Recent current events concerning the Islamic faith and more specifically the Prophet of Islam have led to many people asking the question, “Who is Muhammad and what makes him so beloved to the Muslim people?” In an attempt to make people in the west more aware of the life and character of the Prophet of Islam this CD was put together focusing on not only the biography of Muhammad, but more specifically on his merciful, gentle and tolerant disposition. It is hoped that through the information presented here that listeners will gain a deeper appreciation of both the true values of the Islamic faith and the true nature of the Prophet Muhammad.

Before discussing the life of Muhammad though, I thought it would be beneficial to share with you the thoughts of some leading western personalities of recent times regarding Muhammad. They too were unaware of the noble qualities of this admirable man before they read his biography and studied his statements. Let’s see what they had to say:

George Bernard Shaw, the British playwright said:

"The world is in dire need of a man with the mind of Muhammad; religious people in the Middle Ages, due to their ignorance and prejudice, had pictured him in a very dark way as they used to consider him the enemy of Christianity. But after looking into the story of this man I found it to be an amazing and a miraculous one, and I came to the conclusion that he was never an enemy of Christianity, and must be called instead the savior of humanity. In my opinion, if he was to be given control over the world today, he would solve our problems and secure the peace and happiness which the world is longing for."

Michael Hart , author of 'The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History' said:

"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level."

Annie Besant, wrote in 'The Life and Teachings of Muhammad' :

"It is impossible for anyone who studies the personality of the great Prophet of the Arabs, and come to know how this prophet he used to live, and how he taught the people, but to feel respect towards this honorable prophet; one of the great messengers whom Allah sent"

The British philosopher, Thomas Carlyle, who won the Nobel Prize for his book 'The Heroes' wrote:

"It is a great shame for any one to listen to the accusation that Islaam is a lie and that Muhammad was a fabricator and a deceiver. We saw that he remained steadfast upon his principles, with firm determination; kind and generous, compassionate, pious, virtuous, with real manhood, hardworking and sincere. Besides all these qualities, he was lenient with others, tolerant, kind, cheerful and praiseworthy and perhaps he would joke and tease his companions. He was just, truthful, smart, pure, magnanimous and present-minded; his face was radiant as if he had lights within him to illuminate the darkest of nights; he was a great man by nature who was not educated in a school nor nurtured by a teacher as he was not in need of any of this."

And so goes the statements of many other authors, thinkers, politicians and lay people who discovered the beauty, simplicity and greatness of the life of the Prophet of Islam.

Looking into the Islamic scriptures though, one can get an even better idea as to the character of Muhammad both through the words of God Almighty in the Islamic holy book, the Quran, and also through Muhammad’s statements to his disciples or companions as they were known.  Amongst the different ways that God describes His Final Prophet, the Prophet Muhammad in the Qur’an, we see the following words:

And We have not sent you forth except as a mercy to the universe. (21:107)

Muhammad was born in the sixth century of the Common Era, or about 1400 years ago. His father died while he was but an infant and his mother died of illness when he was only five or six. Yet, despite being orphaned at such a young age, he still grew up to be “a mercy to the universe” when he was selected at the age of forty by the one God, known in Arabic as Allah, to be the Final Messenger and Prophet to humanity.

The Prophet Muhammad is the Prophet of Mercy, sent by God as a mercy to all mankind; believers, non-believers, and hypocrites. His mercy sheltered all of humanity: men, women and children. As a family man, he raised four daughters, loving them and providing for them, and he cherished the memory of their mother and his wife of 25 years, Khadijah, till the end of his life. Muhammad was also merciful to all creatures including animals and plants. He taught that feeding an animal can take one to Heaven whereas mistreating it could take one to Hell.

When he began calling his townspeople in Makkah to worship God alone as opposed to their many idols, he faced immediate resistance from many sectors of his society including some of his own relatives.  When people began submitting themselves to the worship of God alone, the basic essence of the word Islam, his townspeople – the people of Quraish as they were called – only escalated their resistance to him and began actively persecuting Muhammad and his followers. There are many stories from the Islamic history that tell of the torture, humiliation and abuse faced by the first believers and by Muhammad himself.

One such heartrending story from the Prophet’s life is when one day he went out to pray in the open and when he had bowed his face down in worship one of the idol worshippers came and poured a large bucket of animal intestines over Muhammad’s head while. Witnessing this tremendous abuse, his young daughter Fatimah ran over to her father and wiped away the filth from over his head with tears running down her young cheeks. Later the pagans tried to kill Muhammad and his followers both secretly and openly to stop the spread of Islam.  In fact, the first person ever killed simply because of their belief in Islam was an elderly woman named Sumayyah who was killed in the first decade of the spread of Islam after she refused to go back to the worship of idols. 

The seriousness of the torture to the early Muslims and the threat of death to Muhammad and his followers led to their migration from their home town of Makkah to the city of Madinah about 13 years after the Prophet first received revelation from Almighty God. It was there that Muhammad established a city-state and it was there that Islam took a strong foothold from where it would later grow to cover almost half of the world.

Almost ten years after leaving Makkak, the Prophet Muhammad returned with a force of 10,000 Muslims to conquer it and rid it of the worship of idols. Knowing that they could never fight or resist such a force, those people who had abused and tortured the Prophet and his followers wondered what would be their fate.  Would he punish them or even execute them for their serious crimes?  Yet, the Prophet’s response to their crimes was to set his enemies free on that day declaring Makkah to be a city of peace, a sanctuary and refuge for all. It was on that same day that one of his Companions said, "Today is the day of the battle. Today God will humiliate the people who drove us out." Yet the Prophet objected to this and corrected him by saying, "No. Today is the day of mercy. Today God honors the Quraish."

Years before that when he had just started preaching the call of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad went to Ta’if, a lush town of green palm trees, fruits and vegetables, just southeast of Makkah. He was hoping that perhaps the people of this nice city would be receptive to his message, which had been rejected by most of the Makkans for more than a decade.

However, the people of Ta’if proved just as cruel and intolerant as his own people. Not only did they scorn his message of worshipping Allah alone, but they even turned their youth against him who hurled stones, garbage and insults at him as he sadly left the city. In the face of continued disappointment, the Archangel Jibreel came to Muhammad and said, “God Almighty has heard the sayings and accusations of your people and He, the Almighty, has commanded the angel of the mountains to obey any order from you against them. The angel of the mountains called out to the Prophet Muhammad and said, “If you wish, I will crush the town of Taif between the surrounding mountains.”

Bleeding from head to toe, battered and exhausted, the Prophet was faced with a choice. Should he or should he not seek to destroy the people who had just humiliated him by having their children chase him out of town while throwing stones at him? And for what crime? All he wanted to do was convey the message of the One God to His creation and seek to benefit for his own people.

Yet, though they hurt him, Muhammad looked beyond his own wounds and forgave them, replying to the angel of the mountains, “No do not destroy them, for I hope that Allah will bring out of their offspring people who worship Him alone without associating any partner with Him in worship.” He could have done it. He could have asked that those children who pelted him with stones be finished off along with their hardhearted parents, but he didn't! He chose forgiveness and mercy. Instead of cursing the people of this town, he prayed for their salvation. Would we have done the same even in lesser circumstances?

That is just one of so many examples of how this man, whom Allah describes as a "mercy to the universe" dealt with those who opposed him. It is just one of the many examples in the life of a person who faced constant death threats, assassination attempts, as well as abuse and humiliation at the hands of those threatened by his simple yet profound message: there is nothing worthy of worship except for Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger.

The people of Ta’if were not the only ones who tasted this mercy. It was his habit to pray for his enemies much of the time. Two of his most bitter enemies, Abu Jahl and `Umar were also the objects of his prayers and Allah accepted his prayers for one of those individuals, Umar, by guiding his heart to Islam where he later became one of the greatest and most righteous personalities in Islamic history.

The Prophet made similar prayers for his own people on a regular basis: "O Allah! Guide my people, for they know not," he would pray, as he and his followers were beaten, humiliated, scorned and ridiculed. When the people of Makkah made things difficult for him, persecuted him and his companions and injured his face, he could still be heard saying while wiping blood from his face, “O Allah! Forgive my people for they know not what they are doing.”

On another occasion, some Companions came to the Prophet and said: "O Messenger of Allah! The tribe of Daws have committed disbelief and disobeyed you. Pray to God that he destroy them!" Contrary to the people’s expectations, the Prophet said: "O Allah! Guide Daws and let them come to us", which in fact they did do shortly thereafter.

These are just a few glimpses of how the Prophet dealt with those who opposed him. His opponents were not just people who fought his message on an intellectual level, they were individuals bent on destroying him, his family, his followers and Islam itself.