SEVERAL months ago, I received emails from non-Arab Muslim readers, who expressed interest in reading for more articles about the lives of the Prophet Mohamed and his companions. From these emails, I realised whatkind of difficulties that these Muslims have in getting more in-depth information about Islam, whether they are new converts or born to Muslimparents. Therefore, I have decided to write a series of articles about the life of the Prophet Mohamed (Peace be upon him) during the great month of Ramadan. However, due to the limited space of this weekly column, it would be difficult to do a full narration of his biography. Instead, I will recount some attitudes and deeds that were of great significance, and give an insight into the kind of person this great man was. When talking about the life of the Prophet Mohamed, we have to go all the way to the time of his birth to realise how Allah the Almighty seemed to have been preparing the universe to receive his last messenger, whose call was directed to the whole world until the Day of Judgement. It is no exaggeration to say that Mohamed is the only prophet in human history whose life been recorded and narrated in such great details. Interestingly, this precise record ofthe Prophet's biography is not limited to his life after revelation, but also includes details from long before that. The birth of Mohamed was connected to the so-called “Year of the Elephant”. During that year, a great and miraculous event took place in Mecca, when Allah saved the Kaaba from being demolished at the hands of the Ethiopian KingAbraha. At that time, Abraha invaded Mecca with an army led by a big elephant, to destroy the Kaaba so that pilgrims would head towards his country to visit the immense church he had set up there, instead of Mecca. Because of his strong faith in Allah, the chieftain of the tribe of Quraish Abdul Mottaleb (the Prophet's grandfather) advised his people to evacuate Mecca and not to confront Abraha's army, but rather to leave it to Allah to protect his ‘house' (the Kaaba). So it happened that all the inhabitants of Mecca saw with their own eyes how Abraha's army was vanquished by invisible soldiers from Heaven. In this special climate of Mecca as it was being prepared for the restoration of monotheism preached by Abraham, Islam's Prophet Mohamed was born as an orphan after his father Abdullah died on a trade journey to the city known then as Yathrib. This city was later renamed Al-Madina Al-Munawara, when the Prophet Mohamed emigrated there with his fellow Muslims to establish the first Islamic city in the world. After the loss of his father while still in his mother's womb, and then the death of his mother at the age of six, Mohamed lived in the custody and care of his loving grandfather Abdul Mottaleb until the age of eight. After his grandfather's death, he moved to the house of his uncle Abu Taleb, who offered endless support to his nephew even after he introduced himself as Allah's Prophet and began calling on people to abandon the worship of idols and to adopt the monotheism of Abraham. Although Abu Taleb never converted to Islam, he offered Mohamed strong support against the infidels of Quraish, who stopped at nothing to derail his divine message. It was thanks to Abu Taleb's support (and that of Khadijah, Mohamed's first wife) that the Prophet was able to continue preaching Islam in Mecca for almost 13 years. The special place of Abu Taleb in Mohamed's heart led him to name the year of Abu Taleb's death the “Year of Sadness”. Despite his young age, upon moving to his uncle's house Mohamed noticed the kind of poverty Abu Taleb was living in. So he decided to help his uncle rather than add more financial burdens to the household. This led to the first and most important step that formed his character, when he decided to work as a shepherd, a vocation that most of the Messengers of Allah practised. This work enabled Mohamed to spend long hours by himself in the desert, contemplating the universe and wondering about its Creator. Abu Taleb never let his nephew go along on any other trips until he turned 25, when he started accompanying the caravans of Khadijah. This great woman of the Quraish chose Mohamed for her husband, because of his honesty and outstanding character. Mohamed's good character was apparent throughout his life, and was evident in the care that he offered to Abu Taleb even after his marriage to Khadijah. To ease his uncle's burdens, he and his other uncle Hamzah decided to take two of Abu Taleb's sons into their custody. Mohamed took Ali to his house to raise with his four daughters, the youngest of whom eventually became Ali's wife, and Hamzah took in Ja'far to look after him. This reveals how an orphan would show great appreciation to the one who looked after him, repaying him with love and care, as Mohamed did with his uncle and cousin. Mohamed's experience of being an orphan and losing his mother and grandfather in his early childhood was reflected to a great extent in his character, and he was very kind and sensitive towards all orphans. One day while walking in Medinah with some of his companions, he saw a group of children playing. One boy stood apart from the rest, crying. Mohamed headed towards the sad boy, asking him about the cause of his tears and why he was not playing with his mates. The boyinformed him of his father's death, and how lonely and different he felt from other children since he didn't have a father to look after him. The Prophet asked the boy if he would be pleased to have him as a father, Fatima as a sisterand Ali as a brother, and the child's face changed from sadness to joy and a bright innocent smile replaced his tears. Mohamed's excellent character, his sense of gratitude towards his uncle, and his concern for orphans are worthy for all Muslims to contemplate and follow as an example. In the case of an orphan who is abandoned by all his family and sent to an orphanage to live, this person would never have a sense of safety or gratitude to society. The lesson we should learn from the Prophet's story and his example is to reconsider the way we deal with orphans and try to answer the following questions. How many of us have an orphan in our extended family or in the neighbourhood, and give him real care? What differences could we make in society if we showed proper care for orphans? Why haven't we ever considered the example of Abu Taleb in looking after his nephew? We haven't realised that the difference between bringing up an orphan surrounded by the warmth of the family and abandoning him to an orphanage, is exactly the difference between raising a child to be a great person and producing a criminal, or at the very least a person who suffers from feelings of malice and envy towards society. [email protected]
