Lo! my worship and my prayers
and my life and my death are for Allah, Lord of the Worlds. He hath no partner.
This I am commanded, and I am the first of the Muslims (those who surrender(unto
Him) ).
The Muslims form a nation over thirteen centuries old, and comprise at present
more than six hundred million human beings in all parts of the world. The
Prophet Muhammad was the first citizen of this nation, it's teacher and its
guide. He lived and died in the full memory of history. The evolution of his
personality, religion, and nation assumed the force of a human drama of the
greatest magnitude, witnessed not only by his contemporaries but also by the
rest of the world in subsequent times.
The hero of this drama did not die until his Message was delivered and a Muslim
nation established in the Arabian peninsula. Says Bernard Lewis, "In an essay on
Muhammad and the origins of Islam Ernest Renan remarks that, unlike other
religions which were cradled in mystery, Islam was born in the full light of
history. 'Its roots are at surface level, the life of its founder is as well
known to us as those of the Reformers of the sixteenth century.'
During the half-century following the death of the Prophet ( in A.D 632), his
Message was carried forth by five of his Companions, who adhered closely to the
precedents which he had established for ruling his nation. Four of them were
intimate, reliable friends and students who had followed him from the earliest
days of his call, through persecution and ultimate triumph. The fifth caliph was
Muawiyah, son of Abu-Sufyan, the formidable leader of the opposition to
Muhammad. Muawiyah's career as caliph was longer than that of his predecessors.
He presided over the affairs of the Islamic community for forty years as
governor of Syria, then caliph.
Yet in spite of the wealth of historical facts available to us, perhaps no
prophet and religion are so little known or understood by the Western world as
Muhammad and Islam. The West, which has maintained now for several centuries a
tradition of freedom of thought, a high grade of literacy, and boundless
knowledge in all spheres of human learning, knows far less about Muhammad--both
as a prophet and as a leader of men who exercised a direct influence on the
course of human events-- than about Alexander or Ceaser, whose influences have
been less than those of Muhammad and Islam.
What is the cause of such indifference in a world so eager to learn and to
understand? to be contd..........
courtesy: The Eternal Message of Muhammad.