A Letter to a Dear One — Page 44
44 Letter to a Dear One G ãÃI¿G¾«G ∑ M ö Z I N [Ge I äR¾I ö çII†£G¿G› G y G |£GÃM©G›Gy çI¼H±H ú G y çI†GëG R wI~ M áH– G ãÃI¿I¾M±H¿M ö Z H uRyG} £G ú G } G y H \M®I›H} G ßI ö − I …Gy H äG ö G ßM û I ®G é ê [6:163-164], that is, O Prophet, say to the believers that all my worship and my sacrifices and all of my life is for Allah the Exalted Who is the Lord of all the worlds and Who has no partner. How can all this be called mine? I am nothing, He is the Genuine Article. This death of sorts that I have brought on my ‘self’ is for Allah the Exalted as well for He has so commanded me and I am first among those who submit. In short the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s ( ” allall ā hu ‘alaihi wa sallam) entire life was for Allah and for His approval. Once someone asked © a ñ rat Ā ’isha (ra ñ iyall ā hu ‘anh ā ) what was the practice and custom of the Holy Prophet’s ( ” allall ā hu ‘alaihi wa sallam) life. Her answer was that his very nature was the Qur’ ā n. That is to say all the teachings and directives of the Qur’ ā n were his entire life. He was a living example of the Holy Qur’ ā n—and what an excellent and perfect model he was. Various other prophets were also models for their people in their own time. However, their life histories have not reached us in a complete form and whatever has reached us has not sustained human encroachment. Some prophets have had such traditions associated with them that if they were to be deemed true, such persons could not be even considered believers, let alone accepted as God’s chosen people and prophets. However, as the Qur’ ā n has verified their prophethood, we believe in them, and consider these ‘traditions’ calumnious because they are way below the dignity of a prophet. Besides, all other prophets did not bring a perfect Law; therefore they could not present an example or model in all spheres of life. We are only aware of two and a half years of Jesus’ (‘alaihissal ā m) life—and even these are incomplete. Then there are certain traditions written about him which are not befitting a prophet, for example, his changing water into alcohol, or having his feet anointed with a woman’s hair or addressing his mother as ‘O woman’ or cursing the fig tree for it did not bear fruit out of season. Having ignored these baseless stories we only deduce little from Jesus’ (‘alaihissal ā m) life story—that he taught to be patient and gentle, humble and forgiving and to forgive one’s enemies—but we do not see any expressions of these moral teachings in his life. As far as the Gospels tell us, Jesus’ (‘alaihissal ā m) enemies kept an upper hand on him through out his life. However, we do note that he presented a