THE entire history of mankind in the post-Muhammadan period provides testimony to the Prophet’s impact on humanity. With the emergence of the Prophet (SAWs) on the stage of history, humanity clearly entered a new decisive and final stage of religious consciousness and cultural development.

When the Qur’an proclaimed in unmistakable terms that the institution of Prophethood had reached its final stage with Prophet Muhammad (SAWs), this proclamation was also fully attested by the subsequent course of human history.

No new Prophet or messenger, nor any other Divine scripture succeeded the Prophet (SAWs) or the Qur’an. The Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sirah remain the authentic touchstone of the truth and the reliable source of Divine call to humanity.

The foremost thrust of the Prophet’s teaching that changed the erstwhile religious perspective was to liberate humanity from the animistic notions of the past that involved a deification of the phenomenal world. The primitive religiosity of man largely prevailing in the world before Prophet Muhammad (SAWs), was to invest everything beneficial or harmful in this universe, with a supernatural sanctity or even at times with divinity.

Thus, man humbled himself before sun and moon, stars and galaxies, sky and earth, rivers and oceans, even beasts and animals. This pantheistic notion constructed for man’s servitude and compelled him to bow before millions of gods and deities.

Another less primitive but equally obscurantist view that was held by a number of other creeds was to see this world as an evil satanic scheme which undermines the spirituality of man. These creeds also enfeebled man before the diabolical and devilish influences of this world represented by corporeality and matter and body and flesh and thus took a negative view of man and this phenomenal world.

These creeds and cults projected this world as a prison house in which man is placed by destiny and from which the deliverance should be sought by emancipating oneself from all sanguine, social, marital and material involvement. While one view imposed on man a direct servitude of this material world, the other painted the world in evil and adversarial terms.

The Prophet’s sound and rational teaching dealt a powerful blow to all such obscurantisms and superstitions. He taught in unambiguous terms that man’s habitat and environment have been created for the service of man. He reminded that this world has been created, designed and tailored to suit the survival of man and to serve the needs of human life. Said he in one of his oft-quoted sermons: ‘indeed this immediate world has been created for you, but you have been created for the ultimate world of the hereafter’. For the eternal home of lasting bliss which will be the final abode of mankind is really worth man’s while.

It was precisely this teaching of the Prophet (SAWs) clearly articulated in the Qur’an that gave rise to the crystallization of the empirical methodology of natural sciences. For unless one has the satisfaction of knowing that this world is not essentially man’s enemy, but friendly and compatible to humanity’s well-being and amelioration, natural science is hardly tenable. Science and all its modes and methods of inquiry and investigation seem to proceed clearly from the monotheistic doctrine of Islam taught by the Qur’an and the Prophet. The Qur’an contains profuse statements that fully substantiate this contention.

All these statements of the Qur’an as explained by the Prophet’s teachings are premised on the doctrine that nothing created by Allah is futile and fruitless. But on the contrary, everything that He has created, He has created for a definite purpose. And the noblest of these purposes has been assigned to man under the terms of his august office of ‘vicegerent’. In this way, the Prophet (SAWs) emerges as a great benefactor of humanity.

People might still be persisting in their polytheistic or pantheistic views of religion, but the enterprise of science is definitely a monotheistic enterprise. Sooner or later, humanity is going to reach the stage when it is no longer possible to disbelieve in One Supreme God Who alone is the Creator, Sustainer and Controller of this cosmos.

The logical flow of the overwhelming scientific evidence that is continuously pouring in will also eventually shatter the myth that reason and revelation or theology and science were incompatible. Those shallow interpreters of science in post-medieval Europe who, fascinated by Newtonian physics, Darwinian biology and Freudian psychology, tried to dismiss theo-centric worldview and circulated the view that science had rendered god irrelevant, are now open to serious criticism by scientists themselves. The findings of ecological sciences, inter-alia, have furnished an un-controvertible evidence that the entire cosmos is serving the interest of human kind.

Another conspicuous impact of the Prophet’s dispensation which is a logical corollary of the first doctrine is the elevation of the status of man. In the first place, the emergence of a man of the Prophet’s calibre on the scene of history in itself brought the status of man to great heights unknown to mankind previously. The Prophet repeatedly reiterated the lofty locus of man. He reminded him that his destiny lay in his own hands. He put great premium on the value of human endeavours and achievements. The Prophet rejected all erstwhile claims to pre-natal distinctions of race or colour, or clan or caste. He blotted out from the innocent face of humanity the stigma of original sin.

Moreover, he declared in his last public sermon that all notions of mutual superiority among humans are false, and that man had been created in the best form and invested with unlimited potential for self-development. Thus he was fully eligible to fashion his own destiny. He could make or unmake success or failure by his own conscious deeds and misdeeds. What is more, the Prophet equalized genders. He recognized full value of woman and her natural God-given gifts and talents.

The course of human cultural career subsequent to the Prophet (SAWs) is an ample self-evident commentary on these monumental cataclysmic reforms introduced by the Prophet (SAWs) and fully promulgated in the socio-cultural, moral and spiritual dispensation established by him and by his companions.

These are only some aspects of the many significant changes in thought and behaviour, vision and perspective that the Prophet of Islam effected in the world. Humanity as a whole and not merely the community of his loving followers owe to the Prophet (SAWs) a great debt.

EVEN after the passage of nearly fifteen hundred years the personality and character of Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) continues, still, to amaze and fascinate thinkers, historians and intellectuals. And not only Muslims but even those who have little love lost for him — even the Jews, Christians, and others — are impressed and charmed. Countless treatises have been written on the subject but there always remains something more to be said.

If you look for any unusual factor or any spectacular feature such as in the field of miracles, that distinguished him from his “colleagues,” — the other Messengers of Allah, you may be disappointed. For Muhammad was a “plain,” down-to-earth human, and the message he propagated was equally plain and down-to-earth. There was nothing supernatural about either his person or his work.

Yet, this very factor, this want of any superhuman traits, this absence of incredible performances, was what separated him from other Prophets. For example he performed no such miracles as Noah, Abraham, Swaleh, Hud, Loot, et al. He did not sail in an ark over an all-consuming flood. He was not swallowed by any fish. He was not thrown into a pit of flaming fire. He was not asked to sacrifice his son in the way of Allah. He was not a king like David and Solomon. His club did not turn into a snake, nor did the palms of his hand emit any effulgence.

Born like any other human, Muhammad did not speak in his cradle. He did not make birds with clay and breathe life into them. He did not heal lepers and congenitally blind people nor bring the dead to life. Nor were there jinns to do his biddings nor did he communicate with birds. Yet, he was designated as “Mercy for the worlds,” the “Seal of the Prophets,” blessed with “Me’raj,” — the celestial journey by night into Divine presence, and he stood “on an exalted standard of character.”

As a Messenger of Allah, Muhammad was like unto all other Messengers. Men of faith “make no distinction between one and another (2:285).” However, the miracles his predecessors performed were, by their very nature, beyond human comprehension. But they were also transitory, ephemeral, like a flood or a rain of rocks or other calamity. It came and went and became history. On the other hand, what Muhammad performed and achieved was something tangible; concrete; comprehensible. His miracle was reality, enduring, abiding, permanent.

He transformed a wild people into law-abiding citizens, disciplined the undisciplined, civilized the uncivilized, and established a “modern” society with a working system of governance all within a span of about ten years. In response to defiance, denial and persecution he did not invoke Divine retribution upon his tormentors and have them wiped out like the ‘Aad, Thamud and others. This is the most glaring testimony to his being an embodiment of mercy, and one that largely distinguishes him from other Prophets.

Answering those who wanted him to perform miracles, he pointed to the miracles scattered all around them, in the earth and in the sky. As truth can be stranger than fiction so realities can be miracles, calling for open-jawed amazement. Look over the world, says he; is it not wonderful, the work of Allah; wholly “a sign to you,” if your eyes were open! This earth, Allah made it for you; “appointed paths in it;” you can live in it, move about in it.

Great clouds, black, awesome, with their thunder and lightning, — where do they come from! They pour down copious showers on a parched, dead earth, and grass springs, and “tall leafy palm-trees with their date-clusters hanging round, wherein is a sign.” Your cattle too, he points out, Allah made them; serviceable dumb creatures; they change the grass into milk; you have your clothing from them. Ships, like huge moving mountains, with their cloth wings spread out, go bounding over the waves, driven by Heaven’s wind, His wind, under His command. And when Allah has withdrawn the wind, they lie motionless, dead, and cannot stir!

These, indeed, are miracles par excellence! Besides, look at the creation of humans. Is that anyway less than a miracle? Allah made you, he says, “created you out of dust, then out of sperm, then out of a leech-like clot, then out of a morsel of flesh partly formed and partly unformed.” (22:5). Ye were small once; then ye grew. Ye have beauty, strength, thoughts and then old age overtakes you; your strength fades into feebleness; ye sink down, and again are not. And, above all, “Ye have compassion on one another.” Is that not a great miracle in itself, — mutual compassion? What if Allah had made you having no compassion on one another?

As among Allah’s Messengers, so with other people; Muhammad (S.A.W.) was like a common human, yet uncommon; similar, yet different. Totally free from cant, he never pretended to be what he was not. He therefore repeatedly emphasized, “I am a human like unto you.” (basharum mithlukum).

But Muhammad (S.A.W.) was not an ordinary person. The purpose of emphasizing the likeness was to generate empathy with his interlocutors and his audience and to reassure them that he was on the same grid with them. He felt the anguish of pain and the comfort of pleasure, hunger and thirst, joys and sorrows, same as any human. Another reason for repeating this reminder, frequently, was to prevent his followers from lapsing into the same pitfall as the Christians, who, in their zeal called him the son of God. So he pointed out that what distinguished him from ordinary humans was that he received wahi, — the Revelation. “I am like unto ye, (but) on whom Divine Revelation has come that assuredly there is no other deity for you but only One, Allah!”

Events about his birth and childhood are too well-known to require any detailed treatment. The man who was to be ordained as the last Messenger of Allah and who would testify to the credentials of all other Messengers of Allah before him, was yet born an orphan. His mother also died when he was only a child. His grandfather, a hundred year old man, Abdul Muttalib, deeply loved the little orphan boy, the child of his youngest and most beloved son, Abdullah. But Abdul Muttalib also died when Muhammad (S.A.W.) was only two years old, leaving him to the care of his eldest uncle, Abu Talib.

What put him way above other humans was Muhammad’s character. That was his forte — character born of Sincerity and nurtured by truth. His companions, friends and relatives named him Al Amin, “The Faithful, the Trustworthy.” Even at a young age, he was recognized as a man of truth and fidelity; true in what he did, in what he spoke and thought. From an early age he had been remarked as a thoughtful man. He was silent when there was nothing to be said; but pertinent, wise and sincere, when he did speak; always throwing light on the matter. Throughout his life he was regarded as an altogether solid, brotherly, genuine man, a serious and sincere character; amiable, cordial, and companionable.

Why would the Bedouins obey him, recognize him unless he had the mesmerizing power of sincerity, the magic of truth and plain words? They were wild men, bursting ever and anon into quarrel, into all kinds of fierce fights; no one without right worth and manhood could have commanded them. Yet they accepted him as Prophet of Allah, because, there he stood face to face with them; “bare, not enshrined in any mystery; visibly clouting his own cloak, cobbling his own shoes; fighting, counselling, ordering in the midst of them.” They had seen what kind of a man he was, judged him and then bowed before him. “No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting.”

Muhammad had to deal with the ferocious bloodthirsty Arab heathens, who drove him out of his home. He had to deal with the plots of the scheming Jews. It was a life-and-death war with them. Carlyle takes note of the fact that in such situations “cruel things could not fail,” but asserts that “neither are acts of mercy, of noble natural pity and generosity wanting.” Such acts were each the free dictate of his heart; each called for, there and then, on the spur of the moment, yet each done not as a self-seeker, not for personal aggrandizement or ambition but in the way of Allah.

A tender heart was another facet of his character. His emancipated and beloved slave, the first among slaves to embrace Islam, had fallen in the Battle of Tabuk. He said it was well of the man. He had done his Master’s work and has now gone to his Master. Yet the martyr’s daughter found him weeping over the body, melting in tears! “What do I see?” said she. “You see a friend weeping over his friend,” answered the Prophet.

Muhammad personally led at least nineteen engagements with the heathens. There was booty from those battles. Yet, his household was the most frugal; his common diet barley-bread and water and occasionally some dates: sometimes for months there was not a fire once lighted on his hearth. He would mend his own shoes, patch his own cloak, — a true paradigm of the man who “having nothing yet hath all.”

“NAY, by God, it would never be so! He would never sadden you. You have always been kind to your relatives. You speak truth. You clear the debts of others. You help the poor. You are hospitable. You assist your fellow men. You bear the afflictions of those in distress.”

These words of solace came impulsively, without least hesitation, from the mouth of a lady who had known him inside out, experienced him through thick and thin, for fifteen years as his wife. This was Khadijah comforting her husband, Muhammad (PBUH) when he returned from the cave of Hira, exhausted and terrified, fearing for his life, after the first ever encounter with the arch-angel Gabriel and receiving the first Divine Revelation. She adduced as her witness his past career when though he was not a prophet yet was reputed far and wide as al-Sadiq al-Ameen, the truthful, the trustworthy, the faithful.

“A man of Truth and Fidelity, true in what he did, in what he spoke and thought,” (Carlyle). How could such a noble soul, bearing such lofty morals, be forsaken, left uncared-for, by God! She related what she had observed, experienced, felt and heard. The approach was rational, the argument convincing, the reasoning sound. And what testimony could be more reliable, more dependable than one’s own wife’s. So this was the man Muhammad, prior to when the mantle of prophethood adorned his shoulders. And what after that?

Ali was the nearest and dearest of all his blood relations. He had been with the Prophet since his childhood. It was he who as a lad had stood up out of all the kinsmen, whom the Prophet had called at the mount of Safa in compliance with the Divine commandment “Admonish the nearest of your kinsmen” (Q:26:214), and declared fearlessly, when others had refused to believe in the prophetic call, his belief in his prophethood. He describes the Prophet that he was benevolent, extremely generous, truthful and very kind-hearted. It was a pleasure to be in his company. A man was over-awed by his first contact with him but came to love him after remaining in constant touch with him.

‘Ayesha, his next beloved wife after Khadijah expired, who remained with him for nine years, in his advanced age till death, thus acknowledged his graceful manners and high morals: He did never cast reflection upon anybody. He never spoke ill of any one. He was never revengeful. Instead he forgave those who offended him. He never turned down any seemly request. He was always miles away from unjust behaviour.

Anas bin Malik, who as a boy had been appointed by his mother to attend upon the Prophet just after his arrival in Madinah, and who remained attached to him for ten years, informs us that during this long period the Prophet did never so much as scold him or find fault with him, nor he ever reprimanded him for any lapse which he happened to commit.

These are the impressions of some of the many persons who had the opportunity to have long and most intimate connection with him. But far more eloquent and emphatic is the testimony of Allah Himself, Who, calling to witness all the historical records written and preserved, or to be penned down at any time, by human hand declared: “Verily there is in store for you a great reward unfailing, never-ending, beyond expectations. And you, for certain, stand on the most exalted pedestal of morality,” (Q: 68:4).

At another place his virtuous character is extolled in the following words. “It is by virtue of Allah’s compassion alone that you deal with them gently and leniently. Had you been gruff or harsh-hearted they would have certainly broken away from about you,” (Q3:159).

This was the practical manifestation of the Prophet’s own teachings. He had instructed the faithful, “Do not envy one another. Do not hate one another. Do not turn away from one another. Be you O ! servants of Allah brothers. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim. He neither lies to him nor does he hold him in contempt. It is evil enough for a man to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. Every thing of a Muslim is inviolable for another Muslim : his blood, his property, and his honour.” And this was how he acted upon his own advice.

The Quran has been revealed to enable the mankind to differentiate between good and bad, right and wrong, virtue and evil, and to guide it to the right path which leads to the eternal bliss, the real success in this life and the hereafter. Prophet Muhammad through whom this Divine message has been communicated is at the same time commissioned with the task of putting it into practice, enacting its instructions, presenting his own self as the paragon par excellence of its teaching.

He preached and practised and rose to the heights of being the role model for humanity at large. “Verily there is in the person of the Messenger of Allah the best of the patterns of conduct for every one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day and who deeply engages in the remembrance of Allah,” (Q:33:21)

The life-blood of religion is the remembrance of Allah. The Quran’s Olul-albab, Men of deep understanding, are those “Who remember Him standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides,” (Q:3:191). The Prophet has also instructed that “Your tongue should always remain wet with the remembrance of Allah.” We are told that there was no moment when he was not engaged in the remembrance of Allah.

The supplications of the Prophet which have been handed down to us, preserved in the Hadith books and also found in several independent works show that on every possible occasion and in all positions he maintained communion with his Lord and that at no time he was lost in forgetfulness. He told the people to be ever vigilant in asking forgiveness from Allah for their sins and shortcomings or substandard performance of their duties. What he himself did was to ask forgiveness from Allah seventy or hundred times in just one sitting.

He said that every Muslim had to offer his prayers five times a day. He himself offered prayers at least eight times a day. The night-prayer, Tahajjud, which was optional for every one else was offered compulsorily by him. While offering night prayers he stood for such a long time that his legs became swollen. When once Ayesha remarked that why did he take so much trouble when Allah had already redeemed him, his modest reply was, “Should I not act as a thankful servant!” He did never miss his congregational prayers. He was so particular about it that even during his last illness which ended in his departure from this world he attended the mosque while reclining on his two companions.

Fasting during the month of Ramazan was made incumbent upon every believer. The Prophet himself fasted during Shabaan and Ramazan. He also fasted on Mondays and Thursdays as well as on the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth of every month. During the month of Shawwal he fasted for six days after Eid-ul-Fitr. He also fasted during the first ten days of Muharram.

It was enjoined on the well-to-do Muslims to spend a fixed portion of their wealth as Zakat, (Q:2:215,254). It was made optional for any one to give in charity as much as he could afford after satisfying his needs, ((Q:2:219). None was required, however, to give away all of that which he possessed. “Make not your hand tied to your neck (be niggardly), nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach so that you become blameworthy and distressed,” (Q:17:29). The Prophet also explained that the best act of charity was that which did not result in destitution. The Prophet’s life was however that of giving preference to other’s needs, sacrifice, generosity, magnanimity and self-denial.

Extremely frugal concerning his own needs he gave away whatever he had to the poor, the destitute, the needy and the have-nots. Though he himself led a life of privation and bare subsistence for others he was magnanimous beyond imagination. According to Ibn Abbas “More generous than all of us was the Apostle of Allah who gave away freely especially during Ramazan. He never said ‘no’ in reply to any request, and never took his food alone. No matter in what small quantity the food was available, he invited all those present to share it with him.

He had asked us to inform him if any Muslim died without clearing his debt, for he always took the responsibility to get it repaid. The legacy of the deceased, evidently, devolved on his heirs.” Abu Dhar, a companion of the Prophet relates that once he said to him, “Were the mountain of Uhud turned into gold for me, I would not like three nights to pass with a single dinar in my possession except whatever I may keep for clearing away somebody’s debt.”

The greatest and the most common weakness of those in power and high position is that they are prone to fall an easy prey to the onslaught of nepotism. They are tempted to oblige their incompetent relatives and undeserving friends by appointing them to responsible posts where they could enjoy power and pelf, or out of public exchequer they squander money upon those who have no right to it. According to the Quran it is a criminal breach of trust, (Q:4:58). It has been condemned by the Prophet.

Once his companion Abu Dhar, about whom the Prophet said that he was the most truthful of all those who walked on earth, requested him to appoint him on an administrative post. The Prophet declined to oblige him saying he was too weak to shoulder the responsibilities of that office.

On another occasion his beloved daughter Fatimah, much distressed by the hardships of continuously drawing water from the well and grinding the hand-mill, requested him to provide her with a maid-servant, he very politely turned down the request saying “No provision has yet been made for the poverty-stricken people of Suffah. Moreover, the orphans of Badr have already made a request before you.”

It is easy to say “Love thy enemy” but very difficult to practise, especially when the enemy is in your grip. The life of the Prophet abounds with examples of showing mercy, compassion and forgiveness when the deadliest and lifelong enemies were on their knees. General amnesty for Abu Sufyan, the lifelong enemy, to his wife Hind who had chewed the liver of his uncle Hamzah, and to his killer Wahshi, to the Makkans after the conquest of Makkah with the words “Go your way, you are the freed ones, forgiveness to Abd Yalail, the stone-hearted chief of Taif who nearly killed him, are only a few examples of his humane and merciful attitude towards his enemies. His entire life-span is an eloquent testimony to the undeniable reality that he practised what he preached.