The Institution and Function of Prophethood and What the Prophet Muhammad Brought to Humanity

Date: 1 April 2006

By Cemal Usak Journalist - Writer Secretary General of Intercultural Cultural Dialogue Platform - Turkey Undoubtedly With his faculties of reason and comprehension as the highest of creatures, it is man who will make God's will sovereign over the earth. Since as a means of trial and examination a tendency towards evil has been lodged in his nature, he may fail to carry out this mission. And indeed, throughout history this is what a considerable part of mankind has done. According to Islamic belief, the human intellect is created with the ability to find and know its Creator. However, it is incapable of understanding fully on its own how man should serve his Maker and what is required of him. This is because the mechanism of examination, that is, the desire for sin and evil, draws man away from what his Maker requires of him. It is at this point that the need for the prophets becomes apparent, for having been chosen from among the people, they were sent by the Maker in order to be examples in all matters of societal living. In all the monotheistic revealed religions it is the prophets who convey God's message to the people, and His commands and prohibitions. Of course, this is not only a question of conveying the message: they first of all live and practise what is revealed to them and are exemplary models; then they communicate it to others. In the words of the Holy Scriptures, the first people to receive the message, the first believers, were the Apostles and the Companions of the Prophet. When considered from this point of view, obeying the Prophet is to obey God. And to love the Prophet, and even to love other people, is to love God. As it says in the Gospels, if we don't love the neighbours whom we see, how can we say that we love God, whom we don't see? While in the Qur'an it says: "He, who obeys the Messenger, obeys God." (Al-Nisa, 4:80). In another verse, it says: "If you do love God, follow me: God will love you and forgive you your sins." (Al-i 'Imran, 3:31) In all periods of darkness and barbarity these Pole Stars have appeared, and delivering humanity from their desperate plight have led them to happiness in this world and the next. In Islamic sources, the chief attributes of the prophets were these: * HONESTY: The prophets were all truthful; they never lied. They would otherwise have been unable to convey the divine revelation faultlessly. * TRUSTWORTHINESS: The prophets were the most trustworthy people of their times, both as prophets and as human beings. So much so that although he was driven out of his home-town by his enemies, the Prophet Muhammad never betrayed the trust placed in him by the pagan Meccan idolaters and the things given to him in trust by them, and he ordered 'Ali, who survived him, to return them to their owners. * INTELLIGENCE: The prophets were the most intelligent people of their times; they were never uncomprehending or unthinking. * SINLESSNESS: The prophets were sinless and preserved from error and wrongdoing. God Almighty cleansed them with innumerable trials and tribulations so that they emerged exemplary models for mankind. * THEY WERE COMMUNICATORS: They conveyed exactly and precisely whatever was revealed to them by God, neither adding anything nor missing anything. They neither suppressed any part of what was revealed to them, nor forgot any part of the divine message. Bearing in mind the Holy Scriptures revealed before Islam and their interpretations, it is possible to make the following points about the Prophets and their missions: * All the prophets came with new messages. * They displayed miracles to demonstrate that they were different from the ordinary people and charged with a mission. * They brought about definite changes in the societies to which they were sent. * Each prophet possessed characteristics both similar to previous prophets and particular to himself. * The prophets never hesitated to criticize the wrongs in their societies and to combat the injustices. * All the prophets were all outstanding personalities who first and foremost practised in their own lives what they had been commanded by God Almighty, and that they taught to others. * In all eras they struggled against the generally accepted, false norms of their societies. * Since religion is for human beings and the place it is practised is the world we live in, all the prophets initiated social change, * The prophets institutionalized the revelations they received from Almighty God, shaping them suitably to pass on to the coming generations. In addition to the above, the Prophet Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) possessed the following fundamental attributes: * HIS PROPHETHOOD WAS UNIVERSAL: Some of the prophets were sent to a particular people or tribe and their missions were limited with a distinct to a particular period of time. But the Prophet Muhammad was sent to all humanity and his mission was for all time. * HE WAS THE PROPHET OF MERCY: Because the Prophet Muhammad was sent in an era of ignorance, savagery, tyranny, and darkness and people were wounded in the full sense of the word, he was sent as the Prophet of Mercy. His chief function was to embrace humanity with compassion and mercy. One of the foremost Islamic leaders of the present, M. Fethullah Gülen, describes the period in which he was sent with the following words: "Society had deteriorated to such an extent that all human values were upside down; virtues had become vices, and vices, virtues. Savagery was applauded and humanity was held in contempt. Wolves had usurped the shepherds and the flocks were groaning under their pitiless oppression. Prostitution and immorality had become so widespread that most people did not even know their own fathers. Personal honour and ancestral distinction had almost ceased to exist. Alcoholic liquor and gambling were considered in no way reprehensible. Profiteering was looked upon as normal, and speculation of every sort was bleeding the people dry, and worse still this was thought to be clever and crafty.  Someone was needed therefore to put a halt to all this, someone with a magic word. The need was so intense that Mercy stirred to life and the Prophet Muhammad was charged with the duty of divine messengership. And with his advent, everything suddenly changed." (Sonsuz Nur /Infinite Light, Vol. i, 29).  That was the situation and environment to which the Prophet Muhammad was sent as the Messenger. * HE WAS BOTH MESSENGER AND COMMANDER: In distinction to some of the prophets, the Prophet Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was sent to carry the sword. Tyranny, oppression, and savagery had reached ghastly proportions in his time, so in order to root them out; Almighty God permitted him to wage war with the evil-doers. This of course was not a visa to commit aggression, but to use force and wage defensive war in order to protect the innocent and the believers. The message given subsequently was also to have recourse to force when necessary, in order to put a halt to all wrongdoings. * HE WAS "REVELATION PERSONIFIED:" The Prophet Muhammad did not only convey the revelation from God Almighty; he first of all put it into practice, then he communicated it. The great Islamic thinker Ibn Taymiyya was emphasizing precisely this point when he said: "In the process of understanding Islam, the Prophet Muhammad's conduct was of greater importance than the Qur'an." For in him the people saw in embodied form the revelation that had been sent to humanity. When considered from this point of view, one may also say: "The Qur'an (and in its general meaning, revelation) was Islam (and in its general meaning, religion) in theory, while the Prophet was Islam in practice." It is therefore not possible to understand religion without the Prophet and Messenger. Unlike the Prophets David, Solomon, and Joseph, who were kings, the Prophet Muhammad was in the general meaning prophet and servant. For instance, when on being cruelly ill-treated by the pagan idolaters of Taif he was asked by Almighty God by means of Gabriel what he wanted, he replied that he wanted to be a prophet who was God's bondsman and to eat one day and remain hungry the next. All he wanted was that his Lord and Sustainer should be pleased with him. By virtue of this characteristic, the Prophet Muhammad was extraordinarily modest and humble. He did not believe in hierarchies or priestly ranks. One day, he said to 'Ali: "You should try to be like any one of the people!" He himself was just like that. He dressed like other people; he would sit together with them, and would eat and drink with them. When a stranger came, they could recognize him only from the respect shown to him by the others at present. He never dressed in superior clothes nor bore any mark or any token of superiority, nor did he assume any superior manner. One of his young Companions described this characteristic of the Prophet like this: "We were still very young at that time. He used to come and join us when we were sitting and talking. He would join in the conversation whatever it was, for example, about the grafting of the date palms or the calving of the camels, and then he would draw some lesson from the subject and explain it to us." * HE WAS THE HEIR TO THE EARLIER PROPHETS: When mentioning the earlier prophets, who all called others to God's way; he would smile and speak lovingly of them as though they were members of his family. "My brother Jesus was such-and-such," or "My brother Moses said such-and-such," he would comment. When on his return from Taif he was stoned and he took refuge in a vineyard, a person called Addas who was working there offered him some food and drink. The Prophet asked him where he was from and he replied from Nineveh. Whereupon the Prophet was very pleased and said: "Is that so? That means you're from the same place as my brother Yunus (Jonah) Ibn Matta (Upon whom be peace)." * HE WAS A BALANCED PERSON: When the Prophet Moses was living, conditions demanded that rituals and commands and prohibitions dominated his Law. Then Christianity was of a more mystical nature and to a large extent lacked commands and prohibitions. As for the Prophet Muhammad, following the revelation he received, he introduced a balance both in the interior dimensions of the religion, and in the application of what it commanded and prohibited. Moreover, it is true that in this world of causality one has to have recourse to physical causes, but he first and foremost relied on his Lord and Sustainer. * HE RAISED PEOPLE'S CONSCIOUSNESS: The Prophet Muhammad had extraordinarily perceptive insight into people's psychological beings, and in order to rise up a model generation who would convey Almighty God's revelation to forthcoming generations, he would act with extreme circumspection. As 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas said, he would seize exactly the right moment to give them advice. Another Companion recalled: "God's Messenger would mount the pulpit and preach to us, and then he would look at us and scrutinize our behaviour and come down from the pulpit. Sometimes he would repeat this over and over again. And then one day he addressed us in such a way that we thought our hearts was going to leap out of our chests." * HE DIVINED THE MEANING OF EXISTENCE AND THEN EXPLAINED IT: Through the inspiration he received from his Maker, the Prophet Muhammad explained most fully and perfectly the meaning of existence and of man's life in this fleeting world. As a contemporary Islamic thinker has said: he provided the most satisfying and convincing answers to the questions: "Where do you come from? What are you doing here in this life? And where will you go after it?" Bediüzzaman added. "See! He spreads such a Light of truth that if you look at the universe as being outside the luminous sphere of his truth and guidance, you see it to be a place of general mourning, and beings strangers to one another and hostile, and inanimate beings to be ghastly corpses and living creatures like orphans weeping at the blows of death and separation. Now look! Through the Light he spreads, that place of universal mourning has been transformed into a place where God's Names and praises are recited in joy and ecstasy. The foreign, hostile beings have become friends and brothers." (Words, 19th Word, p.244) * HE WAS A TEACHER: The Prophet Muhammad was someone who besides the Qur'an and universe, taught people about the Glorious Maker and instilled Him in their minds. He taught them how to worship and pray, and conducts that would please Him. Those who heed and follow him and adhere to his message will find ultimately God Almighty, and will find also happiness in this world and in the everlasting hereafter. If today mankind has not found happiness despite all its technological progress, and if blood and tears continue to flow in various places on the earth and suffering and distress persist unabated, and mankind's insatiable greed and ambition cannot be curbed, all this stems from people either failing to understanding the message the prophets brought, including Prophet Muhammad's, or they do not practise it and apply it in their lives. The responsibility for this of course lies with those who believe. When Jesus (Upon whom be peace) told his apostles at the Last Supper: "I have washed your feet although I am your master; you too wash one another's feet as brothers," he was doubtless urging them to be modest and humble among each other and to help one another. As sincere believers, we Muslims, Christians, and Jews should consign our differences and misunderstandings to the depths of the past, and bow before each other in modesty and humility. If we place the shared moral values that our Prophets brought to humanity at the very centre of our lives, we shall contribute to the common peace of mankind. In conclusion I call upon all and each of you to unite with in the spiritual presence of the prophets and foremost with the most eminent ones, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and to seek their help and to pray to them. God willing, He will not part us from their light-filled way. AMEN. Examples of the Prophet Muhammad's Sayings The believers, in their love, mercy, and kindness to one another are like a body: if any part of it is ill, the whole body shares its sleeplessness and fever. *1 The most perfect of the believers in faith are the best of them in morals. And the best among them are those who are best to their wives. *2 None of you believes (completely) until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. *3 The merciful are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those on earth, and God will show mercy to you. *4 Smiling at your brother is charity... *5 A good word is charity. *6 Whoever believes in God and the Last Day (the Day of Judgment) should do good to his neighbour. *7 God does not judge you according to your appearance and your wealth, but He looks at your hearts and looks into your deeds. *8 Pay the worker his wage before his sweat dries. *9 A man walking along a path felt very thirsty. Reaching a well, he descended into it, drank his fill, and came up. Then he saw a dog with its tongue hanging out, trying to lick up mud to quench its thirst. The man said, "This dog is feeling the same thirst that I felt." So he went down into the well again, filled his shoe with water, and gave the dog a drink. So, God thanked him and forgave his sins.  The Prophet was asked, "Messenger of God, are we rewarded for kindness towards animals?" He said: There is a reward for kindness to every living animal or human. *10 Footnotes: (1) Narrated in Saheeh Muslim, #2586, and Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #6011. (2) Narrated in Mosnad Ahmad, #7354, and Al-Tirmizi, #1162. (3) Narrated in Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #13, and Saheeh Muslim, #45. (4) Narrated in Al-Tirmizi, #1924, and Abu-Dawood, #4941. (5) Narrated in Al-Tirmizi, #1956. (6) Narrated in Saheeh Muslim, #1009, and Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #2989. (7) Narrated in Saheeh Muslim, #48, and Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #6019. (8) Narrated in Saheeh Muslim, #2564. (9) Narrated in Ibn Majah, #2443. (10) Narrated in Saheeh Muslim, #2244, and Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #2466.