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The next aspect that caught me eye—and this again was
something that non-Muslims were mentioning in their works—was the effect that
the Quran had on the generation of the Prophet. May the mercy and blessings of
God be upon him, and afterwards.
It is clear that the Arabs at the time of the Prophet were
wont to drink, make merry and engage in tribal battles. They were known to
sometimes kill their female babies. However, one finds that in a short span of
close to twenty years a movement that started with just one man was able, due
to the grace of God and the miraculous effect of the Quran, to change almost
all of the Arabs and non-Arabs in the Arabian peninsula and bind them together
into a brotherhood of faith and mercy which was so strong that if any one part
of this brotherhood was in anguish, the whole brotherhood would be affected
negatively. At that time, one could find two people who were from previously
antagonistic tribes sharing their wealth and willing to give up their lives for
each other. Indeed, one was willing to split half of his wealth and divorce one
of his wives for the sake of his new brother who was from a “foreign” tribe.
Perhaps one of the best descriptions of the change that took
place among the Muslims can be seen in the famous statement of the Companion
Jafar ibn Abu Talib who was asked by the Negus of Abyssinia about the mission
of the Messenger. He told him,
O king, we were an ignorant people, worshipping idols,
eating carrion and indulging in sexual pleasures. We ridiculed our neighbors, a
brother oppressed his brother, and the strong devoured the weak. At this time a
man rose among us, who had already been known to be truthful, noble and honest.
This man called us to Islam. And he taught us to give up worshipping stones, to
speak the truth, to refrain from bloodshed, and not to defraud the orphans of
their property. He taught us to provide comfort to our neighbors and not to
bring a slander against chaste women. He enjoined upon us to offer prayers,
observe fasts and give alms. We followed him, gave up polytheism and idolatry
and refrained from all evil deeds. It is for this new way that our people have
become hostile to us and compel us to return to our old misguided life.[1]
That generation, in turn, took the message to the rest of the
world. They were clearly a people who were taken from darkness into light and
to the straight path of God. When asked by the Emperor of Persia what brought
the Muslims to their lands, two different Companions answered in similar terms:
“God has sent us to take whoever wishes from the servitude of mankind to the
servitude of God and from the tightness of this world to its expanse and from
the injustice of the ways of life [in this world] to the justice of Islam.”[2]
During the lifetime of the Prophet one can see how these
people were turned into a pious generation, fearing God and hoping for God’s
reward. Even when they, as humans, slipped and committed sins, they eagerly
repented and turned to God for His forgiveness. They would much rather face a
severe penalty in this life, such as death, than face God with their sins on
their hands. This can be seen in the cases of Maaiz ibn Maalik al-Aslami and
the woman called al-Ghaamidiyah. Both of them came to the Prophet to admit that
they had committed adultery and each asked the Prophet for the worldly
retribution to erase their sins. In the case of al-Ghaamidiyah, the Prophet
asked her to go back after her confession and to return to the Prophet after
she had given birth. She came back with her child in her arms and asked the
Prophet to purify her from her sins. The Prophet then asked her to return after
she had weaned the child. Then she returned after some time and told the
Prophet that the child was no longer in need of her breastfeeding. She once
again asked for her expiation from her sin. Then, finally, the Prophet implemented
the legal retribution as an expiation for her sin of adultery. The Prophet then
praised her act of repentance.[3]
The effect of this change in the Companions continued long
after the death of the Prophet. Note the following accounts of the Companions
as they sought to spread the message of Islam to the rest of the world:
The sterling character and qualities of the Muslim soldiers
were once praised by a Roman officer in these words: “At night you will find
them prayerful; during the day you will find them fasting. They keep their
promises, order good deeds, suppress evil and maintain complete equality among
themselves.”
Another testified thus: “They are horsemen by day and
ascetics by night. They pay for what they eat in territories under their
occupation. They are first to salute when they arrive at a place and are
valiant fighters who just wipe out the enemy.”
A third said: “During the night it seems that they do not
belong to this world and have no other business than to pray, and during the
day, when one sees them mounted on their horses, one feels that they have been
doing nothing else all their lives. They are great archers and great lancers,
yet they are so devoutly religious and remember God so much and so often that
one can hardly hear talk about anything else in their company.”[4]
The benefits of the civilization developed upon the
teachings of the Quran went well beyond the Muslim lands. Many are familiar
with the Muslims’ influence on Europe and how
Islamic influences eventually led to the Renaissance. The author of A
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, John Draper wrote, “Four
years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born at Mecca, in Arabia, the
man who, of all men, has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race.”[5] This work was quite an eye
opener for me at the time of my conversion to Islam. Draper, writing in the 19th century,
was very disappointed and seemingly angered that Muslims continually failed to
receive their proper accolades for all that they contributed to European
society and civilization. For instance, he writes "To these Saracens
we are indebted for many of our personal comforts. Religiously cleanly, it
was not possible for them to clothe, according to the fashion of the
natives of Europe , in a garment unchanged till
it dropped to pieces of itself, a loathsome mass of vermin, stench and
rags... They taught us the use of the oft-changed and oft-washed
under-garment of linen and cotton, which still passes among ladies
under its old Arabic name...”[6]
Many scholars have recognized the importance of Islam and
the Quran’s teachings for the betterment of humanity. The famous intellect
George Bernard Shaw once stated,
“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high
estimation because of its wonderful vitality… I have prophecied about the
faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable tomorrow as it is beginning to be
acceptable to the Europe of today. Mediaeval
ecclesiastics, either through ignorance or bigotry, painted Muhammadanism in
the darkest colours. They were, in fact, trained to hate both the man Muhammad
and his religion. To them Muhammad was anti-Christ. I have studied him, the
wonderful man, and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ he must be
called the saviour of Humanity.[7]
Footnotes:
[1]The
translation of this statement was taken from Allama Shibli Numani, Sirat-un-Nabi(Lahore,
Pakistan: Kazi Publications, 1979), p. 211. The incident was recorded by ibn
Ishaq inal-Maghazi and Ahmad. And its chain is sahih according
to al-Albaani. See al-Albaani's footnotes to Muhammad al-Ghazaali, Fiqh
al-Seera (Qatar :
Idaarah Ihyaa al-Turaath al-Islaami, n.d.), p. 126.
[2]Ismaaeel
ibn Katheer, Al-Bidaayah wa al-Nihaayah (Beirut : Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, n.d.), vol.
7, pp. 39-40.
[3]The
story of both Maaiz and al-Ghaamidiyyah are recorded by Muslim.
[4]Quoted
from Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, Islam and the World (International Islamic
Federation of Student Organizations, 1983), p. 81. Also see ibn Katheer, al-Bidaayah,
vol. 7, p. 53.
[5] Quoted
in Islam—The First and Final Religion, p. 39. Of course, more recently,
Michael H. Hart’s The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in
History put the Prophet Muhammad r number one among all the
world’s influential leaders.
[6] Draper’s
work is not available to me at the current time. Therefore, this quote was
taken from Aslam Munjee, The Crusades: Then and Now (Arlington , VA
[7] “A
Collection of Writings of Some of the Eminent Scholars,” published by the
Woking Muslim Mission, 1935 edition, p. 77. Quoted in Islam: The
First & Final Religion (Karachi, Pakistan: Begum Aisha Bawany Waqf,
1978), p. 57. In reality, many non-Muslim, Western thinkers have had words of
great praise for the religion of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him, or the Quran. The work just cited compiles
numerous such quotes and is interesting reading.
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