Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
BIRTH OF MUHAMMAD :
“Four years after the death of Justinian, 569 A.D.,[1]
was born at Makka, in Arabia, the man who, of all men, has exercised the
greatest influence upon the human race.”13
MUHAMMAD’S YOUTH:
“Our authorities”, says Muir, “all agree in ascribing to the youth of Mohammad a modesty of deportment and purity of manners rare among the people of Makka … Endowed with a refined mind and delicate taste, reserved and meditative, he lived much within himself, and the ponderings of his heart no doubt supplied occupation for leisure hours spent by others of a lower stamp in rude sports and profligacy. The fair character and honorable bearing of the unobtrusive youth won the approbation of his fellow-citizens; and he received the title, by common consent, of Al-AmÊn, the Trustworthy.”14
“… Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous
of the poor and the needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the
downtrodden. At twenty he was already a successful businessman, and soon became
director of camel caravans for a wealthy widow. When he reached twenty-five,
his employer, recognizing his merit, proposed marriage. Even though she was
fifteen years the older, he married her, and as long as she lived remained a
devoted husband."
13
John William Draper: A
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe. London 1875, vol. 1 pp.
329-330.
14
Sir William Muir: Life of
Mohammad, London 1903.
“By forty this man of the desert had secured for himself a
most satisfying life: a loving wife, fine children and wealth. Then in a series
of dramatic and terrifying events, he began to receive through the Archangel
Gabriel a revelation of God’s word.”[2]
UNFOLDING OF PROPHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS
AND THE CALL:
“Ah no!” says Carlyle, “this deep-hearted Son of the Wilderness with his beaming black eyes and open social deep soul, had other thoughts than ambition. A silent great man; he was one of those who cannot BUT be in earnest; whom Nature herself has appointed to be sincere.
While others walk in formulas and hearsays, contented enough to dwell there, this man could not screen himself in formulas: he was alone with his own soul and the reality of things. The great mystery of Existence, as I said, glared in upon him, with its terrors, with its splendors; no hearsays could hide that unspeakable fact. ‘Here am I’; such SINCERITY as we name it, has in very truth something of divine. The word of such a man is a Voice direct from Nature’s own Heart.
Men
do and must listen to that as to nothing else: all else is wind in comparison.
From of old, a thousand thoughts, in his pilgrimings and wanderings, had been
in this man. What am I? What is this unfathomable Thing I live in, which men
name Universe? What is Life; What is Death? What am I to believe? What am I to
do? The grim rocks of Mount Hira, of Mount Sinai, the stern sandy solitudes,
answered not. The great Heaven rolling silent overhead with its blue glancing
stars, answered not. There was no answer. The man’s own soul, and what of God’s
inspiration dwelt there, had to answer.”[3]
“Certainly he had two of the most important characteristics of the prophetic order. He saw truth about God which his fellowmen did not see, and he had an irresistible inward impulse to publish this truth. In respect of this latter qualification, Mohammed may stand in comparison with the most courageous of the heroic prophets of Israel. For the truth’s sake he risked his life, he suffered daily persecution for years, and eventually banishment, the loss of property, of the goodwill of his fellow-citizens, and of the confidence of his friends; he suffered, in short, as much as any man can suffer short of death, which he only escaped by flight, and yet he unflinchingly proclaimed his message. No bribe, threat or inducement, could silence him. ‘Though they array against me the sun on the right hand and the moon on the left, I cannot renounce my purpose’. And it was this persistency, this belief in his call, to proclaim the unity of God, which was the making of Islam.
“Other men have been monotheists in the midst of idolaters,
but no other man has founded a strong and enduring monotheistic religion. The
distinction in his case was his resolution that other men should believe. If we
ask what it was that made Mohammed proselytizing where other men had been
content to cherish a solitary faith, we must answer that it was nothing else
than the depth and force of his own conviction of the truth. To himself the
difference between one God and many, between the unseen Creator and those ugly
lumps of stone or wood, was simply infinite. The one creed was death and
darkness to him, the other life and light … Who can doubt the earnestness of
that search after truth and the living God, that drove the affluent merchant
from his comfortable home and his fond wife, to make his abode for months at a
time in the dismal cave of Mount Hira? If we respect the shrinking of Isaiah or
Jeremiah from the heavy task of proclaiming unwelcome truth, we must also
respect the keen sensitiveness of Mohammed, who was so burdened by this
responsibility…”[4]
“… we feel that the words which he (Muhammad) speaks are not
the words of an ordinary man. They have their immediate source in the inner
reality of things, since he lives in constant fellowship with this reality.”[5]
FIRST CONVERTS :
“It is strongly corroborative of
Mohammed’s sincerity that the earliest converts to Islam were his bosom friends
and the people of his household, who, all intimately acquainted with his
private life, could not fail to have detected those discrepancies which more or
less invariably exist between the pretensions of the hypocritical deceiver and
his actions at home.”[6]
[1] Rather, 571 A.C.
[2] James A. Michener: Islam: The Misunderstood Religion. Reader’s
Digest (American Edition) May 1955. p. 68.
[3] Thomas Carlyle: On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History. London I888.
[4] Dr. Marcus Dods: Mohammed, Buddha and Christ. pp. 17. 18.
[5] Tor Andrae: Mohammad, London 1936, p. 247.
[6] John Davenport: An Apology for Mohammed and the Koran, p. 17.
to be continued . . . . .
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