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The
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was the conferred mercy, the
bestowed grace, and the shining light. He was born, raised, and sent
as mercy to the worlds, as a bearer of good tidings, and as a
harbinger. He was made of mercy and baked from the clay of tenderness.
It was in his nature to be humble, pious, supplicant, and tearful to
present humanity in its last powerful and prosperous age with a model
of the perfect human being whom Allah had willed to be an example to
mankind—one by whose light they would be guided so that they could
help one another in doing good and shunning evil, and in building not
destroying.
This
mercy is clearly stated in Almighty
Allah’s saying [And
We have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds]
(Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:107), thus defining the goal of creating the
most perfect of human beings in the creation, and the one whom Allah
had sent with guidance and entrusted with the message: mercy for all
the people, to all mankind, without exception.
As
to the fact that he was sent to the Arabs first then to all people, it
does not imply that his people are better than others, except for the
fact that his people are entrusted with the task and that they are to
deliver the trust to the rest of the people as part of self-abnegation
and as a physical and material jihad and as a lofty model. It is
indeed a heavy trust and a tremendous responsibility, made even
greater by the fact of being chosen for such a colossal task. The
Prophet’s words “I was sent to you especially” are but a
reference to an essential and real transitional stage, because there
has to be a human prophet who lives among his people and whose call
starts from them, and because prophets and messengers are not sent to
deliver their message on the clouds or as angels sent down from
heaven. It is just an ephemeral starting point from which the da`wah
train starts its journey to the destination of “O mankind.”
Allah
forbid that the specification should be a historical reality or a
divine destiny or a prophetic discourse to mean “God’s chosen
people.” This is the mercy that teaches the stone-hearted people
tenderness and kindness. [Thus
it is due to mercy from Allah that you deal with them gently]
(Aal `Imran 3:159). Kindness renders the thing in which it is
found beautiful, and wherein it is lacking, ugly. It is also the mercy
of freeing the whole of humanity from all kinds of shackles and of
reversing the oppressive social relationships in the age of slavery.
It
is the mercy of a spontaneous expression of feelings to a people who
were raised to believe that that is a humiliating weakness: “O
Messenger of Allah! I have 10 children, and I have never kissed one of
them.” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) answers, “What
can I do for you if Allah has removed mercy from your heart?”
It
is a general mercy, for there is no mercy that is specifically meant
for one people to the exclusion of others, for that would be injustice
and discrimination. This is what Ibn `Abbas meant when he limited the
choice of Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) being
preferred to the other prophets on earth because he was sent to all
people while each of them was sent only to his own people. This
interpretation is further supported by the Prophet’s saying “I
have been blessed with five, none before has had them … and I was
sent to all people, the red-skinned and the blacks; the prophets
before me were sent to their people only.”
Abu
Salih said, “The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to
call them saying, ‘O people, I am an offered mercy.’” The
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) reiterates the truth of his
being a mercy to the worlds; the aim from this repetition is to have
this truth inculcated in their heads. He addresses this truth to the
worlds, not just to his own people (O people!), using the verbal noun rahmah,
not the adjective. He announces the “offered mercy” free of charge
without expecting anything in return. It is a sincere and pure mercy
that accommodates everyone without exception, his followers and people
from other nations. This is Muhammad’s mercy bestowed on everyone
who seeks to do right and good, on the old and the young, the man and
the woman, the believer and the non-believer.
1
- He was merciful even in the articles of worship; he would help
the weak by finishing his prayer quickly whenever he felt that people
were coming in behind them. Anas reports: The Messenger of Allah was
praying during Ramadan, and when he felt that I was behind him, he
prayed fast. Then he entered a place and he prayed a prayer which he
had never prayed in our presence. We said to him, “Did you hear us
coming in tonight?” He said, “Yes, that’s what made me do
what I did.” He went on praying. Then some men from among his
Companions carried on praying. He said, “Why are they continuing
to pray? Your are not like me.”
He
was concerned about seeing people doing tasks that caused them some
hardship. Abu Hurayrah said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) said, “Was I not afraid to make it too difficult for
you, I would have ordered you to use siwak (tooth
stick) at every Prayer.”
He
felt for those who suffer, too. Anas Ibn Malik said: The Prophet
(peace and blessings be upon him) said, “I would start praying
and when I hear a child crying, I hurry up so that its mother can be
with him.” In the same vein, Abu Hurayrah reports that the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “If one of you
leads people in Prayer, he should hurry up, because among them there
may be those who are sick, those who are weak, and those who are old,
but if one of you is praying for himself, then he can pray for as long
as he wants.” It is no surprise then if the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) wanted to save his Ummah through his mercy from
dangerous monasticism, in which priests agreed to forbid themselves
from enjoying some of the things that were halal (lawful). Then
came the answer of mercy: “He who rejects my way is not of me.”
2
- The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) goes public and
declares his weakness and displays his affection. He hears about the
burying of girls alive and he cries hard. It was narrated that a man
came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, “I
had a daughter whom I threw in a well, and the last words I heard from
her were ‘Father! Father!’ The Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) cried very hard upon hearing this. A man from the group of
people who were sitting with him said, ‘You made the Messenger of
Allah very sad.’ The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said,
“Stop it; the man is asking about a thing that is important for
him.” Then he said to the man, “Repeat what you have just
said.” The man repeated his story. Then the Prophet wept until
his beard was soaked in tears and said to the man, “Allah has
forgiven people of Jahiliyyah (Pre-Islamic period of ignorance) what
they had done. Carry on with your work.”
He
defends the rights of the newborn even if it is the fruit of an
illegitimate relationship. `Abdullah ibn Buraid reporting from his
father, who said: I was sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him) when a woman from Ghamid came to him and said, “O
Messenger of Allah! I have fornicated and I want you to purify me.”
The Prophet said to her, “Go home!” She came back the next
day, he said to her, “Go home.” She came back the following
day, and he said to her, “Go back home until you are delivered of
the child.” When her child was born, she brought it to the
Prophet, who said to her, “Go suckle him until he is weaned.”
And when she weaned him, she brought the child, who was holding a
piece of bread, to the Prophet.
Only
then did he punish her according to Islamic law. He warned Khalid ibn
Al-Walid from insulting her and he was witness to her repentance,
saying to Ibn Al-Walid, “Don’t insult her. By He Who holds my
soul in His hand, she has repented. If the tax-collector’s
repentance is like hers, he will surely be forgiven.” Then he
ordered that she be prayed upon at her burial.
The
Prophet also cries very hard at the death of a child. A Companion
narrated: “When we entered the house, the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) was handed the child who was in death throes,
and the Prophet began to cry. Sa`d ibn `Ubadah asked the Prophet,
‘Are you crying?’ The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
answered, ‘Blessed are the merciful.’”
The
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was merciful with children
at play, too, even if the place where the child played was the
Prophet’s back. People said, “O Messenger of Allah! You have
prostrated too long, so much so that we thought that something had
happened to you or that you were receiving revelation.” He said, “Nothing
of that happened, but my grandson was playing on my back and I hated
to spoil his play for him.” Whether the child was boy or girl,
there is no discrimination in mercy, as the people of Jahiliyyah used
to do. Abu Qatadah said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him) went out to pray carrying Umamah, Zaynab’s daughter, on his
shoulder. When he prostrated, he put the child on the floor, and when
he stood up he put her back on his shoulders again.
3
- The Prophet’s mercy extends to sinners. A woman who had
committed adultery was brought before the Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him), who asked her “With whom?” She replied,
“With the handicapped man who is at Sa`d’s wall.” The Prophet
sent after him. When the man was carried before him, he acknowledged
his deed. Then the Prophet asked for a palm branch and hit him with
it, and he forgave him because he was handicapped.
The
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commuted the punishment to a
social service because the sinner was very poor; he even joked with
him. A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and
said, “O Messenger of Allah, I made a terrible mistake.” The
Prophet said, “What’s wrong?” The man said, “I slept
with my wife in Ramadan.” The Prophet said, “Can you free a
slave?” The man said, “No.” Then the Prophet asked him, “Can
you fast two months consecutively?” The man said, “No!” The
Prophet said, “Can you feed 60 people?” The man said,
“No.” Then a palm branch laden with dates was brought to the
Prophet. He said, “Where is the man who asked the question?”
The man said, “Here I am.” The Prophet said to the man, “Take
it and give it as sadaqah (charity).” The
man said, “Give it to someone who is poorer than me, Messenger of
Allah?” (meaning that there was none poorer than him). Then the
Prophet laughed very hard and said, “Feed it to your folks.”
4
- The Prophet’s mercy includes the non-Muslims. The tribe of
Quraish goes through a period of starvation during its conflict with
the Prophet, who sends food to them. The people of Ta’if harm him
terribly, but he forgives them in compliance with Jibril’s order.
This
is a mercy offered by the Prophet, which he practices and which he
teaches people and calls on them to practice. Abu Hurayrah reported
that a rural man urinated in the mosque and people threatened to beat
him up. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Leave
him alone. Splash water on his urine. You are to make things easy for
people, not difficult.”
The
Prophet’s Creator has given testimony to his mercy. Almighty Allah
says: [And
thou (standest) on an exalted standard of character]
(Al-Qalam 68:4) and [There
hath come unto you a messenger, (one) of yourselves, unto whom aught
that ye are overburdened is grievous, full of concern for you, for the
believers full of pity, merciful]
(At-Tawbah 9:128).
The
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was so merciful that
Almighty Allah took pity on him for showing mercy to people out of
fear for them that they may turn to disbelief and be severely
punished.
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