Chapter Two:
Mustafa the chosen one
“ who
subdue their anger” (Holy
Qur'an 3:134).
To the Arab who would fight for forty years on the slight provocation that
a camel belonging to the quest of one tribe had strayed into the grazing land
belonging to another and both sides had fought till they lost 70,000 lives in
all, threatening the extinction of both tribes. To such furious Arabs, the
Prophet of Islam taught self-control and discipline to the extent of praying
even on the battlefield.
War For Self-Defence
When, after repeated efforts at conciliation had utterly failed, circumstances arose that dragged him into
the battlefield purely in self-defence, the prophet of Islam changed the whole
strategy of the battlefield. The total number of casualties in all the wars
that took place during his lifetime, when the whole Arabian Peninsula came
under his banner, does not exceed a few hundreds in all. He taught the Arab
barbarians to pray, to pray not individually but in congregations, to God
Almighty even amidst the dust and storm of warfare. Whenever the time for
prayer came - and it comes five times every day - the congregation prayer had
not to be abandoned or even postponed. A party had to be engaged in bowing
their heads before God while another was engaged with the enemy. After
finishing the prayers, the two parties had to exchange their positions.
Battlefield Humanised
In an age of barbarism, the battlefield itself was humanized and strict
instructions were issued not to embezzle, not to cheat, not to break trust, not
to mutilate, not to kill a minor child or a woman or an old man, not to hew
down date palm nor burn it, not to cut down a fruit tree, not to molest monks
and persons engaged in worship. His own treatment of his bitterest enemies was
the noblest example of his followers. At the conquest of Mecca, he stood at the
zenith of his power. The city which had tortured him and his followers, which
had driven him and his people into exile and which had unrelentingly persecuted
and boycotted him even when he had taken refuge in a place more than 200 miles
away, that city now lay at his feet. By the laws of war he could have justly
avenged all the cruelties inflicted on him and his people. But what treatment
did he meet out to them? Muhammad's heart overflowed with the milk of love and
kindness as he declared:" This
day, there is no reproof against you and you are all free".
Bitterest Enemies Pardoned
This was one of the chief objects why he permitted war in self defence-
to unite human beings. And when this object was achieved, even his worst
enemies were pardoned. Even those who had killed his beloved uncle, HUMZA,
mutilated his dead body, had ripped it open and chewed a piece of his liver.
Theory Merged With Practice
The principle of universal brotherhood and the doctrine of the equality
of mankind which he proclaimed represent very great contribution of Muhammad to
the social uplift of humanity. All great religions have also preached the same
doctrine, but The Prophet of Islam had put this theory into actual practice
and its value will be fully recognized, perhaps, sometime hence, when international
consciousness being awakened, racial prejudices would disappear and a stronger
concept of the brotherhood of humanity comes into existence.
Peasant And King Equal Before
God
Sarojini Naidu, speaking about this aspect of Islam, says:"
It was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for, in the
mosque, when the AZAAN (the Muslim call to prayer) is sounded and the
worshippers are gathered together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five
times a day when the peasant and king kneel side by side and proclaim, 'God
alone is great'. " The great poetess of India continues:" I have been
struck over and again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes man
instinctively a brother. When you meet an Egyptian, an Algerian, an Indian and
a Turk in London, what matters is that Egypt is the motherland of one and India
is the motherland of another ".
Islam-civilise spain and is
answer To today's dilemma
Mahatma Gandhi, in his inimitable style, says:" Someone has said
that Europeans in South Africa dread the advent of Islam - Islam, that
civilized Spain; Islam, that took the torch of light to Morocco and preached to
the world the Gospel of Brotherhood. The Europeans of South Africa dread the
advent of Islam, as they claim equality with the white races. They may well
dread it. If Brotherhood is a sin, if it is equality of the colored races that
they dread, then their dread is well founded".
Pilgrimage - Hajj - A Living
Testimony
Every year, during the pilgrimage season, the world witnesses the
wonderful spectacle of this international Exhibition of Islam in leveling all
distinctions of race, color, and rank. Not only the Europeans, the Africans,
the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese, all meet together in Mecca as members
of one divine family, but they are all clad in one dress, every person in two
simple pieces of white seamless cloth, one piece round the loin and the other
piece over the shoulders, bare-headed, without pomp or ceremony, repeating: "Here
am I, O God; at Thy command; Thou art One and the Only; Here am I".
Thus there remain nothing to differentiate the high from the low and every
pilgrim carries home the impression of the international significance of Islam.
In the words of Prof.
Hurgronje:" The League of Nations founded by the Prophet of Islam put
the principle of international unity and human brotherhood on such universal
foundations as to show candle to other nations". He continues:"
the fact is that no nation of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has
done towards the realization of the idea of League of Nations".
Transformation Extraordinaria
The Prophet of Islam thus brought about such a mighty transformation
that the noblest and purest among Arabs by birth offered their daughters in
marriage to this Negro slave and whenever the second Caliph of Islam, known to
history as Umar the Great, the commander of the faithful, saw this Negro slave,
he immediately stood in reverence and welcomed him by exclaiming:" Here
comes our master". What a tremendous change was brought by Qur'an and
Prophet Muhammad in the Arabs, the proudest people at that time on earth. This
is the reason why Goethe, the greatest of German poets, speaking about the Holy
Qur'an, declared that:" This book will go on exercising through all
ages a most potent influence". This also the reason why George Bernard
Shaw says:" If any religion has a chance of ruling over England, nay,
Europe, within the next 100 years, it is Islam".
Islam - Emancipated Women
It is this same democratic spirit of Islam that has emancipated women
from the bondage of man. Sir Charles Edward Archibald Hamilton says: "
Islam teaches the inherent sinlessness of man. It teaches that man and woman
have come from the same essence, possess the same soul and have been equipped
with equal capabilities for intellectual, spiritual and moral attainments".
Women Had Right To Own
Property
The Arabs had a very strong tradition that he alone can inherit who can
smite with the spear and can wield the sword. But Islam came as the defender of
the weaker sex and entitled women to share in the inheritance of their parents.
It gave women, centuries ago, the right of owning property. Yet it was only 12
centuries later, in 1881, that England, supposed to be the cradle of democracy,
adopted this institution of Islam and an Act was passed, called,"The
Married Women's Act". But centuries earlier, the Prophet of Islam had
proclaimed that "Women are the twin halves of men. The rights of women are sacred".
"See that women are maintained in the rights granted to them".
to be continued . . . .
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