Muhammad was born in Mecca (present day Saudi Arabia) in the year 570 CE. Since he was orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his uncle from the respected tribe of Quraish. As he grew up, he became known for his truthfulness, generosity and sincerity, as a result he was sought after for his ability to arbitrate in disputes. Muhammad was of a deeply religious nature, and had long detested the decadence of his society.
It became his habit to meditate from time to time in the Cave of Hira near Mecca. At the age of 40, while engaged in a meditative retreat, Muhammad received his first revelation from God through the Angel Gabriel. This revelation, which continued for 23 years, is known as the Quran. As soon as he began to recite the words he heard from Gabriel, and to preach the truth of the submission to the One and Only God. He and his small group of followers suffered bitter persecution. This grew so fierce that in the year 622 CE God gave them the command to emigrate.
This event, the Hijra 'migration', in which they left Mecca for the city of Medina, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar. After several years, the Prophet and his followers were able to return to Mecca, where they forgave their enemies and established Islam definitively. Before the Prophet died at the age of 63, the greater part of Arabia was Muslim, and within a century of his death Islam had spread to Spain in the West and as far East as China. He died with less than five possessions to his name.[i]
WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT MUHAMMAD?
“You are of the highest noble character.”[ii]
“O Muhammad, We have not sent you but as a blessing for all the worlds.”[iii]
IN HIS OWN WORDS:
When a man stood before the Prophet and trembled. He said to him, “Relax, I am not a king.”[iv]
The Prophet prayed to His Lord: “If ever I curse a man or make an invocation against him, make it charity for him and mercy, prayer, purification and an act of drawing near by which he will draw near to you on the Day of Resurrection.”[v]
When his people rejected him, (the angel) Gabriel came to him and said, “God has heard what your people say to you and how they reject you. He has ordered the angel of the mountains to obey whatever you tell them to do.” The angel of the mountains called him, greeted him and said, “Send me to do what you wish. If you wish, I will crush them between the two mountains of Mecca.” The Prophet said, “Rather, I hope that God will bring forth from their children those who will worship God alone and not associate anything with Him.”[vi]
A man leapt up to kiss the hand of the Prophet, who pulled his hand back and said, ‘This is what the Persians do with their kings. I am not a king. I am one of your men.”[vii]
When asked to curse the disbelievers he said: “I was not sent to curse, but I was sent as a summoner and as a mercy.”[viii]
FROM THOSE WHO KNEW AND LOVED HIM:
His wife, Aisha, said of him: “His character was the Quran.”[ix]
Aisha also said: “I never saw the Messenger of God ever take revenge for an injustice done to him as long as it was not regarding one of the orders of God which must be respected. He never struck anyone with his hand at all except when doing jihad in the way of God. He never hit a servant or a woman.”[x]
Aisha also reported to have said: “The Prophet was not lewd nor did he use bad language. He did not shout in the marketplace and did not pay back evil with evil. He forgave and overlooked.”[xi]
On his death, Aisha said: “When he died, there was nothing in his house that a living creature could eat except some barley on one of my shelves.”[xii]
Anas said: “I served the Messenger of God for ten years and he never said “Uff!” to me. He did not say about anything I had done, ‘Why did you do it?’ or about anything I had not done, ‘Why didn’t you do it?’”[xiii]
Anas said of him: “The Messenger was the best people in character.”[xiv]
Jabir ibn Abdullah reported that: “The Messenger of God was not asked for anything to which he said, ‘No.’”[xv]
Jarir said: “… whenever he saw me, he smiled.”[xvi]
Ibn Abi Hala described him saying: “He was always joyful with an easy disposition. He was gentle, neither gruff nor rude nor clamorous nor obscene nor carping nor excessively complimentary. He left food which he did not want without complaining about it.”[xvii]
Abdullah ibn al-Harith said: “I did not see anyone who smiled more than the Messenger of God.”[xviii]
Those closest to him describe his daily routine as: “He worked in the house with his family. He would delouse his clothes, mend his sandals, serve himself, sweep the house and hobble the camel. He would take the camels to graze and eat with the servants. He would knead bread with them and carry his own goods from the market.”[xix]
BEFORE HE BECAME A PROPHET, HIS PEOPLE SAID OF HIM:
Before Muhammad was appointed a prophet by God, his people said of him: “This is Muhammad. This is the Trustworthy one. We are satisfied with him.”[xx]
Ar-Rabi ibn Khuthaym said: “In the pre-Islamic period they (the people of Mecca) would stand by a judgement between two parties if it came from the Messenger of God.”[xxi]
HIS ENEMIES SAID OF HIM:
His sworn enemy, Abu Jahl, had this to say when asked about the Prophet and whether he was a liar: “By God, Muhammad is a truthful man and does not ever lie.”[xxii]
[i] I.A. Ibrahim, A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, 2nd ed., pp.54-55.
[ii] Quran 68:4
[iii] Quran 21:107
[iv] Al-Baihaqi & Al-Hakim – quoted in Ash-Shifa of Qadi Iyad, p.48.
[xvii] Ash-Shamail of At-Tirmidhi; Ash-Shifa, p.62.
[xviii] Ibn Hanbal & Tirmidhi; Ash-Shifa, p.63.
[xix] From Aisha, al-Hassan ibn Ali, Abu Said Al-Khudri and others; Ash-Shifa, p.68.
[xx] Ash-Shifa, p.69.
[xxi] Ibn Abi Shyba; Ash-Shifa, p.69.
[xxii] Ash-Shifa, p.69.
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2. The Hijab Oppression or Liberation
by Wassim Dannawi, New South Wales.
Modesty and chastity, very important ideologies to Islam, are achieved by prescribing standards on behaviour and the dress of a Muslim. A woman who adheres to the tenements of Islam is required to follow the dress code called Hijab; other synonyms are Veil, Purdah, or just covering. It is an act of faith and establishes a Muslim's life with honour, respect and dignity. The Hijab is viewed as a liberation for women, in that the covering brings about "an aura of respect” and women are recognized as individuals who are admired for their mind and personality, "not for their beauty or lack of it” and not as sex objects. In the Qur’an Allah say’s;
Surah 24 Al-Nur (The Light); ayat 31 (part of)
And say to the believing women......that they should draw their head-coverings over the neck opening (of their dresses), and not display their ornaments except to their husbands, their fathers..... (Etc)
Contrary to popular belief, the covering of a Muslim woman is not oppression but liberation from the shackles of male scrutiny and the standards of attractiveness. In Islam, a woman is free to be whom she is inside, and immune from being portrayed as a sex symbol and lusted after. Islam exalts the status of a woman by commanding that she "enjoys equal rights to those of man in everything, she stands on an equal footing with man “and both share mutual rights and obligations in all aspects of life.
Men and women though equal are not identical, and each compliments the other in the different roles and functions for which they are responsible. “From an Islamic perspective, to view a woman as a sex symbol is to denigrate her. Islam believes that a woman is to be judged by her [virtuous] character and actions rather than by her looks or physical features”. In an article, "My Body Is My Own Business", Ms. Naheed Mustafa, a young Canadian born and raised, university-educated Muslim woman writes, "The Qur’an [ which is the Holy Book for Muslims] teaches us that men and women are equal, that individuals should not be judged according to gender, beauty, wealth or privilege. The only thing that makes one person better than another is his or her character." She goes on to say, "In the Western world, the hijab has come to symbolize either forced silence or radical, unconscionable militancy. Actually, it’s neither. It is simply a woman's assertion that judgement of her physical person is to play no role whatsoever in social interaction."
Muslims believe that Allah gave beauty to all women, but that her beauty is not be seen by the world, as if the women are meat on the shelf to be picked and looked over. When she covers herself she puts herself on a higher level and men will look at her with respect and she is noticed for her intellect, faith, and personality, not for her beauty. In many societies, especially in the West, women are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness and are compelled to follow the male standards of beauty and abstract notions of what is attractive, half realizing that such pursuit is futile and often humiliating. The institution of veiling promotes chastity, modesty, and piety. The hijab in no way prevents a woman from playing her role as an important individual in a society nor does it make her inferior."
A Muslim woman may wear whatever she pleases in the presence of her husband and family or among women friends. But when she goes out or when men other than her husband or close family are present she is expected to wear a dress which will cover [her hair and] all parts of her body, and not to reveal her figure. What a contrast with Western fashions which every year concentrate quite intentionally on exposing yet another erogenous zone to the public gaze! The intention of Western dress is to reveal the figure, while the intention of Muslim dress is to conceal [and cover] it, at least in public.
The Muslim woman does not feel the pressures to be beautiful or attractive, which is so apparent in the Western and Eastern cultures. She does not have to live up to expectations of what is desirable and what is not. Superficial beauty is not the Muslim woman's concern; her main goal is inner spiritual beauty. She does not have to use her body and charms to get recognition or acceptance in society. It is very different from the cruel methods that other societies subject women, in that their worth is always judged by their physical appearance. There are numerous examples of discrimination at the workplace where women are either accepted or rejected, because of their attractiveness and sex appeal.
Another benefit of adorning the veil is that it is a protection for women. Muslims believe that when women display their beauty to everybody, they degrade themselves by becoming objects of sexual desire and become vulnerable to men, who look at them as “gratification for the sexual urge". The Hijab makes them out as women belonging to the class of modest chaste women, so that transgressors and sensual men may recognize them as such and dare not tease them out of mischief”. Hijab solves the problem of sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances, which is so demeaning for women, when men get mixed signals and believe that women want their advances by the way they reveal their bodies.
The western ideology of, 'if you have it, you should flash it!' is quite opposite to the Islamic principle, where the purpose is not to bring attention to one self, but to be modest. Women in so many societies are just treated as sex symbols and nothing more than just a body that "display themselves to get attention". A good example is in advertising, where a woman's body is used to sell products. Women are constantly degraded, and subjected to reveal more and more of themselves..
The Covering sanctifies her and forces society to hold her in high esteem. Far from humiliating the woman, Hijab actually grants the woman an aura of respect, and bestows upon her a separate and unique identity. According to the Qur’an, the same high standards of moral conduct are for men as it is for women. Modesty is essential in a man's life, as well, whether it is in action, morals or speech. Islam also commands proper behaviour and dress of men, in that they are not allowed to make a wanton show of their bodies to attract attention unto themselves, and they too must dress modestly. They have a special commandment to lower their eyes, and not to brazenly stare at women.
In Sura Nur of the Holy Qur’an Allah says,
“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them, and God is well acquainted with what they do".
Many of the misconceptions of the Muslim woman in the west, particularly her veil stems from Arab and Muslim countries that have deviated from the true doctrines of Islam, and have " mixed up Islamic principles with pre-Islamic pagan traditions"
In this present period of decline from Islam, many Muslim women are alienated, isolated from social life, and are oppressed by Muslim men and rulers who use the name of religion for their injustices. In this instance, the Hijab is used as a means of keeping many Muslim women away from society, with the misconception that it signifies isolation and weakness. But as many Muslim women come back into the fold of the untainted and true Islam, they are able to recognize the injustice of men who have for so long stripped them of their rights to be an integral part of society and "deserving the same dignity, honour, progress and prosperity as the men". Women regaining their true identity and role in society, are now wearing Hijab and embracing its concept of liberation for women, and are taking their rightful places that Islam had endowed upon them fourteen hundred years ago.
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3. The Voice of New Muslims
by Sister Nasirah Cavaney, Victoria.
Some would say that the God of Islam appears distant from his creation and that Muslims do not have a close relationship with God. Some people ask new Muslims why they would forsake a close personal relationship with God as in Christianity for a relationship as a slave to a cold and distant God.
Allah (God) is distinct from his creation; he is the creator of all things and was not himself created. He is one God, he has no partners (sons/daughters etc) and nothing is comparable to him. But Allah is not distant from his servants. Muslims pray directly to Allah (God) with no intercessor needed.
Surah Al-Hashr (059:023) He is Allah, beside Whom there is no other God, the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One, Peace, the Keeper of Faith, the Guardian, the Majestic, the Compeller, the Superb. Glorified be Allah from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him).
There were a few main beliefs which initially attracted me to Islam. The first of these was the belief that there is only one God and that He is Allah (swt). Secondly, that God was not anthropomorphic (human like). Finally, Jesus was a man just like Adam, Abraham and Ismail, who were all Messengers of God (may peace be upon them). They were selected by God. They were not God or an incarnation of God.
Sister Tasneen Balmer
Aside from the five ascribed daily prayers, Muslims are encouraged to call upon Allah (God) for forgiveness, guidance, and strength throughout the day. Muslims can make these personal supplications or prayers (du'a) in their own words, in any language. In our daily prayers we recite the phrase “Allah listens to those who praise him”. Allah (God) does listen to our prayers and he guides us and cares for us.
Surah Al-Baqarah (002:186) And when My servants question thee concerning Me, I am indeed near (to them by My knowledge). I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he crieth unto Me. So let them obey Me and believe in Me, in order that they may be led aright.
But the most powerful experience for me at this time was discovering the act of prayer. I bought a book which taught me how to pray……….. and I have to say that from the moment I first bowed in prayer in the Muslim way, I felt connected to my Creator, for the first time in my life, and I wept with joy.
Sister Jan Jackson
When I finally accepted Islam, I realized that I would never feel alone again, that Allah (swt) is “closer than the jugular vein” Qur’an 50:16.
Sister Asiya Mahmoud
Muslims do indeed have a personal relationship with Allah (God) and through total submission to Allah (God) we find true inner peace.
I thank God daily for the gift of Islam. May many more people find their peace in Islam.
Sister Zahrah Riddle
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4. Christianity
Sister Ayeshah Starkey & Sister Janine Cadd, Western Australia.
The Collins Dictionary definition of a Christian is: a person who believes in and follows Jesus Christ.
The Christian religion and Christians therefore call themselves and their religion after their prophet; or as some believe their god and claim evidence for their beliefs not from a direct divine revelation (a source directly that can be traced directly to their prophet) but from scripts that some pious people were inspired to write. These scripts have undergone many translations and revisions from their original Greek and Aramaic text. There is no original text extant today and many of the original manuscripts used to produce today’s version of the Bible are contradictory. That being the case, the Christians are the closest to the Muslims in faith as stated in the Qur’an in Surah Al Ma’idah (5) 82 “…and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: ‘We are Christians’...”
Some major sects of Christianity are:
* Catholicism which places emphasis on Mary (peace and blessings upon her) as the mother of Jesus (pbuh), claims the divinity of Jesus as God’s son and has developed the trinity (3 gods in 1).
* Protestantism also lays claim to the trinity and the divinity of Jesus (pbuh) but plays down the status of Mary (pbuh)
* Other sects such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons do not accept the trinity although Mormons claim a prophet after Jesus called Joseph Smith who came to ‘explain’ the Christian religion
Concept of God in Christianity
The Christian concept of God is for most Christians centered on the Trinity and its three divine gods in one God. We will therefore examine the concept of Trinity and its relevant members (Father, Son and Holy Ghost).
Firstly Christians consider Jesus (pbuh) to be God on the basis of:
* Jesus’ pre-existence as stated in John 8:58;
“Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.’” The idea of pre-existence is not unique to Jesus even in the Bible. Pre-existence was mentioned in relation to Solomon (Proverbs 8:23-27), to Job (Job 38:4 and 21) and to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-5). The Qur’an states in Surah Al-A’raaf (7):172 “When your Lord gathered all of Adam’s descendants (before creation) and made them bear witness for themselves…” We thereby know that ALL men were created in spirit before the creation of the physical world. Jesus (pbuh) was not unique in this pre-existence and cannot claim divinity because of it.
* Jesus’ being the son of God as stated in Heb 1:8, 1Tim 3:16 and many other places of the Bible.
Jesus as the unique son of God was a Pauline view (i.e. held or originated with Paul (Saul of Tarsus)), in his argument Jesus is considered to be “consubstantial and co-eternal with the father”. If Jesus was in reality the “Son of God” then it follows that the father must have existed before him (the son). Therefore there must have been a time when the son (Jesus) did not exist. It therefore follows that the son (Jesus) is a creature of an essence or being which had not always existed. Since God is in essence Eternal and Ever-Existent, Jesus can not be of the same essence as God and therefore cannot be God.
The second facet of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. The divinity of the Holy Spirit is not attributed to the teaching of Jesus (pbuh) but was accepted into the dogma of Christian belief at the council of Constantinople in AD 381. In the Bible we are told in Peter 1:12 “… with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven:” To be ‘sent down’ the thing being sent down has to be subordinate to something or someone else, it has to under the control of some other power, a higher authority. God by His essence is not subordinate to anything or anyone. The Holy Spirit cannot therefore be God and must be a creation of God’s.
The third facet of the Trinity is the “Father”, or God as the Father of mankind. Yes, the Father is God, the Creator, the Sustainer of all creation. Note He is the Father of mankind, not the father of an only son Jesus. A father he has many who were called ‘son of God’ in the Bible for example in Exodus 4:22-23, Moses is the ‘son of God’; in 2Samuel 8: 13-14 Solomon is the ‘son of God’; in Job 1:6 the angels are the ‘sons of God’: in Luke 3:38 Adam is the ‘son of God’; and there are many more examples because at the time of the Prophets, any pious person was know as a son of God.
So after examining the Trinity in the Bible we are forced to delete Jesus (pbuh) and the Holy Spirit as Gods and are left with God, the Creator, the Father of Mankind, the One. The Bible states this unity clearly in:
· Mark 12:32 “You are right in saying God is one, and there is no other but Him” and in
