INTRODUCTION
The Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings, excelled in every walk of life. People should not compare
him to themselves or the so-called ‘great personalities’ of their age.
Researchers should look at him, the one to whom angels are grateful, always remembering
that he excelled in every way. If they want to look for Muhammad, upon him be peace and
blessings, they must search for him in his own dimensions. It is not possible to reach him
using the imaginations of people like us, who do not even know how to imagine properly,
for God bestowed upon him, as His special favour, superiority in every field.
The Prophet
Muhammad is truly the pride of humanity. He lived and died with honour. Humanity has never
witnessed and never will witness a person like him. Even his contemporaries could not see
him in his full reality. Most of them could not recognize him. However, the number of his
nation who know and respect him has ever since increased continually.
The
Messenger was unique in every way
He was an
extraordinary head of family, a perfect father, and a unique grandfather. He was unique in
every way.
He treated his
children and grandchildren with extraordinary compassion and never neglected to direct
their faces to the Hereafter and towards good deeds. He smiled at them, caressed and loved
them, but he did not allow them to neglect the matters related to their afterlife. In
worldly matters, he was extremely open, yet he was very serious and dignified in
maintaining their relationship with God. He showed how to lead a humane life, and never
allowed them to be neglectful of their religious duties. He was very careful about this,
so as to keep them from becoming spoilt, and to prepare them for the life of the
Hereafter. He was perfectly balanced. This was another dimension of his divinely inspired
intellect.
No
one has ever been as compassionate to his family as Muhammad
In a hadith
narrated by Muslim, Anas bin Malik, honoured as the servant of the Messenger, one who
performed this service with perfect loyalty for ten years without break, says:
I have never seen
a man who was more compassionate to his family members than Muhammad.
He was so
compassionate, so sincere and so open that no one can be compared to him.
If this admission
were made just by us, it could have been dismissed as unimportant. However, millions of
people, so benign and compassionate that they would not even offend an ant, declare and
admit that he was unique in that he embraced the whole being with compassion.
He was a human
like each of us, but God inspired in him intimate affection for every living being so that
he would be able to establish a connection with all of them. Because of this, he was full
of extraordinary affection toward his family members and others.
All of his sons
had died. His last son, Ibrahim, born of Mary, the Copt, did not live long either. The
Messenger often visited his son while alive, although he was very busy, who was looked
after by a nurse, and he embraced, kissed, caressed him, and then returned home. When
Ibrahim passed away, the Prophet took him on his lap again, embraced him and described his
sorrow while on the brink of tears. Some were surprised. He gave them this answer: Eyes
may water and hearts may be broken but we do not say anything except what God will be
pleased with. He pointed to his tongue and said: God will ask us about this. He
was the most compassionate, most merciful of all people.
He took his
grandsons Hasan and Husayn on his back and carried them around with him. Is it possible
for a man of such status to do such a thing? He did it without hesitation. By doing this,
he also heralded the honour that they would attain later. One day, when Hasan and Husayn
were on his back, ‘Umar came into the Prophet’s house. When he saw them on such
an honoured place, he said, ‘What a beautiful mount you have!’ The Messenger
added immediately: What beautiful riders they are! They may not even have been
aware of the way the Messenger had honoured them. This special compliment was because of
their position as the future leaders and family heads of the household of the Prophet.
From them were to come the greatest and most respected ones among saints. His compliment
was not only for his grandsons but for all his offspring. For this reason, ‘Abd
al-Qadir Jilani, a well-known member of the household of the Prophet, said: ‘The
blessed feet of the Messenger are on my shoulders and mine are on the shoulders of all
saints.’ This statement will probably stand for all saints to come.
The
Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, was completely balanced in the way he brought
up his children
The Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings, was completely balanced in the way he brought up his
children. He loved his children and grandchildren very much and instilled love in them,
but, he never let this be abused. None of them dared deliberately do anything wrong but,
if they made a mistake unintentionally, the Messenger’s protection prevented them
from going astray even the least. He did this by wrapping them in love and an aura of
dignity. For example, once, Hasan or Husayn wanted to eat a date that had been given as
alms. The Messenger rushed and took it from his hand immediately, and said: The date
given as alms is forbidden to us. In bringing them up to be sensitive to the forbidden
acts, even in their childhood, he laid down for us an important principle of education.
Whenever he
returned to Madina he would carry children on his mount. On such occasions the Messenger
embraced not only his grandchildren but also those in his house and those nearby. Through
his compassion he conquered their hearts.
He loved all
children. He loved Umama, his granddaughter, just as he loved Hasan and Husayn. He often
went out with her on his shoulders. He even placed her on his back while praying. When he
went to prostrate, he put her down and when he had finished he took her on his back again.
He showed this
degree of love to Umama so as to teach how to treat girls to a society that used to bury
their daughters alive only a decade previously. Among those people, the Messenger’s
care for his granddaughter was novel and had never been seen before.
No
discrimination between sons and daughters
There is no
discrimination between son and daughter in Islam. The Messenger himself showed this. How
can there be? One of them is Muhammad, the other is Khadija; one is Adam, the other is
Eve; one is ‘Ali, the other is Fatima. For every great man there is a great woman.
Fatima, the
daughter of the Messenger, is the mother of all members of the household of the Prophet.
She is our mother, too. As soon as Fatima entered, the Messenger would stand, take her
hands and make her sit where he had been sitting. He asked about her health and family,
caressed her and paid her many compliments.
He loved her like
his own self, and Fatima, knowing how fond he was of her, loved him more than her own
self. Her great mission was to be the seed for the saints and godly people. She always
watched her father and his method of calling to Islam. For this reason, she wept and
groaned when the Messenger gave her the news of his impending death, and rejoiced when he
told her that she would be the first to follow him. Her father loved her, and she loved
her father. The Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, was totally balanced even in
his love for Fatima. He trained her for the heights to which the human soul should rise.
The Messenger
brought up Fatima, as well as the other members of his family and also his Companions, in
a way to prepare them for the Hereafter. Human beings were created for eternity. They
cannot be satisfied except through eternity and the Eternal Being. Therefore, human beings
want nothing but Him, and they long for Him either consciously or unconsciously. The
essence of all religions and the message of every Prophet was about the Next World. For
this reason, the Messenger always sought to prepare his followers for the eternal peace
and permanent bliss while himself giving to them a sample of that peace and bliss which
they would taste in his presence. Fatima once came to the Messenger with a necklace (a
bracelet, according to another version). He said to her: Do you want people —
inhabitants of the earth and the inhabitants of heavens — to say that the daughter of
the Prophet is holding (or wearing) a chain from Hell?
He loved them and
directed them towards the Hereafter, to the otherworldly and eternal beauties, and to God.
His words were enough for Fatima. For those words were coming from a man whose throne was
established in her heart and who had conquered all her faculties. For this reason, Fatima
said:
I immediately
sold the necklace, bought a slave and emancipated him, and then went to the Messenger.
When I told him what I had done, he rejoiced. He opened his hands and thanked God: All
thanks to God who protected (my daughter) Fatima from Hell.
Certainly, Fatima
did not commit a sin by wearing the necklace, however, the Messenger wanted to keep her in
the circle of the muqarrabin, those who were made near to God. Our master’s
warning was due to taqwa, fear of God, and qurb, nearness to Him. This was, in a
sense, a neglect of worldly things, and an example of the sensitivity befitting the mother
of the household of the Prophet, which represents the Muslim nation until the Last Day. To
be a mother of godly men like Hasan, Husayn and Zayn al-‘Abidin was certainly no
ordinary task. The Messenger was preparing her to be the mother of Ahl al-Bayt
first, and then the mother of ‘Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, Muhammad Baha’ al-Din
al-Naqshband, Ahmad Rifai’, Ahmad Badawi, al-Shadhili and the like. As if he said to
her: ‘My daughter! You are to marry a man and go to a house from which many golden
‘rings’ will consequently come. Forget that golden chain on your neck and
concentrate on becoming the mother for the ‘golden chains’ of saints who would
appear in the spiritual orders of Naqshbandiya, Rifaiya, Shadhiliyyah and the like.’
It was difficult to fulfil the role of mother of the great ones while wearing a golden
necklace. For this reason, the Messenger was more severe with his own household than
others in these kinds of matters. He reminded them of the straight path by turning their
faces towards the other world, closing all the windows opening on the ‘world’
and telling them, What you need is God.
They would lead
their whole lives looking to the other world. For this reason, the Messenger purified, as
a sign of his love, his most beloved ones from all worldly rubbish, not allowing worldly
dust to ‘soil their robes’. He turned their faces towards the exalted realms and
prepared them for being together there.
"A man is with whom he loves"
‘A man is
with whom he loves’. If you love the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and
blessings, you will be on his path, and those who are on his path will be together with
him in the world beyond. To prepare his family and Companions for this gathering, the
Messenger loved and embraced them, and used this love efficiently.
What
was better for Fatima than having a maid?
Bukhari and
Muslim gave another example of his education system. It was narrated by ‘Ali, who
said:
We had no servant
in our house. Fatima did all the housework by herself. We lived in a house with just a
small room. There, Fatima lit a fire and tried to cook. She often singed her clothes while
trying to increase the fire by blowing. Moreover, she baked our bread and carried water.
Her hands became covered in callouses from turning the millstone and her back also became
so because of carrying water. Meanwhile some prisoners of war were brought to Madina. The
Messenger gave them to those who applied. I suggested to Fatima to ask for a servant from
her father. And she did.
Fatima continues:
I went to my
father, but he was not at home. ‘A’isha said that she would tell him when he
came, and I returned home. As soon as we went to bed, the Messenger came in. We wanted to
get up, but he did not let us and sat between us. I could feel the cold of his foot on my
body. He asked what we wanted and I explained the situation. The Messenger, in an awesome
manner, said:
O Fatima! Fear
God, and be faultless in your duties to Him! (Fulfil all the obligatory deeds that God
ordered and be loyal to your husband.) I should say to you another thing: When you want to
go to bed, say Subhana-llah (All glory be to God) and al-hamdu li-llah (All
praise be to God) and Allahu akbar (God is the greatest) thirty three times each.
This is better for you than having a maid.
He meant: ‘I
am turning your faces to the other-worldly realms, and there are two ways for you to reach
them and be together with me there: fulfilling your duties in perfect servitude to your
Lord and fulfilling your duties to your husband. If a maid takes your responsibilities,
this may make you deficient. You must have two wings in order to fly to the higher ranks.
How can a man or woman become a perfect slave of God? How can a person become a perfect
human being and fulfil all of his or her obligations? It is your duty to find the answers
of these.
First of all,
become a perfect slave of God. Then, become a perfect human being by performing your
duties to ‘Ali, a great man who represents all the saints from among his descendants,
so that you may be with me in Heaven where all the perfect things and perfect human beings
shall come together.’
‘Ali: The king of all saints
I cannot help but
digress to mention a fact about ‘Ali. The Messenger gave him his daughter without any
hesitation, because he deserved being the husband of a Prophet’s daughter and a
son-in-law of a Prophet. He was the king of the saints, and was created in this nature.
The Messenger, one day, said to him:
O ‘Ali! The
offspring of every other Prophet came from himself, however mine will come from you.
‘Ali is the
father of the offspring, grandchildren, of the Prophet, namely, the household of the
Prophet. For this reason, to obey ‘Ali means to obey the Messenger, and to obey the
Messenger means to obey God. Also, those who love ‘Ali should love the Prophet and
follow his Sunna.
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brought up his children