MUHAMMAD (S. A. W. S.)
his person, life & teachings
LECTURES
based on Non Moslems Centuries Long Research
By
Professor
MASOOD AHMED ABBASI
Mohammad (P.B.U.H.) THE MESSENGER OF GOD
1- SUBLIME TEACHINGS
This new conception of religion that it should also devote itself to the betterment of his life rather than concern itself exclusively with super mundane affairs, has led to a new orientation of moral values. Its abiding influence on the common relations of mankind in the affairs of everyday life, its deep power over the masses, its regulation of their conceptions of rights and duty, its suitability and adaptability to the ignorant savage and other wise philosopher alike, are characteristic features of the teaching of the Prophet of Islam.
2- BASED ON CORRECT FAITH AND RIGHT ACTIONS
But it should be most carefully borne in mind that this stress on good actions is not at the sacrifice of correctness of faith. While there are various schools of thought, one praising faith at the expense of deeds, another exhorting various acts to the detriment of correct belief, Islam is based on correct faiths and actions. Means are as important as the end and ends are as important as the means. It is an organic unity. Together they live and thrive. Separate them and they both decay and die. In Islam faith cannot be divorced from action. Right knowledge should be transferred into right action to produce that right results “THOSE WHO BELIEVE AND DO GOOD, THEY ALONE SHALL ENTER PARADISE.” How often these words come in the Qur’an? Again and again, not less than fifty times these words are repeated. Contemplation is encouraged but mere contemplation is not the goal. THOSE WHO BELIEVE AND DO NOTHING CANNOT EXIST IN ISLAM. Those who believe and do wrong are inconceivable. Divine law is the law of effort and pot of ideals. It chalks out for the men the path of eternal progress from knowledge to action and from action to satisfaction.
3- GOD-“THEREIS NONE LIKE UNTO HIM”
But what is the correct faith from which right action spontaneously proceeds, resulting in complete satisfaction? Here the central doctrine of Islam is the Unity of God. There is no God but one God, is the pivot from which hangs the whole teaching and practice of Islam. He is unique not only as regards His divine being but also as regard His divine attributes.
As regards the attributes of God, Islam adopts here as in other things too, the law of the golden mean. It avoids, on the one hand, the view of God which divests the divine beings of every attribute and rejects on the other, the view which likens Him to things material. The Quran says, on the one hand, there is nothing which is like Him; on the other. it affirms that He is Seeing, Hearing, Knowing. He is the King who is without a stain of fault or deficiency, the mighty ship of His power floats upon the ocean of justice and equity. He is the Beneficent, the Merciful. He is the Guardian over all. Islam does not op with this positive statement. It adds further which is its most special characteristic the negative aspect of the problem. There is no one else who is guardian over anything. He is the mender of every breakage and no one else is the mender of any breakage. He is the restorer of any loss whatsoever. There is no God but one God, above any need, the Maker of bodies, Creator of souls, the Lord of the day of judgment and in short, in the words of Quran.
SAY: “CALL UPON ALLAH, OR CALL UPON REHMAN BY WHATEVER NAME YE CALL HIM, (IT IS WELL):
FOR TO HIM BELONG THE MOST BEAUTIFUL NAMES” (Holy Qur’an I 7:110)
4- POSITION OF HUMAN BEINGS IN CREATION
Regarding the position of man in relation to the Universe, the Qur’an says:
ALLAH IS HE WHO HAS SUBJECTED TO YOU THE SEA, THAT YOU MAY SAIL YOUR SHIPS THROUGH IT BY HIS COMMAND THAT YE SEEK OF HIS BOUNTY AND THAT YE MAY BE GRATEFUL, AND HE HAS SUBJECTED TO YOU, ALL THAT IS IN THE HEAVENS AND ON EARTH AS FROM HIMSELF BEHOLD, IN THAT ARE SIGNS INDEED FOR A PEOPLE WHO REFLECT. (Holy Qur’an 45: 12-13)
But in relation to God, the Qur’an says:
HE (ALLAH) IT IS ,WHO HATH CREATED DEATH AND LIFE THAT
HE MAY TEST AS TO WHICH OF YOU IS BEST IN DEEDS: AND IT IS HE WHO IS EXALTED IN MIGHT, OFTFORGIVING.(Holy Qur’an 67.2)
In spite of free will which he enjoys to some extent, every man is born under certain circumstances and continues to live under certain circumstances beyond his control. With regard to this, God says, according to Islam, it is My will to create any man under conditions that seems best to Me. Cosmic plans, finite mortals cannot fully comprehend. But I will certainly test you in prosperity as well as in adversity, in health as well as in sickness, in heights as well as in depths. My ways of testing differ from man to man, from hour to hour. In adversity do not despair and do not resort to unlawful means. It is but a passing phase. In prosperity do not forget God. God’s Gifts are given only as trusts. You are always on trial; every moment on test. In this sphere of life “there is not to reason why, theirs is but to do and die”. If you live, live in accordance with God: and if you die, die in the path of God. You may call it fatalism. But this type of fatalism is a condition of vigorous increasing effort, keeping you ever on the alert. Do not consider this temporal life on earth as the end of human existence. There is a life after death and it is eternal. Life after death is only a connecting link, a door that opens up hidden reality of life. Every action in life, however, insignificant, produces a lasting effect. It is correctly recorded somehow:
5- THE LIFE IS PREP ARATION FOR HEREAFTER
Some of the ways of God are known to you, but many of his ways are hidden from you. What is hidden in you and from you in this World will be unrolled and laid open before you in the next. The virtuous will enjoy the blessings of God which the eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor have they entered in to the hearts of men to conceive them. They will march onward reaching higher and higher stages of evolution. Those who have wasted opportunity in this life shall under the inevitable law, which makes every man taste of what he has done, be subjected to a course of treatment of his spiritual disease which they have brought about with their own hands. Beware, it is a terrible ordeal. Bodily pain is torture, you can bear it somehow. Spiritual pain is hell, you will find it unbearable. Fight in this life itself the tendencies of the spirit prone to evil, tempting to lead you into iniquitous ways. Reach the next stage when the self-accusing spirit in your conscience is awakened and the soul is anxious to attain moral excellence and revolts. against disobedience. This will lead you to the final stage of the soul at rest, contented with God, finding its happiness and delight in Him alone. The soul no more stumbles. The stage of struggle passes away. Truth is victorious and falsehood lays down its arms. All complexes will then be resolved. Your house will not be divided against itself Your personality will get integrated round the central core of submission to the will of God and complete surrender to His divine purpose. All hidden energies will then be released. The soul then will have peace. God will then address you :
“O (THOU) SOUL THAT ART AT REST, AND RESTETH
FULLY CONTENTED (WITH THE LORD), RETURN TO THY
LORD, HE IS PLEASED WITH THEE & THOU BE PLEASED
WITH HIM; SO ENTER AMONG MY SERVANTS AND
ENTER INTO MY PARADISE”. (Holy Qur ‘an 89: 2 7-30)
6- MAN’S DESTINY
This is the final goal for man, to become on the one hand the master of the Universe and on the other to see that his soul finds rest in his Lord, that not only his Lord will be pleased with him but that he is also pleased with his Lord. Contentment, complete contentment, satisfaction, complete satisfaction, peace, complete peace, will result. The love of God is his food, at this stage and he drinks deep at the fountain of life. Sorrow and frustration do not overwhelm him and success does not find him vain and exulting Thomas Carlyle struck by this philosophy of life writes:
“AND THEN ALSO ISLAM-THAT WE MUST SUBMIT TO GOD: THAT OUR WHOLE STRENGTH LIES IN RESIGNED SUBMISSION TO HIM, WHATSOEVER HE DOES TO US, THE THING HE SENDS TO US, EVEN IF DEATH OR WORSE THAN DEALTH, SHALL BE GOOD, SHALL BE BEST: WE RESIGN OURSELVES TO GOD”.
The same author continues: “IF THIS BE ISLAM”.
Says Goethe “DO WE NOT ALL LIVE IN ISLAM?”
Carlyle himself answers this question of Goethe
“YES, ALL OF US THAT HAVE ANY MORAL LIFE, WE ALL LIVE SO. THIS IS YET THE HIGHEST
WISDOM THAT HEAVEN HAS REVEALED TO OUR EARTH”.
Carlyle continues:
“THE WORD OF SUCH A MAN (MUHAMMAD), IS A VOICE DIRECT FROM NATURE’S OWN HEART;
MEN DO & MUST LISTEN TO THAT, AS TO NOTHING ELSE; ALL ELSE IS WIND IN COMPARISON”
… from the Book-“Heroes & Hero Worship”
(Times, New York, USA, 15 July 1974, pages 32 -33: “Who were history’s Great Leaders?” by Jules Masserman)
“LEADERS MUST FULFILL THREE FUNCTIONS: PROVIDE FOR THE WELL BEING OF THE LED, PROVIDE A SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, IN WHICH PEOPLE FEEL RELATIVELY SECURE, AND PROVIDE THEM WITH ONE SET OF BELIEFS. PEOPLE LIKE PASTEUR AND SALK ARE LEADERS IN THE FIRST SENSE. PEOPLE LIKE GANDHI AND CONFUCIUS, ON ONE HAND, AND ALEXANDER, CAESAR & HITLER ON THE OTHER, ARE LEADERS IN THE SECOND AND PERHAPS THE THIRD SENSE. JESUS AND BUDDHA BELONG IN THE THIRD CATEGORY ALONE. PERHAPS THE GREA TEST LEADER OF ALL TIMES WAS MOHAMMAD, WHO COMBINED ALL THREE FUNCTIONS, TO A LESSER DEGREE MOSSES DID THE SAME”.
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‘0 Muhammad We thee not save as a mercy for the peoples