The Muhammad In Us

Part Two: Muhammad; love him or hate him.

PERSONALLY, I PREFER Madinah to Makkah. I love Madinah. Madinah is less congested and is much 'roamable'. In other words, there are more spaces for yourself in Madinah than in Makkah. The air is much breathable, the people nicer, and the roads gentler. Nevertheless, it is Madinah today, Yathrib 1, 400 years ago, and always, it's the city of the Prophet -- Al-Madinatun Nabi.

Islam is underground at first. The mainstream lifestyle of the world in general, and amongst the Arabs in the 5th century was not all good. Muhammad didn't actually expect his movement would have up to two billion followers today in the 21st century. The Messenger of God, it seems, was only interested in only one thing: to deliver the message of God.

Muhammad is an orphan. His father died when he was in his mother's womb. His mother, Amina, died when he was six. His grandfather Abd Muttalib, leader of the powerful Bani Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe, died when Muhammad was under his custody. Muhammad then, went under the care of the most merciful and kind, yet also the poorest, of his many uncles -- Abu Talib. Muhammad is also illiterate for all of his life.

Muhammad was a shepherd, then a merchant by helping his uncle's business, who then became one of the most trusted guy in Makkah. He got married to a 40 year-old widow by the name Khadija when he's only 25, then prevented a feud from sprouting by solving a problem involving the placing of the Black Stone in his 30's.

At 40, Gabriel came to him while he was alone meditating outside Makkah. So Muhammad began what God wanted him to do. He's all set to clear the errs and set things right once again. The Last Prophet for mankind has arrived. From that very beginning, it seems, Islam has never turned back.

Muhammad, peace be upon him, no longer lives today. Yet his legacy is living, in the hearts of believers and non-believers alike. It's either you hate him, or you love him. Those who love him misses him, longing to meet him, weeped at his grave, lamenting in infatuation over his loss. In prayers everyday, supplications for Muhammad are never to be missed.

Those who hate him ruthlessly labelled Muhammad as a pedophile, anti-Semitic, misogynist, polygamist, barbaric, autocratic while even going to an extent to label him as 'an ominous destroyer and a prophet of murder'. Muhammad is a terrorist, they say, and Islam is a religion of terror. The damage seems unrepairable.

Still, Muslims do what Muhammad did. All the rites we do today are taught by Muhammad himself. The Qur'an didn't state a guideline of how one should pray or how one should perform the hajj. So Muhammad was in the picture to teach everything he could've taught, shaping the lives of the people of his times and of course, shaping ours'.

"Cover your mouth with the back of you hand when you're yawning," he said, "or the devil will enter". "Cut off your nails," he said, "uncut nails are nests of the devil." Well, we all know that yawning with your mouth open so widely and having long nails are not really healthy and appropriate. Muhammad told this, not only as a prophet bus as a father, a husband, an ordinary man. This is just a tiny bit of what he had taught through his behaviours and sayings or hadiths, known collectively as the Sunnah.

He slept with no pillows, just lying his head on a straw bag, made out of dates' tree. He sew his own clothes. He even made a congregational prayer ends earlier once, because he heard a child was crying at the back.

This family guy at the same time are busy administrating a community he favors to call 'ummah', ruling out laws, commanding battles and wars with the hostile Meccan Quraysh, and keeping things in order in a nation called Madinah. Even hundreds of years have passed millions of Muslims are still looking back of this nation of Muhammad's, although still searching and longing for what exactly a Muhammad-run state is, or popularly known today as an Islamic state.

Muhammad, it seems, is a never-ending influence.

*****

It's the second time I'm visiting Muhammad's tomb that day. I stood by a pillar out of the crowd's way, right in front of Umar's grave, watching the crowd swayed past the graves. The mosque's authorities impolitely pushed them to go faster, in order to prevent them from commiting any bid'ah at the graves.

One by one turned their faces towards Muhammad's resting place, their mouths uttering the salam for the Prophet. "As salamu alaika ya Rasulullah," said one, "Peace be upon you, O Messenger of God", sobbing and weeping. Then came another, and another, then another.

It'd be wrong for me to say that it's a crowd of sorrow and disappointment. They maybe are, grieving for such great loss. I'd rather say the tears are tears of mixed feelings of happiness and content. "Finally," some would say, "I'm here".

It was my last day in Madinah. I've managed to get into the Raudah two times for two days, I don't want to miss my last. "The area between my house and my pulpit is one of the gardens of Paradise," the Prophet said, "supplicate here, and it'll be fulfilled". And the area is not that large either. Unsurprisingly, the crowd is large, and everybody wants a piece of the cake.

So there I was, praying for happiness and God-knows-what. I then headed to the Prophet's tomb again to bid farewell. "Please don't make this the last," I said softly, my heart felt warm saying that. So I walked out of the Prophet's Mosque, walked for the last time in the streets of Madinah. It's time to go to Makkah.

Regardless of whatever you think about Muhammad, he brought reform and revolution to the world, like it or not. He's here 'to perfect mankind's traits,' as God states in the Qur'an, and 'to bring mercy to the world.' Surely, what he delivered and taught was perfect enough to be understood. Muhammad was the man. He transcends perfection, 'perfected the religion' for us, leaving behind his two wills: the Qur'an, and the Sunnah.

We stand small before this man who is loved by God so much. Muhammad's message has been passed down from generation to generation throughout the ages. Question is, when it's our turn, could we pass it down?

Listening to Ungu - Shalawat. PHOTO The Prophet's Mosque. The green dome, built during Ottoman administration, spread over Muhammad's tomb, alongside with his Companions Abu Bakr and Umar's tombs.