considered divorce a taboo just
because the Prophet never divorced. This verse tells us that even if the
Prophet had divorced, it wouldn’t have been inappropriate and there is no taboo
on divorce just because the Prophet never divorced.
People also question the timing of the
verse to insinuate that this verse was forged by the Prophet to escape the
wrath of the people. When else would Allah announce the marriage except
immediately after performing the marriage? Could this have been revealed before
Zaid divorced Zainab? That would have been like a command to Zaid to divorce
his wife. Could it have been revealed much later? That would have been
meaningless. When this was entirely an affair of Allah and arranged by Him to
legislate voiding a taboo, the timing was perfect. And why would Allah allow
the Prophet to suffer the barbs of the people when he was entirely innocent?
Through these events and verses, Allah
separates the believers from the hypocrites and the apostates. Do not therefore
fall a prey to the tricks of Satan by paying heed to such canards about the
Prophet. The Prophet (pbuh) is far above what these enemies of Islam say about
him.
(3:179) Allah will not leave the believers in the state in which
ye are now, until He separates what is evil from what is good ….
(6:10) Mocked were (many) messengers before thee; but their
scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked.
(6:112) Likewise did We make for every Messenger an enemy,- evil
ones among men and Jinns, inspiring each other with flowery discourses by way
of deception. If thy Lord had so planned, they would not have done it: so leave
them and their inventions alone.
How Do The Pious Muslims Behave?
They show the
utmost respect to the Prophet. The Prophet is not amongst us today and
therefore, the equivalent of lowering the voice in the Prophet’s presence would
be never saying anything about the Prophet, except what is honourable.
(49:3) Those that lower their voices in the presence of Allah´s
Messenger,- their hearts has Allah tested for piety: for them is Forgiveness
and a great Reward.
(49:7)
And know that among you is Allah´s Messenger: were he, in many matters, to
follow your (wishes), ye would certainly fall into misfortune: But Allah has
endeared the Faith to you, and has made it beautiful in your hearts, and He has
made hateful to you Unbelief, wickedness, and rebellion: such indeed are those
who walk in righteousness;-
Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering
graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having
served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over
three decades. He is a frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com
10:58 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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