MUHAMMAD (s.a.w) The Protector of Life

MUHAMMAD (s.a.w) The Protector of Life

Written by

DR JAVED JAMIL

Published on

August 8, 2022

Alphonse de LaMartaine in Historie de la Turquie said, “If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls.

“The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of the fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon its utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic revellings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen: all these and finally, his flight, his incessant preaching, his wars against odds, his faith in his success and his superhuman security in misfortune, his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was twofold the unity of God and the immateriality of God: the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not…

“Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs…. the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?”

Researchers, thinkers and writers – his admirers as well as his detractors – have often argued that Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) was a genius. He was a genius, they say, because he “authored” a book that became the most revolutionary and most powerful book in the world, as this book within a span of a few decades galvanised illiterate, corrupt, polytheistic Arabs into world leaders in every field of social existence. The enemies even claim that in “authoring” the Qur’ān he borrowed most of his ideas from Christian sources, studying the whole of which would in itself be a work of no ordinary mortal.  To many thinkers, he was a genius because he showed the quality of a leader that was never shown in the world before; no person other than him could achieve such remarkable successes as he could. He was a genius, others argue, because he showed incomparable skills as a general and introduced such new strategies in the warfare as were never recorded in history before; his severest detractors in fact take huge pains to give credit to his military genius for the successes he achieved.  He was a genius, theologists claim, because he could produce a monotheistic model of religion that proved to be far more attractive than the religious models that were available to the people before his time.

His genius, the sociologists argue, was able to mould divided, disgruntled and debauched natives of Arabian lands into a unit of discipline, dedication and devotion; he created a social structure that had justice, equality, brotherhood, faith in one God, One Prophet, One Book and One Ka’ba as the uniting symbols, a social structure that gave the slaves, women and the other deprived classes reasons to wholeheartedly embrace the “new religion”. He was a genius, economists assert – recent global economic crisis strengthened this belief, because he had marvellous ideas about running an economy successfully without resorting to rely on dangerous practices like usury, and without letting evils like gambling, alcohol and sex getting commercialised.

Political experts have called him a political genius as he was able to transform into an unchallenged political leader, using all the tools of successful politicking in the process – vows of allegiance, treaties, alliances, protests, sieges and wars. Moral scientists can also argue that he was a genius because despite the huge political and social issues involved, morality remained at the top of his agenda, and he could develop an impeccable code of conduct spelling dos and donts of behaviour in their finest details. If Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) was a Supergenius composed of such a huge variety of geniuses, he simply could not be a mortal genius; he was surely a Divine Genius – Divine in the sense that he had Divine Support – who was the Best Product of the Creation with the Most Developed Brain of all times, a brain that could receive transmissions from God the Creator and could successfully carry out the commands and implement the plans that they carried with them.

If we try to pinpoint one ultimate purpose the whole comprehensiveness of his Project had, it was perhaps the protection of life – both in the world and the Hereafter, the most essential part of the Project being the development of a proper relationship between Life and Life-Giver without which life could not have been protected and secured. In fact, it was not merely the protection of life from the external and internal threats but also the perfection of life through a divine channel that supplied it with all that it needed for its final aim.

Life is not just the physical life; it has moral, spiritual and social components. Life is also not related to this world; its Second Birth will be in a New World totally different from the present one. Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) protected all these components of life ensuring not only its longevity but its peacefulness. Here however I would limit this discussion to the physical part of the life in this world. The system Muhammad presided over not only respects life but safeguards it from all forms of threats. These threats include not just the ones from harmful foods, drinks and practices but also the human threats to humans.

Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) was neither the first nor somewhere in the middle of the chain of prophets. He was the Final Prophet, and the System he created under the Guidance of God has a stamp of finality in all its aspects. He perfected a life protective system that protected individuals, family and society. In the process of establishing it, he created a unique system comprising Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Fundamental Prohibitions; this three-dimensional system created favourable conditions not only for the survival of life, but also for its longevity and quality.

On the Divine Mission as he was, he did not leave it for the posterity to implement the system; he successfully initiated the implementation himself by not just advising his followers to give up health-damaging practices and adopt health-enhancing ones but also by erecting a legal framework that would make the system itself health-protective. For example, he did not just ask individuals to refrain from harmful practices like alcohol, gambling and sexual misdemeanours but also banned all the commercial and social uses of these practices.

The individuals who threatened the lives of human beings for their own ends did not deserve any mercy from the law and attracted punishments, the severity of punishments corresponding to the seriousness of their crimes. If their misdemeanours threatened the lives of the people; they would even face death. The lives of the minority can be taken to save the lives of the majority rather than saving the lives of the minority risking the lives of the majority. The murders, the rapists, the adulterers had no right to sympathy, as they threatened the lives of fellow human beings.

Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) successfully implemented Prohibition, something that no other leader or system could achieve before or after him, except of course his followers. The followers of Jesus could not even agree on whether wine is desirable or undesirable. No other religion could enforce prohibition even if some of them showed clear disapproval.

According to a hadith, ‘When the prohibition of wine (was yet to be) declared, Umar said: O Allah, give us a satisfactory explanation about wine. So the following verse of Surat al-Baqarah revealed; “They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: In them is great sin….” Umar was then called and it was recited to him. He said: O Allah, give us a satisfactory explanation about wine. Then the following verse of Surat an-Nisa’ was revealed: “O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged….” Thereafter the herald of the Apostle of Allah would call when the (congregational) prayer was performed: Beware, one who is drunk should not come to prayer. Umar was again called and it was recited to him. He said: O Allah, give us a satisfactory explanation about wine. This verse was revealed: “Will ye not then abstain?” Umar said: We abstained.’ (Hadith – Abu Dawood, Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab)

The same is true of enforcement of laws related to gambling and sex. He showed to the world that the State has a role to play in protecting the lives of the people; citizens of a State cannot be charged alone with the responsibility of protecting themselves. The ordinary people cannot be left to the mercy of the cunning that seek to misguide and lure them for their selfish ends. The whole machinery of the State including Law, Executive and Media must be employed to help the masses in protecting themselves from dangerous practices. The State is duty bound to eliminate not only the dangers to life but human hands and brains that create the dangers.

One additional task of the State is to protect its citizens from wars and civil wars. To prepare for defeating back the aggressors, to campaign against the loss of lives caused by tyrants, terrorists, merchants of death, organised criminal gangs in all possible ways – military and non-military, are all the functions of the state which Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) successfully demonstrated when he became head of the nascent Islamic State. He fought wars when there was no other option left but preferred to use peaceful methods for achieving the ultimate peace. Saving the life was obviously the most important consideration in arriving at the decision.

How much protection Muhammad gave to life is clear from the fact that even now if Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) is accepted as the Ultimate Guide of humanity, every year more than 80 million lives can be saved. These include

        2 million murders

        2.2 million suicides

        5 million deaths from AIDS

        5 million deaths from smoking

        2 million deaths associated with alcohol

        2 million deaths associated with gambling and drugs

        70 million cases of feticide.

Eighty million is no small numbers. And I have proved in my paper on life expectancy that applying Islam would mean a remarkable increase in life expectancy.  Alcohol decreases life expectancy by about 10 years, gambling by about 10, promiscuity by about 15 and homosexuality by about 25 years. Pork too, directly (pork related diseases) or indirectly (pigs related diseases like Swine flu), can cause a big loss of lives. On the other hand, breastfeeding for 2 years (promoted by Qur’ān and the Prophet) increases life expectancy by more than 10 years and circumcision more than 15 years. The practice of Iddah (Minimum waiting period between two marriages of the same woman), the miswak (brushing teeth preferably by natural botanical brushes), the use of honey, kalaunji (both immensely liked by the Prophet), regular prayers, games involving physical exercises (also liked by the Prophet) are all capable of significantly increasing life expectancies.

I wish the world adopted aggressive life protective policies of Muhammad, the greatest protector of life the world has ever produced.

[DR JAVED JAMIL is Executive Chairman, International Centre for Applied Islamics; and Chief Editor & Owner, Islam, Muslims & the World]