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THE
EDUCATIONAL ATMOSPHERE IN THE TIME OF HAPPINESS
In the
house of the Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, there
was a permanent awe. Every action was awesome. It was possible
for those who caught a glance of him to feel the allure of
Heaven and horror of Hell. His shivering while performing the
prayer, swaying to and fro, trembling with the fear of Hell
and ‘flying’ on wings of the desire of Heaven and fear of
Hell were known and seen in his house. Yes, those who looked
at him, remembered God. Imam al-Nasa’i narrates:
While
the Messenger was praying, a sound, like a boiling pot,
was heard.1
He
always prayed with a burning and weeping heart. Our mother ‘A’isha
often found him in the presence of his Lord, prostrating and
trembling.2
His
behavior had an inspiring effect on everyone around and they
all benefited. The children and wives of every Messenger had
the same awe and fear, as they preached, ordered and advised
what they had experienced and gave examples through their
actions. We can assess the impact of an individual through his
behavior in his house. If all the pedagogues with all their
acquired knowledge about education joined together, they could
not be as effective as a Prophet.
The
Messenger represented and expressed what he wanted to teach
through his actions, and then he translated his actions into
words. How to be full of awe before God, how to be humble, how
to prostrate with deep feelings, how to bow, how to sit in
prayer, how to cry out at night - the Messenger first did all
of them himself and then taught the others. So, whatever he
preached was immediately accepted both in his house and
outside it, and his words penetrated the hearts of the
believers. After all, he was a unique father and grandfather.
This is an important fact which is, however, often overlooked
and neglected; it is indeed one of the most important roles we
all have to fulfill.
Many
illustrious persons have appeared in his progeny that each one
shone among his generation like a sun, or moon or a star. He
also brought up a generation - the Companions - so perfectly
that among them almost no one turned to be a heretic. It can,
additionally, be said that also among his progeny no heretic
has ever emerged. This fact is a unique distinction of the
Messenger. While there have appeared heretics and apostates
among the household and descendants of many saintly people,
none of Muhammad’s descendants have betrayed the roots of
their household. A few exceptions, if there are, do not negate
the rule.
Here is
another proof of Muhammad’s Prophethood. This was more than
just pedagogical genius. The following verse may shed light on
this:
It
is He who has sent amongst the unlettered, a Messenger
of their own, to recite to them His signs, to purify
them, and to instruct them in Scripture and Wisdom,
although they had been, before, in manifest error. (al-Jumu‘a,
62:2)
Some of
the words in the verse are very interesting. He refers to God,
who is mentioned, in the verse, in the third person, because
people did not know Him. They were ignorant, primitive and
savage people. There was no ‘He’ in their minds, so God,
first, emphasizes the darkness of their nature and how away
from God they were and shows that they cannot be addressed
directly by Him.
Then
God calls them unlettered. They were not all illiterate, but
they had no knowledge about God and the Messenger. God, by His
infinite Power, sent this trifling community the one with a
greatest will-power, with the most sublime nature and the
deepest spirituality and highest morality, and He instructed
them in how to become geniuses who would go on to govern all
of humanity.
The
word amongst shows that the Messenger was one of them in the
sense of being unlettered. Yet, the Messenger was not a man of
the Age of Ignorance. It was necessary for him to be
unlettered, as God would teach him what he needed to know. He
would take him apart from them, educate him and make him a
teacher for the unlettered peoples.
To
recite to them His signs, to purify them points out that He
instructs them in the meanings of the Book and the creation
gradually, and explains to them how to become perfect human
beings. He educates and guides them to spiritual perfection.
He guides them to higher ranks by instructing them in the
Book, the Qur’an, in the universe and in the way of leading
a balanced, exemplary life.
Although
they had been, before, in manifest error explains that God
would purify and educate them even though they were astray. He
did all of this through an unlettered Messenger.
God
taught them the Book, that is the glorious Qur’an. Hundreds
of thousands of brilliant scientists, scholars and saints have
found their source in this Book. It will also educate the
brilliant generations of the future and elevate them to ‘the
highest of the high’. All of the so-called original ideas
will disappear one by one, like candles blown out, and there
will be only one ‘sun’ left - the Qur’an - which will
never set. Its flag will be the only one waving on the
horizon, and every generation will rush to it, breaking the
chains around their necks. The signs have already appeared.
Despite the despotism, tyranny, cruelty and harsh reactions of
the modern world, the Islamic spirit, with its freshness,
allures hearts and minds all over the world.
After
the Prophet, mankind saw his flag waving everywhere for
succeeding centuries. Those who followed him flew to the
highest ‘realms’ on the wings of sainthood, God-fearing,
uprightness and knowledge and science. Those who have climbed
the steps of good conduct and spirituality, and knowledge and
science, have all seen in each step the ‘footprints’ of
the Prophet Muhammad and saluted him with ‘God bless you!’.
They will do the same again in a near future.
The
education of the Messenger is not just the purification of the
evil-commanding selves. He came with a universal system of
education and presented a message that would raise all the
hearts, all the spirits, all the minds and all the souls to
their ideals. The universal truths of the Qur’an also state
this fact. Moreover, he came with the Message that would touch
human senses, outer and inner, make its followers rise on the
wings of love and compassion, and would take them to the
places where imaginations wander. The Prophet opened and again
will open the doors of economic, social, administrative,
military, political and scientific institutions to his
students whose minds and spirits he trained and developed to
become perfect administrators, the best economists, the most
successful politicians and unique military geniuses. The
Messenger came with a universal call encompassing, in addition
to the rules of good conduct and spirituality, the principles
of economics, finance, administration, education and justice
and international law. He came with a perfect Message, as
confirmed by the Qur’an: Today I have perfected your
religion for you and completed My favour upon you, and I have
been pleased with Islam for you as religion (al-Ma’ida,
5.3).
That is
to say, all the previous Prophets were sent each to a certain
people and for a fixed time. But God chose the Prophet
Muhammad and the Religion of Islam for all times and peoples,
thus perfecting, through Islam, His universal favor upon His
creation. He adorned Islam with the principles that everybody
would be pleased with. Therefore, those who try to find fault
in the Message and principles God’s Messenger brought,
should rather seek them in their own minds and souls. He was a
man who completed, perfected and reformed.
He
educated his people not only spiritually and morally but also
intellectually, scientifically, socially and economically. He
made an illiterate, savage people into an army of most blessed
saints, illustrious educators, invincible commanders, most
eminent statesmen and praiseworthy founders of the most
magnificent civilization of human history.
The
perfection of an educator depends on the greatness of his
ideal and the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of his
listeners. Even before Prophet Muhammad’s demise, the
blessed instructors and spiritual guides he dispatched were
traveling in a vast area stretching from Egypt to Iran, from
the Yemen to Caucasia to teach what they learned from their
excellent master. In succeeding centuries, peoples of
different traditions and conventions and different cultures -
the Persians and Turanians, the Chinese and Indians, Romans
and Abyssinians as well as all of the Arabs and some of the
Europeans - rushed to his Message.
The
greatness of an educator also depends on the continuation of
his principles. Now, as anyone can see, people all over the
world accept his Message and adopt his principles, and the
religion he preached will embrace, by God’s Will and Power,
almost the whole of mankind in a near future.
Remember
that God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings,
appeared among a wild and primitive people. They used to drink
alcohol, gamble and commit adultery without shame.
Prostitution was legal and whorehouses were indicated by a
special flag. Indecency was so extreme that man would be
embarrassed to be called a man. They frequently fought with
each other. It was impossible to unite them into a strong
nation. Everything evil could be found in the land in which he
appeared. Yet he eradicated all of those evils. Further, he
encouraged in them such virtues that they became the leaders
and teachers of the civilized world. He built a civilized
nation from a savage people. Even today, we can not reach
their ranks. This has been acknowledged even by some
intellectuals of the West such as Isaac Taylor, Robert
Briffault, John Davenport, M. Pickhtal, P. Bayle and Lamartine.
Only as an example, Lamartine asks: ‘Philosopher, orator,
apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of
rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of
twenty terrestrial states and of one spiritual state, 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?’3
God
creates living things from lifeless things. He grants life to
soil and rock. The Prophet worked ‘rock, soil, coal, copper’
and transformed them into ‘gold and diamond’ - Abu Bakr,
‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali, Khalid, ‘Uqba ibn Nafi’, Tariq
ibn Ziyad, Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafi‘i, Bayazid al-Bistami,
Muhyi al-Din al-‘Arabi, Biruni, Zahrawi and hundreds of
thousands of others have all been brought up in his school.
The Messenger never allowed human faculties to remain
undeveloped. He developed them and replaced any weakness in
them with marvellous competencies. As a great thinker
recalled, ‘Umar, before becoming a Muslim, had the potential
to be a great man. After embracing Islam, he became a
powerful, yet very gentle man who would not step on an ant,
who would not kill even a grasshopper. Such was his
compassion, sensitivity and understanding of justice and
administration that he used to say: ‘If a sheep falls into
the river Tigris because of a destroyed bridge over it, God
will interrogate Umar for this.’
We
cannot eradicate so small a habit as smoking from our society
despite having all modern facilities and holding, almost every
day, symposiums and conferences against it. Medical science
says that it causes larynx, mouth, oesophagus and windpipe and
lung cancer; however, this is not enough to make people give
up this bad habit. On the other hand, the Messenger of God
eradicated many bad habits ingrained in his people. He
replaced them with most laudable virtues and habits. He did it
in a way that even angels in the sky watched on enviously.
Those who saw them used to say: ‘Oh God! These are not
angels, but more superior than angels’. Angels will say in
awe, ‘We wonder whether these are Prophets or angels’, as
they are passing over the Bridge over Hell with their lights
spread everywhere. In fact, they are neither Prophets nor
angels. They are the nation of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him
be peace and blessings. They were educated by him.
‘Adbullah
ibn Mas‘ud, may God be pleased with him, was a shepherd
looking after the flocks of ‘Uqba ibn Abi Muayt. The
Messenger of God took this man into his circle and made him
the cornerstone of the Kufan School of Islamic Jurisprudence.
Remember that Alqama al-Nahai, Hammad, Sufyan al-Thawri, and
Abu Hanifa were all the students of this school. These men,
each a specialist in their own field, received their knowledge
indirectly from Ibn Mas‘ud, may our souls be sacrificed to
this shepherd! The Messenger made ordinary people into
geniuses.
Through
this education, a Barbarian slave, Tariq ibn Ziyad, conquered
Spain with a handful of valiants and laid the foundations of
one of the most splendid civilizations of world history. After
the victory, Tariq went to the palace where the treasuries of
the defeated Spanish king were kept. He said to himself: ‘Tariq,
be careful! Yesterday you were a slave with a chain around
your neck. God emancipated you and today you are a victorious
commander. However, you will change tomorrow into flesh
rotting away under earth. Finally, a day will come when you
will stand in the Presence of God!’ The world and its pomp
were not able to allure Tariq. That great commander lived a
very simple life. What kind of education was it which made a
slave into a man of such dignity and honor?
The
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, considered
human beings with all their mental and spiritual capacities.
He did not leave any of those capacities undeveloped. He
developed them, and transformed the most evil-natured nomads
into the most virtuous people. His wisdom in assessing the
potentials of people is another proof of his Prophethood.
1. Nasa’i,
Sahw, 18.
2. Nasa’i, Ishrat al-Nisa’, 4.
3. Lamartine, Historie de la Turquie, vol. 2, pp.
276-7.
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