Who Is the
Messenger
of Islam?
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Muhammad
‘Muhammad’ is the name of the Prophet of Islam. It is one of the most common names in the world today, and simply means
‘the one whom people admire and praise for his morals and good actions.’ Who is Muhammed, then?
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N
The Name of the Messenger of Islam
Muhammad (PBUH) (570-632 CE) was the son of Abdullah, son of Abd Al-Muttalib of the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh.
Muslims believe the following about him: He is the Messenger to All Mankind God sent Muhammad (PBUH) as a
messenger to people of all races, classes and colours, and He made it everybody’s duty to obey him. The Qur’an (7:158) states, “Say, ‘O
Mankind, I am the Messenger of God to you all …’”
The Qur’an was Revealed to Him God sent down to him the last and the greatest of His divine scriptures, namely the Qur’an, which is divinely preserved and cannot be influenced by falsehood (41:42).
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He was the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers
Muhammad (PBUH) was the final
prophet sent by God; therefore, there will be no prophet after him, as evidenced by the verse: “Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but the Messenger of God and the Final Seal of the Prophets …”
(33:40).
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A Brief History of the Messenger of Islam — Muhammad, Peace Be upon Him
1. His Birth
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was born in Makkah into the tribe of Quraysh, on the western part of the Arabian Peninsula, in 570
CE. His father died before his birth, and his mother died when he was very young. Thus, he was placed under the care of his paternal grandfather, Abdul-Muttalib. After his grandfather’s death, he was placed under the care of Abu Talib, one of his paternal uncles.
2. His Life and Upbringing
Muhammad (PBUH) spent forty years in the Makkan tribe of Quraysh before receiving the revelation. During this period (570-609
CE) he came to be known amongst his people as as-saadiq al-ameen (the truthful and trustworthy) because of his honesty and excellent manners. He worked as a shepherd and later as a merchant.
Before the advent of Islam, Muhammad (PBUH) maintained the pure monotheistic beliefs of Prophet Abraham (PBUH), worshipping Allah alone without ascribing any partners to Him and rejecting idol worship and
pagan practices. He was also illiterate.
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3. His Mission as a Prophet and Messenger
When Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) turned forty, he started the practice of frequent retreat to the Cave of Hira. He spent his days on the peak of Mount Noor on the outskirts of Makkah, in present-day Saudi Arabia, meditating and worshiping God. It was there that he started receiving revelations from God. The message was clear; read with the help of God, the One Who created you; the first verse he received was, “Read (learn) in the name of your Lord Who created…”
(96:1). This verse ushered in a new era of knowledge, reading, light and guidance.
The Qur’anic revelations continued until his death, twenty-three years later.
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4. The Beginning of His Mission After three years of preaching Islam secretly, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) spent another ten years preaching openly. Most of his followers were from among the weak and the poor, as was the case of all prophets’
followers. During this period, he and the faithful were subjected to the worst forms of injustice and persecution at the hands of the pagans belonging to Muhammad’s own tribe, the Quraysh. Not losing heart, he began presenting himself during the pilgrimage season to the pilgrims who came from various tribes, calling them to the new faith.
Pilgrims from Madeenah accepted Islam and, soon afterwards, Muslims started migrating to Madeenah in successive groups.
5. His Migration
In 622 CE, at the age of fifty-three, God’s Messenger (PBUH) migrated to Madeenah, which was then called Yathrib, after the Quraysh notables who had opposed his mission plotted to kill him. He spent ten years there, inviting people to Islam, and enjoined the Muslims with prayer, charity (zakat), noble manners and other Islamic rituals.
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6. His Efforts to Spread Islam Following his migration to Madeenah (622-632 CE), Muhammad (PBUH) laid the foundations of Islamic civilisation and determined the aspects of the Muslim society. He eradicated tribal fanaticism, spread knowledge and established the principles of justice, righteousness, fraternity, cooperation and organisation. Some tribes attempted to eradicate Islam, leading to a number of skirmishes and wars, but God supported His Messenger and made Islam reign supreme. Then, people of Makkah and of most cities and tribes of the Arabian Peninsula began entering this great religion in hoards, fully convinced that it is the true religion.
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7. His Death
In the lunar month of Safar, 11 AH (June 632 CE), after Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) disseminated the message of Islam and God had completed His favour upon the Muslims by perfecting His religion for them, the Messenger (PBUH) had a sudden onset of fever which led to his death on Monday 11, Rabee‛ Al-Awwal 11 AH (8 June 632 CE) at the age of 63. He was buried where he died, in the room of his wife ‛A’ishah, which is now housed within the Prophet’s Mosque in Madeenah.
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Prophet Muhammad
in the Sight
of Fair-Minded People
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Regardless
Regardless of the culture, impartial individuals who study the biography of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), find themselves fascinated and impressed by the details of the timeless biography. Scientists, philosophers, and writers from the East and the West have attested to this in their writings. The following are statements of some of these unbiased individuals.
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Mahatma Gandhi
writes in Young
India (1924),
“I wanted to know
the best of the life of
one who holds today an
undisputed sway over
the hearts of millions of
mankind... I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission.
These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.
When I closed the second volume of The Prophet’s Biography, I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.”
Mahatma Gandhi, statement published in Young India, 11/9/1924.
“I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind ... I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life.”
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In his famous
book The 100: A
Ranking of the
Most Influential
Persons in History, Michael H. Hart,
states the reason why
he has chosen Prophet
Muhammad to be the first person on his list of the 100 people who most influenced human history. He writes, “My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.”
Michael H Hart. (2017). The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, 1st Edition, Carol Publishing Group, p. 3.
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French writer,
poet and politi-
cian Alphonse de
Lamartine writes in
his book Histoire de la
Turquie (History of Tur-
key), «Si la grandeur du
dessein, la petitesse des
moyens, l’immensité
du résultat sont les trois mesures du génie de l’homme, qui osera comparer humainement un grand homme de l’histoire moderne à Moham-med?»
This translates as follows: If the grandeur of the aim, the smallness of the means, the immensity of the results are the three measures of a man’s genius, who would dare humanly compare a great man of modern history with Muhammad?
Lamartine, Alphonse de (1855). Histoire de la Turquie.
Paris: Chez Wolfgang Gerhard, vol.1, p.111.
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Indian philoso-
pher, psychologist,
parapsychologist,
educationist, teach-
er, researcher and
administrator Koneru
Ramakrishna Rao
notes in his book Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, “Circumstances changed, but the prophet of God did not. In victory or in defeat, in power or in adversity, in affluence or in indigence, he is the same man, disclosed the same character. Like all the ways and laws of God, Prophets of God are unchangeable.”
Koneru Ramakrishna Rao, Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, 1st ed. Riyadh: World Assembly of Muslim Youth, p.24.
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German poet,
playwright, novel-
ist and statesman,
Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe wrote a
famous poetic drama in
praise of Prophet Mu-
hammad (PBUH), which
he called Mahomets Gesang “The Song of Muhammad”. He admired Islam so much that he once remarked, “Even though I am seventy-seven years old, my admiration for Islam has never slackened in the least and that it was increasing and getting all the more established.” Goethe und die arabische Welt p. 177.
In his book Islam and Its Founder, James William Hampson Stobart writes, “In the man, no one can fail to see elements of power and human greatness …
Judged by the smallness of the means at his disposal, and the extent and permanence of the work he accomplished, no name in the world’s story shines with a more specious lustre than that of the prophet of Mecca.” Islam and Its Founder. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, (New York: Pot, Young and Co, 1878), pp.227-228.
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Edward Gibbon
also writes
in A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, “It is not the
propagation but the
permanency of his religion
that deserves our wonder,
the same pure and perfect
impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran.”
A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vo. 3, (New York: Haper and Brothers, 1837) p.406).
“… the same pure and perfect impression which he (i.e. Muhammad) engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran.” (Edward Gibbon)
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American writer, historian, and philosopher William Durant writes in The Story of Civilisation, an
eleven-volume set of books
covering Western history for
the general reader, which he
wrote in collaboration with
his wife Ariel Durant:
“If we judge greatness by
influence, he (Muhammad)
was one of the giants of
history. He undertook to raise the spiritual and moral level of a people harassed into barbarism by heat and foodless wastes and he succeeded more completely than any other reformer; seldom has any man so fully realised his dream. He accomplished his purpose through religion not only because he himself was religious, but because no other medium could have moved the Arabs of his time. He appealed to their imagination, fears and hopes and spoke in terms that they could understand. When he began, Arabia was a desert flotsam of idolatrous tribes but when he died it was a nation. He restrained fanaticism and superstition; and upon Judaism, Christianity and the [pagan] creed native to his country, he built a religion simple, clear and strong, as well as a morality of ruthless courage and racial pride which, in a generation, marched to a hundred victories in a century to empire and remains to this day a virile force through half the world.”
Will Durant (1950). The Story of Civilization: The Age of Faith, Vol. IV, 1st edition, New York: Simon and Schuster,
p. 174.
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Abu Sufyan, one of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) mortal enemies, relates an amazing story about him after his conversion to Islam. When Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) letter reached Heraclius, the Eastern Roman Emperor, in 628 CE in which he invited him to Islam, Heraclius was amazed by such a letter.
Heraclius ordered that an Arab who knew and was related to the sender, be brought back to be asked about Muhammad. Abu Sufyan, a prominent leader of the Quraysh and one of Muhammad’s (PBUH) deadliest enemies at that time, was engaging in some business of his in the then Greater Syria (today’s Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan), was called to him. Along with a group of men Abu Sufyan was called to the palace. Heraclius asked them, through an interpreter, very intelligent questions to find out whether or not the Prophet (PBUH) was truthful.
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When he heard Abu Sufyan’s answers to his questions, Heraclius said to him, I asked you about his family and your reply was that he belonged to a very noble family.
In fact, all the messengers come from noble families amongst their respective peoples.
I asked you whether anybody else amongst you claimed what he claimed, and your reply was in the negative. If the answer had been in the affirmative, I would have thought that this man was following the previous man’s statement.
I further asked whether he was ever accused of telling lies, and your reply was in the negative. Thus, I wondered how a person who does not tell a lie about others could ever tell a lie about God.
I then asked you whether the rich or the poor followed him. Your reply was that the poor followed him. In fact, all the messengers have been followed by this very class of people. Then I asked you whether his followers were increasing or decreasing. You replied that they were increasing. In fact, this is the way of true faith until it is complete in all respects.
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I further asked you whether there was anybody, who, after embracing his religion, became displeased and discarded his religion. Your reply was in the negative. In fact, this is the sign of true faith, when its delight enters human hearts and mixes with them completely.
I also asked you whether he had ever betrayed anyone. You replied in the negative and likewise God’s messengers never betray anyone.
Then I asked you what he ordered you to do. You replied that he ordered you to worship God alone and not to worship anything besides Him and forbade you to worship idols and ordered you to pray, to speak the truth and to be chaste.
If what you have said is true, he will very soon occupy this very place underneath my feet, and I knew it [from the scriptures] that he was going to appear, but I did not know that he would be from you. If I knew I could reach him, I would do whatever it takes to meet him” (Al-Bukhari: 7).
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Aspects
of Prophet
Muhammad’s
Life and His High
Moral Standards
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The
The Prophet (PBUH) was the epitome of good character and personal integrity. All fair-minded people from all parts of the world, including his own enemies, have testified to this fact. Indeed, his manners were so refined that the Qur’an (68:4) describes him as such.
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When his wife ‛Ai’shah (May God be W
pleased with her) was asked once about the character of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), she replied, “His character was the Qur’an itself” (Muslim: 746), meaning that he translated the teachings of the Qur’an into his daily living.
The following are some aspects of his life and high moral standards.
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Humility
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was so
humble that he did not like people to rise to their feet upon his arrival and he forbade them from doing so. Although he was the dearest to his companions, they would not rise for him when they saw him coming, for they knew that he disliked that (Ahmad: 12345).
• His actions and movements while in the company of his companions were characterised by simplicity and utter humility, so much so that a stranger would not be able to tell who he was. Once, a man came and asked, “Who amongst you is Muhammad?” (Al-Bukhari: 63).
• Some of his companions say that while he was preoccupied, he did not refrain from going to spend the needs of the people and their interests, no matter how small.
Indeed, he was so humble that even a female slave of Madeenah, would just take hold of his hand and take him wherever she needed his assistance (Al-Bukhari: 5724).
The Messenger of Islam would mend his own personal belongings, shared household chores with his wives and helped them around the house.
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• He would mend his own personal belongings, shared household chores with his wives and helped them around the house. His wife ‛A’ishah (God be pleased with her) once said about him, “He used to keep himself busy helping members of his family” (Al-Bukhari: 644). She also said in another occasion, “He used to do what one of you would do in his house. He mended his sandals and patched garments and sewed” (Ahmad: 24749).
• He once declared, “A person who has an atom’s weight of pride in his heart will by no means enter Paradise” (Muslim: 91).
Mercy and Kindness
The Prophet (PBUH) said, “The Most Merciful will have mercy on those who are merciful [to others]. Show mercy to those on the earth and The One above the heavens will show mercy to you” (Abu Dawud: 4941).
His mercy and kindness embraced countless aspects, including the following: 114
Kindness Towards Children
• Even though prayer is considered the pillar of Islam and one is not allowed to engage in talking and frequent movements during it, once he performed prayer while carrying his granddaughter Umamah, daughter of Zaynab. Whenever he prostrated, he would put her down, and whenever he stood up, he would carry her again (Al-Bukhari: 494).
• If he heard a baby crying while the mother was praying behind him, he would shorten the prayer so that the mother could attend to the baby’s needs. He once said, “When I begin the prayer, I always intend to make it long; however, if I hear a baby crying, I shorten it, as I do not wish to cause his mother any distress” (Al-Bukhari: 675).
Kindness Towards Women
• The Prophet (PBUH) urged his companions to look after girls and to show kindness to them; he used to say,
“Whoever is in charge of any of these girls and treats them well, they will be a shield for him against Hellfire” (Al-Bukhari: 5649).
• During his last major public address, he stressed that women ought to be given their rights and be well cared for and commanded Muslims to make this issue 115
their concern and to advise one another to do so: “Take good care of women” (Al-Bukhari: 4890).
• He was a shining example of kindness to family members. He would sit beside his camel and bend his knees so that Safiyyah would mount the camel by placing her foot on his thigh (Al-Bukhari: 2120).
• Whenever his daughter Fatimah (May God be pleased with her) visited him, he would get up to welcome her, take her by the hand, kiss her and make her sit in his place. (Sunan Abu Dawud: 5217)
Kindness Towards the Weak and the Vulnerable
• The Prophet (PBUH) commanded people to sponsor orphans and look after them.
“A person who takes care of an orphan and I will be like this in Paradise,” he once said, joining his forefinger and middle finger together by way of illustration (Al-Bukhari: 4998).
• He considered a person who looks after a widow or a poor person just like one who fights for God’s cause, or like one who performs voluntary prayers all night without slackness and fasts continuously without ever breaking his fast (Al-Bukhari: 5661).
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• He regarded showing kindness to the weak and vulnerable members of society and giving them their rights as means of gaining subsistence and victory over the enemy: “Seek out the weak ones for me, for you are given provision and divine help only because of the weak amongst you”
(Abu Dawud: 2594).
He regarded showing kindness to the weak and vulnerable members of society and giving them their rights a means of gaining subsistence and victory over the enemy.
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Justice
• The Prophet (PBUH) upheld and administered justice under all
circumstances. He judged by God’s rule even if that was against one of his closest family members, in compliance with God’s command, “O you who believe, be upholders of justice, bearing witness for God alone, even against yourselves or your parents and relatives …” (4:135).
• When some of his companions came to intercede with him on behalf of a noble woman who had committed a theft so that she would be spared the prescribed punishment, he said, “By Him in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, even if Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, committed a theft, I would definitely cut off her hand” (Al-Bukhari: 4053).
• When he declared all forms of usury (riba) forbidden, he stated that the first usury he declared entirely abolished was that of Al-Abbas ibn Abd Al-Muttalib, his own paternal uncle: “The first usury that I abolish is our usury — the usury due to Al-Abbas ibn Abd Al-Muttalib. It is all abolished” (Muslim: 1218).
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• A civilized and cultivated society in his estimation is one in which the weak can claim their rights without fear or hesitation. “May that nation not be purified,” he once warned, “among whose members the weak cannot obtain their rights without trouble” (Ibn Majah: 2426).
Benevolence and Generosity
• On another occasion, a man approached him and asked him for some money. The Prophet (PBUH) said to him, “I do not have anything right now, but you can buy something in my name, and I will certainly pay for it when I get the money.” Umar (God Be Pleased with him) turned to him and said, “God has not made it compulsory for you to do something beyond your capacity.” This comment offended the Prophet (PBUH) a great deal. The man then said to him, “Spend in charity without fearing poverty, for The Lord of the Mighty Throne will not decrease your wealth.”
The Prophet (PBUH) smiled and his face was radiant with happiness ( Al-Ahadith Al-Mukhtarah: 88).
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• Once he received eighty thousand dirhams, so he placed the amount on a mat and gave it in charity, not turning away anyone who asked him for something until the full amount was distributed (Mustadrak Al-Hakim: 5423).
Patience and Tolerance
• The Messenger of God (PBUH) left Ta’if, a mountain town 90 km away from Makkah, after he had visited it to preach Islam to its people. Upon his journey home to Makkah, feeling deeply dejected following the harm and abuse meted out to him by them, God sent him an angel who asked him if he wanted the people of Ta’if destroyed. “No,” he replied, “I would rather hope that God would raise from among their descendants those who will worship God alone and will not ascribe any partners whatsoever to Him in worship’”
(Al-Bukhari: 3059).
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• His patience and tolerance is best demonstrated by his treatment of the people of Makkah who had driven him out of his native city, meted out verbal and physical harm to him and left no stone unturned in their attempt to destroy him and his followers. When God granted him with victory over them upon his triumphant return to Makkah, he rose and addressed the assembled multitudes of the Quraysh pagans who had gathered to see what he would do regarding the atrocities they had committed against Muslims for years. “People of Quraysh, he said. What do you think I shall do to you now? “Good, they replied. You are a noble brother, son of a noble brother. He then said, I shall say to you what my brother Joseph (referring to Prophet Joseph, son of Jacob, whose brothers had thrown him into a well) said to his brothers, ‘This day let no reproach be (cast) on you: God will forgive you, and He isThe Most Merciful of those who show mercy!’ (12:92). Go your way, for you are all free” (Al-Bayhaqi: 18275-18276).
Islamic sources mention that the Messenger of Islam never hoarded any type of wealth.
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Abstention from Worldly
Luxuries
• The Messenger of God (PBUH) always kept in mind the following Qur’anic verse:
“Do not strain your eyes in longing for the things We have given for enjoyment to parties of them, the splendour of the life of this world, through which We test them, but the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring” (20:131).
• Once his companion Umar ibn Al-Khattab paid him a visit while he was lying down on a mat made of date palm leaves. There was a visible impression on the side of his body which can be seen as he sat up. Umar said, “I cast a glance at the room, but I could not see anything of importance, so I said to him, ‘Invoke God to make your followers prosperous, for the Persians and the Byzantines have been made prosperous and given
worldly luxuries,
though they
do not
worship
God.’
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Thereupon he said, ‘Do you have any doubt, son of Al-Khattab, that the hereafter is better than this world? These people have been given rewards of their good deeds in this world only’” (Al-Bukhari: 2336).
• He used to say, “What have I to do with the world? I am like a rider who halts under the shade of a tree for a short time and, after taking some rest, resumes his journey and leaves the tree behind” (At-Tirmidhi: 2377).
• Up to three consecutive months would sometimes pass by with no food being cooked in his house, surviving only on dates and water (Al-Bukhari: 2428). He could not even find dates of inferior quality with which to fill his stomach (Muslim: 2977), and he never ate his fill of barley bread even for three consecutive days until the last days of his life (Muslim: 2976).
The Messenger of Islam once compared himself vis-à-vis the worldly life to a traveller who took a rest under a shade of a tree, but he soon got up and left it.
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Faithfulness and Constancy
• Faithfulness and constancy are amongst the loftiest and noblest aspects of moral character, which become dearer if observed to repay kindness without the existence of a binding pledge between two parties. Indeed, this was the usual custom of the Messenger of God (PBUH), who would repay kindness with greater kindness even in the absence of binding pledges, let alone if there were any such serious promises.
• Enquiring about Prophet Muhammad’s character traits, Heraclius, the Eastern Roman Emperor, asked the Quraysh pagans, “Has he ever betrayed anyone?”
“No,” they replied. “Likewise, God’s messengers never betray anyone” (Al-Bukhari: 7).
• He observed the highest degree of loyalty and faithfulness to his first wife Khadijah. He recognized her special status, appreciated the great role she had played in his life and the services she had rendered to the Muslim faith, and was always keen to honor her female relatives and friends.
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• ‘A’ishah, one of his wives, once mentioned an incident testifying to his faithfulness to Khadijah, who died during the early days of his mission and whom ‘A’ishah did not know. She said, “I did not feel jealous of any of the wives of the Prophet as much as I did of Khadijah though I did not see her. He used to mention her very often, and whenever he slaughtered a sheep, he would cut it into number of parts and send them to her female friends.
When I sometimes said to him, ‘You treat Khadijah in such a way as if there is no woman on earth except her,’ he would say,
‘Khadijah was such-and-such,’ and would start enumerating her numerous good qualities” (Al-Bukhari: 3607).
• The Negus, the Abyssinian king who had given refuge to Muslims in the early beginnings of Islam, once sent a delegation to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Upon the arrival of its members, he arose to serve them himself. His followers said to him, “We will serve them instead.” “They received my followers warmly and were kind to them,” he insisted, “and I would like to repay their kindness” (Shu’ab Al-Eemaan: 8704).
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Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) set
the finest examples of excellent moral character in all aspects of life, in compliance with God’s orders and following in the footsteps of the noble prophets before him.
The Prophet’s Mosque, which he built in Madeenah, a holy city that is second in importance only to Makkah. Prophet Muhammad migrated to it and built his mosque in it, and he was later buried there. The Prophet’s Mosque is visited by millions of Muslims every year.
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SOME
SAYINGS OF
PROPHET
MUHAMMAD
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Muslims
Muslims have taken great care in preserving the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by committing them both to memory and to paper. Indeed, highly skilled memorizers and scholars demonstrated unmatched commitment to writing them down with the utmost care. By so doing, they presented the world with a superb system of verifying statements, distinguishing the genuine form the fabrications. The process focused on the minutest details of sentences and words, determining whatever additions have crept
into them.
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TThe following are examples of some of Prophet Muhammad’ sayings:
• “Actions are but by intentions, and every person will have but that which they intend.” (Al-Bukhari: 1).
• “Righteousness is good morality, and wrongdoing is that which wavers in your soul and which you dislike people finding out about.” (Muslim: 2553).
• “Obey God wherever you are, follow up a bad deed with a good one and it will wipe it out, and behave well towards people.”
(At-Tirmidhi: 1987).
• “Be indifferent to this world, and God will love you. Be indifferent to what is in people’s possession and they will love you.” (Ibn Majah: 4102).
• “My similitude in comparison with the prophets before me is that of a person who constructed a building that was quite imposing and beautiful and made it complete but for one brick in one of its corners. People went round it, admiring it and saying, ‘If only that brick were put in its place.’ I am that brick and I am the last of the prophets.” (Al-Bukhari: 3342).
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“You will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not truly believe until you love one another. Shall I show you something which, if you do, you will love one another? Extend the greeting of peace to one another” (Muslim: 54).
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• “If anyone relieves a believer of some worldly hardship, God will relieve him of some of the hardships of the Day of Judgements. If anyone makes it easy for a debtor, God will make it easy for him in this life and in the hereafter, and if anyone conceals the faults of a Muslim, God will conceal his faults in this world and in the hereafter. God helps His slave as long as he helps his brother, and if anyone follows a path in pursuit of knowledge, God will make easy for him a path to paradise …”
(Muslim: 2699).
• “None of you will truly believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself.” (Al-Bukhari: 13).
• “A true Muslim is one does not harm Muslims with his tongue and hands, and an emigrant, [besides being one who leaves his country,] is one who leaves what God has forbidden.” (Al-Bukhari: 10).
• Do not wrong a non-Muslim, force him to work beyond his capacity, or take anything from him without his consent. If you do, I will plead for him on the Day of Judgement” (Abu Dawud: 3052).
• “The merciful will be shown mercy by The Most Merciful. Show mercy to those on the earth, and The One above the heavens will
show mercy to you” (Abu Dawud: 4941).
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“Whoever who does not show mercy to our young ones or recognise the rights of our elders is not one of us.” (At-Tirmidhi: 1920).
• “Whoever cheats is not one of us” (At-Tirmidhi: 1315).
• “In their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy, the believers are like one body. When one of the limbs aches, the whole body responds to it with sleeplessness and fever” (Muslim: 2586).
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• “All of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards. The ruler is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects; a man is a guardian and is responsible for his family; a woman is a guardian and is responsible for her husband’s house and his offspring. Thus, all of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards” (Al-Bukhari: 4892).
• “The believers with perfect faith are those who have the best manners, and the best of you are those who treat their wives the best” (At-Tirmidhi: 1162).
• “The best of you are those who are the best at treating their wives, and, of all of you, I am the best at treating my wives”
(At-Tirmidhi: 3895).
• “God loves kindness and gentleness in every matter.” (Al-Bukhari: 5678); “He who is deprived of forbearance and gentleness is deprived of all good” (Muslim: 2592).
• “The signs of a hypocrite are three: Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie; whenever he makes a promise, he breaks it; and whenever he is entrusted with something, he betrays the trust.” (Al-Bukhari: 33).
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• “Part of someone’s being a good Muslim is his leaving alone that which does not concern him.” (At-Tirmidhi, 2317).
• “While a man was walking along a road, he became very thirsty. He soon found a well, so he lowered himself into it, drank his fill and came out. Then he saw a dog panting and eating mud because of excessive thirst. The man said to himself,
‘This dog has become just as exhausted from thirst as I.’ He lowered himself into the well again, filled his shoe with water and gave the dog some water to drink.
God accepted this good deed from him and forgave him.” The people asked,
“Messenger of God! Will we be rewarded for taking care of animals?” “Yes,” he replied, “You will be rewarded for taking care of every living thing.” (Al-Bukhari: 2466).
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Description of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the Qur’an
The Qur’an sheds some light on a wonderful aspect of Prophet Muhammad’s personality and his interaction with those around him. The Qur’an reveals his outstanding manners, sublime moral character and humanness:
He is a mercy to all humanity (21:107), not only to Muslims.
He had excellent manners and sublime moral character (68:4).
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He was very keen to guide people to the truth and feelt so profoundly distressed for the not rightly guided that the Qur’an repeatedly stresses that his mission was only to invite people to Islam and convey God’s message to them and that it is God Who guides whom He wills (11:12), (6:107) (18:110).
He makes allowance for others’ faults and forgives them for their mistakes (9:43).
He keeps asking God to forgive his enemies until he is told to refrain from doing so (9:80).
He is distressed by the believers’ suffering and is most kind and compassionate to them (9:128).
He may sometimes feel annoyed by some people’s lengthy stay at his home, but his incredibly respectful shyness prevents him from making his feelings known to them (33:53).
He is kind-hearted, shows extreme gentleness towards his companions and consults them even in the most difficult circumstances (3:159).
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