The Final Prophet by Mohammad Elshinawy

Over the span of just twenty-three years, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم successfully nurtured an exemplary generation whose likes humanity had never seen and will never again see. This was a conglomerate of tribes in a remote region of the world surrounded by perilous deserts, largely isolated from the ideas and events of the major civilizations of their era, and further weakened by their disunity and prevailing illiteracy. Within two decades, they somehow transformed the world forever. How could this be possible? They had become the purest servants of God in human history after the prophets, the most dutiful observers of monotheism on the planet. This not only made them the most devout worshippers but also at the forefront of contributing to humanity. At night, they would stand in prayer longing for the Divine, tears streaming down their cheeks in response to His revealed Word. By day, they would live for purposes greater than themselves, exhausting themselves in philanthropy, education, or as knights who rode to liberate humanity from tyrannical regimes. They established justice, as Isaiah had foretold (see Chapter 1), and unlocked the virtue of hundreds of thousands of ascetics, reformers, and great thinkers for centuries.

The hallmarks of Islamic civilization were justice and equality, balance and moderation, diversity, progress, and the pursuit of beauty. People traveled across the seas seeking to export these virtues to their homelands, and multitudes of experts testify that the world has never been the same since. Adam Smith (d. 1790), the eighteenth-century English economist who pioneered the West’s free market system, admits, …the empire of the Caliphs seems to have been the first state under which the world enjoyed that degree of tranquility which the cultivation of the sciences requires.

It was under the protection of those generous and magnificent princes, that the ancient philosophy and astronomy of the Greeks were restored and established in the East; that tranquility, which their mild, just and religious government diffused over their vast empire, revived the curiosity of mankind, to inquire into the connecting principles of nature.153

Muslims, centuries later, look back at the Prophet’s Companions as the gold standard for tolerance and magnanimity, invoking their precedent even for the rules of engagement during military conflicts. A glimpse of this precedent is narrated by Abū ‘Azīz ibn ‘Umayr , who was taken captive at the Battle of Badr as a warring idolator. He reports that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم gave clear instructions to his Companions, stating, “Treat the captives kindly,” and so whenever his captors had lunch or dinner, they would only eat dates while giving him the bread, in compliance with the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم orders.154 As a result, well before global peace summits and in stark contrast to societies around them, Islamic history had shining examples of treating prisoners of war humanely, as well as amnesty and pardon being recognized as the restorative ideal for the human collective. John Esposito, a senior professor of religion at Georgetown University, writes on this, The Muslim army was as magnanimous in victory as it was tenacious in battle. Civilians were spared; churches and shrines were generally left untouched. The striking differences in military conduct were epitomized by the two dominant figures of the Crusades: Saladin and Richard the Lion-Hearted. The chivalrous Saladin was faithful to his word and compassionate towards noncombatants.

Richard accepted the surrender of Acre then continued to massacre all its inhabitants, including women and children, despite promises to the contrary.155

From that model generation emerged a civilization in which virtue and chastity were the norm, and in which alcohol was never widespread. Until this very day, while the World Health Organization estimates that alcohol results in 2.5 million global deaths a year, the impact of Islam on preventing alcohol abuse in Muslim-majority nations (such as those of North Africa and Southeast Asia) is clear.156

Has history ever known anyone else with the ability to tame the beast of alcoholism once it has been unleased upon a nation?

Why were Muslims able to just give it up? The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم achieved that within his lifetime in a people whose glory and income was interlocked with wine. Following a divinely charted roadmap of gradualism, he صلى الله عليه وسلم was able to witness his methodical program (see Chapter 4) culminate in wine flowing in Madinah’s streets as its Muslims emptied what remained of their own wine barrels.157 Has anyone else ever been able to ban the age-old customs of unrestricted polygyny, male-only inheritance laws, and female infanticide—let alone in such a short span of time? All the laws in today’s India, for instance, designed to combat female infanticide have not eradicated the practice after more than a century of strict enforcement.158 Has there ever been another historical parallel before or after the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم era where ethnic chauvinism declined so dramatically in both theory and practice? Many of his contemporaries who were vehement Arab supremacists became people who conceded to the leadership of non-Arabs and former slaves.

Sālim , the freed slave of Abū Ḥudhayfah, would lead the senior-most Companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in prayer due to his skill in reciting the Qur’an.159 The caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb  once inquired why the Meccan governor had left Ibn Abzā , another freed slave, of all people to preside over the religious capital of Islam during his absence. He told ‘Umar that this choice was in light of Ibn Abzā’s mastery of the Qur’an and its laws on estate distribution. ‘Umar  expressed his approval of this justification by reporting that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did in fact say, “Allah elevates people in rank by virtue of this Qur’an and demotes others because of it.”160 Mulla ‘Alī al-Qārī (d. 1605) commented on this hadith, saying, This phenomenon is observable in the fact that among our righteous predecessors, most of the scholars were freed slaves, and yet they were the undisputed leaders of the Muslim nation and its fountains of mercy while those with royal ancestry who weren’t scholarly were forgotten in their spheres of ignorance.161

A telling account of these revolutionized norms is the well-documented encounter between ‘Aṭā’ ibn Abī Rabāh (d. 732), one of the foremost early judges of Mecca, and Sulaymān ibn ‘Abdil- Malik (d. 717), the Umayyad caliph who ruled over the largest empire known until that point in human history. ‘Aṭā’ was a freed slave who was black, blind, disabled, and had been homeless for many years of his early life. However, the dynamics of social mobility had undergone such significant changes with the advent of Islam that, within one generation, none of these social disadvantages could prevent him from enjoying prestige over Sulaymān who was, in the politico-military sense, the most powerful man alive at the time. When he approached ‘Aṭā’ in Mecca to consult him on religious matters, anxious to confirm that he was performing the Hajj rites correctly, the pious judged answered without ever facing him, to assert that he was not interested in being awarded any fortune or status from the ruler. Not finding the regard and flattery he was accustomed to receiving, Sulaymān turned to his children and said, “My sons, be relentless in your pursuit of sacred knowledge, for I will never forget our humiliation in front of that black slave.”162

Captured here are just some of the unique successes granted by God to the Final Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Impartial readers of history will attest that each one of these is an astonishing accomplishment on its own, and yet these and more were actualized by the generation molded under his صلى الله عليه وسلم care. He transformed those under his tutelage from a savage and lawless people to the best community possible. The unparalleled nature of this historical achievement serves as another sign that this could only be an act of God. As Allah says in the Qur’an, “And [He] brought together their hearts. If you had spent all that is in the earth, you could not have brought their hearts together; but Allah brought them together. Indeed, He is Exalted in Might and Wise.”163

Thereafter, Muslim civilizations in general, for almost a millennium but especially during the earlier centuries, were recognized for their distinctive balance of spirituality, morality, justice, fraternity, scientific vibrancy, and progressive thought.

It was clear that Islam offered enlightened ideals which, while not always fully embraced and realized, nevertheless inspired some incredible leaps in individual and societal wellbeing.

It is understandable that the underdevelopment—in certain respects—of many Muslim countries today may detract from some people’s ability to appreciate the historical greatness of Islamic civilization. However, we must be careful not to back-project that sad state today onto the terrific and exceptional “golden ages” of the Muslim past. Certainly, if Islam is from the Divine who is perfect but its practitioners after the prophets were not, then it should not be surprising that dark painful moments exist in every epoch of human history.

However, only in the last 400-500 years did the Muslim world suffer such great and unprecedented setbacks, and only when Muslims strayed from the proper understanding and practice of Islam. But for as long as Muslims gave due respect to their religion, observing it correctly and religiously, disgraces of today’s magnitude were non-existent. It is a demonstrable historical reality that Muslims thrived whenever there was greater adherence to Islam and the guidance of their Prophet 164 .صلى الله عليه وسلم This is unlike Europe and the Americas, for instance, whose renaissance was propelled by separating their faith from public life or dismissing it altogether. It is for this same reason that much of the modern world is averse to the idea of merging “church and state,” because in their collective memory, religion was the very shackle that hindered progress and advancement in the past. Hence, a dominant sentiment especially in the secular West is that the revival of religion necessitates a return to backwardness and stagnation. But in our experience as Muslims, religion and spiritual strength were the driving forces that motivated the early Muslims to excel in both their worldly and otherworldly pursuits. Making that distinction will greatly assist the discerning readers of history to shed the suspicisions our current context fosters surrounding the utility of religion in general, and Islam’s profound contributions to the world in particular. People who struggle, irrespective of how many hard facts are presented, to acknowledge these achievements, are likely engaging the conversation from a paradigm in which one is unable to perceive “religion” as anything but a synonym for the man-made systems that have long become obsolete. This psychological baggage is predicated on an inherited civilization trauma from these belief systems and generates the stereotypes and overgeneralizations about “religion” that many people cannot escape today. But ultimately, those with the courage to challenge their presuppositions will continue to recognize that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم must have been a prophet of God, and that he and his teachings were responsible for many unique accomplishments and successes.