Reflect on the Prophet’s response
SINCE childhood, Muhammad bin Abdullah (pbuh) was praised for his wisdom, kindness and honesty by the people of Makkah, who also called himal-Amin(the truthful). Butat age 40, he was suddenly accused of being insane and a liar by the same people.
This happened only because he preached: “There is no god except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah ”, and called on the people to abandonidolatry, stopthekilling of girls, stop committing adultery, stop drinking alcohol, pay obligatory charity to the poor, share their inheritance equally among sons and daughters, give women the security of marriage and treat their slaves humanely.
Onemayarguethat many“followers” of Islam are involved in wrongdoings. There are others who neither accept divinity nor believe in Islam, yet they lead a humane life such as giving to charity.
That apparently creates the impression that following the Messenger and Allah to ensure humanity has become irrelevant in modern life.
But current human predicaments reveal otherwise. Many national leaders, ir respective of religion, have been proven to be liars, hoarding wealth and getting involved in sex scandals. Compared with those, neither a single dirham was found in Muhammad's “treasure ”, nor had he left a mountain of wealth for his family.
And he did not take any concubines, except his wives whom he protected with due rights and honour.
Globally, violence against innocent men, women, and children, or committing genocide in the name of race, religion or democracy, have become rampant.
But, during Muhammad’s reign, there was neither ethnic cleansing nor depriving any one of their rights for ethnic or religious identity.
Now, mankind is facing an unprecedented moral quandary in accepting same-sex marriage, besides an increasing number of abortions, children born out of wedlock and the elderly being neglected and living in isolation. Society is also afflicted with drug addiction, violent entertainment, sexual promiscuity and bullying.
These were happening in Makkah when the Prophet called the people to return to the path of truth and humanity.
Not surprising then that the people began insulting him. Crude ly put, they were exercising their “freedom of speech”, even if it meant provoking intolerance in others.
That leads to the ongoing concern on how a Muslim must respond to insults on the Messenger — depending on the situation, he either kept silent, asked his companions not to react, persuaded passionate and intellectual dialogues, and in a few cases, took action against the offenders.
These compel Muslims to reflect on three important considerations — the context under which he gave the verdict to keep silent or to act against a perpetrator; his companions always sought his permission before they acted; and when he gave his edict as the leader or ruler.
These clearly dictates how Muslim leaders must guide and help their citizens to protect the honour of their beloved ones.
Finally, a Muslim must take the lesson from the Quran: “And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. Thus, We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do (6:108).”
DR MOHAMMAD TARIQUR RAHMAN, Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya