November 04, 2006
The Pope and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!
Section: WRITINGS | 387 reads
The World Should Have Known
The world should have known that the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, is the only man in all of human history to have ever given the world the following:
- A full and self-sustaining system of thought on all aspects of human life, both individual and collective: from “religion” to politics and from economics and military affairs to law, jurisprudence, human rights and international relations.
- A complete and structured set of personal beliefs and practices for every man as well as woman.
- A comprehensive guide to human behavior of all kinds at all levels for individuals as well as groups and societies and humanity as a whole.
That means he did all this at two levels:
a. At the individual and micro levels.
b. At the collective and macro levels.
If you want, you can throw in a third level with it, which is at the macro-macro level or the level of the entire world or humanity as a whole – for all times to come.
Know the Truth and Acknowledge It Openly
The world must know, and clearly and openly acknowledge, that the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, is the only man in all of human history who gave the world any or all of these things.
Whether or not the world thereafter accepts or rejects his teachings is an entirely different matter. For, God Almighty himself has granted human beings the right to reject his message, should they choose to do it. But the important thing the world must come to terms with is the sheer fact of what the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, accomplished in this world.
Because, part of the problem with the world has been:
a. Its failure to know some of these things, and/or,
b. Its failure to acknowledge them openly.
Why Fear Truth?
So, here is what I am saying: Either I am right or I am wrong. If I am right, then accept what I am saying and correct your ways. If, on the other hand, I am the one who is wrong, show me how and I will stand corrected.
That is what Islam teaches us: Go with the truth – wherever it takes you. And that is why Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, makes it clear that no one has a greater claim to truth than a believer.
And here is the most basic reality or test everyone needs to face, whether it is the Pope and his followers, or the followers of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, or anyone else:
If God is truth, then what do you have to fear from truth?
And if you have anything to do with God, shouldn’t truth be your best friend at all times and in all circumstances?
Now do we understand why the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, told us to be unafraid of truth at all times and in all circumstances?
And that is why the world gave him the title of “Man of Truth,” before he even became a Rasul or a prophet or messenger of God.
A Complete, Open and Closed System, All at the Same Time
When he was done preaching and practicing his message, the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, declared his system to be complete. And he forbade anyone to tamper with it.
Evidently, nothing good could come out of tampering with a system that was ab initio so thorough, so complete – and so perfect. Made so by God Almighty himself.
No system of thought, belief and behavior so complete and comprehensive has ever been self-consciously conceived, designed, practiced, implemented and left behind as a full package for posterity by any one human being in the entire history of the world.
Permanence and Change in Systems of Human Authorship
Life in any form is by definition change and transition and growth. Human life is no exception. As a result, no system of thought or belief or behavior designed by any human source can hold or be valid and relevant for all time or for all places.
That means all systems of human authorship – whether individual or multiple, whether old or new – are by definition and by their very nature stuck between the rock of permanence and a hard place of change. They simply cannot survive this challenge forever.
Yet, that is precisely what Islam is and does. Islam is a self-sustaining set of beliefs and behaviors, given out and shown to work during the lifetime of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, during the early part of the 7th Century and yet fresh and true and contemporary now and at all times and relevant and valid in all places.
How is that possible? How can such a contradiction be true? The answer lies in the authorship of the system of Islam and the Qur’an – the book that embodies that system.
It is part of the living miracle of Islam and the Qur’an.
Islam’s Divine Authorship
There has never been any question or doubt that the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, alone, and no other human being, was the sole earthly source of what he produced. It was not a committee of experts that later codified his teachings.
But it was he, and he alone, who did it, all by himself, in his own lifetime.
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, however, denied that he was the author of anything he did or said. He claimed that God Almighty taught him what he knew, told him to do what he did, and ordered him to convey the same to all human beings – in the form in which he received it from God.
Those who accepted his message and claims and submitted themselves to God as their master and to the practice of God’s system in a disciplined way, he called Muslims and Mu’mins.
Those who rejected the message were called rejecters or deniers or the ungrateful ones – Kafirs.
Those who took the message and mixed it up with all kinds of other messages and claimed to worship God but also worshipped all kinds of other pet gods besides were called Mixers – Mushriks.
Those who were neither here nor there, and who lied saying that they were with the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and the believers, when in fact theirs hearts were really elsewhere, were referred to as Munaafiqs – the Two-Faced ones.
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam,
Also Gave the World a Comprehensive Book
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, also gave the world a perfect book – a manual as it were – that contains his major teachings. He claimed it was God’s direct word revealed to him through an angel.
He called the book the Qur’an – Reading or Something To Read. And so did the book itself refer to itself. That is the name God Almighty himself gave that book.
To this day, hundreds of millions of Muslims continue to read this book everyday and tens of millions can recite it verbatim from cover to cover from memory even today.
The simple and incontrovertible fact is that there is no other book in the world that quite fits this profile.
The world must know these basic historic truths and facts about the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam. And the world must thereafter openly and unambiguously acknowledge the fact that these truths indeed did happen in historic time and space.
Thereafter, the world is free to accept or reject the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, as God Almighty’s final messenger on earth. According to the system of thought, belief and behavior preached and practiced by the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, it is a right given to all human beings by their maker and master, God Almighty himself: the right to accept or to reject.
The right to dissent. The right to say no. It is a God-given right, so far Islam is concerned.
This Was Before Magna Carta and the American Constitution
And this was centuries before there was a Magna Carta, even though the Magna Carta only secured certain rights for the nobles against the king and did not include the common people.
And this was more than a 1000 years before there was an American Declaration of Independence or the American Constitution with references to certain inalienable rights that all human beings were guaranteed by their creator, whom God Almighty had created as equal, even though these did not include the Blacks, the slaves, the “Indians” and the women.
And this was again a 1000 years before there was a French Revolution, which finally did away with the pernicious Western-Christian doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, that had been practiced by the followers of the Pope until that time, with its clarion call of the fundamentally Islamic notions of liberty, equality and fraternity for all human beings, even though these grand ideas quickly fizzled out in practice.
And this was way before Johns Locke and Milton propounded their ideas of human liberty, which often pointedly left out the Catholics in practice.
So, the world should have known – and the world must openly acknowledge – that it was the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, who really introduced some of the most important human rights and freedoms in this world more than a 1000 years before anyone else ever woke up to them.
Only Man in History Who Not Only Talked the Perfect Talk,
But also Walked the Perfect Walk
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was the perfect practitioner and exemplar of the Deen he preached. You want to call it “religion,” go ahead and call it religion. But he and his God called it Deen and that is good enough for me.
It is worth asking here, who in the world, other than the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, ever preached a complete Deen, way of life or “religion” as some of you insist on calling it?
Doesn’t that tell you something about the man? It sure says something about you and me if we can discover this and then simply shrug our shoulders and walk away.
And then the next question: Who in the world, other than the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, ever practice all, or most, or even a sizable chunk of what they preached?
But with the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, the equation was quite simple: What he preached, he also practiced – in every single instance.
No exceptions!
Is This the Man You Want to Malign and Attack?
If this is the man you want to malign and attack and insult, just because he is not your man, I am almost tempted to say, go right ahead and do it. Because, with that kind of brazen contempt for truth and human greatness at its best and highest, you are dealing directly with God and his wrath, and you are not dealing with ordinary human beings.
With that kind of anti-truth, anti-fact attitude, you are not insulting the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, you are directly insulting and attacking God Almighty himself. And God Almighty is perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
Islam in Theory I:
Qur’an Forbids Violence and Aggression
Now let us turn our attention to some of the specifics of Islamic theory and practice. Once again, as I said earlier, by theory I mean words, statements and professions, while by practice I mean actual actions.
There are two ways to judge whether or not a faith or a “religion” uses violence in its service:
(a) Precept.
(b) Practice.
If you are a follower of the Pope and you want to know what your own “religious” texts tell you how to treat your enemy, read the Old Testament and then compare it with the Qur’an. That should give you a comparative perspective on both Islam and your own religion.
Below are a few examples of the Qur’an’s position on the subject of how to treat other peoples, nations, societies, cultures and religions of the world. You are on your own to find parallels in the Bible.
- Qur’an forbids aggression in all forms.
- Qur’an forbids aggression even under provocation.
- Qur’an forbids gratuitous violence in all cases and under all circumstances.
- Qur’an forbids injustice even against those who have wronged you.
- Qur’an forbids oppression under all conditions.
- Qur’an forbids excesses even in war.
- Qur’an mandates proportionality in retribution and revenge.
- Qur’an makes forgiveness a higher virtue.
Next Article: Islam Gave the World Monotheism and Education
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