Prophet Muhammad - The Seal Of The Prophets: A Divine Personality Worth Following By All
By
Arman Neyazi, New Age Islam
4 June 2021
Human
Beings Should Be Proud Of Having A Person Of Such Integrity, Humbleness And
Modesty With The Traits Of Mercy And Equality On This Planet To Guide The
Humanity And Give It Examples Of Living A Model Life
Main
Points:
1. ‘Mercy to
the world’, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the Seal of the Prophets was a divine
personality.
2. Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) was the epitome of moral excellence with the traits of mercy and
equality.
3. The honour
that the Ummah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is bestowed upon are those which were
not given to the Ummah of other Prophets.
4. Allah, the
Most Merciful started blessing the soil of his birth with miraculous mercies
from his birth.
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A merciful,
kind, truthful, generous, humble and modest, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the divine man sent to the
world as a ‘mercy to the world’ is truly unexplainable with the available words
in the dictionary. ‘Mercy to the world’, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the Seal of the
Prophets was a divine personality as a human being among us on this planet
earth.
The honour
that the Ummah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is bestowed upon is that which were
not given to the Ummah of other Prophets. The following part of the discussion
between Allah, the Most Gracious, and Prophet Musa (AS) testifies the greatness
of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) because even his Ummah is taken as the most honoured
among all other Ummah who came before:
Allah said to him, “No, they are not your
Ummah, they are Ummati Muhammad and you are going to be part of his Ummah on
Judgment Day.”
Childhood
Miracles of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
Al-Abbas
ibn Abd al-Muttalib was a paternal uncle and a Companion (Sahabi) of Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) who gave his reason for entering into the fold of Islam in the
following Hadees:
The Prophet’s uncle, Al-Abbas (r) said, Oh,
Messenger of Allah, what made me enter into your religion was my witnessing a
sign of your Prophethood. I saw you in your cradle talking tenderly to the Moon
and pointing at it with your finger. It moved across the sky to wherever you
pointed. Muhammad said, I was talking to it, and it talked to me, which
distracted me from crying. I could hear the sound of its prostration under the
throne. (Imam Ahmad Shihab ad-Din al-Qastallani, Sunnah.org)
Prophet
Muhammad (SAW)’s childhood days were miraculous in the sense that Allah, the
Most Merciful started blessing the soil of his birth with miraculous mercies. I
mention here a very famous incident of his childhood that occurred when Halima,
the wet nurse of Rasool Allah (SAW)adopted him and took him to her village.
Consider the following from ‘Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar):
Biography of the Prophet’:
It was a
year of drought and famine and we had nothing to eat. I rode on a brown donkey.
We also had with us an old she-camel. By Allah, we could not get even a drop of
milk. We could not have a wink of sleep during the night for the child kept
crying on account of hunger. There was not enough milk in my breast and even
the she-camel had nothing to feed him. At length, we reached Makkah looking for
children to suckle. Not even a single woman amongst us accepted the Messenger
of Allah (Peace be upon him) offered to her. As soon as they were told that he
was an orphan, they refused him. Every woman who came with me got a child to
nurse and when we were about to depart, I said to my husband:
By Allah, I
do not like to go back along with the other women without any baby. I should go
to that orphan and I must take him. He said, there is no harm in doing so and
perhaps Allah might bless us through him. So, I went and took him. When I
lifted him in my arms and returned to my place, I put him on my breast and to
my great surprise, I found enough milk in it. He drank to his heart's content,
and so did his foster brother and then both of them went to sleep although my
baby had not been able to sleep the previous night.
My husband
then went to the she-camel to milk it and, to his astonishment, he found plenty
of milk in it. He milked it and we drank to our fill and enjoyed a sound sleep
during the night.
The donkey
that she rode when she came to Makkah was lean and almost foundered; it
recovered speed much to the amazement of Haleemah’s fellow travellers. Their
barren land sprouted forth luxuriant grass and beasts came back to them
satisfied and full of milk. (Al Raheeq Al Maktum)
Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) And His Moral Excellence
Prophet
Muhammad (SAW), although an Islamic prophet, is venerated even by them who
belong to other religions and belief. Various faith leaders and non-Muslim
scholars of social sciences, philosophy and writers of repute have described
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as an embodiment of modesty, honesty, equality, generosity
and kindness in their epics and discussions.
Allah, the
All-knower describes Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as a man of outstanding character’
and says in the following two Ayaat in the Holy Quran:
And you are truly ‘a man’ of outstanding
character. (Surah
Al-Qalam - 4) — Dr Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran
There has certainly been for you in the
Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and
the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often. (Surah Al-'Ahzab: 21) - Sahih International
Above
mentioned Ayaat establish Prophet Muhammad (SAW) a man who in his traits had
the highest moral excellence. The Holy Quran never showed him as a superhuman
personality but established him as the ‘most perfect man of all the human
beings.
His friends
and foes both took him in good stead but he never established any sense of
superiority, not to talk of his Companions but even the common people. He won
the heart of the world and obeyed the commands of Allah with a sense of
humility, modesty and equality. Islam spread on the strength of his character
traits that the world of even his time acknowledged. Consider the following
three Ahadees that are an explanation of how Islam spread in Arabia and the
whole world thereafter:
Once, a group of Jewish men entered upon the
Prophet ﷺ,
and said, “As Samu Alaikum” meaning “Death be upon you.” Upon hearing this,
Aisha cursed them in reply, but the Prophet ﷺ advised her, “Be calm, O
Aisha. Allah loves that a person is kind and lenient in all matters.” (Bukhari)
At the time of signing the Treaty of Hudaybiya,
the Quraysh envoy, Suhayl bin Amr, demanded that the phrase “Messenger of
Allah” written next to the name of Muhammad ﷺ should be cut off as Suhayl
did not recognize him as such. Ali, being the scribe, refused to do so, but the
Prophet ﷺ
took the pen and struck off the phrase himself in the interest of peace.
(Bukhari)
At the time of his demise, the Prophet ﷺ wore “a sheet and a thick
lower garment.” Amr bin Al-Harith narrates, “[When he died] the Messenger of
Allah ﷺ
left neither a dinar nor a dirham, nor a male slave nor a female slave, nor
anything else except his white riding mule, his weapons, and his land which he
had given in charity to wayfarers.” (Bukhari)
The Prophet
ﷺ
would borrow money to fulfil his needs and that of his family even towards the
end of his life. Ayesha reports,
“When
the Messenger of Allah ﷺ
died, his armour was mortgaged with a Jew for thirty Sa [measures] of barley.”
(Bukhari)
Acknowledgement
of the Greatness of Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
To
understand Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his life, it is necessary to know what
others thought of him as a person and as a role model. Consider the following
sayings of the famous non-Muslim philosopher, clergymen, historians, professors
and statesmen:
“It is a
great shame for anyone to listen to the accusation that Islam is a lie and that
Muhammad was a fabricator and a deceiver. We saw that he remained steadfast
upon his principles, with firm determination; kind and generous, compassionate,
pious, virtuous, with real manhood, hardworking and sincere. Besides all these
qualities, he was lenient with others, tolerant, kind, cheerful and
praiseworthy and perhaps he would joke and tease his companions. He was just,
truthful, smart, pure, magnanimous and present-minded…”
(Thomas
Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish philosopher, historian and writer)
“Head of
the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope
without the Pope’s pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a
standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue.
If ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was
Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its
supports. He cared not for all the dressings of power. The simplicity of his
private life was in keeping with his public life.”
(Reverend
Bosworth Smith (1794-1884), American bishop and scholar)
“It is
impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet
of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but
reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme.
And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar
to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a
new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.”
(Annie
Besant (1847-1933), British rights’ activist, socialist and orator)
“His
readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of
the men who believed in him and looked up to him as a leader, and the greatness
of his ultimate achievement – all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose
Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the
great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.”
(William
Montgomery Watt (1909-2006), Scottish historian, orientalist and Anglican
priest)
“The good
sense of Muhammad despised the pomp of royalty. The Apostle of God submitted to
the menial offices of the family; he kindled the fire; swept the floor; milked
the ewes; and mended with his own hands his shoes and garments. Disdaining the
penance and merit of a hermit, he observed without effort of vanity the
abstemious diet of an Arab.”
(Edward
Gibbon (1737- 1794), English historian and Member of Parliament)
“Muhammad
was a shining example to his people. His character was pure and stainless. His
house, his dress, his food – they were characterized by a rare simplicity. So
unpretentious was he that he would receive from his companions no special mark
of reverence, nor would he accept any service from his slave which he could do
for himself. He was accessible to all and at all times. He visited the sick and
was full of sympathy for all. Unlimited was his benevolence and generosity as
also was his anxious care for the welfare of the community.”
(Gustav
Weil (1808-1889), German orientalist and author)
“The world
is in dire need of a man with the mind of Muhammad; religious people in the
Middle Ages, due to their ignorance and prejudice, had pictured him in a very
dark way as they used to consider him the enemy of Christianity. But after
looking into the story of this man I found it to be an amazing and miraculous
one and I came to the conclusion that he was never an enemy of Christianity,
and must be called instead the savior of humanity. In my opinion, if he was to
be given control over the world today, he would solve our problems and secure
the peace and happiness which the world is longing for.”
(George
Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish playwright, critic and political activist)
“He was the
most faithful protector of those he protected, the sweetest and most agreeable
in conversation. Those who saw him were suddenly filled with reverence; those who
came near him loved him; they who described him would say, “I have never seen
his like either before or after.” He was of great taciturnity, but when he
spoke it was with emphasis and deliberation, and no one could forget what he
said…”
(Stanley
Edward Lane-Poole (1854-1931), British orientalist and archaeologist)
“If
greatness of purpose, the smallness of means, and astonishing results are the
three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in
history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires
only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers that often
crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations,
empires, peoples, dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then
inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the
religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls… As regards all standards by
which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man
greater than he?”
(Alphonse
de Lamartine (1790-1869), French statesman, writer and poet)
“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… The world has not
hesitated to raise to divinity individuals whose lives and missions have been
lost in legend. Historically speaking, none of these legends achieved even a
fraction of what Muhammad accomplished. And all his striving was for the sole
purpose of uniting mankind for the worship of One God on the codes of moral
excellence. Muhammad or his followers never at any time claimed that he was a
Son of God or the God-incarnate or a man with divinity – but he always was and
is even today considered as only a Messenger chosen by God.”
(Christiaan
Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936), Dutch scholar and government advisor)
(Courtesy: ISLAM EXPLAINED/ Islamic teachings
in the light of Quran and Hadith)
And the
world leader of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi said:
“I wanted
to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the
hearts of millions of mankind… I became more than ever convinced that it was
not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life.
It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet the
scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and
followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and his
mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted
every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet’s biography), I
was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
The human
being should be proud of having a person of such integrity, humbleness and
modesty with the traits of mercy and equality on this planet earth to guide
humanity and give it examples of living a model life.
Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) was ‘The Seal Of The Prophets’ but his works and sayings will
remain a model to follow. He was a ‘Mercy for the Mankind’ so he was for all
the world people, irrespective of religion, caste and creed. Hence, the world
should follow him as it follows all the great men before and after him.
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Also Read:
The Noble Persona of Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) As Mirrored
In the Qur’an
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And
Allah knows the best.
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Arman
Neyazi is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/prophet-muhammad-seal-divine-personality/d/124932
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