Mohammed ﷺ Prophet of Allah
By Omer Asad Bajabar siyasat.net
Allah SWT, in HIS infinite wisdom, honored the day He chose Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Abdul Muttalib as HIS (beloved) last prophet ﷺ. Not only was that night honored and was declared ‘Night of Power,’ but the whole month (Ramadan) was declared a month of thanksgiving, and believers were commanded to fast. He ﷺ was made the final and last Prophet and declared ‘Seal of Prophethood.’
Proclamation/Shahadah: Allah SWT has made believing in HIM as ILAH ‘GOD’ after negating every other God and then believing in Mohammed ﷺ as Prophet of Allah as a first condition for any person to be accepted as a believer (Muslim). Though these two aren’t the only articles of faith, proclaiming these two will allow a person to be part of the Muslim Ummah. Then they have to believe in all prophets who were sent before him. In Quran, Twenty-five Prophets are mentioned by names such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc.; and to believe in Quran as a final testament (and other books revealed to prophets before him), in Day of Judgement /Life after death (resurrection), in Angels, and Heaven & Hell and Qadr (predestination).
Allah SWT has bestowed exceptional status to his slave and Prophet ﷺ, and that was not given to anyone else. Quite a few verses describe this status in detail. I would specially mention three necessary commands about Prophet, which has special significance for believers, and any negligence in this regard will make the Iman weak and doubtful and may even lead the person to disbelief:
Purpose of sending Prophet ﷺ: Obedience and Submission
a.Unconditional Obedience: And we didn’t send any prophet but that he should be obeyed by Allah’s permission… (4-64)
b.Complete Submission to his judgment: But no! by your Lord! They cannot become true believers until they seek your arbitration in all matters on which they disagree among themselves, and then do not find the least vexation in their hearts over your judgement, and accept it in willing submission. (4-65)
Utmost respect towards Prophet ﷺ: Muslims are required to hold fast to his teachings over their desires:
*”O you who believe! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, and do not speak loud to him as you speak loud to one another, let your deeds became null while you do not perceive.” (Al Hujrat -2)
*”Those who lower their voices before Allah’s Apostle are they whose hearts Allah has proved for guarding (against evil); they shall have forgiveness and a great reward.” (Al Hujarat -3)
Prophets wives are mothers to believers: Any disrespect towards any of his wives is a sign of Kufr (rejection of faith).
The Prophet has a greater claim on the faithful than they have on themselves, and his wives are (as) their mothers. (Al Ahzab-6)
Prophet ﷺ Special status in Quran: There are many verses, and few are listed below:
*Seal of Prophets: وَلَكِن رَّسُولَ اللَّهِ وَخَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّينَ – But (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets.
*Allah revered the ‘night’ & the ‘month’ He was made Prophet & Quran was revealed:
*لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ – The Night of Power is better than a Thousand Months.
And further Allah declared him ‘The Mercy for all beings’:
*وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ – We sent thee not but as Mercy of all creatures.
*‘The Best example for all time to come:
لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِّمَن كَانَ يَرْجُو اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا
*You have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful conduct for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the final day & who engages much in praise of Allah.
*Heﷺ was granted ‘The Kawther’:إنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَر – To thee, we have granted the Fount of Abundance (108-1).
*And Allah SWT raised his position: وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ – And raised high the esteem in which thou are held.
*And إن شَاء اللَّهُ Prophet will be given the coveted position of ‘Muqam-e-Mahmood’ on the day of Judgement. And pray in the small watches of the morning: (it would be) an additional prayer (or spiritual profit) for thee: soon will thy Lord raise thee to a Station of Praise and Glory! – 17:79.
Allah completed the favors & declared Islam as the only accepted religionالْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الإِسْلاَمَ دِينًا فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ فِي مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِّإِثْمٍ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But if any is forced by hunger, with no inclination to transgression, Allah is indeed Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. – 5:3.
Sending Salutation on Prophet was made a great act of worship: إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا – Allah & His Angels send Blessings on the Prophet: O you that believe! Send your Blessings on him and salute him with all respect- 33-56.
His companions held Prophet ﷺ in highest esteem allowed to any human being, loved him more than their lives and their families, followed him devotedly and protected him with their lives and Allah SWT tested their commitment with severe trials, and they successfully passed all the tests. As a reward for their innumerable sacrifices, they were given the ‘Best’ of certificate – رَّضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ
جَزَاؤُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّاتُ عَدْنٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا رَّضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ ذَلِكَ لِمَنْ خَشِيَ رَبَّهُ
Their reward is with Allah. Gardens of Eternity, beneath which rivers flow; they will dwell therein forever; Allah well pleased with them, and they with Him: all this for such as fear their Lord and Cherisher. – 98:8
Once the Prophetﷺ completed his mission, he was called back by Allah SWT. Now the Companions he had trained were to take this message forward to the four corners of the world, and they did it with utmost care and with every sacrifice humanly possible. They guarded the DEEN against every corruption, and the message of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s footprints guided them and never severed from the ‘Straight Path.’ Since then, no people ever walked the face of the earth who had more claim towards the love of the Prophet than his Companions.
Arabs never had a calendar year; they used important events to mark a year like ‘year of Elephant.’ They only had names of months and days.
During the pre-Islamic period, Quraysh used to play with the months shifting it from its original position/place. Quran has highlighted that practice called “NASI.” (refer to Sura Tawbah Aya 37). Due to this practice, the months and days were disturbed/shifted from their original place. And finally, this practice was abolished, and the Calendar was restored to its original form and was declared by the Prophet in his farewell sermon in 10AH.
Prophet ﷺ said that the time had completed a cycle, and Actual days of HAJ are back in their original place.
During the reign of Omar RA, Persia and Byzantine fell to Islamic Conquests, Islam now became the ‘New Superpower’ of the world. The government requirements became complex, maintaining financial records and auditing the accounts became essential, and there was a need for a Calendar. Companions debated about a reference point to start the Islamic Calendar. Christians mark their year as BC (Before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini translated as the year of our Lord), and Companions of Prophet ﷺ were aware of the Christian Calendar that they mark it with the Birth of Jesus. Yet, they didn’t choose a reference point for starting Islamic year to be Prophets birth year. They discussed several dates, and they all mutually agreed to start the Calendar from the event that changed Muslim history. That was the year of ‘Migration’, and from it came the name “HIJRI (AH in Latin Anno Hegirae, meaning in the year of Hijra).”
Companions who Prophet trained ﷺ himself and was the ‘Best Muslims Ever to Walk The Face of Earth,’ never felt the need to honor the year of Prophet’s Birth, they understood Islam directly from Prophet ﷺ and were aware of the significance of various events and prophets birth date wasn’t one.
Almost for the first five hundred years comprised the period of companions, followed by Tabeyeen & Tabe-Tabeyeen, which were the golden period of Islamic knowledge. They were the best people of the Ummah till the last day. None ever celebrated the birthday of the Prophet.
The Prophet ﷺ has said: “The best people are my generation, then the people who come after them, then the people who come after them” (al-Bukhaari, and Muslim). And these best three generations never celebrated or organized Prophets birthday.
Then came the later generations of Muslims who were influenced by other cultures and corrupted with practices of other faiths; they felt as Christians, and different pagan cultures celebrated and worshiped the Birth of their heroes, Muslims too should match them, and they decided that the arrival of Prophet in this world must be observed and honored, A practice which might have looked un-harmful and benign initially but with time (decades and centuries later) it (a practice called ‘Mawlid An-Nabi”) turned into one of the most corrupt practices in Muslim calendar. People celebrating this occasion are engaged in the worst form of Shirk.
Those who practice the Bid’ah of Mawlid An-Nabi, put themselves on a higher pedestal than the Companions of Prophet ﷺ and the earlier generations and say by their actions that “you were not intelligent and knowledgeable about Islam as we are, we knew how to honor our Prophet ﷺ and we love him more than you?
One need not be a genius to understand that Deen is a straight line! Any smallest deviation that initially may look very minute but over a long period will become so big a deviation that it doesn’t have anything to do with that straight line (Deen ul Islam). Initially, even if the deviation is less than one degree, the two lines will be a world apart when the line gets extended (as time passes). That’s what exactly happened; after a few centuries, this Bid’ah, which initially looked harmless, has taken shape and form with no relationship with Islam or its Prophet. Sadly, the rituals of this occasion have turned into a festival resembling ‘PAGANISM’ than ‘ISLAM,’ yet many of those who claim to ‘Hate all Bid’ah’ and called themselves ‘on right path’ are participating, supporting, and propagating this un-Islamic festival. With time, the celebration has taken worse form; today, it promotes mixed gatherings, singing by women in melodious voice is widely practiced, and people listen to it as if it is an act of KHAIR (Birr). The fact is that the Quran has ordained in Sura al-Ahzaab that Muslim women should not soften their voices when talking to stranger (Non-Mehram) males, let alone singing.
It is now so widespread that ‘Not a single Muslim/Islamic religious, social and political party or Islamic seminary is free of this Bid’ah. Many Muslim countries have declared a public holiday on the same footing as the two blessed EID.
There is no doubt that “Mawlid Un Nabi is a Bid’ah (an innovation which will not earn any reward but will have severe consequences and a high-risk punishment) and Prophet has warned against all Bid’ah.
There was not a sermon in which the Prophet ﷺ would not warn people of Bid’ah and commanded them to stay away from innovation, in fact, he ﷺ would always begin his sermons with this reminder to his noble Companions, in a time when there was no innovation present, and as a reminder to the people who were from the best of humanity.
“Every innovation is misguidance and going astray” [Reported by Abū Dāwūd (no. 4607), al-Tirmidhī (no. 2676).
And he also said,
“... and every innovation is misguidance, and all misguidance is in the Hellfire.” [Reported by al-Nasāʾī (1/224) from Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh and it is ṣaḥīḥ as declared by Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taimiyah in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwá. (3/58)]
Now for Academic interest, let us see What was Prophet’s birth date? It might be surprising to many o know that the 12th of Rabiul Awwal is among the weakest, and for the first five centuries before Mawlid un Nabi was invented, the date usually accepted was 8th Rabi al Awwal.
The different views regarding the date of Birth are:
2nd Rabi ul Awwal: Ibn Abd al-Barr
5th Rabi ul Awwal: Ameer ud din
8th Rabi ul Awwal: Ibn al Qayyim, ibn e Hazm, Az Zuhri , Ibn e Dihya
9th Rabi ul Awwal : Muhammad Suleman Mansurpuri, Mubarakpuri , Shibli Nomani, Mahmud Pasha Falaki, Akbar Shah Najeeb Abadi, Moeen ud din Ahmed Nadvi, Abul Kalam Azad
12th Rabi ul Awwal: Tabari, ibn e Khuldoon, Dr. Hameedullah, Ibn e Hisham, ‘Allama Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al- Mawardi, ibn e ishaaq
10th Rabi ul Awwal: Abul Fida, Abu Jaafar al Baaqir, Al Waqadi, Al Sha’bi
17th Rabi ul Awwal: Shia view; and they also believe that it was Friday
22nd Rabi ul Awwal: Also attributed to ibn e Hazm
Earlier historians like Ibn e S’ad didn’t mention the 12th Rabi ul Awwal as a potential Birthday. In the earlier days, 8th Rabi ul Awwal was accepted as his ﷺ date of Birth.
In the light of the facts mentioned above, can any sane God-fearing Muslim still entertain any doubts about it being a Bid’ah? All celebrations marking the birthday of Prophet must be strictly avoided even if that occasion doesn’t involve any unlawful practice. Yet, the very concept of ‘Birthday’ is against Islamic belief and must be shunned by every Muslim. In current times any person with little Islamic knowledge can see for himself this Bid’ah has taken a form that might represent a Pagan belief than a belief of the Quran. And most gathering involves practices of Shirk. Allahu Musta’an.
Had the birthday of Prophet has any significance, how come Allah SWT didn’t mention it, and how come the companions didn’t celebrate it and why wasn’t it marked as revered day? Simply because it has no significance at all.
I humbly pray Allah SWT to save Muslims from this innovation and guide them to the straight path and make them realize that the love of the Prophet ﷺ is in following his teachings and not in celebrating his birthday – Ameen
I seek refuge in Allah SWT’s Mercy from organizing, participating, supporting the Mawlid Un Nabi celebration and I consider it a Bid’ah (innovation). And I seek Allah’s Mercy and forgiveness of any mistakes in this article – Ameen.
Finally, let us see from Quran the very purpose the Prophet(s) was (were) sent:
To follow his footsteps:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Say [O Prophet]: “If you love God, follow me, [and] God will love you and forgive you your sins; for God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.” – 3:31
To Obey Prophet:
قُلْ أَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فإِن تَوَلَّوْاْ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْكَافِرِينَ
Say: “Pay heed unto God and the Apostle.” And if they turn away – verily, God does not love those who deny the truth. – 3:32
Prophet must be Obeyed at all cost and at all times:
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِن رَّسُولٍ إِلاَّ لِيُطَاعَ بِإِذْنِ اللّهِ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآؤُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ اللّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُواْ اللّهَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا
And WE did not send any apostle but that he should be obeyed by Allah’s permission; had they when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked forgiveness of Allah and the Apostle had (also) asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Oft-returning to Mercy), Merciful. – 4:64
Accept Prophet as their Judge in matters of disputes is a precondition to be a believer:
فَلاَ وَرَبِّكَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ حَتَّىَ يُحَكِّمُوكَ فِيمَا شَجَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ ثُمَّ لاَ يَجِدُواْ فِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَرَجًا مِّمَّا قَضَيْتَ وَيُسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيمًا
But no, by your Lord! They do not [really] believe until they make you a judge of that which has become a matter of disagreement among them, and then find in their hearts no bar to an acceptance of your (Prophet’s) decision and give themselves up [to it] in utter self-surrender. 4:65
Are we fulfilling the above criteria to be accepted as a believer by Allah? Each one of us must do introspection as this will decide his fate on the day of resurrection!
May Peace & Blessings of Allah SWT be on our beloved Prophet ﷺ, His family & Companions.
وَمَا عَلَيْنَا إِلاَّ الْبَلاَغُ الْمُبِينُ And our duty is to Proclaim the clear and explicit message (of Islam) 36-17
Appendix:
References that might help to further understand the topic:
Quran on the last Prophet ﷺ
And Mohammed is no more than an apostle, and apostles have already passed away before him: if then he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels? And whosoever turns back upon his heels, he will by no means do harm to Allah in the least, and Allah will reward the grateful. (Al-Imran -144).
Say [O Prophet]: “I am but a mortal man like all of you. It has been revealed unto me that your God is the One and Only God. Hence, whoever looks forward [with hope and awe] to meeting his Sustainer [on Judgment Day], let him do righteous deeds, and let him not ascribe unto anyone or anything a share in the worship due to his Sustainer!” (Al-Kahf-110).
Companions of Prophet ﷺ:
Companions of Prophet were the best people of this Ummah; they were the people trained by Prophet himself. And in Quran, Allah SWT gave them a Certificate that HE, “THE CREATOR,” is pleased with them, and they are pleased with HIM. Qur’an mentioned their praise in several places & few are mentioned below:
Those who migrated and fought in the cause of Allah are higher in status:
“Not equal among you are those who spent (in the way of Allah) and fought before the conquest [of Makkah] (and those who did so thereafter). Those are greater in rank than they who spent afterward and fought.” (Al Hadeed – 10)
“But those who have believed and emigrated and fought in the cause of Allah and those who gave shelter & aided – it is they who are the believers, truly. For them is forgiveness & noble provision.” (Al-Anfal: 74).
About companions who pledged allegiance at Bait-Ur-Rizwan:
“God is pleased with the believers who pledged allegiance to you under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts and, consequently, He blessed them with contentment and rewarded them with an immediate victory (48:18)
Those who believed before Fatah Makkah:
“Not equal among you are those who spent (in the way of Allah) and fought before the conquest [of Makkah] (and those who did so thereafter). Those are greater in rank than they who spent afterward and fought.” (Al Hadeed – 10)
Only Kuffar are the ones who get enraged with the Companions:
“Muhammad – the messenger of God – and those with him are harsh and stern against the disbelievers but kind and compassionate amongst themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating as they seek God’s blessings and approval. Their marks are on their faces because of prostrating. This is the same example as in the Torah. Their example in the Gospel is like plants that grow taller and stronger and please the farmers. He thus enrages the disbelievers. God promises THOSE AMONG THEM who believe, and lead a righteous life, forgiveness and a great recompense.” (48:29)
Those who revile and disrespect any companion declare his animosity towards none but Prophet; such people are anything but Muslims. All companions deserve our utmost respect and veneration.(The author is based at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA)
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India based Website, powered by Gujarat siyasat, a Fortnightly)
