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Prophet Mohammad (Peace be
upon him) means highly praised was born on 12th
of Rabiul Awwal 570 A.D. which falls on March 31 this year.
This occasion provides us with good opportunity to review
the life of our Prophet and to see what type of lesson we
can derive. It is important to find out why He is so much
loved and respected by all Muslims and many non-Muslims.
He was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, at a period
of time ( described as period of ignorance) when people to
used to worship idols and bury their daughters alive. Even
in this period, Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) never worshipped
idols. He used to meditate in the cave called Hira where he
was approached by arch angel Gabriel who asked him to read.
So started the process of revelation which continued until
his death. These revelations were compiled and are with us
in the form of the Holy Quran. After suffering enormous
persecution because of his belief and preaching for 13
years, He migrated to Medina, 200 miles north of Mecca on an
invitation of some new Muslims.
During his 23 years of prophethood, he was
involved in 4 battles, with less than 200 Muslims death. At
the time of his death , Islam had already spread throughout
Saudi Arabia and within 50 years after his passing it had
spread already to Iran Turkey,
Palestine, and Egypt.
In the Holy Quran, God describes him “O Prophet!
we have sent you as a witness, a bearer of good news and a
Warner. So that you, O people believe in Allah and his
messenger, and that you may help him, honor him ans glorify
Allah morning and evening.” (chap. 48: verse8-9).
He was not only the last and the seal of the
prophets, but was sent to the entire world as mercy to
mankind. He is the best model for mankind to follow. He was
kind to his family and merciful to his enemies. He always
chose to pray for non-believers that God will change their
condition and show them the straight path one day.
Our prophet’s attitude towards Christians can be summarized
by studying a letter he sent to monks of St. Catherine’s
Monastery in Mt. Sinai in 628 C.E. “ This is a
message from Mohammad Bin Abdullah, as a covenant to those
near and far, we are with them. Verily, the servants, the
helpers, my followers- I defend them, because Christian’s
are my citizens. By God, I hold out against anything that
displeases them. No compulsions is to be placed on them.
Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs, nor
their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a
house of their religion , to damage it, or to carry anything
form it to Muslim houses. Should anyone take any of these,
he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey his prophet.
Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter
against all that they hate. No one is to force them to
travel or oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for
them. If a Christian woman is married to a Muslim man, it
can not take place without her approval. She is not to be
prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches
are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from
repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenant. No one
of the nation (Muslim) is to disobey the covenant, which
will last until the last day (end of the world).
As any other Prophets, He was also blessed with
many miracles in order to convince non-believers about his
prophet hood. One of the most important of these was when he
was taken by Angel Gabriel from Mecca to Jerusalem (Isra)
where he led the prayer of all the previous prophets. After
that he was taken to heaven where God addressed him. He was
given a tour of the heaven and the hell; on the same trip, 5
times daily obligatory prayer was prescribed. Another unique
miracle of the prophet was the splitting of the moon into
two halves each appearing on the two sides of the Mount Hira.
His greatness has been accepted by many
non-Muslim authors. In his book “100 Most Influential People
in Human History,” Michael Hart has named Prophet Mohammad
as number one. The basis of all reasoning was the impact his
message had on large segment of the world population in
short period of time. The encyclopedia Brittanica says that
“ Mohammad is the most successful of all prophets and
religious personalities.”
In conclusion, Muslims commemorate the life of
Prophet Mohammad, not by celebrating with parties but by
deriving lesson from his life. His life is the perfect model
to be followed and emulated by everyone.
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