On The Character of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

By: Professor Maqsood Jafri

Before announcing Prophet-hood, the Prophet of Islam Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) lived the life of a pure and pious man.  In his childhood he acted as a herdsman.  In his adolescence he joined his uncle Abu Talib as a tradesman.  He spent most of his time in the cave of Hira worshiping.  He helped the poor and the needy.  He married at the age of twenty five.  His youth was crystal like morning dew.  No blot or blemish on his character can be found.  Youth is the period of strain and stress.  Young people are easily trapped in the meshes of sexual corruption, adultery or fornication.  History testifies the piety and chastity of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) before his marriage and after his marriage.  Even his sworn enemies called him the Honest, the Pious, the Truthful and the Trustworthy.  When he was twenty five he married a great and pious lady of forty years named Khadijah.  He loved her, respected her and lived happily with her.  No body blamed or charged him.  But when at the age of forty on divine will he announced the mission of God, the influential chieftains of Mecca turned against him.  What was his mission?  He announced to reject idolatry and accept monotheism.  He condemned fascism and supported human freedom.  He abhorred imperialism and capitalism and stood for justice, humanity, peace, equality and love.  What was wrong in his mission?  The anti-human forces opposed him.  He was teased, tortured and troubled.  He was exiled. He was attacked.  The battles were imposed on him.  His near and dear ones were killed.  Once he said: “No prophet was teased as much as I am teased.”  Such a pious and kind man who gave a universal message was attacked and unfortunately is still being attacked by vicious minds.  The cause of writing this article is the statements of some of evil minded people of our times.  Last year, Jerry Vines, the former president of Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination with 15 million members, described the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a “demon-possessed pedophile.”  Televangelist Jimmy Swaggard referred to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a “sex deviant”, “pervert” and “pedophile”.  Franklin Graham appeared on the NBC Nightly News, commenting on Islam he said: “we are not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us.  The God of Islam is not the same God.  He is not the son of God of the Christians or Judeo-Christian faith.  It is a different God, and I believe Islam is a very evil and wicked religion.”  Briefly commenting on these views one can say that if Prophet Muhammad was a “demon possessed”, then how he preached an propounded godly wisdom?  He should have given the message of Demon not of God.  The Quran time and again condemns demon.  The Quran is a message of noble, divine and virtuous values.

The Islamic teachings mirror generosity, virtuosity, fairness, wisdom and monotheism. How a Demon can speak against himself?  It is not Demon but God speaking against Demon and his allies and associates.  Sulayman Rushdie in his vile and notorious book titled “The Satanic Verses” has also expressed such unfounded malicious ideas.  The heretics of Mecca said the same about the Quran what these modern so called intellectuals and politicians are saying.  The honest intellectual giants of the west like Thomas Carlyle and Goethe paid immense tributes to the Prophet of Islam whom Jerry Vines and Jimmy Swaggart are calling “demon-possessed” and “pervert”.  On the sexual life of the Prophet much has been written.  His supporters regard him sexually potent and balanced.  His opponents call him over-sexed and pervert.  In the history of Prophets we find Prophet Solomon having many wives.  On the contrary we find Jesus Christ a bachelor.  At the age of 33 he was taken to the heavens alive through the apparent crucifixion process.  Polygamy was the order of the day.  No body took it as something bad.  The Arabs practised pologamy.  In the wake of custom the Prophet Muhammad married some ladies.  Hazrat Khadijah was fifteen years older to him at the time of marriage.  Most of them were his age sake.  In his fifties he married Harzat Aiysha, the daughter of Hazrat Abu Bakr when she was just bloomed to youth.  Hinting this marriage some of the orientalists charge Prophet Muhammad as a “pedophile”.  It was not only the Prophet Muhammad who had married a young girl even the father of Harzat Aiysha, Hazrat Abu Bakr had also married a young girl in his sixties.  It was the part of the prevalent Arab culture and custom.  Hence not to be taken seriously.  It is not objectionable either from religious or from social point of view.  So far as the comments of Franklin Graham about Islam are concerned they are quite funny and ridiculous.  He seems to be entirely unaware of history.  Islam has never attacked anyone.  It is a religion of peace and moderation.  In the earlier days of Islam, it were the Meccans who thrice under the command of Abu Suffyan assaulted on the Muslims of Madina.  The Quran shows full respect to Moses and Jesus.  The Quran claims that Jesus like other Prophets was a Prophet.  He was not the Son of God.  In Islam no one is the son or the daughter of God.  Time and again the Quran declares that God neither begets nor is begotten.  The Bible also at different places pronounced Christ as the Son of Man and the Messenger of God.  The Gospel of Matthew says: “one of them, an expert in the law, tested with this question: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law/ - Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.”(22:35-38).

The God of Jesus is the God of Moses and Muhammad.  When Franklin Graham says that the God of Islam is not the God of Christians he is sadly mistaken.  The Arabic word Allah means God.  When Jesus was taken to gallows he said Eli, Eli – Which means Allah in Arabic and God in English. God is God.  IT is the God of all humans.  So far as the remarks of Franklin Graham about Islam as its being an evil and wicked religion are concerned I leave unto all honest and impartial sages and scholars to comment on it.  What an academic dishonesty! Alas; what is wrong with such jaundiced and prejudiced minds.  The Quran is the book which is the basic source of Islamic ideology.  The balanced and neutral non-Muslim scholars have paid tremendous tributes to this original source of divine values.  Sir E. Dennison Ross, Rodwell A. Sale, Palmer, Sarojini Maidu, Dr. A. Bertherand and De Lay O’ Leary have paid great tributes to the Quranic wisdom.  Only to quote an eminent English statement and orator Edmund Burke may prove our claim.  He writes: “The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all from the crowned head to the meanest subject, is a law interwoven with the system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”  What a difference between two opinions.  Both the opinions hail down from non-Muslims.  The Islam whom Franklin Graham regards “wicked and evil” is regarded “the wisest” by Edmund Berke.  Let Allah show the right path to the detractors.  The demand of interfaith dialog is to respect the religions of all human kind.  The standing universal principal should be love your religion but learn to respect the religions of others as well.  The demand of decency is to logically differ on principals in an educated and cultured manner.  The way the above three mentioned persons have used slanderous language about the highly esteemed and divined personality can in no way be admired or accepted.

(The writer is an eminent speaker and scholar on Islam.  He can be reached at maqsoodjafri@aol.com)