by KHURSHID AHMAD
The personality of the Prophet Muhammad ,peace be upon him,
is a myriad personality. All colours shine there. You can study
him as a man moving about in the ordinary routine of life, behaving
as a father, as a husband, as a member of the family. You can
study his attitude to the elders, to the youngsters and his role
as a statesman, a general, a commander and as a ruler. Common
in all these aspects is that he is a daa'iila at-haqq (a caller
unto Truth), a daa'i ila Allah (a caller unto God). It is this
central theme-the Prophet ,peace be upon him, as the daa'i ila
al-Haqq-which provides a key to his personality. It is this aspect
of the Prophet,peace be upon him, which is emphasised over and
above others in the Qur'an.
Perhaps the most significant and all-embracing expression of
this is that the Prophet ,peace be upon him, has been called a
Shahid-a witness unto Truth:
The Messenger of God is a witness (unto Truth) over you,
so be you witnesses over mankind.
For us what is really important is that on the one hand, the
Prophet,peace be upon him, has been called shahid and on the other,
the entire Muslim Ummah has been called shuhadaa' (sing-shahid).
The chief characteristics of the Prophet's,peace be upon him,
life is also the distinctive characteristic of the Ummah.
It is because of this we find that a solitary voice is heard in
the wilderness and soon there are echoes from here, there and every-
where. We find that this one man ignites a new faith, produces new
men, canalises them into a new movement, launches a total war against
the forces of evil. This strife,this struggle, this striving continues
and produces a new society-a society which is distinct from the
overall society in which it takes place and eventually prevails
over it. It becomes a state-a state with a message. It enters history
and then gives a new direction to history. This is how occurs this
transformation which emanates from the Prophet's, peace be upon
him, distinctive characteristic of being the daa'i ila al-Haqq.
The importance of studying the Seerah (the life of the Prophet,peace
be upon him,) from this viewpoint lies not so much in the content
but in trying to suggest an attitude and approach. It is the responsibility
of each one of us as the followers of the Prophet,peace be upon
him, to study his life from this angle and see what light it sheds
for us in our own times and on the problems which beset us. Then
you will find a newly-discovered similarity between your situation
and his situation, between your conditions and the conditions which
you find portrayed in the Seerah. Then you will discover the meaning
"Verily, the Messenger of God has been a fine example".
In stressing this angular approach, let us cast a rapid look
at the entire life perspective of the Holy Prophet,peace be upon
THE PRE-NUBUWWA PERIOD
The pre-Nubuwwa period is very important, in that it is the
period of preparation. This is the period when the man is being
put in the harness, and what strikes us most is the pure, simple,
clean, uncorrupted and incorruptible life of the Holy Prophet,peace
be upon him. It is distinct. It shines like a diamond among stones
It is the clear and pure life which gives us a link to the making
of the man with a mission. The man with a mission must keep this
in view. Not merely the words he speaks, the high ideas he expresses,
the fascinating speeches he can make, but the silent impact of
his personality, and the example he sets on the people, which
is to be his greatest aid in this mission-leaving apart the personal
importance for him, here and the Hereafter.
Perhaps the greatest testimony to this In the Prophet's life
came from his wife-a person who knows a man's weakness and against
whom no facades can be built up- when he came back from the cave
of Hira after the first Wahiy (revelation). Then in the seventh
year of the Hijra comes the testimony of the greatest enemy of
the Prophet-Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Quraysh, when he was
summoned to the court of the Byzantine emperor eracilius. There
Abu Sufyan testified, as did the Prophet's wife Khadija,may Allah
be pleased with her, to the completely honest, simple and humanitarian
life of the Prophet,peace be upon him. And what more can be said
about the life of the Prophet,peace be upon him, than the testimony
of the Qur'an ?
In Surah Yunus, Allah presents a testimony to the truth and
veracity of the Qur'an and the life of the Prophet,peace be upon
him, by describing him as
,,a man who has lived amongst you before this. Would you
not really reflect?"
Here the entire life of the Prophet,peace be upon him, is being
presented as a testimony to the truth.
The second thing which strikes me during this period is the
Prophet's,peace be upon him, involvement and participation in
the society to establish himself as one who can play a decisive
part in the reform and reconstruction of that society. Out of
the many, there are three examples which can be quoted:
Firstly, there was an agreement between the best and the most
virtuous in Arabian society to uphold five things: to establish
peace and virtue, to help the poor, to help the wayfarer, to help
the persecuted and finally to see that any persecutor (zalim)
is driven out of power.
By co-operating on these points the Prophet,peace be upon him,
showed his involvement and interest in that society, demonstrating
a way out from the condition the society found itself in.
Secondly there is the incident of the Ka'ba, when the roof was
rebuilt and the walls raised up and the Black Stone was to be
replaced. This was a very august and sacred moment but every tribe
was eager to have the honour of replacing it. To settle all questions
with honour, swords were taken out of their sheaths. Because of
the Prophet's,peace be upon him, standing in the society, he was
accepted as the arbiter. He resolved the issue in a very simple
and peaceful way. But in how just a way ! By placing the Black
Stone on a sheet, all the leaders of the tribes lifted it. In
this symbolic way all tribes who were torn by tribal rivalries
are put together by this act of godliness. The cloth is raised
and the Prophet,peace be upon him, himself puts the Black Stone
in the required place. This is involvement in the society. This
is occupying a kind of decisive position.
Thirdly, the Prophet,peace be upon him, participated in trade.
This is an economic involvement with the society. In a society
which was primarily at the commercial stage, the Prophet,peace
be upon him, participated and showed a better example. It is because
of this that he was called Al-Ameen as-sadaq (the Truthful and
So whether it be political, tribal or economic, we find involvement,
we find a distinctive example and we find that the situation is
created that people start looking towards the daa'i as different
from them and as one who can solve their situation.
During this period there is a great restlessness in the Prophet,peace
be upon him, an unending agony for the plight in which he finds
the people around him. He is moved to the last fibre of his being.
It is this situation which takes him to prayer, to contemplation,
to meditation in Allah. And through the pain of this restlessness,
this wandering for the Truth, this search for the Lord the body
becomes capable of receiving the message, understanding it and
conveying it to others.
THE FIRST PHASE OF PROPHETHOOD
This extends more or less to three years. During this period,
the distinctive characteristic is that the message is not conveyed
publicly and openly. It is not a period of secret work but a period
of silent persuasion. The scale of the work remains limited during
this period. Only those persons are contacted who are in direct
touch with the man or with the men whom he contacts. The first
converts to Islam- Khadija, Abu Bakr, Ali, Zaid ibn Haritha, may
Allah be please with them all-they were affected immediately after
the beginning of the Wahiy. And then through Hadrat Abu Bakr,
people like Uthman and Zubayr, may Allah be pleased with them,
came to the fold of Islam.
Perhaps the best understanding of this period can be had only
through a study of the early Meccan surahs of the Qur'an, particularly,
Muzamill and Mudatthir. These surahs give the strategy which is
being taught to the Prophet,peace be upon him, and they fore-shadow
well in advance what is to happen to the movement, how opposition
is to come. During this period dhikr (remembrance of Allah) and
sabr (patience and perseverance) are the values emphasised.
During this period the basic da'wah (message) is emphasised
in clear terms, in words that penetrate into the depths of the
heart. The style is extremely simple-small sentences, just like
cut diamonds. Emphasis again and again is on the concept of Tawheed,
life after death, the human problem that is the relation- ship
between man and man-a relationship of compassion and mercy-the
destitute and the starved, man's affinity and relation to Adam,
the oneness of man which comes naturally as a result of the oneness
of God. This is the basic theme.
The other striking theme is that with in- creased and repeated
emphasis the Prophet,peace be upon him, is commanded to prepare
himself for the mission. Here comes the tazkiyah (purification)
aspect. Prayer, particularly Salat al-Lail (Night prayer), as
an instrument in this preparation is emphasised. It has been said
"And your garments purify" (Surah Muddaththir)
does not merely refer to the cleansing of the bodily clothes
but to the purification of the character. During this period the
real strategy is built up in preparation for the great Call.
THE SECOND PHASE OF PROPHETHOOD
This is the phase of open declaration. From this time to the
Hira, broadly speaking, there are three stages. Firstly, two years
when the Prophet,peace be upon him, was charged to make a public
pronouncement of the faith (Qum fa andhir). He makes it with no
fear of any adversity, proclaiming it from the mound of Safaa.
Open persuasion, open dissemination of the message then begins.
These first two years are distinct because of the particular
type of reaction to the message. The message is regarded as insignificant
and irrelevant-just the cry of a man which will die out in its
own way. Then comes ridicule and an unending volley of allegations
and objections: this is the speech of the madman, of the wizard
and the sorcerer; what he says is just the stories of the bygone
and so on. Then it is realised that whatever is' being said is
in the nature of a challenge to the status quo, to the men in
authority and to the system as such. The attempt is then made
to persecute and opposition in a different way begins.
This is in a way, the next phase which starts from the fifth
year of the Nubuwwa, broadly speaking, and goes up to the time
of the Hijra. In this period the opponents are fully conscious
of the great challenge which this message poses to them. They
try to win over each one from this new group and they try to win
over the man, the Prophet,peace be upon him. They promise him
sovereignty, woman and wealth on condition that he abandons the
message. Having failed in this the method adopted was to persecute,
to harass, to beat, to torture. Stones were thrown, thorns were
laid in the way of the Prophet,peace be upon him, dirt and filth
were flung upon him. He was beaten and made to bleed.
The Muslims were persecuted, dragged across the burning sands
of Arabia, suffocated. It is during this period that the first
Hijra (migration) took place-to Abyssinia. Then there was the
boycott of Abu Hashim with the result that the Prophet,peace be
upon him, and his family, may Allah be pleased with them, were
forced to hide themselves. It was an arrest extending over about
three years. All supplies were cut off so much so that they had
to eat leaves and wild heather.
The last three years of the Meccan period in a way are the continuation
of the persecution and in a way a departure from that. The Quraysh
realised that it was not possible for them in anyway to break
the will of this man. It was a kind of frustrated abandonment
of a particular line of persecution that marks the end of the
period of hiding. This is the period also when the message was
seeping into new places-to tribes outside Mecca. The message of
Islam went to Medina during this period. The Hijra then takes
The Prophet ,peace be upon him, comes to Medina, a new society
is established and a new state. Now we have the realisation of
that movement in the society as faith and civilisation. The force
of evil challenged this centre of the Islamic movement and it
retaliates with force. The fight begins from the sixth month of
the Hijra and in the second year there was the battle of Badr
the importance of which can be discerned from the Prophet's,peace
be upon him, prayer:
"0 my Lord, if this handful of the believers are obliterated
this day then Thou shall not be praised, 0 Allah, Thou shall not
be worshipped, 0 Allah".
He succeeded and God is worshipped and God shall be worshipped.
The fate of humanity was decided on that day.
Then from the Battle of Uhud to the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah is
another period in the life of the Prophet,peace be upon him. Hudaibiyyah
is again a turning point. Although prima facie it seemed as a
kind of retreat, in fact-as the Qur'an says- it was a clear victory,
since it was because of Hudaibiyyah that it was possible to re-infiltrate
Mecca to consolidate the Islamic state, to conquer Khyber, to
safeguard the state from other dangers and to spread the message
to the whole of Arabia and indeed to send and spread the message
to the whole world.
In particular, what is striking in the Prophet's,peace be upon
him, life is the vision of total change. The Prophet ,peace be
upon him, does not want merely to ameliorate this economic ill
or that social evil or that political problem. Ail these are to
be solved in the process of a complete transformation of the life
of the individual and of the society. All this is on the basis
of Tawheed and God-given hidayah (guidance). Sometimes this fact
is not kept in view of the Meccan period. It is alleged that perhaps
this breadth, this vastness of vision comes after the Hijra. This
is wrong. From the very beginning, this total change concept and
the vision of ghalabat al-din (the victory of religion), the success
and supremacy of this way is there, not merely for Arabia but
for the whole world. There are many instances to support this
... This is the vision which inspires the daa'i even in those
early days. This faith, this perseverance, this steadfastness
is really striking. It is not in the spirit of any arrogance,
or superiority complex or of any aggressiveness. It is sweet sympathy,
it is love, it is rahmah, it Is eagerness to save people from
Fire, to protect them,'to show them the right path, to illumine
and shed away darkness. It is this spirit which permeates the
entire life of the Prophet,peace be upon him, from the first act
of his mission to his last day. The Prophet's,peace be upon him,
sense of responsibility is overwhelming.
Study the Prayers of the Prophet. It is a method through which
you can approach nearest to the spirit of the Prophet,peace be
upon him, because there it is before us unveiled.
TECHNIQUE OF WORK: A CREATIVE RESPONSE
This is a very difficult and a very vast topic on which you
would find a store of light and information in the Seerah. One
thing stands out, namely, the creativity, the creative response
or reaction of the daa'i to a specific situation- adopting a method
that suits the occasion. As far as the basic message is concerned
it is unchanged. As far as the basic strategy of work is concerned,
it too is unchanged. But the daa'i is eager to exploit and use
every opportunity as it presents itself and to find a way out
of that situation through applying his creative genius.
Everyone who has to work for the cause of Truth in any age or
in any circumstance has to learn a lot from this aspect of the
example of the Holy Prophet,peace be upon him,-how the daa'i is
ever conscious, ever vigilant and ever creative, strictly sticking
to his technique but devising new methods, new tactics to meet
This applies to the first three years and the continuing process
of silent persuasion throughout the Meccan period. During the
early period the Prophet,peace be upon him, had to offer prayers
secretly at hidden places. This process continued until Hadhrat
Umar's embrace of Islam. But the Prophet,peace be upon him, used
to offer the prayer which is offered after sunrise at the Ka'ba.
This prayer was an 'urf (custom) of the Arabs. He availed himself
of this one opportunity to bring his practices in the open.
Another example is the first open proclamation of the message.
From the viewpoint of technique of work it is highly significant.
The Prophet,peace be upon him, selected for this purpose the raised
platform-the Safaa-a place which was used for important gatherings,
the best that was available in that situation. He goes there and
calls to the people in the manner recognised in any emergency,
to make them realise that they were being called to something
significant and Important. And when the people came, he did not
start by saying "I am God's prophet. Accept me". He asks in words
"if I tell you that there is an aggressive force behind these
mountains out to crush you would you believe that?" And they answered,
"Yes, we shall, because we have found you to be truthful and honest."
A basis is thus built up for communication between them to dislodge
them as far as argument is concerned.
He has also made them realise that if he is to warn them against
a threat or a penalty, they would accept this warning. And then
the prophet says,
"I want to warn you against the fires of Hell, invite you
to the obedience of one God and to ask you to shun the worship
of false gods."
The reaction, of course, was ridicule. But look to the technique
of the daa'i, how he approaches the problem, how he gradually
develops his thesis, how he totally disarms his opponents, whatever
be their reactions.
The method used in the case of members of his family is different.
The Prophet,peace be upon him, calls them to a feast-an Arab custom-to
get them together and uses this for the propagation of his message.
And because it is the family, the appeal is personal and emotional:
"Who is going to be my helper in this cause?" Then of course,
the occasion of Hajj was used by the Prophet,peace be upon him.
Even the festivals of the abs were used. He would go to those
festivals not for the festivities, but he would go to every camp
conveying the message to the people.
The conquest of Mecca also provides a very interesting example
of technique of work. And on the personal plane there's the way
the Prophet tackled the problem of disaffection created by the
distribution of the booty after the battle of Hunayn. The speech
of the Prophet,peace be upon him, to the Ansar is one of the best
examples of applied psychology. All parts of the problem are considered;
the incipient fitna is not neglected but faced squarely and in
a clear, straightforward and sweet manner.
As far as the technique of work is concerned, how the demands
of gradualism are adjusted with the demands of the uncompromising
nature of the ideology is a very difficult and tricky point in
the life of a movement. On the one hand you have to go gradually
and see that certain priorities are created and that you do not
rush to all things simultaneously. On the other hand, you might
develop the attitude of com- promise leaving out the essentials.
If you study the Prophet's life from this viewpoint, you would
find a unique balance between the two. For example when the Banu
Thaqif, one of the most highly developed tribes in Arabia, came
to the Prophet ,peace be upon him, saying that they were prepared
to accept Islam provided they were allowed to continue drinking
wine, taking riba (interest) and practising adultery-their demand
was not accepted. On the other hand some Sahaba (Companions) presented
the situation to the Prophet,peace be upon him, that some people
accepted Islam but felt that they could not be asked to fulfil
the duties of Salat, Zakat or jihad since they were not prepared
for all that. The Prophet,peace be upon him, told them not to
worry but to call the new Muslims to Salat. Then he continued,
by way of explanation, in these golden words, that once they take
to Salat, they would take to Zakat and Jihad as well.
Now you can see the demands of these two prima facie conflicting
cases being poised together. This is only one instance. Dozens
of them you will find in the life of the Holy Prophet,peace be
upon him. This is how the workers of the Islamic movement should
try to learn how the demands of gradualism and the uncompromising
nature of the ideology can coexist and can be adjusted.
A study of the seerah from this angle brings home the realisation
that this is a long drawn- out struggle and it is wrong to think
that there is any short cut to it. It demands arduous efforts,
continuous work, unceasing struggle, unending strife. Unless we
are prepared for this continuous struggle we would not be able
to discharge the responsibility of daa'i ila al-Haqq.
What gives promise and confidence is that if a list is made
of all those persons who were converted to Islam in the early
period of strife in particular-the first ten years of the Meccan
period-one is struck with the fact that almost all of them were
below the age of thirty-five. No one was over the age of thirty-five
and most of them were between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five.
This of course, is significant in that a new revolutionary movement
which stands for total change should have its appeal and attraction
in the minds and souls of those persons who are young, who are
enthusiastic, who have something to live for and would think over
the problems and respond to the situation.
By the grace of Allah, may these be enabled to accept this message,
respond to it in the way the early converts responded and seek
from the Holy Prophet,peace be upon him, guidelines for their
individual and collective lives.