Respect for Prophets
By Jafar Wafa

IN the wake of the worldwide protests against the blasphemous cartoons, it has come to light that the ignorance, real or feigned, of the enlightened West regarding Muslim belief about the Prophet of Islam, as also about Prophets of other religions, is tragic and disappointing.

Those who caused such a grave offence to Muslim sensitivity globally were so pathetically ill-informed not only about the person of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) but also about how the Muslims are required by their faith to revere and respect other Prophets of God, specially those named in the Bible and Quran.

It appears that the present-day Christian Europe has not shed from its collective consciousness the vulgar, indecent and entirely unfounded accounts about the Holy Prophet, whose name was deliberately and derisively distorted and circulated by the Christian clergy in mediaeval Europe to ignite the Crusades that lasted for well over two centuries. If it is so, then it is most unfortunate, as it belies the West’s tall claim that it has discarded the religious baggage of yore, having embraced secularism which stands for the belief that the state machinery, moral values, citizens’ mindset and educational system should be independent of religious prejudices and predilections.

In Islam, a Prophet, such as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), is neither God’s offspring, nor His incarnation, nor even His shadow on earth. They were all mortals like any one of us except that they received revelation from their Maker. The Prophet of Islam declared many a time, as can be seen in the text of the Quran that “he was only a mortal like any one else with the difference that it was inspired in him that our God is one and only God” (18: 110 & 41:6). And, as desired by the Almighty, he proclaimed: “Glory to my God! I am no more than a mortal Messenger” (17:93).

The one attribute common to all Prophets of God that distinguishes them from ordinary folks is that they received ‘revelation’ from the Divine Being through a spiritual or ‘angelic’ medium. And, it is entirely God’s prerogative to choose Prophets to convey the Divine dictation to fellow humans for guidance on the right path. The Quran confirms this in these words: “God sends down the angels with the Spirit of His command to whom He wills” (16:2). Similarly, the Quran affirms that all Prophets received ‘revelation’: “God did not send any Prophet from among the inhabitants of that place who were not given the Divine revelation” (16:109).

Such being the status of all the Divinely-inspired Prophets, the Muslims are required to treat all of them as equally respectable and venerable. The Quran records this fact: “The believers (i.e. Muslims) say that they make no distinction between any of God’s Prophets” (2:285). But what is not permissible for the believers — differentiation between Prophets — is the Almighty’s prerogative. He can, and He did, distinguish and differentiate. In this regard the Quran states: “out of the Prophets, some have been caused by god to excel others — some to whom He spoke, while some of them He exalted in degree, and some, like Jesus son of Mary He supported with the Holy Spirit” (2:253).

In this excerpt from the Scripture, there is reference, evidently, to three Abrahamic Prophets — Moses to whom God spoke, Jesus Christ who was provided support through the holy Ghost and Prophet Muhammad whom He ‘exalted in degree.’ This particular excellence of the Prophet of Islam is also confirmed by an earlier Makkan Surah 94 addressed to him while he was facing tyrannical opposition from Makkan polytheists: “Has god not caused your bosom to open up? And eased you of the burdensome weight that had (metaphorically) bent your back? And exalted your fame?”

Commenting on the phrase: ‘exalted your fame’ Marmaduke Pickthal, the blue-blooded British Muslim, observes (vide his translation of the Glorious Quran) that “speaking of his fame as exalted must have seemed particularly misplaced at that time of humiliation and persecution, but today from every mosque in the world, the Prophet’s name is cried as that of the Messenger of God five times a day and every Muslim prays for blessings on him when his name is mentioned.”

The point arises as to why Muslims pray for Allah’s blessings on him when he, according to his own statement preserved in the Quran, was no more than ‘a mortal messenger’ and had announced, right in the beginning of his apostleship as recorded in the Quran, that he “neither possessed the treasure of Allah nor had knowledge of the Unseen, nor was an angel, but followed only what was inspired in him” (6:50). Not only this. He had, at the same time, declared that “he had no power to benefit, nor power to hurt, except that which Allah willed” (7:188).

Then what are the reasons for such extraordinary attachment of his followers with his memory and devotion to his name by generations after generations of believers throughout the world?

For the answer, just consider the facts: An unlettered person born and brought up in a family and place not familiar with formal education, attaining manhood in a country devoid of literacy and learning traditions where there was no study circle like that of the Greek philosophers and where lived no consummate genius who knew the history of the rise and fall of nations, or had studied various theological systems, or was well-versed in ethics and social sciences, or was an authority on law and legal doctrines and so on and so forth.

A person with no formal education having spent 40 years of his life amongst his townsmen, mostly in public and partly in the seclusion of a cave, one fine morning comes out of the cave, stands on the summit of a hill and gives a clarion call to his elders, chieftains of tribes and ordinary folks to listen to his words that were inspired in him by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. And then the stream of inimitable verses of the Quran shedding light on all conceivable topics that concern human life — from creation to culture, from ethics to criminal law and social justice, from worship to trade and commerce, from waging war in self-defence to making peace with stubborn foes and sworn enemies.

The stream kept flowing for a little over two decades and in the words of Lane Poole, “his doctrine falling upon a people prone to quick impulses and susceptible of strong impressions worked a revolution” (‘Moors in Spain’).

But it was not oratory and erudition alone that had attracted his fellow citizens’ attention to him. It were also his pragmatism, practicality and unmatched ability to implement, by personal example, all the precepts that he preached. This rare quality acted as a magnet and bound to him all who come close to him who are till today remembered with utmost deference by Muslims, wherever they are, as the Prophet’s Companions (may God be pleased with them).

None of them disobeyed him while he was there and none of them even thought of betraying him. They all accepted him as their leader in this life and their intercessor in life hereafter. Not because they had seen him performing miracles but because they saw in him the signs of a miraculous person, a Divinely-inspired holy man, who was not a recluse, but more active and more involved than others in social, political and administrative affairs of the ideal state which he founded with the collective efforts of his followers. He succeeded in his mission in his life time although he had not even a quarter of a century to work his way through hardships and adversity to accomplish what he was destined to attain.

It is such a person who has inspired and guided the past and present generations of believers and, God willing, the scripture and the example left by him will continue to inspire and guide generations to come till time ceases to tick.