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The Prophet (pbuh) was a Human Being
by Asif Iqbal [Wideminds list moderator]
A fairly balanced & readable exposition of the
Birthday of the Prophet
Muhammad was published on our forum by
Dr. Kaukab Siddique:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WideMinds/message/21717
To the reformational facet of his writing, I need
not add anything else. In
this post, I would just like to draw attention
towards a theoretical point:
It’s well known that the
Qur’an
(17:93-94) and
various hadîth have always
maintained the human nature of the Prophet. Yet
there has been a tendency in
(popular) Islam, almost from the very beginning,
to stress on the adoration
of his personality.
The roots of such exalting attempts are to be
found in the Sufi circles. Thus
in the kitab at-Tawasîn of the great Muslim
mystic al-Hallâj (d. 922 CE)
(edited and translated by the great French
Islamic scholar L. Massignon), the
greatness of Muhammad (PBUH) is described and his
"pre-existance" affirmed.
[1]
This trend reached its culmination in the works
of (perhaps the most
well-known mystic) Ibn `Arabi (d. 1240 CE), where
we find the ideas of: [2]
* al-Haqiqat al-Muhammadiya (i.e., Muhammad is
the creative principle of the
universe),
* Nûr-e-Muhammadi (i.e., Muhammad is the source
of light from which the light
of all the prophets derive),
* al-Insân al-Kâmil (i.e., Muhammad is the
"Perfect Man").
How come these Sûfi ideas made their way into the
lower echelons of popular
Islam piety and devotion? The reason is none
other than al-Ghazali (d. 1111
CE), who managed to make Sufism "orthodox."
Thus from the 12th century onwards, the
exaltation of the Prophet (and
obviously, his family as well) became as much
Islamic as the exaltation of
Jesus and Mary are Christian.
The only difference was the remarkably thin
footing which the Islamic
phenomenon had on the Qur’an.
Yet we see a changed perspective among the Sufis
of today: Moulana Ashraf Ali
Thanwi (d. 20 July 1943) rejects the special
celebration of the Prophet’s
birthday during the Islamic month of Rabi`
al-Awwal.
He illustrates his point with the well known
Arabian love-story of Laila
Majnun (the Arabian counterparts of William
Shakespeare's eternal drama of
Romeo & Juliet).
Hazrat Thanwi notes during the course of the
Arabian tale how Majnun kept on
writing Laila’s name in the sand of the desert,
and asks ironically whether
Majnun only celebrated Laila’s birthday. The
point is that true love does not
depend on remembering your beloved on any
specific day.
Hazrat Thanwi clearly notes as well that this
festival of the Prophet’s
birthday is merely an invention of a Muslim ruler
to imitate the Christian
fancy parties and pomp and show, which they
exhibit on the Christmas. [3]
But condemning such festivals with a Hitlerite
zeal in undesirable as well.
Annemarie Schimmel quotes [4] the famous Arabic
scholar Tâhâ Hussain, who
said that the people should not be deprived of
ideas which do not contradict
religion and do not contaminate their faith in
any way.
And which brings us back to the reformational
suggestions of Dr. Siddique.
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LETTERS
With due respect, please look up the birth of the
prophet (saw) in seerat un
nabi by Shibli Nomani/Syed Suleman Nadawi. Nobody
knows exacltly when he
(saw) was born ( date); some narrations state the
8, some 9th 10,11 and 12th.
His (saw)death is well recorded on the 12th rabi
ul awal. An authentic hadith
states that he was born on monday.
A prominent astronomer M. Pasha in earlier part
of this century looked back
at the year of the prophet's birth(saw) and the
month of rabi ul awal: 12th
does not fall on a monday ( this he calaculated
backwards from the year that
Prophet (saw) son ibrahim (RA) died and there was
an eclipse.) So the most
trustworthy evidence points to 9th rabi-ul awal:
this is the opinion of the
above two authors of the seerah and also if I am
not wrong Abul kalam Azad,
sheikh qardawi and others.
Secondly the prophet's birthday was not
celebrated by the sahaba. the
tabieen, even for many centuries till the time of
salahuddin his cousin who
was the ruler over Mosul was the first to
celebrate this. Also the Fatmid
rulers ( read ismali) in
egypt
celebrated this
because the christians
celebrated christmas.
What then is the difference between us and them.
They celebrate the
death/birth of Jesus, we do it for Mohammad(saw).
The prophet also told us we
only have two celebration
(eids).
Why does the
rememberence of the prophet
have to be on a specific day? if we can decide
what days to celebrate on our
own then it is ok to celebrate independence days
also.
If we start celebrating the prophet's birhday
then what about Omar? Abu Bakr
and every righteous person ( Ghous e azam!). Also
then it means it is ok for
us to celebrate our birthdays or our childrens.
I hope I have not offended you, this is just
naseehah ( ad Den u naseehah) in
matters of celebrations, ibadat we only follow
what the prophet has allowed.
It is not a matter of Saudi said this so we must
oppose it ( I myself
disagree with them on a lot of issues). we should
look to the facts.
Salam
Nauman Siddiqi
---------------------
[Ref: to brother who gave
khutba
on love of the
Prophet, pbuh,]
If Brother Muhammad Noor was a student of Prof.
Fazlur Rahman then kindly
send me his contact information and pass on this
email, the attached file,
and my email address to him. While I fully agree
with Brother Muhammad
Noor's position, we all need to work hard to
fully resolve this issue for
the community.
I have developed the attached file, as a start,
as an expanded response on
the same question that I sent in an earlier
email, that I would like you,
Brother Muhammed Nur, and others to review, add
to it or subtract from it,
with the interest to make a complete article on
the subject. At that point
we want to pass on to all brothers and sisters
who have a different opinion
and who may also join to improve the document.
Respectfully, your thoughts should be addressed
to help each other and not
to criticize each other in the interest of acting
as "one Ummah" required
by the Qur'an.
Many of us have different colors, different
nationalities, different races,
differing views, but, fortunately have a united
faith. It is Allah's "Nur"
in our hearts that makes us tolerant, patient,
and peaceful with each
other. Inshallah, with Allah's help, your help
and other's, we will find a
way to solve this and many other issues.
Jazakallah Khayran
Habib Ahmed
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[Editorial response: The date of 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal
is from a primary source,
Ibn Ishaq, in the first century of Islam. So,
we'll accept that over
secondary sources, be it Shibli or anyone else.
Also, we agree with Br. Asif Iqbal that the other
side has gone too far as
well. Without the Prophet's (pbuh) humanity, we
can't have a Sunnah to follow
but only a star to look at and adore.
I listed those aspects of the Prophet's (pbuh)
life which relate to the world
we live in. We should memorialize and celebrate
him and other greats from our
history for THEIR RELEVANCE, not just for their
holiness. We don't become
Christians by doing that, if we do not change it
into worship.
The Saudis are a problem for us because they have
made religion into a dead
bunch of rituals. [Their
'jihad'
is against
improper posture in prayer rather
than against
Israel.]
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2003-05-17 Sat 13:52ct