Birthday of the Most Excellent Exemplar

By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“In the Prophet of Allah, certainly there is for you an Excellent Exemplar, for those who look forward to Allah and the Last Day, and remember Allah greatly.” (Holy Qur’an 33:21)

We are on the eve of one of the grandest day in the history of mankind. It is the 17th of Rabi al-Awwal, the day the Almighty Creator decided to bring into the world His Last and Greatest Messenger – Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
It would be repetitive to say that he was born in the monotheistic Bani Hashem Clan that was descended from Prophet Ishmael (AS), the firstborn of that great iconoclast, Prophet Abraham (AS).
A detailed account of the noble ancestors of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) is outside the scope of this brief newspaper column. However, I cite here a famous hadith, narrated by our Sunni brethren, who quote the Prophet himself as saying:
“(The Archangel) Gabriel told me: I turned over the easts and the wests of the Earth but did not find anyone superior to Muhammad, then [again] I turned over the easts and the wests of the Earth but did not find any clan superior to the Bani Hashem.”
It is clear from the wordings of this hadith that the Messenger of Mercy was neither born among the polytheists of Arabia nor in any uncouth, ill-mannered, and unprincipled Arab household.
In other words, terrorism and violence were alien to the nature of the posthumous son of Abdullah; the orphan of the pious lady, Amena bint Wahb; the grandson of the Leader of the Quraish, Abdul-Muttaleb; and the nephew of the Shaikh al-Bat’ha (Patriarch of Mecca) Abu Taleb.
The reason I have cited these few names is to emphasize the pure and pristine nature of the Best of God’s creation, who himself has said: “Allah’s first-ever creation was my Light”.
He also said: “I was being transferred from the loins of the pure ones to the wombs of the pure ones.”
Now we understand the phrase in the “Ziyarah” or standard form of salutation to Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) that reads:
“I bear witness that you were (descended) through pure loins and chaste wombs.”
Another point worth stressing here is that the person prophesied by such all-time greats as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others in different ages and various lands, was not just the greatest of them all, but was the offspring of a long line of “Awsiya” (plural of “Wasi” or Testamentary Legatee), of Ishmael.
Entrusted by God with the universal message of Islam, his mission was to bring hearts and minds closer by removing differences and doubts, and to help build the morally sound and peaceful society, where everybody including those that were not yet Muslim and still adhered to what they believed as the ways of the other prophets, should live in peaceful co-existence.
His invitation to the People of the Book, and his debates and accords, for instance, with the Christians of Najran, indicate this.
Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) was thus the finest example of the “Perfect Man” in every sense of the term. He was the Paragon of Virtue and the most Excellent Exemplar for the human race. The Almighty distinguished him from all others by instilling in his sublime personality such fine qualities as modesty, truthfulness, kindness, patience, loyalty, honesty, courage, bravery, generosity, magnanimity, wisdom and the like.
By studying his lofty characteristics and the amazingly simple life that he led with his household, companions, wives and others, we are able to learn valuable lessons from his conduct and accordingly mould our own lifestyle.
Our society will never be a truly Islamic one unless we sincerely tread the footsteps of Allah’s Final Messenger to mankind, heed his sayings, and adhere to his “Sunnah wa Seerah” (practice and behaviour), as the faithful ones among his companions did.
This means to desist from whatever he has forbidden and obey whatever he has bequeathed to us, especially his Last and Final Public Proclamation, on the Commandment of God, at the memorable gathering of Ghadeer-Khom, regarding the prime position after him, of his dearest cousin, ward, son-in-law, and Divinely-designated Vicegerent, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).
Imam Ali (AS), as the Amir al-Momineen (Commander of the Faithful), has said: “By Allah, neither my father ever worshipped idols, nor my grandfather Abdul-Muttalib, nor his father Hashem, nor his father Abd Munaf. They prayed facing towards the Ka’ba and followed the religion of Abraham.”
While celebrating the Prophet’s birthday, it would be repetitive to say how the idols installed in Abraham’s monotheist edifice (the Holy Ka’ba) by the pagan Arabs crashed headlong on the night of his birth, while fourteen parapets fell to the ground in Ctesiphon (Mada’en – Iraq), from atop the palace of the Sassanid King of Kings, Anushirvan, as the sacred fire in the Zoroastrian temple in the interior of Iran that had been kept burning for centuries, suddenly died down.
Similar miracles were witnessed in far off China, as well as in India and in the Roman Empire spread across Europe and North Africa – heralding the birth of the Deliverer of mankind.
His coming was foretold in the Evangel, the Torah, and the previously revealed heavenly scriptures, as well as in the religious texts of the Zoroastrians, the Sabeans, the Hindus, and others – parts of these prophecies are still preserved in spite of the tampering by interlopers that these books have gone through.
For instance, in the Book of Deuteronomy (18:15) we read the prophecy to Moses: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren (Ishmaelite Arabs), like unto thee, and will put My Words into his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My Words which he shall speak in My Name.”
In the Gospel of St. John (18:7-14) we find the following prophecy of Jesus:
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How be it when he, the Spirit of Truth (the Comforter) is come, he will guide unto all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”