In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, The subject of today’s discussion is this: what qualitative changes or developments do we witness in the person of a divine prophet or messenger and the world around him when the burden of God’s mission or prophethood is put on the shoulders of a prophet? In this lecture, however, I am not going to discuss the internal, spiritual and psychological state of the person of the prophet. And if I refer a point or two in this respect, it is meant to shed more light on a certain dimension of prophethood.
As you know whenever the Quran talks about the coming of a prophet, the word ‘be’that’, from the Arabic verbal root of ‘be’that’ is used which means ‘to raise’, as in Sura Al-Nahl, Aya 36: “indeed We raised a messenger in every nation (in every community)…”. We often read in the Quran ‘We raised Moses, We raised Abraham, We raised other prophets’. So we may ask: what is the relation between this raising and prophethood? As you see, the topic in the papers I handed to you is ‘The question of social upraising in prophethood’. This means that in prophethood there is an initial phase of ‘raising up’. As I said earlier this raising up contains some kind of movement and dynamism; it means ‘moving again after a long social period of languor, immobility and sluggishness’. An example to clarify this point is the state of the dead, lying in graveyards for long, long years with all their bodies turned to dust, who will, by the power of God Almighty, rise up on the Day of Resurrection. Here it is also said that they were ‘raised’. Another instance would be the case of a person who lies in bed at home most of the time, who does not participate in any social activity and does not do any work and he is taken here and there by social waves as a piece of straw on a fast current. Now if this individual, due to some factor or incentive, gives up his indifference and idleness and takes an active part in his familial and social functions and, in one word, if he becomes alert and conscious and conscionable, we could say that he was ‘raised’ or ‘he has been revived’.
The Day of Resurrection, as you know, is also called ‘Yaum al-ba’th’ which means ‘the day of being raised.’ That Day the people who have come out of their graves face tumultuous, anxious conditions before their final fate is determined. All the examples I cited were meant to give you some portrayal of divine raising of the prophets to let you gain a novel insight about prophethood. Some people think that prophethood is like: a preacher arriving in a town to tell people something about religion and irreligion, faith and faithlessness; or a learned religious man going to the people and talking to them about some common-place questions, or a speaker at a demonstration who shouts some slogans to arouse the crowd’s feelings! Truly some people imagine that God’s prophets are like these preachers or speakers; they further assume that prophets are some shy, spiritual gentlemen who talk about spiritual matters whom some good people follow- these are the faithful- and some others do not appreciate their advices- they are then called disbelievers or polytheists-; some of us do imagine that God’s prophets are such persons as I described.
But in divine prophethoods there are two developments: Firstly in the person of the prophet; and he is the first who is awakened as a result of an internal, spiritual revolution and after gifts in his soul deposited by God Almighty which were so far hidden in his self are revived and, in one word, when he is drastically changed by receiving God’s Revelations, and in Quranic terms, when he becomes ‘a muslim’ (absolute submitter to God), then his received knowledge, instructions and intrinsic talents find their way to the society like an ever-flowing, benevolent river. In other words, after this spiritual revolution in the soul of the prophet, he causes a greater revolution in his society or community. Thus we could say that in the ‘be’that’ of the prophets, everything is: change, development, dynamism and revolution.
How is the spiritual state of a prophet before being raised? There are a couple of points in this respect that may even seem contradictory to some people. One is that the prophet, even before ‘be’that’, must be a person who possesses higher human comprehension and cognition than ordinary people; his potential for serving God, for dynamic actions and for tolerating the psychological explosion in his soul, must be at the most sublime, human level; all those necessary qualities which may advance humans to attain the height of “…we are of God and unto Him we shall return.” All this shows that closeness to God and fearing God is far stronger in the soul and character of the prophet than others even before his appointment to prophethood.
Here a question may arise in your mind: Why does he have such a character and spiritual strength? Has God been discriminating in this respect? I have one short answer to this question: To carry out the heaviest responsibility of the prophetic mission, to take the message of God to all people and to change ignorant, faithless societies to monotheism, he needs to be the strongest, the most steadfast and morally the best in human community; God sees everything and He sees and knows all individuals. It so happens that an individual, due to his familial characteristics, circles of friends, environmental circumstances or other factors affecting his mind and soul, possesses a higher spiritual strength; God Almighty sees all this, He chooses that individual and, through His Grace and Blessing, prepares him for carrying out this most difficult of worldly obligations; no ordinary person could fulfill this divine duty. It takes such a prophet to do the job. It cannot be done by Platos, Aristotles or Mahatma Gondhis of the world! To sum up, we may say that the spiritual deposits in the mind and soul of a divine prophet should be richer, deeper and more employable for the mission than other people.
The second point is this: the lives of prophets, before being chosen, were as ordinary people, they were members of their community, had friends and associates like others and did move with the currents of the society. They were not thinking of changing their society. They were not thinking of changing their societies radically; they could be dissidents and not happy with the state of affairs. In fact intelligent people of those eras were certainly not content with the prevalent ignorance of the majority and the horrible, class differences, of existing poverties and the oppression of the despotic rules but before prophethood, their discontent had not the form and nature of a radical, social revolution.
At this juncture, let’s remember Moses (AS). He lives in the royal castle of Pharaoh, benefits from the privileges of being a prince, and once in a bazaar murders an official of the Pharaoh who was cruel to a Jew, of the same race as Moses! And then when returning from Midian after working for Prophet Shu’aib for many years, he receives God’s Revelation concerning his prophethood. He then, as a divine prophet, when asked why he murdered a man, replies “I did that when I was misguided”. What does ‘I was misguided mean? It means that at that time I was not on the right path, he does not say that killing one of Pharaoh’s officials was a great sin, no, his statement means that on that occasion I was not following a direct, divine path, and that I was just like other ordinary people and I was behaving just like many other members of the society, but now after be’that whatever I do is directed by a clear pure philosophy and through God’s clear Revelations.
On our own holy Prophet (SA) the verses of Sura Al-Dzoha (93) explicitly explain what I have been saying so far. It begins with “By morning light”; I have noted a few lines about this in the papers handed to you. The Quran interpreters have various opinions about this verse; there are also some comments in Narrations reaching us. I looked at them all and found out that the Narrations included comments and explanations, not an outright translation of the verse. This means that the Imams inferred something more from the verse in addition to its apparent meaning.
Anyway, Al-Dzoha is God’s swearing by daylight, that is, the morning light before noontime. This kind of oath is profoundly meaningful; perhaps in it there is some reference to the Prophet’s mission, a reference to the light of Islam brought about by it to illuminate the world. Then we read: “And by falling night, you are not abandoned by your Lord, nor is He unconcerned (upset) with you.” Reportedly after the inception of Revelations and the ensuing spiritual revolution in the mind and soul of the holy Prophet and his intimate meeting with Arch-Angel Gabriel, He did not receive any Revelations and was badly saddened. How long did this interval last? There are various reports about it ranging from 40 days to a couple of years. And after this interval the Sura Al-Dzoha is the very first good news that the Prophet receives. And then as we read in the verse, God informs him that He has not left him alone and that He was not angry with him at all.
Further in the Sura we read: “and that which for you lies in store, excels all that has gone before, And soon you shall be granted, such plenty by your Lord that you shall be delighted.” So God tells His prophet that the future and the end of affairs will be far better for him, and that God will grant him such blessings that he would be the happiest man on earth. Some Quran commentators have said that the blessing that makes the Prophet so happy is the permission to intercede. But we should know that even in this world so much was granted to the holy Prophet of Islam that may not be really measured; these bounties or blessings include: guidance of humanity, defeating bull-headed, bloody enemies, the formation of an ideal society, conquest of other territories and putting the Islamic community on a continuous, progressive path; such blessings may not really be counted.
Then in the same verse we read: “Did He not find you orphaned, and He provided you with shelter”. God found you an orphan, your father had died before you were born, your mother passed away when you were a baby, your dear grand-father also died in a few years and you were left alone when your uncle , Abutaalib took you under his care, and that it was We who always looked after you. In other words God is telling His prophet that We have always cared for you, and now that you have been assigned to carry out Our heavy mission of prophethood, We shall be watchful of you and We will assist you, so don’t you ever fear anything, and never think that God has abandoned you, no, never.
The next verse in this Sura is most controversial: “Did He not find you drifting and He directed you thereafter.” About this verse and the word ‘dzaallan’ meaning drifting, astray, wrong, in error, etc. There are many Narrations, most of them weak ones, and there are various opinions by commentators such as: when a child, the Prophet lost his way in the hills around Mecca and God guided his grand-father to find him; or you were nobody among the inhabitants of Mecca but God guided many people in Mecca to come to you; there are many more of such comments and opinions. Here I don’t intend to refute them all; if there is an authentic narration, of course, we will not reject it.
However the apparent, outward says something different: you were ‘astray’ and We guided you to the straight path. Now, does this mean that he was an idol-worshipper, a pervert or a sinner? Absolutely not. So what does the word ‘dzaallan’ really mean? It means that then, the Straight path of ‘be’that’ and prophethood had not been granted you and that all those Revelations, teachings, laws and injunctions and clear Islamic concepts had not descended on the heart and mind of the holy Prophet. Could it be otherwise? Certainly he was not ‘astray’ as some assume.
Let’s read on the Sura: “Did He not find you needful and then He made you prosper? Therefore the orphan, do not abandon! And then the needful beggar, do never censure! But the Favour of your own Lord, tell them abroad!” Well, what do these verses tell us? As their apparent meanings go, the prophet was an ordinary member of his community, he went on living like others but certainly he was not content with the prevailing circumstances when he saw the influential, young men of Quraish forcibly possessing the slave-women belonging to others and many other forms of cruelty and oppression that the lower members of the society were subjected to. That’s why he, at twenty, encouraged some other young men to establish the circle called ‘Helf-Al-Fuzul’ (roughly meaning ‘the Covenant of the Chivalrous’) to defend the rights of the down-trodden and poor passengers arriving in Mecca. We do know, however, that Muhammad (SA) never bowed down before the Quraish idols, he never allied with the rich and the powerful and always lived in that community as a free-thinking, chivalrous person in the natural, current course of events (to the audience: please make a pass-way for the ladies to pass through, a space for the arrival of the ladies, if there are enough room in front of the entrance-door, please move there or sit outside, please).
Now let’s continue our discussions. We were saying that the Prophet was living in his community as an ordinary person but suddenly he becomes the target of receiving Revelations; this tumultuous, revolutionary change is so severe and so soul-shaking that it even affects his nervous system and his physical health. Up on the Nour Hill when he receives his very first Revelation, and he seems to be on fire all of a sudden when God’s messenger orders him to read and the Prophet says ‘what shall I read’ or ‘I can’t read’ according to different commentators and when the verses continue, one may imagine that the mind and soul of the Prophet is aflame, these verses, descending on an honest, thoughtful person, bring about a great, spiritual revolution. Let’s now read these revolutionary verses again “In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful: Read! In the Name of your Lord who created all there is.(1) Created humans from coagulated blood.(2) Read, and your Lord is Most exalted.(3) He tutored by the pen.(4) What man knew not, He helped him ken(5)”. After this great Revelation the holy Prophet is not the personality he was an hour ago or even a moment ago. It was the beginning of what turned out to become a world revolution; if he had not so wonderfully changed, he would not have been in a position to change the world around him. This is an important lesson for the followers of the holy Prophet of Islam, that is, they should know that as long as they have not undergone a spiritual change, they will not be able to change the world.
If we know nothing about our own existence, if we are not aware of the divine mercy and God’s blessing and if we have not gained any spiritual benefits, what then do we have to offer to other people? As we see in the person of the holy Prophet, firstly a revolutionary, spiritual change came about in his soul and then he could manage to educate men to become faithful companions who were ready to give up their lives rather than their faith. Remember the case of Balaal, the Ethiopian slave who was put under most inhuman tortures for hours but even to the last minutes of those tough tortures cried out ‘Al-Ahad, Al-Ahad’ meaning ‘the only One, the only One’ at the polytheists of Quraish which in fact meant ‘death to you polytheists. It was not a simple, easy job for the holy Prophet to train and form most faithful companions such as Abu-Dhar, Meghdaad or Abdullah Mas’oud.
Thus we must find out what that first Revelation did to the Prophet that made him the greatest, most influential and faith-inspiring person among the backward-looking Arabs of his time. For this we should have another glimpse at the initial verse of Sura Al-Alaq: “Read in the Name of your Lord who has created all and everything…”. We should really pay attention to the phrase ‘in the Name of You, Lord Who created all there is’. This means that the very first thing a believer should recognize, as our holy Prophet did, is the simple question of Creation; this is really the first thing that attracts the hearts and minds of the faithful: the recognition of the fact that all there is and every manifestation of existence are created by God Almighty.
When this fact is recognized, the Quran takes a step further about the creation of humanity: “Created humans from coagulated blood.” Well, you see that humans so created, are in many ways superior to other beings. This is a most important matter that people do not deeply think about, as when you are sitting in a car speeding on a road, you cannot really pay attention to hundreds of trees that appear and disappear in front of your eyes. Here I should here add that this difference between humans and other animals is not recognized by the despots and dictators of the world because in their sight thousands of men are like thousands of ants; they just murder thousands and millions of men and women by dropping a bomb on them.
As I said at first one does not clearly see the great differences between men and other animals, but if you think about this subject deeply and wisely you come to know those factors that make humans far superior to animals. Let’s point to some of these differences: the power of intellect and wisdom, the ability to recognize generalities and universalities, the power to deduct facts from parts and particulars, the power of initiatives and innovations. Such powers are not granted to stones, trees and animals! Only take the gift of innovation. If we had no gift of innovation and taking initiatives, humanity would have stayed at its primitive stage and could not bring about any changes or developments in its life, culture and civilization. I cited the example of bees that have been setting up their hives in the same form and carrying out certain activities since ancient times. Humans have the power of determination and intelligence to make different choices; they do not follow their instincts only but using their intellects they could even act contrary to their instincts. Some of these instincts are the need to eat and the desire to satisfy sexual needs. But then you notice that some people go on hunger strikes for a purpose and don’t eat until they die or some Indian Ascetics avoid sexual intercourse whole their lives and some such people only have one almond as their daily nutrition. It’s only humans who could go against their instincts. What I said so far shows that humans are extraordinary and surprising animates. Recently many scientists with materialistic outlooks who used to think of human as only a different kind of animal, have confessed that humans possess certain powers that have inexplicably astonished them!
Briefly, and as far as we are concerned, humans possess certain excellent qualities, all deposited in the soul and spirit of men and women by God Almighty according to the Quran “…and I breathed into him of My Spirit…”.
Let’s go back to our discussion of prophethood. The revealed verses we already read, suddenly made the holy Prophet realize something much loftier than a simple creation of the worlds: the creation of mankind, the creation of intelligence and other human gifts from a simple ‘coagulated blood’! If humans lacked such God-given faculties, how could then a soulless body with no power of recognition turn into a person such as Einstein, Socrates or a great divine prophet? Could it be so except through the strong creation of the Creator. The Revelations made the Prophet aware of this most important fact. These divine verses equipped the holy Prophet with such iron-willed determination, so much so that fatigue, disappointment and despair had no meaning in his life.
Then we have “He taught by the pen…” and that “Your Lord is most exalted.” Here we learn about education, if we had no facility of writing, humanity would not move forward. What makes man to take further, progressive steps is what’s written down by his predecessors; otherwise he could not know what his previous generations had gone through and what progress they had made. If there was no ‘pen’, that is, the ability to write down what man experienced in his own time, then none of the scientific discoveries and novel results of men’s research could have been at the disposal of such great thinkers as Aristotle, or Avicenna. If Avicenna did not have the Aristotle’s writings, he could not become Avicenna.
So God Almighty turns His prophet into a firm, unshakable faithful person who’ll never know fear and fatigue. Then He draws the attention of the Prophet to the greatness and generousness of God and the fact of educating by the pen; could you imagine if we did not possess the faculty to write? Writing was the means that enabled humans to pass their knowledge, experience and achievements to the next generations; this process went on and thus humanity could accumulate its scientific knowledge. If books were not written by Aristotle, it would have been improbable for Avicennas of this world to expand and advance human knowledge and sciences. There are many more examples of scientists, philosophers and researchers in the world who cashed in on the achievements of their predecessors and contributed vastly to the progress of human culture, science and civilization and all this was achieved ‘by the pen’ and by writing things down.
Then we read in the same Sura (Al-Alaq) that God taught men what they did not know; this represents the numerous bounties and blessings granted to man, so that he should be grateful to God and thank Him for what He has given him and what He has taught him. God granted humans intelligence and wisdom and showed him the right paths to happiness, progress and salvation so that humans could elevate their spiritual power and remove poverty, hunger and deviation from their communities. But despite the advancements we already mentioned, is man really enjoying those God-given bounties?
“No, Not at all”, says the next verse: “No, Man is surely insolent(6) in thinking that he is self-sufficient(7)”. No, humanity has not yet got to the high level God guided it because many people have been rebellious and unthankful to God thinking they need Him no more! But the next verses say that such people will never succeed in life and they won’t have a happy end, because: ‘Certainly everything will return to your Lord.” This means the rebellious, godless people will not be salvaged; they’ll be returned to God and shall receive suitable retribution. There are many more truths in these verses and you can imagine what a great revolution they brought about in the mind and soul of our holy Prophet and the same effects were reflected in the community through the person of the Prophet.
I also like to cite some verses of the Sura Al-Najm here for more clarification of what went on in the soul of the Prophet when he received those verses; I try to explain them as understanding them well, also helps our practices and our behaviour. Here I only reiterate the verses 1 to 12 of this Sura and bring our discussion to a conclusion. It says: “In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. By Pleiades fading away.(1) Your fellow-townsman is not astray, nor was he led awry.(2) Nor does he ever say aught of his imagination;(3) it’s naught but Revelation sent down by inspiration.(4)” God Almighty confirms that His prophet has never been on the wrong path; some commentators believe that this verse refers to the ‘me’raaj’, the holy Prophet’s nightly journey to heavens; they say that the people did not believe what the Prophet said about this heavenly journey and so this Revelation was sent down to confirm that He never talks whimsically and imaginatively but only repeats God’s Revelations. The Sura goes on to declare that: “instruction was unto him given by one, of mighty sway(5)”. I think that in the papers I handed and to you at the start of this meeting, I wrote ‘most powerful’ for the Quranic phrase “Shadeed-Al-Quwa” and according to many commentators the next phrase ‘Dzu Merra’ means ‘most wise’ which most of them say that it is the Arch-Angel Gabriel. Next we read: “…Endued with Wisdom, and he was A perfect vision And he was on the highest point of the horizon…”. Again, according to famous interpreters, he was inspired by Gabriel who was most steadfast in his mission, and he is on the highest horizon possible, and so he (Gabriel) had to come down to the holy Prophet who, through his worshipping of God, through his praying and inspirations, was ready to receive these heavy Revelations. The words ‘danaa’ and ‘tadalla’ in the Quran, mean that Gabriel approached the holy Prophet; he was so near to the Prophet “two bow-lengths away or closer even…”. This means that he was very close to the Prophet, say, less than two meters; these are metaphoric examples, it truly means that the holy spirit of the holy Prophet was so close to God that one cannot imagine a closer relation to God Almighty.
Next we read: “ And he was on the highest point of the horizon-(7) And nearer did he come while in descent –(8) And was then two bow-lengths away or closer even –(9) then He revealed the Revelation unto His servant-(10) The heart could not deny the vision-(11) How could you question then what he has seen?(12)” These are verses 7 to 12 of Sura Al-Najm. Some of these verses I have already explained. Now about ‘coming closer’, the Quranic commentators have expressed two different opinions. One is that the holy Prophet, through his worshipping God, his prayers, his ascetic way of life, his constant thinking and deliberation about God and, of course, God’s special kind attention to him, his soul and spirit got nearer and nearer to God every day until he was spiritually ready to receive Revelations. The second interpretation is that it was Gabriel who descended from heavens and stood so close to the holy Prophet. Both these interpretations may be true, only I personally favour the first interpretation.
Anyway when it is said that Gabriel was about two bow-lengths or, say, two meters away from the Prophet, we are speaking figuratively; the essence of the phrase is that the holy spirit of the Prophet was as close to God as impossible for any other human. Then God tells the people that His Prophet is a most righteous man, that he has truly received God’s Revelation, and that he is not telling a lie; therefore do not argue with him and do not dispute with him about what he has truthfully seen and witnessed. And a last word: after such a revolutionary, spiritual change in the mind and heart of the Prophet, he tries to guide the whole people unto the right path of God; this will be the topic of our next meeting.
