WHO WAS MUHAMMAD?
The name Muhammad has become the most
popular name in the UK and yet the personality of this great figure in history
is still clouded in mystery for much of the population. Muhammad is the last
Prophet and Messenger ever sent by Allah (God) to mankind after a long series
of Prophets which included Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus and he is accredited
by Muslims and even non-Muslims for positively changing the world during his
lifetime and leaving behind him companions who implemented his teachings from
as far afield as China, throughout the Middle East and North Africa and even
into the heart of Europe, including parts of France, within a couple of
generations after his death. So who exactly was this great figure? It is hoped
that this leaflet will elaborate on the character and personality of the
Messenger Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
Muhammad was a man born in the city
of Mecca in what is today called Saudi Arabia in the year 570 AD. He lived a
very pure life and by the age of 40 started to receive revelation from
Allah/God via the angel Gabriel (Jibraeel in Arabic). For 13 years of his life
after the revelation Muhammad struggled to invite the people of the Quraish in
Mecca to Islam and enjoined good and forbade evil. He also wrote to the various
leaders of the nations which existed in his time, including the Persian, Roman,
Byzantine and Abyssinian Kings asking them to embrace Islam. Islam being the
way of life specified by Allah for mankind to follow, the meaning of which is
submission to the commands of Allah. In fact all the Prophets of God submitted
to his commands and are all therefore considered to be Muslims (submitters).
After 13 years of calling people to Islam, the Messenger Muhammad migrated to a
city called Madina where he established the first ever Islamic State, with its
own unique Ruling, social, economic and judicial systems and even a foreign
policy based upon revelation. Within a short space of time the message of Islam
had spread over the whole of the Arabian peninsula and by the time that
Muhammad passed away in 632 AD the Islamic State encompassed what are today
around 15 countries including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, the United Arab
Emirates, Oman, Qatar etc…
The Messenger Muhammad is the last
and final Prophet from Allah/God to mankind and in order to become a Muslim one
must testify to this fact as well as to declare that there is no one truly
worthy of worship except for Allah. The sayings, actions and even consent of
the Prophet were divinely inspired to the extent that the revelation that
Muslims are obliged to believe in and act upon include the Qur’an, which is the
actual word of Allah and the Sunnah, meaning the sayings, actions and consent
of the Messenger Muhammad. There are over 100,000 authentic sayings and actions
of the Messenger Muhammad which have been preserved meticulously in what are
known as Hadith. The most famous collections of hadith are called Sahih Bukhari
and Sahih Muslim which by themselves contain 1000’s of such hadiths.
In terms of the
life of the Messenger Muhammad himself, he is considered to be the best human
being to have ever walked the face of the Earth and his excellent character has
been testified to by those who believed in him and even his enemies. As a
father, a brother, a son, a leader, a husband etc you will never find an
example better than his and to this day billions of Muslims exhaust their
effort to try to emulate his example in order to attain paradise in the
hereafter and to avoid the hellfire. Muhammad was described by his wife Aisha
(may Allah be pleased with her) as the Qur’an embodied. Upon passing away the
companions of the Messenger Muhammad, known as the Sahabah, continued to carry
the Message of Islam to the world and within less than a century we can see
that the Shari’ah (Islamic law and order) was already being implemented in the
heart of Europe, in Spain (then Andalusia). Allah mentions in the Qur’an that
he sent the Prophet, with the guidance and the truth in order for it to be dominant
over the whole world (known as Izhar ud-Deen) and hence this is something which
Muslims believe will one day happen and which they strive to accomplish as
well.
We invite non-Muslims to look at the
life of Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and to see
for themselves the supreme perfection and great magnetism of his personality
and character. His is an example, unlike any other Prophet before him, which
has been preserved and is accessible even today thanks to the incredible
efforts of his own companions and the generations which followed his death.
Although many miracles were performed at his own hand convincing the people who
saw him that he was indeed a Prophet of God, the lasting miracle that everyone
can witness even today is the Qur’an, with its linguistic, scientific and
historical miracles lasting the test of time. The Qur’an was preserved through
memorisation and by being written down contemporaneously and its own
perfection, lack of any contradiction and powerful impact upon recitation is
proof for any rational human being that Muhammad was indeed the final Messenger
from Allah/God, that the Qur’an is the actual word of God and that Islam is the
only way of life that, if we embrace it and act upon it, will save us on the
day of judgement.
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