Introduction: Holy Prophet, Mohammad (pbuhahf) exalted character.

 Mention of Prophet Mohammad (pbuhahf) in other religous books, and he (as) being the most influential person in history and Islam is now the number one religion of the world.

1.  The Holy Prophet, Mohammad (pbuh) in the Bible by name by proof.

2.  The Holy Prophet, Mohammad (pbuh), the most influential person in history and Islam the fastest growing religion in the world and number one religion.

3.  Prophet Mohammad (as) and the 12 Imam (as) refrecence in the Bible and the Torah

Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), what others say about him.

The greatness of prophet Muhammad peace be upon him - speech by Ram Jethamalani

A Hindu priest view on Prophet Muhammad (pbuhahf) (Hindi)

The Holy Prophet Muhammad 's Letter to the Monks of St. Catherine in Mt. Sinai

Greetings on Prophet Mohammad (as) and his family (as)

Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) in Hindu holy books with name and description click link.

https://youtu.be/AA7p_lenAIY

 Biography of Prophet Mohammad (pbuhahf) by Syed Ammar Nakshwani.

Transcript of the above.

(After Qudba).

Respected scholars, brothers and sisters Asalamalaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatahu. 

The Holy Prophet Mohammad sallalahu alaihi walaihi wasallam (allahumma salli ala Mohammad wa aali Mohammad) was born in the year 570 known as the Year of the Elephant.  He occupies a prominent position within the religion of Islam and is revered as the greatest personality within the religion.  A man whose life has to be examined in depths for there are many lessons to be learnt and indeed many examples to be derived, and indeed a man whose biography has been unfortunately very much undervalued and indeed very much underestimated. 

Therefore it is vital that we discuss his biography from the day that he was born until the day he died in order that we are able to number one take as many practical lessons from his life and apply them into our own lives and then number two remove any misconceptions that surrounds his biography for there was a period in medieval Europe when he was seen as being the devil incarnate, or he was seen as being the false messiah, or he was seen as being the antichrist, and therefore there is a need for us to dissect the biography in order that we present him in his true light as “a mercy for mankind” and “a moral exampler to everyone.” 

As we said, he was born in the year 570 known as the Year of the Elephant.  The Arabs did not have a calendar dating system as such.  The Arabs what they used to do, they used to look at what was the important event in that particular year and then give the name towards the year, as in for example if there was a famous personality who died, they would name the year after that personality, or if there was a war that took place they would name for example the year after that war. 

The year within which the Prophet was born was called Amilfeel, the Year of the Elephant because of an incident that took place involving an army of elephants because what you had at that time you had within Arabia people who used to go and visit the Kaaba.  In Yemen, there was a church, which was built by an Ethiopian man by the name of Abraha.  Mark the words “Ethiopian,” because Abraha’s niece is Bilal al Habashi’s mother.  Abraha’s niece later on when she is caught as a prisoner, she gets married within one of the Arabian tribes, and she gives birth to a son by the name of Bilal. Hence when Bilal is known as of the people of Habash, it is because his mother’s uncle what this Abraha, who was an Ethiopian but was the governor of Yemen. 

Abraha had always been envious of the fact that there were people who would go towards the Kaaba but not come towards his church in Yemen.  He had tried to send emissaries and ambassadors to go towards the Kaaba and to try and tell the Arabs that “Listen! Leave your place of worship because your place has been polluted.  Originally, you are people of Abraham, but now you worship idols.  It is better that all of you come to my church in Yemen and make my church the main center of the area.”  When he had sent one of his emissaries, when he noticed that the emissaries were not successful, the narrations tells us that he decided it is better for him to take his army and march into the Kaaba and to take an army of elephants. 

Hence within the religion of Islam, you have a chapter called Suratil Feel, chapter 105 of the Quran, and the chapter begins, “Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim.  Alam tara kayfa fa ala rabboka be ashabil feel.”  “Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the people of the elephant?” Because when Abraha came he came with elephants. There was only a few elephants that he brought, but that we know elephants are of size that they only needs to be few for them to capture your attention. When he came towards Arabia, he came with these elephants, and there were people who definitely were scared.  That is why the main person who counteracted him was who? Was Abdul Mutallib, the grandfather of the Prophet. 

Abdul Mutallib told the people number one, “Go and hide in the desert hills.” So they went to hide in the desert hills.  Then Abdul Mutallib was chosen by the people to go and meet Abraha.  Notice from the beginning of the biography of the Prophet we see that the line of Abraham through Ismail is still looking after the birthplace of Ismail.  Yesterday, we said in Genesis chapter 17, verse 18 to 20, “God promised Abraham that in the line of Ismail there will be 12 princes who are part of a fruitful generation.” 

Abdul Mutalib what did he do?  Abdul Mutalib at this moment came to Abraha.  He entered Abraha’s tent.  Abraha was sitting down.  When he entered the tent, Abraha looked at him.  He saw quite an imposing figure.  He then said to him, “Sit down,” and he said to him, “What is it that you want?” He said, “I want my camels.” He said, “Sorry?”  He said, “I want my camels.  You took my camels.  I want my camels returned back to me.”  He looked at him and he said, “Do you know when you entered my tent, I had a lot of respect for you, but now I have lost all that respect.” Abdul Mutalib said, “Why?” He said, “When you entered my tent, I saw this is the man who will want his black cube known as the Kaaba protected.  Instead all you want is the camels?”  He said, “That house has a Lord for its own to protect it, and I am the protector of my lot of camels.  I want my 200 camels being given back to me.” He said to him, “Get out, get out. There is no agreement between us.” 

Abdul Mutalib came back a second time to try and persuade him.  Again Abraha wouldn’t agree.  Abraha decided he will take his elephant, and most of the narrations indicate another six or seven elephants and march towards the Kaaba. They marched towards the Kaaba, and the Quran put it quite beautifully.  When the Quran said, “Alam tara kayfa fa ala rabbuka be ashabil feel, alam yajal kaidahum betadleel, wa arsala alaihim tairan ababeel, tarmeehim.” You all see that what Allah Subhanahu wa Talah what did he do? He ensured that if you plan and I plan, I am the greatest of planners.  These elephants were coming. They were ready to bring their victory.  The narration states very clearly that some birds with these stones pelted them until the opposition army was defeated. 

In other words, Rasullallah the year that he was born, the Arabs hadn’t begun the Hijra calender.  We know the Hijra calendar began afterwards.  The Hijra calender after the Prophet migrated from Mecca to Madina then you had 1 AH, 2 AH, 3 AH, 4 AH.  Before that, what did you have years according to incidents. So the date of his birth is different on between the different schools in Islam.

Our brothers in other schools celebrate his birth on the 12th of Rabi al Awal.  We celebrate his birth on the seventeenth of Rabi al Awal.  It is vital that this isn't a course of friction between us. Why? Syedal Khomeini May Allah bless his soul used to stress on this week being a week of unity between Muslims because all of us are sharing a common denominator and that is the life of our Prophet. It should be a case where on the 12th of Rabi al Awal our mosques go or our imams go to the mosques of our brothers and celebrate with them.  And on the 17th our brothers are welcomed into our mosques to celebrate with us.  There is a difference of opinion, and in the historical research you will find I think barring sheikh all Koleini most of the others will say that he was born the 17th of Rabi al Awal.

It wasn't an easy first few years for him.  Imagine in your first few years your father passes away. According to some narrations only a few months into his life, his father Abdallah passes away, and therefore Rasullallah is born an orphan.  Hence the Quran saying “Alam yajidka yatiman faawa.” When the Quran says “Alam yajidka yatiman faawa.” What does it mean? It means that “Do we not find you an orphan?”  The Prophet when he was born was born an orphan. 

His mother Amina was alive, but his father Abdallah had passed way, and his mother Amina did what most Arabs do to their babies of the time. If you were of the noble aristocracy of Mecca, what would you do to your baby? After eight days of the birth of your baby, The Meccan aristocrats would take their babies to the deserts, so that their babies are suckled and breastfed by a wet nurse in the desert.  Someone asks why? As then Amina is his mother, why cannot she suckle him?  Why does she have to take him to the deserts? There were a number of reasons the Arabs would take their babies to the deserts and especially the aristocrats.  If you are poor, it wasn’t that easy, but if you are an aristocrat you take your baby to the desert for a number of reasons. Number one and please understand these reasons because they have a major role on the upbringing and the psyche of the Prophet. 

The first reason, it allows you to grow up in an environment where you are independent and you are a freethinker for the first few years of your life. What do we mean? We mean in the desert there isn't buildings, and there isn’t all of these forests surrounding you and lots of humans and shops and markets and trades.  In the desert it is open.  You can sit there and look at the creation and reflect upon your own creation, reflect upon your own meaning in life, reflects upon your own role. The Arabs who would send their babies to have their first 8 or 10 years in the desert would want that baby to be living in a world where they grow up as a child who is not told what to think but is rather shown how to think.  First reason, they take him there is that.

The second reason is because Mecca’s climate wasn't a healthy climate for children both in terms of what they saw and what they breathe.  Imagine you are a child growing up in a climate where you see baby girls being buried alive, Is that a good start to your life?  Or you see people performing tawaf of the Kaaba circumambulating the Kaaba naked. The Arabs used to go around the Kaaba and tawaf naked because they said, “God created us free, so there is no need for clothes.  Clothes are impure.  Lets go and circumvallate his house like how he created us completely in the nude.  The Prophet, his mother Amina wanted him to be growing up where?  Grow up in the desert, so he doesn't see this. Number three, because Mecca’s winds and air as I said it was hot, it was unhealthy.  There were pests and epidemics, so his mother Amina did what, she made sure that he was sent there. 

The first lady to have breastfed him, and that most narrations say too, the first one and both of them were chosen by who Abdul Mutalib, his grandfather.  The first one to have breastfed him was Suwaiba, the servant of his uncle Abu Laheb.  Remember Abu Laheb before the Prophet announced his prophethood used to love the Prophet because he used to see him as his younger brother’s son.  Abdullah is Abu Laheb’s younger brother isn’t he?  So he used to see him as his younger brother’s son.  So first Amina asked Abdul Mutalib, Abdul Mutalib said Suwaiba.  Suwaiba also suckled Hamzah because Rasullallah and Hamzah’s ages are very similar and that is why when Rasullallah was one day told to marry Hamzah’s daughter, he said, “We cannot because in Islamic law we suckled from the same wet nurse.”

Then number two, Abdul Mutalib chose who? He chose Halima Sadia.  Halima Sadia was a pious god-fearing lady.  Abdul Mutalib chose her as the one who would suckle the Prophet, and she herself would say, “That I saw vast riches and goodness affect my life the moment I started to suckle the Prophet.” 

Some narrations in Islamic history try and tell us that when the Prophet was with Halima as a 2-year-old he remembered, mark the words “he remembered,” it is quite interesting. As a 2-year-old, he remembered he was sitting down one day two men came, opened his chest, gave him a heart transplant because there was a black dot of Shaitan on his heart, then put a new heart in, and that was the pure Mohammad after that day. 

We of course differ with this idea.  As in number one, if I have the dot of Shaitan, it is not on my physical heart.  The dot of Shaitan is the meaning is meant to be on my nafs, isn’t it? so I don’t need a heart change. Number two, the Prophet was born with this purity.  He did not need people to come and open him up, have an operation, and then move on.  For the Quran would later say “Alam nashrah laka sadrak.”  “We are the ones who expanded that breast, which was able to take in knowledge.” 

Therefore some narrations try to say Halima saw this in the Prophet. We differ with this.  Halima twice went back to Amina, the mother of the Prophet and said to her? Do you want to take him back in Mecca? Amina twice replied back to her “O Halima, keep him there because I see diseases and epidemics, which will affect him.” And therefore some people ask the question if God loves Mohammed so much? Why let him have such a difficult beginning as an orphan?  As then why doesn't God allow him to have a natural beginning like everybody else, a father and a mother?  When the Imam was asked this question, he replied, “God wanted to ensure nobody protected and brought up Mohammad but himself.” He wanted to oversee that the Prophet would not show obedience to anybody even from his earlier life except himself.” Sometimes your parents may swear you one way or the other, even though his parents were loyal believers in God’s message, the Imam said he wanted that God is the one who oversaw his development.  Therefore you find from a young age, his father died, then his mother dies, then after that what, after that his grandfather Abdul Mutalib looks after him, his grandfather dies within a couple of years, then he is bought up by his uncle, Abu Talib. 

His uncle Abu Talib acts as the backbone not only to him but to the message of the religion of Islam, that that uncle Abu Talib preferred his nephew even above his sons, and his wife Fatima binte Asad was exactly the same. His wife Fatima binte Asad when the Prophet buried her, he said, “This is my mother. This is the lady who preferred me above her sons.  This is the lady who used to clothe me and wash me and look after me, and she is the one who nourished me.” 

You notice that these were the two who looked after him, and that is why the Prophet from a young age there is a certain question that is asked, what do we know about him before the age of 40? Because in a few moments, we will look at him from after the age of 40, but before the age of 40 if you were to ask many Muslims tell us about your Prophet before the age of 40, many are unaware of his biography.  You notice that before the age of 40, when Abu Talib was bringing up, the Prophets would latch onto him everywhere to the extent that Abu Talib himself narrates, “One day, I was about to leave for Syria on a commercial expedition, the young Mohammad was only 12, he latched on to me as I was leaving. When he latched onto me it hurt me that this my nephew is an orphan. Let me take him with me.” 

The narration states that he took him towards Syria. On the way towards Syria, they walked past a monastery.  The monk when he sees these people coming they say to him, “We are coming here to reside for the night.” The monk looks at them what does he say? The monk says to Abu Talib, “All of you can come and are welcome to eat what you want to eat, but Abu Talib I want to ask you a question.” He said, “What is it?” He said, “Do you know that young man who was walking alongside you, bring him tomorrow with you as well.” Abu Talib said, “Very well, I will bring him tomorrow.” The next day when Abu Talib came, he looked at him and he said to him, “Where is the young man? That young man who was walking alongside you?” He said, “My nephew?” He said, “Yes.” He said, “He is just over there.” He said, “Call him towards me.” 

At the age of 12, and this is one of our proofs within Islamic theology that from a young age he was already inspired with the knowledge of God and the knowledge of his mission. At the age of 40, it is not that he became a Prophet.  It is that he was now told to announce his Prophethood. Before that, he knew because when that monk comes and he seems him, he says to him, “In the name of al Lat and Uzza.”  As soon as the Prophet heard this, he said to him, “Do not bring those names in front of me.  Those are the most detested names to me.”  They were the idols of Quraysh. Then the monk said, “I want to give you some sadaqa.”  He said, “We do not accept sadaqa.”  Then he said to him, “Can I see the mark between your shoulders?” He allowed him to see the mark between the shoulders. He looked at Abu Talib. He said, “Abu Talib, if you did not know already,” because Abu Talib is already knowing.  “If you did not know already then know that this young man is what? Know that this young man is the Prophet who Jesus spoke about and who Moses spoke about, and beware of the enemies that he is going to face.” And he at that moment said to him Abu Talib said, “How did you know?” He said, “Forget these signs.  When you were walking and Mohammad was next to you, I saw every tree bow down after Mohammed left it.”

Therefore, what do you have? You have from a young age at the age of 12, but even after the age of 12 there is this innate love for justice and removal of oppression, in which way? One of the greatest incidents in his young age was at the age of 20, and years later he would always refer back to this.  At the age of 20, he refers to when he joined and formed a group called Hilful Fudul. 

Hilful Fudul what was it? In Arabia, many people would come for the markets. When they come for the markets, they come from outside the market area. When they come from outside the markets area, the narration states, “They come from outside the markets area, and they bring their goods, and the people of Arabia would buy.” One of these people came from Banu Zubaid or some say Banu Zabid he came to sell some of his goods to al Aaf bin Wail, the father of Amr.  When he sold his goods, he said to the father of Amr, he said, “Al Aas give me money.” He replied back to him by saying, “Which money?” He said, “You have just taken my goods.  I want my money back.”  He said, “There is no money for you, and you are stranger in our land.  You are not going to get your money back, and I am one of the aristocrats of Arabia, so you might as well forget about it.”  This person what did he do? He was so enraged, he went on one of the mountains in Arabia, and he said, “O people of Arabia! I have come as a stranger to your land, and I have been involved in a business transaction, and none of you have sought to help me when this man has taken my rights.  At least one of you speak up.” A 20-year-old called “Mohammad” speaks up for him.  He gets up and he says, “It is unjust for us to be like this with a person who is a guest in our location, and secondly in a business transaction how can we be unjust when the goods have been sold?  Let us form a league, which looks after the right of business employees, and let us form a league, which protects transactions within the Arabia State.” How old was he? Remember he wasn't old. He was 20.  There is still no announcement of his prophethood, but from that young age the first sign people noticed of him a man who speaks out against injustice. 

We in 2011, the first example we take of him how many of us speak out against injustice be the injustice against Muslims or non-Muslims? Our Prophet didn't look at that man and say, “Well that man is not a Muslim, so I am not going to speak up for his right.” Whenever we see any oppression anywhere in the world we must speak out against that oppression because our Prophet from his young age thought us this.  This is number one.  Number two, not only at the age of 20 did he achieve this, later on he achieved two attributes, which the Arabs would honor him for. They gave him the title as Sadiq and al Ameen, the truthful and the trustworthy.

Notice that the Arabs did not know he was the prophet nor did they receive any books from him, but they were concerned with his ethics as the human being.  You know when the Kaaba was affected by a flood, the Kaaba was damaged.  They needed to put back Hajr al Aswad, do you know the black stone in the Kaaba? They needed to put back Hajr al Aswad into the Kaaba. The Arabs had a fight with each other, and you know unfortunately some of these Arabs were fighting a bit too easily.  The Arabs had a fight with each other, and amongst the fight that they had was this one. “Who put Hajr al Aswad back in its position? One tribe said, “We should put it back.” Another says, “We should put it back.” A third says, “We should put it back.”  A fourth says, “We.” They said, “Okay, let us do this. The man who walks in next into this meeting, he will be the one who chooses which tribe would sit back.” As soon as he walked in, they didn't say, “Mohammad has walked in.” They said, “As Sadaq, al Ameen has walked in.”  The focus was not on the name.  The focus was on the morals of the man.

Today in Islam, there is too much focus on names and not morals.  When he began his mission, before he began you cannot just come out in front of people and say, “People I am a prophet follow me.”  No.  You need to have attributes where for 40 years no one can find a black dot on you. 

A human being has a funny way about themselves.  Do you know what we do as humans? If you give us a wide piece of paper and there is a black dot in the middle, and you ask us what's on that paper? We will say, “A black dot.” None of us will focus on the white. Well do we? We love to focus on the dots even if there is so much white about someone’s character, all we can remember is the black dot, whereas the Prophet did not allow them to point at one black dot. 

“Sadiq, Ameen!” When he therefore came to announce his prophethood, he came to them and used this. He said, “Did you not call me “as Sadiq?”  Did you not call me “al Ameen.”  When Hajr al Aswad was to be placed, was I not the one who said “O four tribes why do you fight each other? One of you hold one part of the cloth, another hold the second, a third hold the third, a fourth hold the fourth, carry Hajr al Aswad all four of you, and I will pick it up from you, and I will place it?”

When he announced his prophethood at the age of 40, the question arises what was the aim of his prophethood? The aim was nothing more but allowing mankind to meditate and reflect on their existence in order that after meditation and reflection mankind not only had respect for themselves, but they had respect for other creations of God as well.  That’s it.

We made our Prophet's religion complicated, whereas his mission from the beginning was a mission, which was simple.  Arabians were in Jahiliya.  If any society is stagnant, it means it is a society, which doesn't reflect, and when the human doesn’t reflect, then he is the cause of a virus in his society.  When the Prophet began his mission, did he begin by saying, “All of you pray Namaz right now?”  Did he say, “All of you come shahre Ramadan fast, fast?”  “All of you keep a beard,?”  All of you wear hijab?”  He began first by saying, “Mankind reflect on your existence, have an hour of reflection it is greater than 70 years of dry worship.”

Today’s Islam is too dogmatic.  It is too focused on halal, haram; halal, haram; halal, haram, wajib, makrooh, halal, haram.  You are looking at them and you said, “This is what Mohammad brought.”  No.  The Prophet began his mission, and the first part of the mission was what “A true human is one who is reflecting on their role in this world.  The moment they reflect everything else will fall into place.”  Todays Muslims, we focus on the jigsaw pieces we forgotten the puzzle. 

Notice Miqdad what does he say, “He says those early days in Islam what were we doing?” He says, “In those early days in Islam, I heard the Prophet through for example one hadith say, I heard the Prophet saying, “An hour of reflection is greater than a year of worship,” and then I had ibn Abbas say, “The Prophet said, “An hour of reflection is greater than seven years of worship.” Then I heard another companion say, “An hour of reflection is greater than 70 years of worship.” So I said, “I am going to go to the Prophet and ask him, “How in one hadith are you telling the people an hour of reflection is greater than a year? In a second you are saying, “An hour of reflection is greater than 70 years of worship.” In a third you are saying, “An hour of reflection is greater than 70 years of worship?”” 

When he told the Prophet, the Prophet said, “Miqdad come with me. Let us ask the first person.” They asked the first person, “How do you reflect?” He said, “I look at the creations of the heavens and the earth, and I think to myself these cannot have come by an accident.”  The Prophet said, “His one hour of reflection is greater than a year of worship.”  Then they went to the second. They said to him, “How do you reflect?” He replied by saying what, “I think about the day of judgment and the questions I'm going to be asked about what I did in public but what I did in private as well.”  Rasool said, “His one hour is greater than seven years of worship.”  Then he went to the third, “How would you reflect?” The third said, “I am going to be very frank with you.  I think about hellfire, and I get scared.” His one hour of reflection is greater than 70 years of worship because the moment you think about that it will make you change your ways quite quickly. 

The origin of the religion was what? The Prophet began first by saying, “One hour of reflection in this religion is greater than 70 years of dry worship.” You can fast and pray and fast and pray and fast and pray, but if you fast for 30 days in the year but the other 335 you are not reflecting on your life, on your role, on your meaning, on your objectives, then you haven’t understood the true message of the religion of Islam, then after that the moment you reflect on your creation that you were one day insignificant, you weren’t worth mentioning, you came from something where if you look at it you are disgusted, then you will look around those around you and you will say, “If I am so low, then why am I so arrogant to those who are around me?” 

That’s why when he began his mission, first at the age of 40, he asked people to reflect on their existence.  Then he said, “Now that you have reflected, the first area I want you to remove is the area of racism in your society.” Why? Because he knew when the human reflects, they will never be a racist human being because “What am I?” Yes, “Because I'm a certain color, I am better than another human? No. We were both sons of Adam created from dust.” 

You found that the first part of his biography was he spoke out against racism of any type, as then how did Bilal come to Islam?  Bilal came to Islam when one day he saw Amar bin Yasir was captured. When Amar bin Yasir was captured, the early aristocrats of Quraysh looked at Amar, and they said to Amar, “O Amar, are you the one who is trying to come forward, and you are trying to say that Mohammad's religion is the one we should follow?”  Amar said, “Yes.”  He said explain to me Mohammad's religion.  He replied by saying, “The Prophet talks of one God, and that God is one who is merciful to His creation.  He has given them free well, and that, that God has the Day of Judgment where He will judge us, but He will not judge us on our race.  He will judge us on our consciousness of his presence.” 

Bilal was standing there. He was a slave.  At that moment, one of the people said, “Bilal torture Amar.” Bilal said, “No.”  He said, “What? Bilal, you black slave torture Amar.” He said, “No.” “How dare you Bilal we bought you up torture.”  He said, “I have never heard of a message where there is a religion where a man with my skin complexion is protected, where a man of my skin complexion is honored.”  Notice here that Bilal when he came towards Islam, it's because number one there was the avenue of reflection by the Prophet.  He allowed the religion to be intellectually spread, not emotionally.  Intellectually, there was a spread.  When Bilal heard this, Bilal would later on the Prophet would destroy any area of racism how? He would come forward and say, when he reached Madina later on, the Prophet would come forward and say that “I want someone to call for prayer.” The people came forward, and they said, “Who is it that you are going to call?” He said, “Bilal go up and recite the adhan.”  In one step, he destroyed racism right from the beginning.

Therefore, number one, racism Rasullallah taught, that, that is to be destroyed from the beginning of his message.  Number two, “Not only do you respect people of different races, learn to respect people of different religions.” Because in the early years of his prophethood, his companions were being tortured, so the Prophet came to Jafar ibn Abu Talib, Jafar the son of Abu Talib, he said to him, “Jafar go to Abyssinia. Leave with the companions.” Jafar said to him, “Where shall we go and why?” He said, “Jafar go to Abyssinia because you will meet a Christian priest.”  Notice the message. On the first level, he wants to remove racism. You respect other humans. Then number two, “Respect people of other religions. If their principles are the same as ours, then they are closer to us than people of our religion who are hypocrites with our principles.”

Jafar goes to Abyssinia, and he meets the Christian priest.  Amr ibn Aas is alongside Jafar. When Jafar comes, the Abyssinian priest says to Amr ibn Aas, “Who are these people?” Jafar replies by saying what? He replies by saying, “We are people who believe in all the prophets and the final Prophet of God who spoke about Jesus, son of Mary.” When that priest heard this, he said, “What does your book say about Jesus, son of Mary?” He said, “Our books says that, “Jesus, son of Mary was born from a virgin birth, and a chapter is named after his mother, Maryam.”  This Abyssinian priest, the Prophet could have easily said, “But he is a Christian, and they believe in crucifixion, and we don't believe in crucifixion.”  No. “He is a fellow believer in God, and there is more in common between us than there are differences.” 

Notice the attitude at the beginning of the religion.  It wasn't an attitude like some Muslims today where they don't look at another human being as the fellow member of humanity rather they look at them as disbelievers. The early message was what?  Number one, no racism. Number two, respect people of other religions because those people have principles, which we preach and understand, and that is why Jafar because of this was allowed to stay in Abyssinia and build the early Muslim community in Africa that was number two.  Number three, in the early years in Mecca, he noticed “Not only respect other humans, not only respect other religion, respect the other gender as human beings.” Because these girls were being buried alive, the Prophet was noticing that these people had no morals. They were taking the girls and burying them alive.

Even someone like, Umar ibn Qatab himself narrates.  Umar ibn Qatab narrates, “That in the days of Jahiliya, before Islam came, we used to burry our daughters alive.”  He says, “There are two things, one of them makes me cry and one of them makes me laugh.” He said, “The one that makes me laugh is that we used to worship a God made out of dates.” They made an idol made out of dates you know what dates, which you eat, and he says, “We used to worship it, but when nobody is looking we would take a date and we eat it.  By the end of worship, that God was dead.” Then he says that used to make me laugh.  Then he says, “There was an area, which made me cry. When I used to burry my daughter alive.”  He says, “My daughter held on to my beard, as I was burying her, but I got the spade, and I hit her and I buried her alive.”

Rasullallah the Prophet would notice, “If I have come to this society, I first told them to reflect. They begun to reflect first let them respect fellow nations and not be racists, second let them be tolerant of other religions, thirdly let them respect the role of the women in society because if I give the rights to the women, then we will have great nations.” Notice what he does, first the woman is not to be buried alive, second the woman is to inherit and not be inherited. 

In the past, women would be inherited.  The Prophet come and says, “No she has the right of inheritance.” Number three, “A dowry is to belong to the woman.”  In the days of the Arabian Jahiliya, the dowry goes to the father of the girl, not the girl. When he came, he said “The dowry goes to the girl herself.”  Number four, “Heaven lies underneath the feat of a woman.”  Heaven lies underneath the feat of the mother. 

One day a Jewish young man becomes Muslim, he comes to the Prophet, he says “O Prophet of God, my mother is Jewish, but I am a Muslim, how do I treat her now that I have become a Muslim?” The Prophet said, “You treat her better than you used to treat her before.”

He went home. He started doing all the chores, his mother looked at him. She said, “Ever since you became a Muslim you behave like this why?” He said, “My Prophet tells me, “Heaven lies under your feet.”” She said, “If this is what the Prophet preaches, then I want to join the religion of this Prophet.” That was then number four.

Then number five is part of his moral system even though his enemies would respect him in the idea that many of them would keep their trusts with him. On the night that he left Mecca, 13 years he was in Mecca, 10 years he was in Madina.  On the night that he left Mecca, he left Ali ibn Abi Talib behind to sleep in his bed. Was that the only role of Ali ibn Abi Talib?  No.  Ali ibn Talib had a second role.  “O Ali after you have left my bed, the next day, return the trust of my enemies that they entrusted with me.”

Imagine the enemies of Quraysh would say to the Prophet Mohammad, “We don't believe in you.  We hate you.  We think you are crazy, do you mind looking after our gold necklace for us?  “Because it was an ethical trait where even though the person is my enemy, I as a Prophet of God have not come to make enemies. If I can show that I am trustworthy, let my enemies deposit with me.”

Therefore after Mecca 13 years he moved on to Madina, and the fifth important area when he left after 13 years at the age of 53 when went to Madina, when they fought him in his battles many people would come and say, “Mohammad spread his religion by the sword.” Whereas the reality is those battles that occurred were defensive battles, and they were not offensive.  If they were offensive, then you could say that he spread the religion by the sword.  Whereas on the contrary, they were what? They were defensive battles.  Were they defensive battles to protect Muslims only? No.  The Quran came forward in chapter 22 verse 39-40 saying what, “Were it not for us telling our prophet to come out and protect himself, there would not be a single church, synagogue or Mosque in existence in Arabia.”

I ask you if this Prophet came to spread his religion by the sword, why is the Quran talking about churches and synagogues? chapter 22 verse 39 to 40.  “Where it not for our Prophet defending himself, there wouldn’t be a single church, synagogue or mosque.” The reason is Islam was trying to say, “When we are defending ourselves in Madina, we are looking to defend every single area of worship, which says there is only one God.”

It's not just for us.  The Quran would come with a statement, “Say O people of the Book” “Qul ya ahlul kitab taalo.”  “O people of the Book, O Jews, O Christians, come we don't want to fight you.”  Mohammad’s original message was we don't want to fight the people of the book.  “O people of the book come to a joint work between us and you.” Chapter 3 verse 64 that “We will only worship one God. We will not put partners to God, and we will not take lords besides God.” 

After those early battles, you even notice a focus in his message on education that after the battle of Badr when he takes those prisoners some of his companions say to him quite recklessly, “Let’s kill them.” He says, “No.”  “Let’s treat them with the best of treatment and let’s say to them something.  They say, “What is it?” He says “We will ransom them if they teach 10 of our people how to read and write.” 

From the beginning, it was a message in Madina on a focus on education.  “Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.”  Today’s Muslims seek knowledge from the cradle until marriage after that become lazy.  Seek knowledge from the cradle to the graves.  “Read until the final moments of your life” “The value of a believer is what? Is their knowledge, is their wisdom.”  You notice what does he do?  He doesn't want the prisoners tortured.  No. If you can teach reading and writing, then these are the basis of a great society.

Then after that, in establishing himself as the head of the state in Madina, does he say the Jews should be kicked out or the Christians should be kicked out?  No.  He forms a constitution called the constitution of Madina.  The Jews will worship in their synagogues.  The Christians will worship in their churches, and the Muslims will worship in their mosques. There is nothing wrong with having a society of multi-religious dimensions, and even after that in Madina when he is ordered by his Lord to go to Mecca, he hasn’t returned to Mecca since he was expelled.  When he returns to Mecca, his companion say let’s go back and fight those Meccans, he says “No. We will conduct a peace treaty with them.”

His companion say to him, “What do you mean peace treaty. Surely it is our chance to destroy these peoples lives, to finish them like they tortured us, like they finished us, they killed us.” The prophet said, “No.  Let’s have a peace treaty with them and allow them to be opened up to the mercy of the religion of Islam.” And that is why do you know when the Prophet opened Mecca, he taught us an ethical lesson like the ethics of removing racism, like the ethics of respecting other religions, like the ethics of respecting the other gender, he taught us the ethical lesson by the name of forgiveness. 

Many Muslims find it hard to forgive today.  “A person who wrongs me or a person I see committing wrong, I find it hard to forgive them.” You tell them but the years have gone.  Maybe the person changed.  Maybe the person repented.  No.  “I saw the person do this or the person said this, and I will never forgive them,” whereas their Prophet was the most forgiving of men. 

When Mecca was opened, there were two men who came towards him who he forgave who me and you would never forgive. The first of them was Wahshi, the man who mutilated the body of his uncle, Hamzah.  Imagine your uncle who brought you up alongside Abu Talib, you saw his body mutilated by this man to the extent do you know what Hind, the mother of Muawiya did? She cut so many pieces of Hamzah’s body she made a necklace for herself, and this Wahshi ripped Hamzah’s chest apart.  When Mecca was opened, Wahshi, Abu Sufyan, Hind, people like Habbar Ibn Aswad, they thought to themselves, “We are never going to get forgiven by Mohammad.  Mohammad is going to enter Mecca, and he is going to execute us for what we did.” Wahshi and Habbar said, “But we hear Mohammad is a man of mercy, and that his religion is merciful and forgiving.  He came to perfect the akhlaq of man, “Innama bu'itstu liutammima makaarimal akhlaaq.”  “I have come to perfect the morals of mankind.” So they said, “Let us go and approach him.”  Wahshi went to him.  When Wahshi came, he said, “O Prophet of God forgive me. I was in the days of the ignorance. I didn’t know about the message of Islam. I heard rumors but it weren’t true.  O Prophet of God forgive me for what has happened.”  And the reply was, “O Wahshi you are forgiven, now leave this area.”

Then Habbar ibn Aswad came.  Do you know what Habbar ibn Aswad did? The Prophet one of his daughters on some narrations stepdaughter, Zainab, she was pregnant.  She was meant to go towards Madina.  Al Habbar wanted her to miscarry; so on her way towards Madina, he came and scared her in a way where she ended up miscarrying her child.  When the Prophet heard this, he was saddened. When he opened Mecca, al Habbar came and he said, “O prophet of God, I am the cause of the miscarriage of your grandchild.  I scared your daughter in a way where I caused her to miscarry her child, but I was ignorant. They deceived me about your behavior and your character. When I see you now, I see a man of morals.  Please allow me to be forgiven.”  The Prophet if it was me and you someone hurt us in this way would we forgive them?

Ask yourself as Muslims today, how forgiving are we of our brothers, our sisters, our aunties, our uncles, our grandparents, our cousins?  Whereas our Prophet came and taught “Even this man who caused my daughter to miscarry.”  He told them “You are forgiven by Allah Subhanahu wa Talah.  Do not worry over what you have done.” And that is why his focus would also be that the basis of a great community is all of these ethics of tolerance and patience and forgiveness, especially patience.  You think as Muslims today we have to be patient? We take it from him. Some of us have to be patient in our marriages.  Some of us have to be patient with our children. You find he had to be patient with his marriage and with his children.

With his marriages, would you believe he had married a lady by the name of Shamba?  This Shamba the narration states, “She was called Shamba, the daughter of Amril Ghafaria.  This Shamba when she saw his son, Ibrahim die,” we know he had Qasim, Abdallah, Tahir and Ibrahim.  You know when she saw his son, Ibrahim die, she was his wife.  She saw his son die.  She looked at him. She said, “If you are really a Prophet of God, God would not have caused your son to die. I am leaving you,” and she left. 

Do you know how much patience you have to have when you are married to someone and they talk like that to you, for you to tolerate, but he was patient.  He had another wife by the name of Malika.  This Malika heard some people say, “Your dad the cause of his death was Mohammad.” She said, “Take all your possessions.” She left. 

Sometimes in our lives we say look what we face, your Prophet had to face more.  Your own Prophet had to face more, but he used to say, “Patience is to faith, like the head is to the body. There can be no body without a head and there can be no faith without patience.” 

Even he had to see a loss of his children. His Ibrahim died. His son Qasim died.  His son Abdulla died.  Some of us today say how come our children died? How come my friend’s children died? When we say Rasullallah is one example because everything that we face, the Prophet faced in his life as well, and that is why before he died he did what any great leader will do.  He made it clear to his people that “Even though I am dying, I will first ensure that I leave behind guidance for you.”

He left behind guidance from the day of Ghadir when he raised the hand of Ali, and he made it clear to the people that “I will never leave this world without ensuring that there is a guide for you who continues to protect the message in the way I gave you the message.”

But his final act was a true act of charity.  His final act was in Islam as causing a smile for a fellow human is an act of charity.  When his daughter, Fatima came towards him when he was dying, there is a narration, which states that “First she cried then she smiled.”  In this one act, the Prophet was showing up that from the beginning of my life until the end ethics and morality was the message of my biography. 

When Fatima turned around, they said to Fatima, “You cried then you laughed.”  She said, “I cried because he told me he is about to pass away.”  But when I smiled because he told me I will be the first of his family to join him.” 

Notice from the beginning until the end, the man was a man who brought a smile on to the life of humanity and left with a smile, and that is why until today is a conclusion it is not only Islam that respects him but others.

Guru Nanak believed “Mohammed was an agent of Brahmin.”  You find for example that somebody like the Christians the latter day saints say, “Although we do not believe in him as the Prophet, we say he was a moral exampler to mankind.” And no better words than the words of Gandhi when he said, “It is impossible that millions are attracted to this man because of his sword.  No it is not his sword.  It is what his pledges, which he kept, and his simplicity in his life and his devotion to his family and friends that made this man the man that he was.”  Gandhi then said, “I was saddened when the second volume of his biography I finished reading because I wish I had learnt more about this man, a man who there is none like a man like Mohammad,” sallalahu alaihi walaihi wasallam.” 

(allahumma salli ala Mohammad wa aali Mohammad).

Let us raise our hands and prayer to Allah Subhanahu wa Talah to raise us with Mohammad and aale Mohammad, to allow us to implement the lessons from his biography, and to allow us to receive his intercession in this world and the hereafter.

Qur'anic verses and hadiths of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) and sayings in Arabic, Persian and English.

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