Muhammad: The Living Miracle of Peace and Blessings – Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam! | February 21, 2009
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Dr. Pasha
Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, is God’s living miracle on earth – for ever and ever. Unlike any other miracle of any kind this world has ever known.
He was and continues to be a miracle among other things of peace and blessings for the entire world for all times to come.
His body may have departed this world, but his spirit lives on as nothing else does in this world.
His voice may no longer ring in ordinary human ears, but his message is alive and well after the passage of nearly a millennium and a half.
His birth may have occurred in a small desert township called Makkah and his death in a shady oasis named Madinah after him, but his teachings echo from every valley and hill and they float over every sea and ocean around the world.
He may have come and gone before the world ever thought of the printing press or the Internet, or radio or television, but nothing is more carefully preserved to this day, or more widely disseminated today, than the words that issued forth from his noble mouth over 1400 years ago.
God gave him a book that God called “The Reading” – The Noble Reading.
God also called that book The Wise and Smart Reading.
The Qur’an!
And God told him in that book: “Read!” And he set about teaching the world to read and write, even though he himself could do neither.
You want a bigger miracle than that? Go find one.
And to this day – after the passage of over 14 centuries – the world reads and recites and chants and sings that book in every part of this world, every hour, minute and second of every day and night, as perhaps no other book is or ever was.
While the world is lost in speculation and conjecture about everyone and everything that came or occurred in the past, his life, teachings, words, deeds, models and examples are alive and visible today in the form of eyewitness accounts and primary data and reports just as they were to the tens of thousands of people who personally and physically surrounded him when he was alive.
They were simple children of the desert – brave, talented, decent, loving, kind, truthful, wild. And they were just, fair and honest beyond compare.
In a larger context, they were part of the broad mass of ordinary people that God in that most amazing of all books called “The People.” Not lords or nobles, not kings or priests, not landlords or aristocrats, just plain “People.”
And these amazing and gifted people that surrounded him day and night, and that leaped to carry out his every command and fulfill his every wish, he himself referred to, sweetly and modestly, as his “Companions.”
And in so doing he drove a powerful nail in the coffin of racial, religious, birth, status and gender distinctions, privileges and preferences for all times. His message was clear: if anyone was with him, and accepted and embraced his message and followed him, then that person was his “Companion,” period.
Not his servant; not his lowly follower, even though they were all his humble and most devoted followers; not a lesser person or human being than him in any way; but his co-equal. His Ashaab or Companions.
Everyone of them.
Well almost his equal, I am going to say, given the fact that not only was he superior in every quality of head and heart, and body and mind, to everyone else, but he was also God’s chosen messenger to humanity.
Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, the man died over a 1000 years ago, but Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, God’s ever-living miracle of peace and blessings on earth and in heaven lives on.
Forever!
So, praise him, for, his very name – Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam – means the most praised one. Just like his other name, Ahmad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, which also means more deserving of praise than anyone else.
It means a superabundance of all things good, noble, wonderful and beautiful that inhere in him. It means the one who is deserving of all kinds of praise from everyone.
He is the man whom God and his angels bless and praise all the time. So says the Noble Qur’an.
And he is the man God commands the believers everywhere to bless and praise all the time. So also says the Glorious Qur’an.
Hear this message – this divine proclamation as well as directive – from beginning to end, loud and clear, and in God’s own pure and immortal words, in the Qur’an.
Here goes:
Innallaha wa malaa-i-katahoo yusalloona ‘alan nabiyyi, yaa ayyuhalladheena aamanoo salloo ‘alaihi wa sallimoo tasleema!
That is in heaven – and everywhere else.
Now, join that heavenly chorus, right here on earth, and bless and glorify the man Muhammad using his own words. These were words that he taught his “Companions” in order to help them fulfill their divine mandate of blessing him and thus invoking, manifold, God’s choicest blessings on themselves and the rest of the world.
These words that echoed God’s own speech to near perfection were: Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!
God commanded in the Qur’an: Salloo ‘alaihi wa sallimoo! Muhammad taught his “Companions” how to comply with that divine command by saying: Sallallaahu Alaihi wa Sallam!
Heaven and earth were thus fused together seamlessly in a living miracle that will roll and rumble around the world as long as the world will last. This will be a real-life miracle that anyone and everyone can see, if only they had eyes, and their ears were open, and their hearts and minds were not clouded by hate and prejudice or atrophied beyond repair.
This is one simple and small way – if you want to call it that – in which God Almighty fills his earth, and the lives of its inhabitants, with his noble peace and blessings. With his Salaam.
Blessing the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, then becomes the occasion for, and Muslims then become the ongoing instruments and mechanisms of, doing so. And this never-ending story continues to unfold its ever-living miracle of peace and blessings in every age and in every place on earth.
And it shall continue to do so for as long the world lasts.
That is part of the perpetual miracle that Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was and is: people everywhere blessing his name saying these words every time his name is mentioned – whether it is you saying his name or someone else saying it in your hearing or presence.
In saying all this, I am not saying that he - Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam – performed and produced miracles during his lifetime, which he did, and in plenty, as did so many other prophets and messengers of God – blessed be their names and memories – such as Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Noah, David, Solomon, Joseph and others.
Alaihimus Salaam – God Almighty bless them all.
In other words, I am not presenting him here as a producer or maker of miracles, which he was by any definition of those expressions. What I am saying is that he himself – his very life and existence on earth – was a miracle while he lived. Just as everything about him was and continues to be a miracle in and after his death.
And he continues to be the greatest miracle of all time even today, 1400 years after his death and departure from this world.
While Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, performed all kinds of miracles, both large and small, if there indeed is such a thing as a “small” miracle, he himself was, and is, the biggest miracle of all.
And he is an ever-living miracle that anyone in every culture, place or time can personally discover, behold and relate to at any time. Provided there is an element of purity left in the soul in the midst of all the corruption that surrounds human life in every age and place.
And provided a ray of integrity continues to illumine the intellect that may be mired in layers upon layers of darkness and doubt.
And provided a shade of humility and openness continues to mark the attitude and penetrate the heart whose spiritual arteries may have been clogged and corroded by wealth, power, lust, greed, a wayward life and personal arrogance.
Other prophets of God, Allah bless them all, performed miracles too. Many of these miracles are mentioned in the Bible. The Qur’an also documents many of them. At the same time the Qur’an talks about some miracles about some of these prophets, God bless them, that are not found in the Bible.
As for the truth or validity of miracles performed by other prophets in earlier times, there are two ways to go about determining it:
As a result, when solid historical proof is not available about what exactly these miracles were that were performed by other prophets, God bless them, and we have no reliable information as to when they happened and how, and where and under what circumstances they happened, then all we can do is suspend judgment about them.
And wait for some additional evidence or proof to come along.
In many cases, such additional confirmatory testimony is provided by the Qur’an, which makes those miracles by other prophets true and acceptable. That is because with regard to many things the Bible is a document of dubious validity. In many instances, its accounts are fragmentary, changeable, unreliable and contradictory.
Here then are some of the miracles of other prophets of God, may God bless them, in earlier times, reported in the Bible and validated by the Qur’an:
How do we know these miracles are true? We believe them to be true because not only did the Bible report them but mainly because the Qur’an came out clearly in their support and declared them to be true.
Did Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, perform any miracles of his own – like many of the other major prophets from earlier times, God bless them all?
Yes, he did. Of course he did. Absolutely, positively he did. And below I list a few of them.
What we need to understand about miracles is that every miracle every prophet of God performed was a most momentous event in and of itself. It was unlike anything anyone had seen or known before. And it was unlike anything that anyone else could produce or perform or rival or match.
That is why it is called a miracle.
In Arabic, the language of the Qur’an, it is called Mu’jizah, which means something that no one but a prophet of God was capable of performing. For anyone else, it was impossible to emulate or duplicate.
Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, performed so many miracles on a daily basis that a full count of them is difficult if not impossible. The long and short of the story of his miracles is that every breath of his was a miracle; every moment of his existence on earth was a miracle; every word he uttered was a miracle; every teaching he imparted was a miracle; and every single Aayat of the book, Qur’an, he brought from God Almighty was a miracle.
So, his whole life was an ongoing miracle comprised of millions of individual miracles.
At the same time, there were certain specific aspects of his life that anyone could see were clearly out of the ordinary. Here are a few of the countless miracles performed by Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam:
Miracles like these performed by Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, are countless and manifold. Call them what you will: big or small, minor or major. But what is most clear is that each instance was a full-fledged miracle in it own right.
At the same time, in the midst of this wealth of miracles there was one that stood out. And that miracle, among so many others, that have survived is alive and well to this day – resplendent as ever in its full original glory.
And that miracle is the Qur’an.
If you wish to call the Qur’an the greatest miracle of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, by all means go ahead and do so, but know that every other miracle that he performed was also the greatest miracle of its kind that anyone had ever heard of or seen with their own eyes.
Ask yourself this simple question: Who else in this world has a “religion” whose very name is rooted in peace and blessings? For, that is what that word “Islam” means: peace and blessings, no matter how you look at it.
I am not talking about all kinds of devotees and followers making all kinds of lofty claims about and on behalf of their respective religions. I am talking about the very name and title of the “religion” of Islam which means “Peace and Blessings.“
I know I firmly hold that it is a travesty to use the word “religion” to describe Islam, just at it is a travesty to refer to the glorious and miraculous Aayats of the Qur’an as “verses.” But still I am using it here purely to illustrate a point. I am invoking it here to ask a most direct and yet a most simple question: Which other religion do you know that is called “Peace and Blessings“? That carries that title?
And yet it is a question which, if you ask truly, sincerely and with the bottom of year heart, may totally and completely transform your life – and quite possibly the fate and future the world in which you live.
Let me repeat that question – one more time: Which other religion do you know that calls itself “Peace and Blessings“? That carries that name and title: Islam – “Peace and Blessings“?
Is Christianity called that? Is Judaism called that? Is Hinduism called that? Or is Buddhism, Jainism or Zoroastrianism called that? Or is Taoism called that?
Which other religion in the world refers to itself as Peace & Blessings, period?
Don’t you see that this is a clear sign from Allah? He promised you in the Qur’an that he will show you his signs till truth becomes manifest and self-evident to you. Here it is.
God promised you in the Qur’an:
Sa nureehim aayaatinaa fil aafaaqi wa fee anfusihim hattaa yatabayyana lahum annahul haqq.
Paraphrase:
“We shall show them our signs and miracles in their own selves and lives, and all around them, till it becomes clear and manifest to them that it is indeed the truth.”
And here is the partial fulfillment of that promise that God made to you in this glorious Aayat of the Qur’an.
Here is God showing you as clear as daylight that the system of Islam is very different from everything else you know: that it is clearly and directly from God Almighty. And that it could not come from a human source.
You don’t need experts to tell you this. You don’t need professors, philosophers, scientists, so-called religious leaders or anyone else of that kind to tell you this. All you need to do is to open your own eyes and look.
And also don’t forget to open your hearts and minds – and cleanse and purify them a bit. For, it is the hearts and minds that truly see. Not just eyes. And it is hearts and minds that go blind and not just human eyes.
Hear the Qur’an say it:
Innahaa laa ta’amal absaar, wa laakin ta’amal quloobullatee fissudoor!
Paraphrase: It is not eyes that go blind but rather it is the hearts in the human breast that go blind.
Vicious and hate-filled propaganda against Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and his message of peace and blessing began soon after he started to invite humanity to the path of peace, love and mercy. And that hate and hostility continue to this day.
There are a number of reasons for the malicious lies and propaganda that have swept the world against Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and his message of peace and blessings. Here are some of them:
One of the most blatant lies that were perpetuated in Europe against Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, started out sometime in the 16th Century or so. It says that if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain.
This most ridiculous and laughable falsehood is based on a totally fabricated tale that Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, once asked a mountain to come to him. When the mountain did not comply, Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, is then supposed to have remarked that if the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.
It is through lies, fabrications and fraud like this – much of it still prevalent – that the enemies of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, tried to stem the tide of Islam all through the ages. But Allah has his own ways of making truth prevail, even though poor Muslims are often no match for the powerful propaganda that is let loose against Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and the Deen that he brought from Allah.
But the Qur’an is not just one single miracle, even though it is so when taken as a whole. But the Qur’an is at the same time like all the oceans of the world rolled into one whose life forms, grains of sand and drops of water are just too many to count. It is like a blue sky on a clear night whose stars are too numerous to chart and catalog.
Ask most Muslims and they will tell you that the Qur’an is a miracle. And they are right. But you start taking a closer look at the Qur’an, and you will see that the Qur’an has as many miracles as it has Aayats or passages. That means all 6666 of them.
Each Aayat is a miracle. That is what the word Aayat means. It is not, as so many people say, a “verse.” Qur’an is anything but poetry. And the Qur’an itself emphatically denies that it is poetry.
Wa maa huwa bi-qowli shaa-ir, says the Qur’an, “It is not poetry.”
That means every Aayat constitutes an individual proof that this Qur’an is directly from God and that it is not a document of human origin or design.
And then you take the Aayats individually and each of them encompasses a million miracles.
And proofs!
Here I am going to walk you through one clear and incontrovertible proof of the divine origin of the Qur’an. Or a whole spectrum of proofs compressed into one. You can treat it as a case of probability. With every instance I cite, you can ask yourself: How likely or probable is this?
And you can get all the help you need. That means you can call in your scientists, experts, specialists and all the others of all kind and then all of you together ask yourself: How likely or probable is this?
And this is what I am saying:
By my rough and quick count the Qur’an uses the expression Noor about 43 times. Noor in Arabic means light. And it is singular. The plural for Noor is Anwaar. The Qur’an uses singular Noor consistently every time it wants to refer to light, and never the plural Anwaar. Not even once.
Elsewhere the Qur’an uses other expressions for light such as Diyaa. But that is a different discussion. And it is another miracle or proof in its own right.
What I mean by that is that every time the Qur’an wants to refer to the moon it uses the expression Noor and every time it wants to talk about the sun it uses the expression Diyaa.
Every time!
Not one discrepancy.
That is why I want all of you and all your scientists, experts and specialists to ask this: How likely or probable is this?
But going back to the roughly 43 uses of the word Noor, not once – not once, mind you – does the Qur’an use the plural Anwaar. I am not talking about the secrets or mysteries that may lie behind such use. All I am talking about is what the naked eye can see.
I am talking about what anyone anywhere can count: 43 Noors and not one single Anwaar.
What do you have to say to that? How likely or probable is this?
Who was the editor of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, that helped him to achieve this marvel – miracle – of consistency? That is why I want all of you and all your scientists, experts and specialists to ask this: How likely or probable is this?
This is proof that this Qur’an is not a human creation. That means there was no earthly possibility that any human being including Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, could have produced it. Least of all he – a man who could not even read or write.
Is that proof enough for you? Is that miracle enough?
No? Let me show you something else.
For, there is more where this proof came from. Be clear that there is nothing murky or mysterious about the miracles I am showing you. There is nothing distant or remote. These things are immediate. These are real-time occurrences. These things are happening now, in real time, even as I write and as you read.
Now let us set about counting the number of times the Qur’an refers to darkness. The Arabic expression for darkness is Zulmah. It is singular and the plural is Zulumaat.
Now what kind of miracle do you think is unfolding in the Qur’an? What kind of proof do you think the Qur’an offers about its divine nature and origin?
Let us do the count.
By my rough and quick count the Qur’an uses the word Zulumaat about 23 times. And every single time – let me repeat that: every single time – the Qur’an uses the plural Zulumaat.
That means not once – let me repeat that too: not once – does the Qur’an use the singular Zulmah to refer to darkness.
You want proof? Here is your proof.
Now why don’t you mobilize all your skeptics, free thinkers, scientists, experts, specialists and all the others and then tell me: How probable or likely is this?
Who edited the Qur’an for consistency? Using what computer software? How many drafts were prepared? How many revisions were made? How many hard copies were available?
Is all this proof enough about the divine nature and authorship of the Qur’an?
Read the Qur’an now:
Wa lau kaana min ‘indi ghairillahi lawajadoo feehikhtilaafan katheeraa!
Paraphrase:
If someone other than God had authored this Qur’an, it will be full of discrepancies and contradictions.
As for the mystery lovers among you, let me not disappoint you. Why don’t you spend the rest of your life figuring out why God Almighty uses light – Noor – as singular and darkness – Zulumaat – as plural?
Every time!
And when you have figured out, call me or write to me. If I am still around that is.
But in the meantime know and understand that there is no other book in this world like the Qur’an: That is the miracle. That is the eternal and standing proof that this Qur’an could only have come from God Almighty.
Muslims are another standing miracle left behind by Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam. Just like there is no book like the Qur’an, there are also no people like the Muslims.
Muslims are the people Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, built during his lifetime – one single Muslim at a time. The Muslims you see today are the debris from the magnificent edifice of Islam that Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, built in the Seventh Century.
Muslims have lumbered on for the past 1400 years. They have changed much. And they have lost much. But yet, in spite of everything, they are still basically the same people that Prophet Muhammad, Swallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, shaped and crafted.
Their political structures are no longer built on the model Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, provided. Nor do their economic structures resemble what Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, came into this world to establish. And yet Muslims hold on to whatever pieces of their past they can with which to craft a new future.
After all these centuries Muslims still try to eat like him; drink like him; sleep like him; and dress like him.
They perform their daily prayers just the way he did. And they fast precisely the same way he did. When it is time for Hajj, Muslims roll through their requirements pretty much the way Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, carried them out.
They go around the Ka’abah just the way he did. They spend their day at Arafaat just like him. They rest at Muzdalifah just like him. They pelt the Devil with rocks even as he did it. And they sacrifice animals at Mina the same way he did.
They chant the same ageless call to prayer that he taught. And they wash and bury their dead the same way that he taught.
And they read the Qur’an, the book he gave and taught them, the same way he used to.
His life and teachings are immortalized in them and their daily lives, even though the Muslims have changed much and they have lost much. Yet, in spite of all the changes that have occurred, some through sheer atrophy, some due to negligence and some under duress and due to coercion, Muslims of today are as close a replica of him and an embodiment of his message as anyone ever was of anything or anyone else.
That is why Muslims of all ages and times and places are among the greatest and longest living miracles of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was and is forever a divine miracle. So are the Muslims.
Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was and is forever a miracle of peace and blessings. So are the Muslims.
Part of the living miracle of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was and is that he turned generation after generation of Muslims, until eternity, into miracle-makers in their own right. And he did that by teaching and training them to bless him on earth, just as God and his angels bless him in heaven and everywhere.
And thus do Muslims fill God’s earth and the lives of people everywhere and in every age with divine blessings and peace.
That is how the Muslims do it: They bless him, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam,
just as God says he himself does and his angels do and just as God told the believers to do.
And they bless all the known prophets of God, every time they utter their names and all the good people in every time and place.
I don’t know who else does or does not do that sort of thing in this world. I have myself not seen too many people do that. In fact, I have not seen anyone do that.
But that is who the Muslims are and that is what the Muslims do: They are in the business of blessing God’s prophets – people who other peoples and nations and societies claim as their guides and leaders and revered historical figures.
And the Muslims are in the business of filling God’s earth and human life with divine peace and blessings.
That is who the Muslims are and that is what the Muslims do. Muslims are the perpetual and tireless blessers of humanity and its habitation earth, which is miracle in itself, since they are the only ones doing that. And since no once else does it that way or to that extent.
And to me that is what a miracle is: a rare, unusual and one-of-a-kind event, whose occurrence in real life and time is extremely unlikely.
Thus do the Muslims bless everything and everyone in this world. And they do it round the clock and around the globe. If you want to borrow an expression from American culture and language, you can describe Muslims as Equal-Opportunity Blessers of the world and everyone in it.
One way the Muslims bless the world is by saying Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah every time they perform their Salaat or formal prayer – no less than five times a day on a given day in a given place.
And they do it by blessing Prophet Muhammad, and saying, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, every time they utter or hear his name.
The Muslims thus saturate the world with blessings and peace, as they say, 24/7.
But why and how do the Muslims do it? Blessing everyone and everything I mean.
That is part of the miracle that Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was. And that he left behind.
That was part of the reason why God sent him in this world: not only to teach, guide, help and uplift this world and its inhabitants, but also to fill them all with peace, joy and blessings.
Quite possibly it was one of his smallest and most routine teachings – what to say at the end of your Salaat or formal prayers. But in practice it turned out to be a colossal instrument of blessing the whole world and everything in it for all times to come and filling them all with peace.
That is the kind of ever-living miracle of peace, joy and blessings Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was. And that is the kind of miracles that he performed during his life.
And that is also the kind of miracle-makers of peace and blessings he perpetuated and left behind in this world in the form of Muslims – such as they are.
Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam! May God Almighty shower his choicest blessings upon him.
The challenge now before the Muslims is to rediscover that message and mission of divine peace and prosperity, joy and blessings on earth for themselves. And for everyone else.
Beyond the malicious propaganda of enemies and the foibles of foolish friends.
END
© 2009 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.