follow
@moshmustapha for more
In the name of Allah, the beneficent the merciful
“Muhammad,
the Messenger of Allah, and those with him… When you see them, you will
find them making Rukuh (bowing down) and Sujud (prostration in
prayers), and craving for the blessings from Allah and His pleasure.
They have the marks of Sujud (prostration) on their foreheads, the
traces of their prostration. This is their similitude in the Torah; and
their similitude in the Gospel: they are like the seed which puts forth
its sprout, then strengthens it, then becomes thick and stands firmly on
its stem, delighting the sowers of the seed, so that through them He
may enrage the unbelievers. Yet to those of them who will believe and do
good deeds, Allah has promised forgiveness and a great reward”- (Qur’an
48:27-29)
YES. Who is, not who was Muhammad? I refuse to
refer to him in the past because the Prophet of Islam (may Allah’s peace
and benedictions be on his soul in Madinah) lives in the present. I
prefer to refer to him in the present because his legacies make all
allusions to him in the present a categorical imperative.
In other
words, though he died 1,421 years ago, Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) did not
actually die. Rather, he lives on in the hearts of billions of Muslims
and on the tongues of countless number of creatures of the Almighty who
celebrate his shining patrimony and strive to emulate, based on the
correct knowledge and understanding, his exemplary legacy.
Thus,
when I say who is Muhammad? It is with the decided agenda to remind you
of the known, the unknown and the unknowable. Those, who properly
understand his message among Muslims, know Muhammad. To those, who are
ignorant of the core messages of his vocation but who are only
emotionally attached to him, Muhammad is unknown. To those who use the
negative exteriorities and reality in Muslim life all over the world as
evidence of his message, Muhammad is unknowable.
His full name is
Abul Qasim Muhammad b. Abdullah b. Abdul Mutallib b. Hashim b Abdul
Manaf b. Adnan. His mother is Aminah, daughter of Wahab. He was born on
Monday, he was commissioned into Prophethood on Monday, he left Makkah
on migration (hijrah) to Madinah on Monday, he arrived Madinah on
Monday, he placed the black stone on its present spot in the Kaaba on
Monday, he died on Monday.
Who is Muhammad – upon him be peace and
blessings of Allah? He is the man, who was born an orphan but rose to
become a head of state. Thus it appears Allah wishes to remind Muslim
parents of today who usually assume their presence is sine qua non for
the success of their children to key-in into the odyssey of the birth of
our leader. He had a father, named Abdullah, who lived till such a time
he delivered the “seed” in the womb of his wife, Aminah, before he was
transmitted to the great beyond. The unspoken moral here should not be
lost on us- live every moment of your life as if it the last; know that
it is good to be important in life. Be aware that it is more important
to be good and be God-conscious.
Yes Aminah, the Prophet’s mother
also received the “seed” as a trust and nurtured it to maturation. She
gave birth to and reared the young Muhammad till such a time the infant
could be separated from the womb and the bosom that bore him before she
departed this world.
Again, Amina’s life is a signifier to
humanity that parents are agents in the hands of the unknowable scheme
of the Almighty, we are puns - children and their forebears- in the
chessboard of our Creator.
In other words, children, who see their
parents on a daily basis easily forget their Creator, they shout and
chorus at every moment, my daddy, my mummy! But those who have no
parents to call take solace in their recourse to the Almighty on a
permanent basis. Thus while the former shouts my daddy! My mummy! The
latter shouts Ya Rabb! Ya rabb! (My Lord! My Lord!)
The whole life
of Muhammad (s.a.w) is designed to teach what none other than the
Almighty could teach. When Muhammad lost his mother at six, after having
lost his father while he was in the womb, we are reminded that it is a
privilege for us to be there, to be “daddied” and “mummied” by our
children: the child would attain to his destiny with or without the
intervention of his parents!
Again, Prophet Muhammad was born as
an heir to a prophetic tradition, the apogee of which was Prophet
Ibrahim (upon him be peace and blessings of Allah). From Prophet Ibrahim
down to Prophet Ismail down to Abdullah, father of Prophet Muhammad,
certain light of excellence, the gravitas of moral rectitude was
inherited from one to the other.
In other words, the seed from
which Muhammad emerged and the womb that bore him were of the purest
stock. Put graphically, the womb that bore Muhammad never played host,
prior to her marriage to Abdullah, to the chemical-genetic fluid of the
fornicator. Humans often desire to reap where they do not sow, some men
desire to marry virgins even as they go about the cities defiling women.
They often assume, and erroneously too, that they can come to equity
with soiled hands!
Before he was commissioned as a prophet, his
nudity was never seen, he never drank alcohol, never ate from a feast
dedicated to idols and never swore by anything other than the Almighty.
He was light in complexion, his shoulders were broad, his face usually
shined brightly as if on a dark night. He had black hair, tender skin,
broad chest, moderate height and high forehead.
Though sweet in
speech, he kept silent most of the time. He usually walked rapidly and
lightly with long strides. His clothing generally consisted of two
pieces of cloth. He used to begin and end speeches with bismillah. He
used to look more on to the ground than he did to the heavens out of
respect for and awe of the authority in the heavens. He never repelled
evil with evil but with good.
Who was that man? He was the
unlettered Prophet who was given a book, which made knowledge the most
worthwhile investment one could bequeath to the world. He never had a
chance of learning from a scholar but was blessed with a book, which
makes scholarship the best profession known to humanity. He was given a
book, which talks about astronomy and space exploration at a time the
NASA and the powers that be in the US had not been born.
He was
given a book, which talks about biology and reproduction at a time the
human physiology was still unknown and uncharted. He was given a book,
which talks about geology and archaeology at a time oceanography and oil
exploration had not occurred to humanity; he was given a book, which
talks about economics and the evil of round-tripping at a time the stock
market had not been conceived, he was given a book which talks about
numerology at a time algebra and the only formula I remember of the
mathematics I was taught in my post-primary school- the almighty
formula- had not been discovered.
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK
Leading technology corporation and computer maker,
Dell Inc., in partnership with Microsoft and Intel Nigeria, has launched
its touch-enabled Windows 8 XPS PCs into the Nigeria market.
