lingo of my inner voice

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Birthday of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.)

On the auspicious occassion Eid Milaad un Nabbi (PBUH), Wishing you all a very happy & blessed Eid.

May God grant all your wishes & bless you with success, prosperity, faith, health, wealth & happiness in this life as well as in the life hereafter.(Amen)

I wanted to post an article written by my uncle which which very apt with the occassion and recent events. Have a read, all the comments and questions will be directed to him. I will try to settle your curiosities.

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THE COIN HAS TWO SIDES
The Prophet of Muslims was sitting a Madina Mosque with his disciples, when a man came and started urinating. The disciples rosed in anger to give this nuasance a lesson,but prophet signed towards them to sit down.The man had obviously come with an ulterior motive and expected rage.When he found no response, went away disappointed.The prophet then asked to bring a bucket of water and clean the place. No anger or response to the one who wanted to create sensation.

The caricature issue and far before that, that of Ahmed Rusdie. The unwarranted response and anger caused by emotional muslims did nothing but loss to themselves and gain to trouble mongers.Had they followed the teachings and examples of their beloved master and ignored such mischief the motives of miscreants would have been defeated.

Now the other side. Freedom of speech or act in the free society. A person, for no good reason started abusing a man at a public place. The victim tried to seek help from people nearby but no one came forward. He approached Law enforcers and was suggested to forget the event as he there was no physical harm and the abuser had gone. If he had responded and got violent the issue may have become of concern as it may have created public disturbance. Was this justified?

Similarily a man approached another person sitting in a park with his girlfriend and offered him substantial money,if he convince the girl,to go with him for pleasure.
The person got real angry for being treated as pimp and gave lot of beating. Many people gathered and some one called police. Now this became a case of public disturbance and manhandling and he had to face punishment.

Moral......How far freedom of speech can be tolerated? How we distinguish between physical and mental torture? Who ought to be punished? OR foregiven? The culprit takes the shelter of freedom of speech.......that he just made an offer and other could say sorry.

The difference between a man and animal is his intellect which guide him to decide what is good and what is not. By faith by code of conduct and by ethics he is supposed to behave which may not hurt/harm any one physically or by words. Even at home(privacy) one has to respect feelings of family members and not utter that may offend any one so that family atmosphere remain happy. Therefore Freedom of Speech is limited to DISCIPLINE. Whoever support such freedom also support this.

The Prophet of Muslims is being revered by a billion of followers and if they sit silent on this incident they feel themselves cowards and if they protest they are miscreants. But how far they should go? Offer bounty to kill a fool who urinated by mouth and hands(by caricature) and make him a millioner in a day?

This is a mind boggling matter and so i place it in this BLOG. Whatever the present day ignorants say, Muhammed the spiritual father of muslims, was admired by scholars and learned ones.The illiterate and ignorants may call them fools as they are free to speak.But the list of such fools is worth reading.. May be some blogs are so interesting and we should add their name in this list.

Annie Besant in 'The Life and Teachings of Mohammad ,' Madras , 1932.It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knew how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel, whenever I reread them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.

Reverend Bosworth Smith in 'Muhammad and Muhammadanism,' London , 1874.
>"Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a police force, without a fixed revenue . If ever a man ruled by a right divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers without their supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life."
"In Mohammadanism every thing is different here. Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history....We know of the external history of Muhammad....while for his internal history after his mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its preservation....on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt."

Dr. Gustav Weil in 'History of the Islamic Peoples'
Muhammad was a shining example to his people. His character was pure and stainless. His house, his dress, his food - they were characterized by a rare simplicity. So unpretentious was he that he would receive from his companions no special mark of reverence, nor would he accept any service from his slave which he could do for himself. He was accessible to all and at all times. He visited the sick and was full of sympathy for all. Unlimited was his benevolence and generosity as also was his anxious care for the welfare of the community.

Alphonse de LaMartaine in ' Historie de la Turquie,' Paris, 1854.
"Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim, since this aim was superhuman; to subvert superstitions which had been imposed between man and his Creator, to render God unto man and man unto God; to restore the rational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured gods of idolatry, then existing. Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so feeble means, for he (Muhammad) had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great design, no other instrument than himself and no other aid except a handful of men living in a corner of the desert. Finally, never has a man accomplished such a huge and lasting revolution in the world, because in less than two centuries after its appearance, Islam, in faith and in arms, reigned over the whole of Arabia, and conquered, in God's name, Persia Khorasan, Transoxania, Western India, Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, all the known continent of Northern Africa, numerous islands of the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, and part of Gaul.
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad ? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls.
"On the basis of a Book, every letter which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blend together peoples of every tongue and race. He has left the indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and Immaterial God. This avenging patriotism against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of Muhammad; the conquest of one-third the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or rather it was not the miracle of man but that of reason.

"The idea of the unity of God , proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of the fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon it's utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen: all these and finally, his flight his incessant preaching, his wars against odds, his faith in his success and his superhuman security in misfortune, his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was twofold the unity of God and the immateriality of God: the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words.
"Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs.... The founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?"

Mahatma Gandhi , statement published in 'Young India'1924.
>I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind.... I became became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.

Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.
"If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam."
"I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion for from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity."
"I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today."

Washington Irving in 'Life of Muhammad,' New York, 1920.
His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vain glory as they would have done had they been effected by selfish purposes. In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity of manner and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affecting regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonial of respect was shown to him

W. Montgomery Watt in 'Muhammad at Mecca,' Oxford, 1953.
His readiness to undergo persecution for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as a leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement - all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems that it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.... Thus, not merely must we credit Muhammad with essential honesty and integrity of purpose, if we are to understand him at all; if we are to correct the errors we have inherited from the past, we must not forget the conclusive proof is a much stricter requirement than a show of plausibility, and in a matter such as this only to be attained with difficulty.

James Michener in 'Islam: The Misunderstood Religion,' Reader's Digest, May 1955, pp. 68-70.
"No other religion in history spread so rapidly as Islam. The West has widely believed that this surge of religion was made possible by the sword. But no modern scholar accepts this idea, and the Qur'an is explicit in the support of the freedom of conscience."
"Muhammad, the inspired man who founded Islam, was born about A.D. 570 into an Arabian tribe that worshiped idols. Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden. At twenty he was already a successful businessman, and soon became director of camel caravans for a wealthy widow. When he reached twenty-five his employer recognizing his merit, proposed marriage. Even though she was fifteen years older, he married her and as long as she lived remained a devoted husband."
"Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God's word sensing his own inadequacy. But the Angel commanded 'Read'. So far as we know, Muhammad was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those inspired words which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth: "There is one God"."
"In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical. When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred and rumors of God 's personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced, 'An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human being'."
"At Muhammad's own death an attempt was made to deify him, but the man who was to become his administrative successor killed the hysteria with one of the noblest speeches in religious history: 'If there are any among you who worshiped Muhammad, he is dead. But if it is God you Worshiped, He lives for ever'."

Jules Masserman in 'Who Were Histories Great Leaders?' in TIME Magazine, July 15, 1974
Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammad, who combined all the three functions. To a lesser degree Moses did the same.
-Ramzan Lakhani

It is a shame or say pity if someone still made such caricatures depicting a terrorist rather than a pious prophet who is a great blessing not only for Muslims but IMHO, for the whole wide big world.

PS: Pardon me for any errors in formatting as my blogger was giving me hell lot of trouble.

Scented Words posted by Raheel Lakhani :: 9:39 PM :: 4 Comments:

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