MONOLOGUE
In a forest of multiple grooves, no tree can be as prone to attack, from passersby, as the one that bears the best edible fruits or wears a most formidable pouch of healing human ailments. If this assertion is deeply understood and thoroughly digested, any soundly lettered reader will see why blasphemy, in the religious sphere, is, and will continue to be a trade in stock for some ignorant charlatans and parochial bigots.
PREAMBLE
This article is not new. It had been published, by yours sincerely, in this column before. But it is being republished here, today, because of its permanent relevance to the indelible appreciation which humanity owes an exemplary orphan, from Arabia, whose impeccable mentorship has rescued mankind from the crushing dangers on the thorny paths of life.
PARABLE OF A FRUITFUL TREE
The similitude of the uniqueness of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), among all other Prophets of Allah, is like that of a heavily fruitful tree which often attracts stones and other fringe missiles from ignorant passersby. Such missiles are often thrown at the tree by both potential beneficiaries and some devilishly envious onlookers, who are frustrated by the conspicuous absence of an equal privilege to harbor similar trees in their own vicinities. If a unique personality
like Prophet Muhammad (SAW),
is not subjected to blasphemy by idle rogues and hungry bread seekers, how could Islam become the fastest growing religion in the world today. Who does not know that the only means of propagating Islam, ignorantly, by envious nonentities, is blasphemy? If such nonentities had known that blasphemy is one of the causes of curiosity that pave way for the fast and meaningful growth of Allah’s divine religion, they would have long stopped it.
But unknown to those blatantly ignorant nonentities, the random sensations that accompany their blasphemy are the timely ethos that Islam needs as fertilizer for its rapid growth. Allah Akbar!
NOTABLE COMMENT
Looking at the rainbow of this divine religion as well as its attendant rains, any right-thinking person will clearly see that no man, in history, has ever been so fitting to the quoted poem, at the beginning of this article, as Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the undisputable greatest man that ever lived.
This man’s legacy is the solid foundation upon which the contemporary human civilization is built from base to roof. But, despite the vivid visibility of that orphan’s legacy, it continues to remain invisible to many ailing eyes that are obviously alien to the booming light which Islam sheds, effectively, on the world.
Thus, Prophet Muhammad’s legacy, called ISLAM, is like the beaming sun, the shape of which no blind person can see, in its natural form and nakedness. Yet, it is a natural norm that anybody who finds himself directly under this phenomenal substance must, inevitably, feel its burning effect ‘willy-nilly’, it photosynthesizes the proverbial ‘plants’ around and nourishes those ‘plants’ to full fruition with sustainable potency.
WHO IS PROPHET MUHAMMAD?
The man named Muhammad, at birth, was the son of Abdullah and Aminah who became the Anchor Prophet of Allah on earth. His birth in the desert of Arabia, in 670 CE, was not by mere accident but a deliberate design by the immortal Creator, for a nonesuch universal assignment.
Like all his predecessors (except one), who were divinely ordained Prophets and Messengers of Allah, Muhammad became a prophet by Divine ordination, in Arabia, at the age of 40 years, in 610 CE.
HIS BIOGRAPHY
From the creation of Adam, the first vicegerent of Allah, on earth, no man’s biography has ever been so much written and read as that of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Ever since he became a Prophet, this man’s biography has been written from all positive and negative angles, by various men and women of diverse races, tribes, ideologies and religious perceptions, in the past almost 1500 years or thereabout. And, his biography is still being written and re-written authoritatively and un-authoritatively, today, in uncountable languages.
Even those who are obviously bereft of writing skill do randomly resort to oral blaspheming or demonic cartooning of him, just to seek vainglorious relevance and unwittingly curry ignominious fame otherwise called notoriety.
Through the writings of Prophet Muhammad’s biography, some millions of people, including George Bernard Shaw, a famous Irish playwright, have zoomed into un-dreamt fame. Some others, including Salmon Rushdie, British born Indian, who authored have cultivated unthinkable notoriety and sunk into the abyss of permanent oblivion.
But no single writer or poet, or preacher, or even cartoonist, who did anything negative about the personality or name of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), can claim not to have felt a positive or negative impact of scooping on his biography. In fact, no other Prophet’s biography, in human history, has attracted as many writers from among believers and non-believers, as well as from friends and foes alike.
Every aspect of this man’s life, including the dresses he wore, the food he ate, the expressions he made, the way he spoke, the steps he took, the laws he enacted, the wives he married, the children he bore, and the wars he was forced to fight, has formed the components of his biography. In short, next to the Qur’an, no book is as much read daily, in the world today, as the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in one form or another.
A VITAL QUESTION
Given this situation, a vital question has been raised in many quarters thus: why has there been so much global focus on this unlettered Prophet, from Arabia, for so many centuries? The answer to this question is not far-fetched. The world has not produced any human personality comparable to Prophet Muhammad (SAW), and, it will not. He is the seal of all the Prophets/ Messengers of Allah and the epitome of human exemplariness. In him alone are found all the traits of what a perfect gentleman should be in all ramifications.
THE ‘IFS’ OF His LIFE
The life of every human being is full of ifs. And, it is the conglomeration of those ifs that often form the particles of what is called a man’s profile or biography. For example, if Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had not been an orphan, he would not have been able to guide humanity on how orphans should be treated especially with regards to inheritance. If he had not been a husband, his marital life would not have been an excellent template for others to emulate and women’s rights would have been permanently ignored. If he had not been a widower the world would not have realized the plight of widows and how to provide for them. If he had not been a father, the proper parental care deserved by children would have been relegated to the background in Islamic doctrine. If he had not been trustworthy, the value of trust would have been totally lost in the lifestyle of mankind.
If this nonesuch Prophet of Allah had not been compelled to migrate from Makkah to Madinah, the culture of wayfaring and hospitality, which is universally imbibed today, would not have been in existence. If he had not been forced to fight wars, the laws of war, armistice and reconciliation or arbitration would have completely eluded humanity. If he had not diplomatically overcome the oppression to which he was subjected by his adversaries, the word magnanimity would not have found a place in the dictionary of the victors among warriors. If this Prophet from Arabia had not been a judge, the value of justice would have been globally thrown to the winds and survival in all societies would have been for the fittest.
If this greatest Messenger of Allah had not been a democratic ruler, the relationship between the ruled and their rulers, all over the world, today, would not have been dissimilar from that of slaves and masters and, dictatorship in governance, would have known no boundaries.
If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had not been poor despite being a Head of State, the policy of social welfare adopted in civilized societies today, in favour of the poor, would not have been imbibed. If he had not been an illiterate, the world would not have known the difference between literacy and education. And, if, despite all these qualities in him, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had not been humble and affable, arrogance would have permanently remained the character of all privileged people in the world today.
Comparison
Who else can be compared to this greatest man that ever lived in history? And, in which any other single personality could all the aforementioned qualities have ever been found in history? There can be little wonder, then, why so much attention was, and, is still being focused on the personality of this extra-ordinary human being. That is Prophet Muhammad (SAW) for you, the like of whom the world has never seen before him and will never see again, after him.
But for this greatest man that ever lived, the world would have permanently remained in the dungeon of ignorance and primitivism without any distinction between humans and beasts. It was he (Muhammad) who brought back the manual of life to mankind after it had been lost to vanity through the millennia of man’s peregrinations on earth. That manual of life is the divine BOOK of guidance called the Qur’an, which came gradually from Allah to mankind, in accordance with the growth rate of human intellect.
Attestations
After many decades of scientific experimentations, a German-born American physicist and Nobel Laureate, Albert Einstein the inventor of atomic bomb who is generally known as the 20th century creator of special and general theory of relativity wrote about Prophet Muhammad (SAW). He compared the Prophet’s works with the contents of the Qur’an and concluded as follows: “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind”. He then called on fellow scientists to endeavour to read the Qur’an without bias in order to know the true origin of science in human life. Einstein was not alone in such unfaultable reasoning and advocacy.
The testimonies of ther well enlightened and foresighted scholars of the contemporary time, who have made their observations about Prophet Muhammad (SAW) known to the world, can be found below.
One of those scholars is Professor TagatatTajasen, the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. Through his deep research, this Professor had to accept Islam on the strength of just one scientific sign accurately mentioned in the Qur’an to his intellectual consternation. He had spent a great amount of his academic time, as a Professor, in search of pain receptor. When his attention was drawn to the Qur’an, he did not believe, initially, that such a highly sophisticated aspect of science could have been mentioned by any human being, about 1,500 years ago. But when he confirmed it, by himself, in the translation of the Qur’an, he became so much impressed that he publicly embraced Islam which he accepted as a truly divine religion.
FURTHER RESEARCHES
Perhaps, it was the attestations made by great men of intellect that prompted one Michael Hart, a Jewish American Astrophysicist, to research into the personality of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) whom he named as the greatest man that ever lived, in his famous book entitled ‘The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History’. There are many other prominent scholars who, at one time or another, gave testimonies about the un-questionability of the divine mission of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). One of them was Alphonse de Lamartine of France, who had the following to say about the Messenger of Allah in his book entitled ‘Histoire de la Torque’:
“Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim, since this aim was superhuman; to subvert superstitions which had been interposed between man and his Creator; to render God unto man and man unto God; to restore rational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured idolatry which were then in existence”.
He went further thus: “…If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled before their very eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but, also, millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls. On the basis of a book (the Qur’an), every letter of which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blended together, peoples of every tongue and of every race…..”. He then concluded thus: “As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured we may well ask, is there any man in human history that is greater than Muhammad?”
Napoleon Bonaparte’s Testimony
On his own, Napoleon Bonaparte, the great 18th century French conqueror of Europe was so much amazed by the traits of Islam which he saw in Egypt, during his military expeditions, that he made the following historic statement about that divine religion and its great Prophet:
“Muhammad, in reality, was a great leader of mankind. He preached UNITY among Arabs who were, till then, torn asunder due to internecine quarrels, sometimes resulting in bloody war fares. He brought them out of the obscure world, in a short time, and, the discipline which they maintained under his leadership was simply marvelous, and so was their bravery, courage and devotion to the cause which they loved and cherished”. He also continued as follows: “…this, coupled with the contempt for death, as taught by their leader, made them great soldiers and fighters like of whom history rarely produces. I simply marvel at the achievements of this great ‘Son of the Desert’ within a mere period of less than 15 years; a thing which Moses and Christ could not do in 15 centuries. I salute this great man (Muhammad); I salute his qualities of Head and Heart….”
George Bernard Shaw’s Comment
Meanwhile, in corroborating the above highlighted testimonies, variously made by renowned men of letters and intellect, another foremost Orientalist, playwright and dramatist, George Bernard Shaw, had the following to say about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in his book ‘The genuine Islam’ (vol. 1 No 8 of 1936):
“The Christians and their missionaries have presented a horrible picture of Islam. Not only that, they also carried out an organized and planned propaganda against the personality of Prophet Mohammad and the religion he preached. I have carefully studied Islam and the life of its Prophet. I have done so both as a student of history and as a critic. And I have come to the conclusion that Mohammad was indeed a great man and a deliverer and benefactor of mankind which was till then writhing under a most agonizing pain. I have always held Islam in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing face of existence which can make it appealing to every age. 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. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness.
“I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today”.
Conclusion
These are just some of the facts that make an unlettered Arabian orphan, Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the greatest human being that ever lived on earth. Judging by the above attestation from non-Muslims, it is obvious that the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was about service to mankind and not self adoration in the pursuit of ephemeral life.
Today, after many centuries of trading ignorantly, with blaspheming the personality of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the Europeans have realized the futility of doing so and have unanimously enacted a common law to get rid of that folly.
Now, the shallow thinking Africans, especially Nigerian blasphemers, may now continue with their own business of blasphemy until they also realize the futility of that evil trade.
It is enough for us, Muslims, that the more they surge ahead with that unprofitable venture, the more rapid the spread and growth of Islam. Alhamduu liLlah!
