Dr. Hafiz Ather Hussain al-Azhari
Introduction
Allah has sent us countless favours and blessings, for which we can never truly thank our Lord for. However, Allah does expect us to remember His greatest favour, which is the sending of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ . In the Holy Qur’an, Allah states:
لقد من الله علي المؤمنين اذ بعث فيهم رسولا من انفسهم يتلو عليهم آيته و يزكيهم و يعلمهم الكتاب و الحكمة و ان كانوا من قبل لفي ضلال مبين
Indeed Allah conferred a great favour on the believers when He sent amongst them a Messenger from themselves, reciting unto them His verses, and purifying them and teaching them the Book [of Allah] and the wisdom [of the Sunnah]; though before that they were in manifest error (3: 164).
The last part of the verse needs our attention, for Allah reminds us that without him ﷺ, we were utterly misguided and lost. It was Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who introduced us to Allah and thus provided us with salvation.
On this basis, it is no exaggeration to state that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ made the most impact on humanity. The purpose of this paper is to prove this.
The methodology
How do you judge a good teacher? If you want to judge a good teacher and evaluate his worth, there is little point asking him to manage a brilliant class of intelligent students. This is because when they pass with flying colours, people will still wonder whether the results are due to the good teacher, or the outstanding students. If you really want to judge him, you have to put the teacher in a class of under achievers and then evaluate what difference the teacher made. Only then can one see whether the teacher alone made an impact.
We can use the same idea and apply it to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. In other words, we can compare and contrast what life was like before he came and after. Only then will you realise he was the most important person ever to have existed, and certainly the most impactful.
1. The Arabs as a society
To show the influence of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Allah sent him to the worse possible society of the time. He did not send him to the Romans, Persians or Chinese (who were all quite developed at the time). If there was a worse community than the Arabs, certainly Allah would have sent him there. But there wasn’t. The Arabs had the worse beliefs and practices, such as:
-They would bury their daughters alive. Little did they ever think that ‘I myself was born from a female.’
-They drank alcohol in abundance. As a result, they would fight, argue and squander.
-There was no fairness when it came to inheritance. It was totally random. Dogs and horses had more respect than women and children.
-In terms of aqidah, they believed in idol-worship, soothsayers, fortune tellers and much more. In Iran, people worshipped the sun, moon and wind.
So great was our Prophet ﷺ that he alone put an end to all of this in a mere twenty-three years. Moreover, it was a lasting impact that changed the very outlook of humanity.
2. Ignorant people
To show the influence and impact of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Allah sent him to the most ignorant society, a community who were unlettered. This is one of the reasons why the Prophet ﷺ is called al-Ummi. It means he was sent to the unlettered people, not that he was unlettered himself. Ignorance is a defect and all prophets and messengers are free from defects.
What difference did he ﷺ make? Prior to his appearance, the Arabs could not write. After his educational revolution, he produced men who taught the entire world in mathematics, engineering, astrology, philosophy, sociology and much more. He ﷺ turned the Arabs into the most educated people. His blessings produced a Ghazali, an Ibn Sina, an Ibn Khaldun, an Allama Iqbal a Suyuti, a Sha’rawi and a Ghawth. People who were otherwise ignorant now were translating the works of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle into Arabic from Greek. Without him ﷺ, we were nothing. He alone made all this impact on civilisation.
3. Prejudice and racism
In order to show his influence, Allah sent the Prophet to the most racist and prejudice community in the world. Look at what our Messenger ﷺ did alone to make people think twice about racism. People salute and admire Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln for standing up against discrimination based on colour. There is a difference though. All these figures lived in a time where blacks were treated like animals. Sayyiduna Muhammad ﷺ lived at a time when blacks were actually considered as animals. They were not even viewed as humans. Yet, alone and in the short space of time, Islam gave respect, dignity and honour to all humans, regardless of colour, language and gender. Sayyiduna Muhammad ﷺ made a lasting, logic-defying, high-impact change on humanity, all in the short space of twenty-three years. At a time when women had no rights, he provided them with dignity and justice.
4. Al-Madina In fact, Prophet Muhammad
migrated to al-Madina on this very basis. Yathrib, as it was known before his appearance there, was quite literally the place of illness. People would become ill merely by breathing the air there.
Allah sent our Master ﷺ to al-Madina for a reason; to show what difference he would make. Before he came it was Yathrib; as soon as he stepped foot in the city it became Tayba (pure). It became the cleanest, purest and most beautiful place on earth, purely and only because of Sayyiduna Muhammad ﷺ. Now it is a place to live, a place fit enough to die too. The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Whosoever can die in al-Madina should do so. For I will perform shafa’ah (intercession) for the one who dies there.’
Conclusion
To conclude, Allah wanted the entire world to know and appreciate the worth of Sayyiduna Muhammad ﷺ. That is why he sent him to the worse possible society on earth; so that people could really appreciate the before and after effect of his appearance. He ﷺ and he alone made that difference.
In our own lives, perhaps we should find time to appreciate how much impact he ﷺ has made upon us. When we apply his ‘beautiful example’ to our lives, then we become happier, healthier and more productive. When we spend our time sending salawat upon him, then the impact on us is very visible. We are purified from our sins, our supplications are answered and our anxieties disappear. May Allah provide us with the guidance to follow his ﷺ perfect example, Ameen.
