by Dr Sulaiman Rifai, Naleemi (London)

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By Dr RIFAI (NALEEMI) UK

I really advise our readers to read this series entirely before they come to some hasty conclusions. An attempt has been made here to illustrate the biographical account of the Prophet Muhammad a precise and succinct way so that our Non-Muslim readers could enhance their knowledge about the prophet Muhammad without any bias or prejudice

In this series I shall try to introduce the biography of the prophet Muhammad to our Non-Muslim readership. Most of the Non-Muslim people have got wrong perceptions about the life and accomplishment of the prophet Muhammad.   In some cases we can not blame them all for this misperception. This is because they have come to know the biographical account of the prophet Muhammad through the writing of some bias writers toward Islam and Muslims.  Today, misperceptions about Islam and its prophet are wide spread in all formats: Since Prophet Muhammad received his prophethood from Almighty Allah in the cave Hira the antagonism and accusation toward his message began. It is not a new social phenomenon that Islam and Muslims encounter problems and challenges when Muslims reach out with the message of Islam to any Non- Muslim community today, yet, it is importance to know how to face some of these challenges and problems and how to repulse some of these accusations. 

Since the time of crusades the prophet of Islam was subjected to bias criticism by the crusaders. The crusaders spread hatred about Islam and its prophet since the first crusade between Islam and Christianity. A large numbers of books were written by these anti-Muslim religious scholars and academic about Islam and its prophet: Historically speaking this antagonism towards Islam and Muslim continued since the crusade time until modern time:  Much has been written about Prophet Muhammad by European scholars, Christian theologians and western journalists in different European languages . Through out crusade time, Prophet Mohammed was depicted a man of anti-Christ. Christian theologians declared wars against the teaching of Prophet Muhammad.  Antagonism and resettlement against the teaching of Islam and its prophet continued until modern times.

In the medieval Christian literature Prophet Muhammad was portrayed as anti-Christ, an impostor, a charlatan and he was depicted as “Mahound” as a name of devil in medieval Christian literature. Still today we notice that some Non-Muslims consider the prophet Muhammad as an invader and coloniser. Some people think that His teaching oppresses human freedom and human rights and some others think that His teaching oppresses women folks. Some others accused of the prophet of Islam as sexy and lusty person who married more than one wife.  These anti-prophet perceptions are created by some bias academics and readers who read the historical account of the prophet from subjective perspective:  These people have read the biography of the prophet from secularist and materialistic perspectives, They have failed to read his biography as a final of Prophet of God and consequently they have come to some wrong conclusions about this great prophet of Islam:

When we appraise the success of any person in this world we do so by evaluating the achievement and accomplishment of such person.  We know that humanity has seen many revolutionists in the world.  We have seen many great inventors and contributors to the world civilizations. Yet, the contribution and accomplishment of the prophet Muhammad to the humanity is distinctive in characters. His contributions are unique and unparallel in human history.   To understand that distinctive contributions one needs to know the significance of Prophet Muhammad in human history. What type of a human revolution did Prophet Muhammad make with very little human and material resources? How did He manage to do this miraculous social revolution with the very little man power and material resources from scorching desert of Arabia? What are the achievements and accomplishments of Prophet Muhammad in His life time? Where did Prophet Muhammad get his commandments to accomplish his legacy? What is the secret of His success in His mission and vision?

What are the qualities of this Prophet? How did He manage to mobilise his man power in this scorching Arabian Desert?  How did Prophet Muhammad differ from all other human revolutionists in human history? What was his mission on this Earth and for what He called the humanity?  Where did He begin his mission from?  Why he was so successful in His mission and what do modern unbiased historians and scholars say about His noble personality? Away from any biased accusations we examine these questions objectively with historical and logical evidence.   Whoever tries to get some objective clarification for these questions without any prejudice will certainly come to a firm conclusion that Prophet Muhammad was an extra-ordinary and Exceptionally Perfect Human Being and yet, he was divinely inspired.  Almighty Allah blessed him with His final revelation that made him different from all other human beings: It was this divine help and guidance that made him the most successful person on this earth.  The divine revelation was the secret of His legacy and achievement. Yet, blind people do not want to open their hearts and minds to this noble final divine revelation:

Arabian Peninsula in pre-Islamic age:

To appreciate and gauge the enormous success of prophet Muhammad we should read the biographical account of the Prophet in a historical and social context so that we could understand the greatness of His social revolution: geographically speaking Arabic peninsula is situated in the centre of world map and people of this region in pre-Islamic time were not influenced by external cultural and civilization influences. They had their own way of life away from external social and cultural influence. During pre-Islamic time two major civilization dominated world. Roman Empire in the West and Persian Empire in the East dominated the world during the pre-Islamic age.

Yet, Arabian Peninsula was untouched with the influence of these two major civilisations of that age. Of course, Chinese and Indian civilization dominated in some parts of the world during the pre-Islamic time and yet, the influence of these two civilizations was limited in their own enclaves in china and Indian regions.  Some Historians records that during the Persian Empire times they had some social habits and norms that are at acceptable at all in our modern time. They used to marry within one family member and fathers married their own daughters and sisters and close blood relatives. They used to worship fire, sun, moon and trees and they had some superficial faiths and belief systems. As far as Roman Empire was concerned it had exploited people through taxing and financial injustice: they engaged in constant wars with neighboured countries for military  domination:   People in Chinese and Indian civilizations had their own forms of Buddhist and Hindu religious rituals of worshiping cows, trees and statues with different cast systems among themselves.

Muslim and Non-Muslim historians tell us that Arabian Peninsula was not at all influenced by this different cultural, religious and social influence. Due to its climate and geographical position neither Roman nor no Persian Empire invaded it and remained as unpolluted with cultural onslaught.   Though people of Arabian Peninsula were not influence by these cultural influences they too had some social structure and way of life. This way of life was so rudimental before the time of the Prophet Muhammad: People of Arabian Peninsula were very much uncultured and barbaric in Pre-Islamic age. They used to wage wars for trivial things some times for years and decades:  They used to bury new born girls alive in disgrace. They had no remorse in burring them alive: gambling and piracy had been their way of earnings; they had a primitive and tribal way of life that made them physically rough and strong people.

Most of them were illiterate in a sense they could not read or write and yet they were intelligent people and famous for their oration and linguistic skills: they had some noble qualities and manners: they always kept their promise; they had good qualities hospitability to look after their guests, and they had some good qualities of courage and self determination to fight their enemies: This was the historical and social back ground of Pre-Islamic period in nutshell. It was during this time Almighty Allah for His Divine Wisdom that chose to send His final Messenger among these Arab People:  Among these illiterate people of Arab peninsula Allah sent an illiterate Messenger with final divine revelation in Arabic Language.  What is the wisdom in this divine choice/ why final Prophet was not sent in another part of world or Why this final divine message was not given in any other language other than Arabic language?  We shall continue to discuss these questions in our next writing.

Muslim and Non-Muslim historians are puzzled at the rapid expansion of Muslim empire at the hands of Prophet Muhammad and his followers since 7 century.  How did this illiterate prophet get power and influence to mobilise his followers so rapidly and so speedily from that the scorching desert of Arabia.  He succeeded in this great human revolution with very little human and material resources in a short span of time. No human revolution is equal to this revolution in human history. La martin- A famous French philosopher and poet notes that Prophet Muhammad was one of the greatest successful personalities of this world: He argues that three dimensions of prophetic mission illustrate its success: namely greatness of purpose in mission, smallest of means in his mission and yet outstanding result at the end.

La Martin further says that “if we take three aspects into consideration, none other can equal Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W): his lack of equipment, his speed in success, and the greatness in his aim. A man emerges and presents an invitation, while equipped with the least power and support, not even from his close friends and family who in fact turn against him as his enemies. He emerges alone, without a companion or colleague, and begins his mission from self, until others gradually come to accept the message. They joined him while bearing difficult prosecutions and troubles”.

The Prophet began his mission on his own and of course with divine help and support and yet, at the initial stage it was he alone began his mission without any material or large number of human resource: All his own people were against to his mission: all of his tribal people and his own blood relatives were against to him at his initial stage and yet, he begun it on his own without any popular support.

To be continued next week.