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 | Subject: Preparing the Universe for the Message of Muhammad (pbuh)  Sun Dec 04, 2011 7:26 am | |
| A Three Dimentional Tour in the Basilica of Bahirahttp://www.3dmekanlar.com/en/the-basillica-of-bahira.html Preparing the Universe for the Message of Muhammad (pbuh)
“O Prophet (Muhammad) Verily, We have sent you as witness, and a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner, And as one who invites to Allah [Islamic Monotheism, i.e. to worship none but Allah (Alone)] by His Leave, and as a lamp spreading light.” (Al¬-Ahzâb, 33: 45-46).
“Our Lord! Send amongst them a Messenger of their own, who shall recite unto them Your Ayat and instruct them in the Book (this Qur'an) and Al-Hikmah (full knowledge of the Islamic laws and jurisprudence or wisdom or Prophethood, etc.), and sanctify them. Verily! You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” (Al-Baqarah, 2: 129)
If we want to write about the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), we will certainly need many tomes because the biography of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and the aspects of grandeur in it are endless. But we will try in this book to offer glimpses or thoughts about his scented memoir followed by rays of light as Allah may bestow on us to say, while summoning the greatness of the man most nobly mannered.
Before we start talking about the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) we shall discuss how the universe was prepared to receive the Message of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, prepared the entire universe to receive the Message of the Last of the Prophets (peace be upon them all) and His Law, which His Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) would convey to mankind, as established by the glorious Ayah saying (what means):
“O Messenger (Muhammad)! Proclaim (the Message) which has been sent down to you from your Lord. And if you do not, then you have not conveyed His Message. Allah will protect you from mankind.” (Al-Mâ’idah, 5:67)
Since the beginning of creation and his name is Muhammad [literally, the worthy of praise and the highly praised, may Allah bless him and grant him peace] and then followed the preparation for his Message. Since Adam (peace be upon him) Islam has been the established Law; the doctrine that Adam came down to the earth with and he directly received from the Truth [Al-Haqq: one of the Beautiful Names of Allah], all praise and glory be to Him. Islam is the doctrine of totally submitting oneself and resigning one’s affairs to Allah, Alone. It is the heavenly doctrine since time began till the Last Hour befalls. Enjoining that which blesses humanity and forbidding that which harms it has been the Law around which revolved all the Divine Messages as states the glorious Ayah saying (what means):
“And We said: O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the Garden and eat you freely (of the fruits) thereof where you will; but come not nigh this tree lest you became wrongdoers.” (Al-Baqarah, 2: 35)
All the Prophets who came with celestial Messages followed the course of ‘Do and Do Not Do,’ and gave the glad tidings of the approaching Message of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) that gathers all the heavenly revealed values.
When we recite the Noble Qur’an we find that Almighty Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, says (what means):
“And (remember) when Allah took the Covenant of the Prophets, saying: ‘Take whatever I gave you from the Book and Hikmah(understanding of the Laws of Allah, etc.), and afterwards there will come to you a Messenger (Muhammad) confirming what is with you; you must, then, believe in him and help him.’ Allah said: ‘Do you agree (to it) and will you take up My Covenant (which I conclude with you)?’ They said: ‘We agree.’ He said: ‘Then bear witness; and I am with you among the witnesses (for this).’” (Âl-‘Imrân, 3: 81)
Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, informs us through these glorious ayat that He took the Covenant of all the Prophets that they should announce the glad tidings of the arrival of His Messenger, Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and that they should confirm his Message. And if Allah took that Covenant at one time from all the Prophets prior to birth on earth [i.e., when Allah extracted from Adam (peace be upon him) all of his descendants who would be born, generation after generation, until the end of the world and made them bear witness that He is their Lord], it is also confirmed that Allah took a Covenant from every Prophet that he should inform his followers and believers in his prophecy about the Message of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).
Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, brought forth from the loins of the Children of Adam (peace be upon him) their offspring, one of the other, that will continue to come till the Day of Resurrection, and made them testify that He is their Creator and the only true God worthy of worship, as says Allah in the glorious Ayah (what means):
“And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed (or from Adam’s loin his offspring) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said: ‘Yes! We testify.’ lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Verily, we have been unaware of this.’” (Al-A‘râf, 7: 172)
A hadith narrated on the authority of Ibn Sa‘d said that a man asked the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) saying, “O Messenger of Allah! When were you a Prophet?” The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) replied, “While Adam was between the soul and body, when the Covenant was taken from me.”
Thus, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) testified to the Oneness of the Lordship of the Supreme Creator together with all the creatures, while Adam was between the soul and body [meaning: when Adam was in the state in which the soul was about to enter the body]. In the time between Adam (peace be upon him) and Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) came the procession of the Prophets, guiding to the path of Truth, so that none would come on the Day of Resurrection arguing that there was not a reminder of the Law of Allah or givers of glad tidings and warners of what man would meet in the Hereafter.
Adam (peace be upon him) conveyed the Doctrine of Allah to the earth by the Command of Allah, all praise and glory be to Him. It was the duty of Adam to teach his Children the Divine Doctrine, and in turn his Children would teach it to their posterity and so forth. But negligence came upon the Children of Adam, who strayed from the Law, forgot it or distorted it. They prostrated themselves to others than Allah, so Allah had to send with a procession of Messengers so that man awakes from his inattention and remembers that Allah is the only worshipped God and is the Sole Creator.
Therefore, all the celestial Massages came in one procession heralding Islam. All had Islam as their doctrine: that mankind should worship the one and only True God, Who has no partner, and that they should adopt His Law as the course of their life to save them from torment. In Surat Al-A‘râf, Almighty Allah says (what means):
“Indeed, We sent Nûh (Noah) to his people and he said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other God but Him. Certainly, I fear for you the torment of a Great Day!’” (Al-A‘râf, 7: 59)
“And to ‘Ad (people, We sent) their brother Hûd. He said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other God but Him. Will you not fear (Allah)?’” (Al-A‘râf, 7: 65)
“And to Thamud (people, We sent) their brother Salih (Saleh). He said: ‘O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other God but Him.’” (Al-A‘râf, 7: 73)
Thus, all the processions of Messengers came agreeing upon the summit of Faith, that there is no God but Allah, Alone, Who has no partner, the one and only True God, and none should be worshipped but Him, then they conveyed the Divine Law.
Ibrahim’s Glad Tidings of Muhammad (pbuh)
When Ibrahim (Abraham, peace be upon him) stood raising the foundations of the Sanctified House (the Ka‘bah at Mecca) he lifted his hands towards Heaven praying:
“Our Lord! Send amongst them a Messenger of their own, who shall recite unto them Your Ayat and instruct them in the Book (this Qur’an) and Al-Hikmah (full knowledge of the Islamic laws and jurisprudence or wisdom or Prophethood, etc.), and sanctify them. Verily! You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” (Al-Baqarah, 2: 129)
Answering the supplication of Ibrahim was the announcement made to mankind about the Last of the Prophets, and the glad tidings of his arrival are given in every Book that preceded the Noble Qur’an. His descriptions were accurately stated in the Torah and the Gospel, in a way that permitted the Jewish rabbis and Christian monks to easily know the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) without a guide.
With regard to that, The Truth, Blessed and Exalted be He, says (what means):
“Those to whom We gave the Scripture (Jews and Christians) recognize him (Muhammad) as they recongize their own sons. But verily, a party of them conceal the truth while they know it - [i.e. the qualities of Muhammad, which are written in the Torah and the Gospel].” (Al-Baqarah, 2: 146)
Preparing the Universe for the Message of Islam
We can see that the entire universe was spiritually being prepared to receive the Message of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). But some may ask, “What good will it do to herald the arrival of the Message of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) to people who will die before his birth?”
We say that Allah willed that none of the believers, who did not live during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), should die without being given the glad tidings of his arrival and being trustful of his coming. That spiritual preparation of the universe to welcome the Message of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) also mirrors the honorable status of the Last of the Prophets in the Sight of The Lord, be ever gloried His Majesty and Might.
That spiritual preparation was part and parcel of preparing the entire universe for receiving the Message of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The last act in preparation came on the birth year of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, willed by it to inform the entire earth that the last of all Prophets would be born and He Himself would guard his Message. That this Prophet would knock down the pillars of injustice in the entire universe, and if his doctrine is justly followed, it would leave no trace of oppression and bring about absolute justice.
There was a sign in the year of his birth and another on the day of his birth. As for the sign that happened in the year of his birth, it was the Elephant Incident. Abrahah – one of the Abyssinian leaders – wanted to destroy the Ka‘bah, the Sacred House of Allah in Mecca. It is narrated that Abrahah was a powerful tyrant who invaded Yemen. When he heard that people made pilgrimages to the Sacred House of Allah, he wanted to build a house in Yemen that people would visit instead of Mecca.
It happened that an Arabian came and threw garbage in that house, which wildly enraged Abrahah. He decided to retaliate by destroying the Ka‘bah and Satan adorned that heinous deed in his eyes. For that is the diabolic stratagem in adoring falsehood, which the Noble Qur’an illustrates to us through the glorious Ayah saying (what means):
“Remember Satan made their (sinful) acts seem alluring to them, and said: no one among men can overcome you this day, while I am near to you: but when the two forces came in sight of each other, he turned on his heels, and said: Lo I am clear of you; lo I see what you see not; Lo I fear Allah; for Allah is severe in punishment.’ (Al-Anfâl, 8: 48)
Satan and Abrahah
The Noble Qur’an shows us through this glorious Ayah how the devil adorns evil to mankind, a solemn warning to us against him. The devil whispered to Abrahah saying, “You are strong and brave, and those are merely nomad Arabs, with neither might nor power. Go and destroy the Sacred House, you will find no one to defend it.” So, Abrahah prepared a powerful army built of elephants and mighty men, and he marched on to destroy the Sacred House of Allah, filled with pride at his strength.
When they arrived at Mecca and its people saw that mighty army and its force of elephants they fled to the mountains, deserting the House, undefended. There was a Divine wisdom behind this desertion, because if the people of Mecca surrounded the House to defend it and defeated Abrahah, it would have been said that a heroic minority defeated Abrahah’s army. Furthermore, if only one defender remained in front of the House, legends would have been fabricated about him.
But Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, wanted that all people leave His House unprotected. Thus, Abrahah stood with his huge army and no human rose to defend the Sacred House.
There the miracle happened and the sky was covered with birds, and suddenly the birds started to cast small stones that annihilated Abrahah’s army and crushed it. Thus, the mighty army perished in no time. The Truth, all praise and glory be to Him, relates this event saying (what means):
“Have you (O Muhammad) not seen how your Lord dealt with the Owners of the Elephant? [The elephant army which came from Yemen under the command of Abrahah Al-Ashram intending to destroy the Ka‘bah at Mecca]. Did He not make their plot go astray? And sent against them birds, in flocks, striking them with stones of Sijjîl (baked clay). And made them like an empty field of stalks and straw, (of which the corn) has been eaten up.” (Al-Fîl, 105: 1-5)
Some scientists tried to account for the destruction of the elephant and Abrahah’s army by hypothesizing that the birds might have been carriers of infectious diseases that caused the destruction of the marauding army, which is absolutely false! Because the mission of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) started when he was forty and the Elephant incident happened in the year of his birth. If Surah Al-Fîl [The Elephant: 105] was revealed without the real occurrence of this incident, the people of Mecca who were fifty, sixty, seventy years old or more, amongst whom were disbelievers who heatedly desired to impugn Islam, those would have said, “We have lived the year of the Elephant Event, but we neither saw flocking birds nor stones of perdition.”
But the birds did come and threw stones of clay, baked with Hellfire, and none could deny what the glorious ayat narrate. We have to believe that Allah is mightily able to do anything, so we should neither introduce interpretations that belittle the Might or Power of Allah, Whose Majesty reigns supreme, nor subject the Divine Miracles to the worldly principles of cause and effect, nor to what is within our limited reasoning power for they are enormously higher above it.
The Straight Course
But what is the meaning of that incident? It clearly signifies that Almighty Allah wants us to carefully bear in mind that His Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) who would be born in that year would bring a doctrine mightily guarded by Heaven, even if all mankind deserted him. No human would be able to remove, change, replace or conceal anything from the Noble Qur’an, the doctrine of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Because it is a doctrine mightily guarded by the Power of Allah, The Most Exalted and Ever-Majestic, and what Allah guards can never be within reach of humans.
The fact that it is Allah Who will guard His Noble Book against the abuse of mankind till the Day of Resurrection is declared by the glorious Ayah saying (what means):
“Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’an) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).” (Al-Hijr, 15: 9)
The Birth of the Light
Now we move to the birthday of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). On that day the strongholds of injustice were shaken all over world, and all of a sudden the sacred fire that the Magi worshipped died down; Lake Sawa, which the Persians sanctified, sank down; and Kisra’s palace, the fortress of oppression and disbelief, cracked and its balconies fell down.
These events happened by the Power of Allah, Alone, for us to learn that the truth whose Prophet was born on that day would destroy the strongholds of injustice in the whole world. And the Law that this Noble Messenger would be sent with, if followed truthfully and out of sincere faith, would leave no trace of injustice on the earth. They served as universal signs to the monotheistic religion, and the sublime message it bears to this universe.
And marvels truly happened for at the time of the revelation of the Noble Qur’an the Arabs were a disunited nation, warring tribes with neither might nor power, killing one another and feuds were unabating between them. They lived in a barren desert, coveted by none. Then, Islam came to make the Arabs master the whole world and defeat the greatest two powers at that time: the Persians and the Romans.
But how was all this realized? Did the Noble Qur’an give the Arab an atomic bomb, or a new secret weapon? Or a scientific discovery that none has ever known before?
Nothing of that, but the Noble Qur’an brought a Law from Allah, be ever gloried His Majesty and Might, if man follows it, he will surely govern the whole world and be the master of this universe. The Arabs followed the Law of Allah; therefore, in a few years they became the masters of the earth, owners of civilization and power. Their word obeyed and their force feared, pioneers of progress and civilization in all domains.
That is the Law of Allah, whoever truthfully follows it will be superior, and whoever abandons it will miserably fail.
[Excerpted from: The Messenger of Allah by Sheikh Metwalli Al Sha'rawi] | |
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