CORRECTING PEOPLE’S MISTAKES
The Prophetic Approach
IT has been recorded in the books of Hadith (compilation of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet) that the Prophet was once present at the Masjid-an-Nabawi (Prophet’s Mosque) in Madinah along with some of his Companions when a Bedouin—an uncouth tribesman from the desert, entered the mosque and began urinating in a corner. The Prophet’s Companions rushed to stop him forcibly and were about to beat him, but the Prophet forbade them to do so. When the man had finished urinating, the Prophet merely asked his Companions to wash the place clean with a bucket of water. The Prophet then called the Bedouin and explained to him, “Mosques are intended solely for worshipping and remembering God. It is not proper to urinate or defecate in a mosque.”
The Bedouin was impressed by the gentleness of this admonition, considering how outrageous his behaviour had been. If, prior to this, his rusticity had been what conditioned his behaviour, now it was his conscience which gained the upper hand. With his conscience thoroughly awakened, he went back to his tribe. He went on telling everyone about how he had desecrated the mosque in Madinah without the Prophet rebuking him or venting his anger upon him. He explained over and over again how all the Prophet had done was to have the despoiled spot washed with water.
When the Prophet Muhammad was presented in such a light by the Bedouin, it paved the way for the whole of his tribe to enter the fold of Islam. Only one member of the tribe had come to the mosque and experienced the gentleness of the Prophet at a time when he was provoked. It resulted in all the members of the tribe coming to the mosque to worship the one God in all humility and submission.
This is an incident from the time of the Prophet. Here are a few incidents from recent history. In 1831 Syed Ahmad Shaheed Barelvi heard the rumour that certain mosques were being used as stables for the horses of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab. Without waiting for confirmation of this rumour and without making any further investigations of his own he gathered a number of Muslims and headed to Punjab to clash with the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Most of his army was killed or captured, while he was beheaded. According to one account, the earth of Punjab was soaked with Muslim blood.,/p>
Events took a similar turn in 1857 when it was rumoured that the British rulers had supplied Muslim soldiers with cartridges greased with pig fat (lard), and that English soldiers had desecrated a mosque by entering it on horseback. The immediate outcome was a mutiny, but the ultimate result of the Muslims’ reaction to this provocation was that they were massacred in tens of thousands in clashes with the army. And even after the blood of such huge numbers of Muslims had been spilled, the situation, far from improving, went from bad to worse.
This process of clash and confrontation, which began in those early days, has continued to this day. Muslim blood has been shed everywhere. If a non-Muslim throws colour on the wall of a mosque on the festival of Holi; if slogans are raised in front of a mosque; if a procession passes in front of a mosque with a band playing music at high volume; or if there is any other such incident which appears to show disrespect to Islam, Muslims are provoked into fighting. This fighting then develops into riots, and the police resort to firing. Large numbers of people are killed. According to the account of such incidents written by Muslims, Muslim blood could be seen flowing in the streets.
For more than two hundred years, Muslim blood has been flowing in torrents but no positive outcome of this can be witnessed.
Now let us reflect upon this state of affairs. What is the use of this hot-headedness? Does it induce people to discover their Creator and His creation plan for them? Does it turn the opponents of Islam into friends? Does it bring other communities to respect the Islamic faith? Obviously, this is not the case. For more than two hundred years, Muslim blood has been flowing in torrents, but no positive outcome of this can be witnessed.
Why has the outcome been so far short of Muslims’ expectations? How is it that the blood of latter-day generations has not been able to achieve as much as a bucket of water dispensed in the time of the Prophet? It is because the water poured by the Prophet was the water of love, whereas the blood of present-day Muslims has been shed in hatred.
While the Prophet showered on people the water of forgiveness, good wishes, sympathy, love and kindness, the Muslims of today are pouring upon people the blood of hatred, anger, reaction and provocation. This is the difference which accounts for the greater success of the first phase of Islam during which community after community and tribe after tribe appreciated the religion of Islam. From this early position of predominance, Muslims have, in the modern world, been relegated everywhere to a position of inferiority. This in spite of the existence of more than a billion Muslims.
Everyone at birth is endowed with a conscience and an ego. These faculties lie dormant. If you arouse the conscience of your opponent, you will benefit in your relations with him, because it will be the human part of his personality which will come into play. But if you arouse his ego, it will be the animal part of his personality with which you shall have to deal.
The Prophet always tried to arouse the human part of a man. He behaved well not only towards the well-behaved, but also towards the ill–behaved. Thus, the dormant human nature in people would be awakened and would remain so throughout their lives.
The Prophet always tried to arouse the human part of a man. Moreover, he behaved well not only towards the well-behaved, but also towards the ill–behaved. As a result, the dormant human nature in people would be awakened and would remain so throughout their lives.
The present-day Muslims do not practise this Sunnah (practical model) of the Prophet—that is to mete out good treatment in return for ill-treatment. Muslims tend to give in to feelings of reaction. This achieves nothing. It only arouses the ego of the rival.
When they should be offering God’s creatures the “water of love”, they deluge them instead in the “blood of hatred.” In this garden of God, it is only the thorns which will fall to the lot of such people. They can never come into possession of the flowers. This is one of the immutable laws of nature.