Cikin shekara ashirin da uku kacal, Annabi صلى الله عليه وسlam ya yi nasarar tarbiyyantar da wata kyakkyawar al'umma wadda irinta bil'adama ba su taba gani ba, kuma ba za su sake gani ba. Ita dai al'umma ce da ta kunshi kabilu daban-daban a wani yanki mai nisa na duniya, kewaye da hamada masu hatsari, kuma galibi nesa da tunani da al'amuran manyan wayewar zamaninsu, kari kan haka rarrabuwar kawunan su da yaduwar jahilci sun raunana su. Cikin shekaru ashirin kacal, sun ta yaya suka canza duniya har abada. Ta yaya hakan zai yiwu? Sun zama bayin Allah mafiya tsarki a tarihin bil'adama bayan annabawa, masu bin tauhidi cikin aminci fiye da kowa a doron kasa. Wannan ba kawai ya sa su zama masu ibada mafi girma ba, har ma ya sa su zama kan gaba wajen bayar da gudummawa ga bil'adama. Da dare, sukan tsaya suna sallah suna marmarin Ubangiji, hawaye na zuba a kumatunsu saboda kalmar da aka saukar da ita daga gare Shi. Da rana kuwa, sukan rayu don manufofi masu girma fiye da su kansu, suna gajiyar da kansu cikin taimakon jama'a, ilimantarwa, ko kuma a matsayin jarumai da ke hawa doki don 'yantar da bil'adama daga mulkin zalunci. Sun kafa adalci, kamar yadda Ishaya ya yi bayani (duba Babi na 1), kuma sun bude hanyar kyawawan halaye ga dubban daruruwan masu zuhudu, masu gyara, da manyan masana tsawon karnoni.

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.

Alamomin wayewar Musulunci sun kasance adalci da daidaito, daidaito da matsakaici, bambancin al'umma, ci gaba, da neman kyau. Mutane sun yi tafiya ta teku suna neman yada wadannan dabi'u zuwa kasashensu, kuma kwararru da yawa sun tabbatar da cewa duniya ba ta kasance kamar yadda take ba tun lokacin. Adam Smith (d. 1790), masanin tattalin arziki dan Ingila na karni na sha takwas wanda ya fara tsarin kasuwa mai 'yanci na Yamma, ya yarda cewa, "...daular Halifofi ta zama kamar ita ce kasar farko da duniya ta ji irin wannan natsuwa wacce noman ilimomi ke bukata."

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.

A ƙarƙashin kariyar waɗannan sarakuna masu karimci da ɗaukaka ne aka mayar da falsafar tsohuwar Girka da ilimin taurari, aka kuma kafa su a Gabas; zaman lafiya da gwamnatinsu mai sassauci, adalci da addini suka yaɗa a cikin babbar daularsu ne ya farfaɗo da sha'awar ɗan adam ta binciko ka'idojin da ke haɗa al'amuran halitta.153

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

Musulmi, bayan ƙarnuka, suna duba zuwa ga Sahabban Annabi ﷺ a matsayin abin koyi mafi kyau na haƙuri da karimci, suna kuma kiran misalinsu har ma a dokokin yaƙi a lokacin rikicin soja. Wani ɓangare na wannan misali Abū ‘Azīz ibn ‘Umayr ya ruwaito, wanda aka kama shi a matsayin fursuna a Yakin Badar a lokacin yana cikin mushrikai masu yaƙi. Ya ce Manzon Allah ﷺ ya ba Sahabbansa umarni a sarari, yana cewa: “Ku yi wa fursunoni kyautatawa,” saboda haka duk lokacin da waɗanda suka kama shi suka yi abincin rana ko na dare, sai su ci dabino kawai su kuma ba shi burodi, don biyayya ga umarnin Annabi ﷺ.154 Sakamakon haka, tun kafin taron zaman lafiya na duniya, kuma sabanin al'umman da ke kewaye da su, tarihin Musulunci yana da misalai masu haske na kula da fursunonin yaƙi cikin mutunci, da kuma yafiya da gafara da ake ɗauka a matsayin hanyar gyara ga al'ummar ɗan Adam baki ɗaya. John Esposito, babban farfesa a fannin addini a Jami'ar Georgetown, ya rubuta a kan wannan cewa: “Rundunar Musulmi ta kasance mai karimci a nasara kamar yadda take da ƙarfi a yaƙi. An kare fararen hula; ba a kan taɓa majami'u da masallatai ba gaba ɗaya. Bambance-bambancen da ke bayyana a ɗabi'ar soja an misalta su ta hanyar manyan mutane biyu na Yaƙe-yaƙen Salibiyya: Saladin da Richard Zuciyar Zaki. Saladin mai jaruntaka ya kasance mai cika alkawari kuma mai tausayi ga waɗanda ba sa yaƙi.”

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 ya karɓi mika wuya na Acre, sannan ya ci gaba da kashe dukkan mazaunan garin, ciki har da mata da yara, duk da alkawuran da ya yi akasin haka.155

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

Daga wannan tsarin zamani ne aka samu wayewar da ɗabi'a mai kyau da kamun kai suka zama ruwan dare, kuma inda shan giya bai taɓa yaɗuwa sosai ba. Har zuwa yau, yayin da Hukumar Lafiya ta Duniya (WHO) ta kiyasta cewa giya na haddasa mutuwar mutane miliyan 2.5 a kowace shekara a duniya, tasirin Musulunci wajen hana cin zarafin giya a ƙasashe masu rinjayen Musulmi (kamar na Arewacin Afirka da Kudu maso Gabashin Asiya) a bayyane yake.156

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

Ina tarihi ka taɓa sanin wani da yake da ikon kwantar da dabbar shaye-shaye idan ta riga ta mamaye al'umma?

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

Me ya sa Musulmi suka iya barin shan giya kawai haka? Annabi صلى الله عليه وسلم ya cim ma hakan a lokacin rayuwarsa, a cikin wani mutane da daraja da samun kuɗin shigarsu suka haɗu da giya. Yana bin tsarin hanya na hikima daga Allah a hankali, ya ga shirinsa na hanya (duba Babi na 4) ya kai ga cewa ruwan giya ya gudu a titunan Madina yayin da Musulmi suka zubar da abin da ya rage a cikin gangunansu na giya.157 Shin akwai wani wanda ya taɓa iya hana al'adu na dā kamar auren mata da yawa ba tare da iyaka ba, dokokin gādo na maza kaɗai, da kashe jarirai mata, balle kuma a cikin irin ɗan gajeren lokaci haka? Misali, duk dokokin Indiya ta yau da aka tsara don yaƙi da kashe jarirai mata ba su kawar da wannan aikin ba bayan fiye da ƙarni ɗaya na tsananin aiwatarwa.158 Shin an taɓa samun wani misali na tarihi kafin ko bayan zamanin Annabi صلى الله عليه وسلم inda wariyar ƙabilanci ta ragu sosai a ka'ida da kuma aiki? Yawancin abokan zamansa waɗanda masu tsananin ɗaukaka Larabawa ne sun zama mutanen da suka amince da jagorancin mutanen da ba Larabawa ba da tsoffin bayi.

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, bawan Abū Ḥudhayfah wanda aka 'yanta, shi ne yake jagorantar sallah ga manyan Sahabban Annabi ﷺ saboda ƙwarewarsa wajen karatun Alƙur'ani.159 Halifa ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ya taba tambaya dalilin da ya sa gwamnan Makka ya bar Ibn Abzā, wani bawa da aka 'yanta, ya jagoranci babban birnin addinin Musulunci a lokacin da ba ya nan. Ya gaya wa ‘Umar cewa wannan zaɓi ya yi ne saboda ƙwarewar Ibn Abzā a cikin Alƙur'ani da dokokinsa na rarraba gado. ‘Umar ya nuna amincewarsa da wannan hujja ta hanyar ruwaito cewa Annabi ﷺ ya ce: "Allah yana ɗaukaka mutane da wannan Alƙur'ani, kuma yana ƙasƙantar da wasu saboda shi."160 Mulla ‘Alī al-Qārī (d. 1605) ya yi sharhi kan wannan hadisi, yana cewa: Wannan lamari yana bayyana a cikin cewa daga cikin magabatanmu nagari, yawancin malamai bayi ne da aka 'yanta, duk da haka su ne shugabannin al-ummar Musulmi ba tare da jayayya ba da kuma maɓuɓɓugar rahamarta, yayin da waɗanda suke da asalin sarauta waɗanda ba malamai ba aka manta da su a cikin yankunansu na jahilci.