THE PATH OF THE PROPHET
Evolution not Revolution
The word “sunnah” in Arabic means a path. In the religious context, it refers to the manner of life pleasing to God, which has been revealed to man through His Prophets. The word is used in the Quran for all the forms divine law has taken throughout the ages.
When God created the world, He also ordained a path to follow. Moreover, he enforced this divine course so strictly on the world of nature that there cannot be the slightest deviation from it. But God did not impose His will on humanity. Instead, he gave us freedom of thought and action: those who followed His path of their own free will would be rewarded with paradise, while those who deviated from it would be punished in hellfire.
God wishes to make this known, guide you along the path of those who have gone before you, and turn to you in mercy. He is Wise, Knowing.
God’s prophets came to the world to make this chosen path plain to us. In their words and deeds, they showed us how to live by the will of God. This way of life is known in Islam as the sunnah, or path, of the prophets. It covers every aspect of life, from personal matters to social reform and nation-building. Those who earnestly seek to be included amongst God’s chosen servants must follow the path of the Prophet in all respects. In no walk of life should they consider themselves free to tread another course.
The most important practice of the Prophet’s personal life was preaching the word of God. A study of his life shows that his most significant concern was to bring people to the path of the Lord. That his concern had turned to anguish is clear from this verse of the Quran:
You will perhaps fret yourself to death on account of their unbelief.
The Prophet said that one who disregarded his sunnah was not one of his community. Just as this remark applies to the marriage contract and other social obligations, so does it equally apply to calling people to the path of God. Therefore, only those have the right to be called faithful followers of the Prophet, who, along with other obligations enjoined by him, adopt this all-important practice of
the Prophet.
One aspect of the Prophet’s public mission was a realistic, step-by-step approach to everything he did. In applying theoretical standards, he always made allowances for practical realities. He was always careful to introduce social reforms gradually. In modern jargon, his approach can be called evolutionary rather than revolutionary. ‘Aisha, the Prophet’s wife, has explained this principle very clearly:
The first chapters of the Quran to be revealed were short ones making mention of heaven and hell. Then, when people became conditioned to accept Islamic teachings, verses dealing with what is lawful and unlawful were revealed. And if injunctions like: “Do not drink wine” and “Do not commit adultery” had been revealed first, people would have refused to abandon these practices.
With the conquest of Makkah in A.H. 8, the Prophet assumed complete control over the Arabian capital. Yet he did not seek immediate implementation of Islamic laws in the House of God in Makkah; whatever was to be done, he did gradually. Islamic rule had been established in the holy city when the pilgrimage of A.H. 8 took place, but it was performed according to ancient, pre-Islamic custom. Next year, the second pilgrimage of the Islamic era was performed with the polytheists following their traditions and the Muslims theirs. Only in the third year the Prophet announced that the pilgrimage would be performed entirely according to Islamic tenets. This pilgrimage is known as Hajjat al-Wida’ in Islamic history—the farewell pilgrimage of the Prophet.
It was instinctively abhorrent to the Prophet that the polytheists should come to the Sacred Mosque and perform the rites of pilgrimage according to their customs. Yet, despite the power he wielded, he did not hurry to implement the Islamic system. Rather, he refrained from going to Makkah on a pilgrimage for two years after the conquest. “I would not like to go on a pilgrimage while the polytheists are coming there and performing the rites of pilgrimage naked,” he would say when the Hajj season arrived.
Some Muslims went on Hajj the year after the conquest of Makkah (A.H. 8), but the Prophet was not among them. The following year in A.H. 9, the Muslim party of pilgrims was led by Abu Bakr. It was after this that the polytheists were banned from making the pilgrimage. The prohibition came in this verse of the Quran:
Believers know that idolaters are unclean. Let them not approach the Sacred Mosque after this year is ended.
The Prophet then sent his cousin ‘Ali to Makkah with orders that he should mingle amongst the gathering of pilgrims and proclaim that after this year, no polytheist would be allowed to come on Hajj and tawaf (circumambulation of the House of God) in a naked state would not be permitted. Then, in the third year, following the gradual elimination of polytheism, the Prophet undertook what was to be his final pilgrimage to the Sacred Mosque.
This shows how the Prophet was careful to introduce reforms gradually. Even when he wielded power, he did not attempt to hurry Islamic legislation; he allowed matters to take their natural course, proceeding stage by stage until the desired conclusion was reached; he would hold himself back from introducing the desired measures, but he would not seek to hold the polytheists back from their activities until the time came when they were ready to refrain
from them.
Many sides of the Prophet have not generally been acknowledged as necessary: for one thing, his realistic and gradual approach to everything he did has never been hailed as being of particular significance. For instance, the Prophet lived in Makkah for thirteen years after the commencement of his prophetic mission, but not once did he remonstrate against the continual desecration of the Kab’ah. Even after conquering the city, he was in no hurry to abolish vain and frivolous customs. He waited for two years, even though he had the power to take immediate action. Only in the third year did he introduce the reforms he had in mind.
A gradual approach reaps several advantages, which cannot be accrued from any other method. First, it guarantees success in attaining one’s objectives. One who adopts this approach does not advance further until he has consolidated his previous position. He does not let himself be carried away by his zeal; instead, taking external factors into account, he proceeds with the times. There can be no doubt that one, who is so cautious in his progress, will ultimately reach his goal.
Moreover, there is less risk of incurring unnecessary losses or liabilities. Those who seek to achieve too much too soon find, inevitably, that they have to surmount enormous obstacles before they are really in a position to do so. Such attempts can result in incalculable loss of life and widespread property damage. Making amends for such imprudence could take centuries.
Unswerving Obedience
Towards the end of the Prophet’s life, the fertile regions bordering pre-Islamic Arabia were controlled by the two great imperial powers of the day—the Sassanians and the Byzantines. To the north lay the emirates of Basra and Ghasasina and the Roman province of Petraea, ruled by Arab chieftains. Roman influence there had led most of the inhabitants to embrace Christianity. To the south and northeast were the emirates of Bahrayn, Yamamah, Yemen and Oman, the last known as the Mazun province. These states were under the Persian (Sassanian) Empire, and the religion of their Persian masters—Zoroastrianism—had spread among their peoples.
In A.H. 6 (A.D. 628), the Prophet made a ten-year truce with the Quraysh at Hudaybiyyah. Then, with peace on the home front, he sent letters to the rulers of the territories surrounding Arabia, inviting them to accept Islam. The Prophet’s envoy took one such letter, Shuja’ ibn Wahb al-Asadi, to al-Harith ibn Abu Shimr of Ghasasina. The words in the letter, “have faith in God; you will retain your sovereignty”, incensed the Arab chieftain. He threw the letter aside, saying: “Who can take away my kingdom?”
The ruler of Basra, Shurahbil ibn ‘Amr Ghassani, proved even more contemptuous. The Prophet sent Harith ibn ‘Umayr with a letter to this Roman governor. On the Syrian border, he entered the town of Mu’tah and was killed there by an Arab, acting at the governor’s behest.
According to international conventions, this act amounted to aggression by one state against another. There were also signs that the Roman army based in Syria was planning to advance on Madinah: Byzantium could not tolerate the emergence and development of an independent power on Arab soil.
When news of Harith ibn ‘Umayr’s murder reached Madinah, the Prophet decided that military action would have to be taken against the perpetrators of such cold-blooded aggression. He gave orders that the Muslims should gather—with their weapons—at a place called Harq. A force of three thousand, under Zayd ibn Harithah, was assembled. After delivering some parting advice, the Prophet sent them to Syria.
When the Muslim army arrived at Ma’an in Syria, they pitched camp. The governor of Basra had already prepared for battle, and he was further encouraged by the news that the Roman emperor, Heraclius, had arrived in nearby Ma’ab with a force of 1,00,000. The local Christian tribes, Lakhm, Juzam, Qayn, Bahra and Balli, supported their Byzantine co-religionists and agreed to fight under the leadership of the Banu Balli chieftain, Malik ibn Zafilah. Then, this Roman force of over 100,000 was amassed on the Syrian front to meet a Muslim army of only 3,000 men.
Zayd ibn Harithah was slain in battle, and two subsequent leaders—Ja’far ibn Abi Talib and ‘Abdullah ibn Rawahah, were also martyred after him. The collapse of the standard led to disarray in the Muslim ranks. Then a soldier named Thabit ibn Aqram came forward, lifted the standard, and cried out to his fellow Muslims: “Agree on one leader!” “We have agreed on you,” they shouted back. Thabit, however, declined to accept the command and asked for it to be conferred instead on Khalid ibn al-Walid. The Muslims shouted their agreement. Hearing this, Khalid ibn al-Walid came forward, held the standard aloft, and advanced on the Roman lines. The Byzantine forces were then forced to retreat.
The outcome of this battle was indecisive, however, and there always remained the possibility that the Arabs of Petraea, with Roman help, would advance on Madinah and seek to stamp out the nascent power of Islam. That threat had been felt as early as A.H. 5, when ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, on being asked by another companion if he had heard any news, replied: “What? Have the Ghasasina arrived?”
The Prophet was fully aware of this threat and made sure in his last days that full preparation had been made for a force to combat the Petraean wing of the Roman army. The recruited force included leading companions such as Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, but the Prophet did not put them in command. Instead, he wisely appointed Usamah ibn Zayd, who, besides being a courageous young warrior, was also spurred on by the fact that his father, Zayd ibn Harithah, had been killed by the Romans in the Battle of Muta. This army, however, was unable to advance during the lifetime of the Prophet. With his death in A.H. 10, Abu Bakr was appointed as the first Caliph, and he finally gave the order to march on Syria.
After the death of the Prophet, news started pouring into Madinah of mass apostasy among Arab tribes. Most Arab tribes that embraced Islam after the conquest of Makkah in A.H. 8 had converted impressed by the political dominance of Islam rather than from having undergone any profound intellectual transformation or from having attained any such conviction as had the earlier followers of the Prophet. They had been accustomed to a free and easy life, and some of the Islamic injunctions—especially zakat43 were more than they could tolerate. Some months before the death of the Prophet, demagogues had arisen in Yemen and Najd that exploited this situation putting forward a new brand of Islam, according to which there was no need to pay zakat. To give their words more weight, these demagogues—notably Aswad and Musaylamah—laid claim to prophethood, for only then could they challenge the zakat system.
Zakat was part of the religion revealed to the Prophet Muhammad; they would have to pretend to prophethood to speak with the same authority. Their “prophethood” became very popular among the tribes who regarded zakat as a burden and flocked to these false prophets’ support. Their morale was boosted with the death of the Prophet in A.H. 10, and apostasy started spreading like wildfire, the only places remaining immune being Makkah, Madinah and Ta’if. There were reports, too, that these rebels were preparing to attack Madinah.
Much as the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, wanted the army to advance, most of the companions were against this. “These Arab tribes are in the throes of revolt,” they said. “Madinah is liable to be attacked at any time. The army should stay to defend Madinah rather than be sent to a distant land.”
The other reservation they had was about Usamah’s leadership, for he was only seventeen years of age and, worse, was the son of a servant. How, they thought, could great companions of the Prophet serve under him, a mere stripling? Moreover, an older and more experienced war general than Usamah was appointed to lead that army.
‘Umar, who had been with Usamah’s army, returned to Madinah to convey their message to Abu Bakr. The Caliph listened to what he had to say about the first matter and replied: “Even if I am the only one remaining in Madinah after the army’s departure, and I am left to be devoured by wild beasts. Still, I cannot recall an army the Prophet himself despatched.” He dismissed the matter of Usamah’s youth and rank with these words: “What, are the Muslims still proud and arrogant, as in the time of ignorance?” Saying this, he went on foot to send the army on its way under Usamah’s command. With Usamah aloft on his mount, the Caliph of the Muslims walked alongside, speaking with him on matters concerning the military campaign. He wanted to end the Muslims’ misgivings about Usamah’s leadership, and this was the most practical and effective way of doing it. Their reservations vanished on seeing the Caliph walking alongside Usamah’s mount.
As news of the advance of Usamah’s army spread around Arabia, opponents saw it as a sign of the Muslims’ confidence. They presumed that the Prophet’s followers must have considerable reserves of strength to send an army so far from Madinah at such a critical time. Accordingly, they decided to await the outcome of the Syrian campaign before attacking the city: if the Muslims met defeat, they would be sufficiently weakened for an offensive against their capital to be feasible.
Usamah ibn Zayd’s army was eminently successful against the Romans. The campaign, which lasted forty days, also proved that Usamah was the most suitable person for this expedition for his father, who had been martyred fighting the Roman army at Muta and was keen for revenge. Consequently, many captives and significant booty returned with the Muslims to Madinah. The rebels lost heart on seeing this, and their revolt was quelled with comparative ease. So the Muslims achieved success on both fronts, simply by having done as the Prophet said.
They thus provided an excellent lesson for subsequent generations of Muslims: that the place for Muslims to test their strength was the outside world, not among themselves. But successive generations of Muslims have failed to learn this lesson, and in the present age, the situation has deteriorated to the point where the Muslim world is locked in battle with itself on every front.
No one is ready to face any challenge outside the Muslim world, but all are willing to fight against their Muslim brethren. Undoubtedly the most significant challenge facing Muslims today is the dissemination of Islam in the outside world, but since they are so busy fighting among themselves, it is not surprising that they have no time or energy for this all-important task.
There was another important reason for the Prophet’s insistence on the despatch of the army. The Arab tribes had been fighting among themselves from time immemorial and would start fighting again if not confronted with some external foe on whom to test their strength. Towards the end of his life, the Prophet averted this danger by pitting them against the might of the Roman army. The Arabs now had an eminently suitable arena to display their valour. They no longer had time for the fratricide and plundering which had hitherto been their way; instead, they turned their attention to distant horizons, blazing their way—within just one hundred years—to conquests that spanned three continents.
