Reflections on the Prophet’s blessed birthday

Heartiest greetings to you on a very auspicious day. We congratulate you on the birthday of the best of creation, the most perfect person created by God Almighty, the Last and Greatest Messenger of God with the universal mission of Islam, that is, Prophet Mohammad (Blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Following is an exclusive feature on this blessed occasion.

 “It is He Who has sent His Prophet with guidance and the true religion that He may make it prevail over all religions, and Allah suffices as witness.”

This is how God Almighty introduces to mankind the Seal of Messengers and the mission entrusted to him, with the divine promise to make Islam prevail over all other religions in ayah 28 of Surah al-Fath.

Today, the 17^th of Rabi al-Awwal, is that grand day in the history of Planet Earth when God decreed in Mecca the physical birth of the first-ever creation – a being of celestial light, more ancient than not just the galaxies and the planetary systems containing resplendent stars and suns, but also more superior to the angels and cherubim, including Archangel Gabriel, who were all created well after him.       Those in doubt are advised to read the Holy Qur’an more thoroughly and with an insight supported by the light of faith, in order to understand the Divine Words about the Last and Greatest Messenger, as mentioned in ayah 107 of Surah Anbiya: “We have not sent you but as Mercy unto the creation.”

Such a phrase was not used by the All-Wise Creator regarding the mission of any other Prophet, including Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace upon them), for the simple reason that they were entrusted with time-bound and geographically-confined missions that were not meant to be universal. That was the reason, the Prophets of the past prophesied of the coming of the Master of all messengers of God – predictions whose traces remain in the sacred texts of all religions, despite the havoc caused by interpolators over the millenniums. The holy Qur’an has preserved examples of such prophecies, such as the prayer of Prophet Abraham, who after having rebuilt the holy Ka’ba in Mecca, along with his firstborn son, Prophet Ishmael, raised his hands towards the heaven and supplicated, as is evident in ayahs 128 and 129 of Surah Baqarah: 

“Our Lord, make us submissive to You, and [raise] from our progeny a nation submissive to You, and show us our rites [of worship], and turn to us clemently. Indeed You are the All-Clement, the All-Merciful.

“Our Lord, raise amongst them a Prophet from among them, who should recite to them Your signs, and teach them the Book and wisdom, and purify them. Indeed You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.

In answer to this supplications of Abraham, God Almighty raised in the then obscure Mecca, Ishmael’s direct descendant, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), as specified by ayah number 2 of Surah al-Jum’ah:

“It is He who sent to the unlettered [people] a Prophet from among themselves, to recite to them His signs, to purify them, and to teach them the Book and wisdom, and earlier they had indeed been in manifest error.”

Prophet Moses (peace upon him), after having delivered the Israelites from bondage in Pharaonic Egypt, and expounding to them the law and heavenly scripture revealed by God Almighty, warned them against distortion of the Torah and the dangers of following false leaders. In response to the concerns of Moses, God Almighty revealed to him about the coming of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). In verses 18 and 19 of Chapter number 18 of the Book of Deuteronomy, God tells Moses:

“I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brothers (that is, the Ishmaelite Arabs); I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to My words that the Prophet speaks in My name, I Myself will call him to account.”

Thus, on reflecting on these verses of the Old Testament, it becomes clear that Moses and the Prophet of Islam were given a comprehensive law and code of life. Both encountered their enemies and were victorious in miraculous ways. Both were accepted as prophets and statesmen. Both migrated following conspiracies to assassinate them. As is obvious from the above-mentioned passage the Holy Qur’an is the Revealed Word of God Almighty and was put into the mouth of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). God sent the Angel Gabriel to communicate these divine words to the Prophet of Islam and asked him to relay them to the people as he heard them. The words are therefore not his own. They did not come from his own thoughts, but were put into his mouth by the Angel Gabriel. During the life time of the Prophet of Islam and under his supervision, these words were then memorized and written by his scribes. Also, this prophecy in the Book of Deuteronomy mentioned that this Prophet will speak the words of God in the Name of God.  If we look at the Holy                            

Like all other prophets of the past, Prophet Jesus, the Virgin-born Messiah (peace upon him), gave tidings of the coming of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). In the version of the Gospel according to St. John, Chapter 14, verse 16, Prophet Jesus says to his followers:

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate (Comforter) to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.”

Scholars are unanimous that the word Advocate or Comforter used here is a translation of the Greek word Paraclete, which in turn is the translation of the original Hebrew/Aramaic word “Hmda” or the Praiseworthy. Translated into Arabic it means: “Ahmad”. God Almighty has preserved in ayah 6 of Surah Saff, the prophecy of Jesus about the coming of the Last Prophet, with the words:

"O Children of Israel! Indeed I am the Prophet of Allah to you, to confirm what is before me of the Torah, and to give the tidings of the Prophet to come after me, whose name is Ahmad.”

We further find a passage in John’s Gospel regarding Prophet Yahya or John the Baptist, who when asked by the Israelites, says he is neither Jesus nor the Last Prophet.

“Now this was John’s testimony, when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.  He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.”  They asked him, “Then who are you?  Are you Elijah?”  He said, “I am not.”  “Are you that Prophet?”  He answered, “No.”

According to exegetes of the scripture, this is a reference to Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). In the sacred books of the Zoroastrians and the Hindus, the coming of the Prophet of Islam is mentioned as well.

Now we understand the Divine Promise to make the truth of Islam prevail over all religions – creeds that divided humanity into sects and cults by tampering with the contents of the heavenly scriptures and coining of weird beliefs, such as Paul the Hellenized Jew’s transformation of Prophet Jesus into godson. It was for this reason that the Seal of Messengers was born in the full limelight of history, in a morally virtuous family of the monotheist Bani Hashem clan descended from Prophet Abraham’s firstborn son, Prophet Ishmael.

His birth was preceded and accompanied by miracles, such as the Divine Wrath that struck the elephantine hordes of Abraha the Abyssinian governor of Yemen who intended to destroy the holy Ka’ba. It would be repetitive to say how the idols installed in Abraham’s monotheist edifice by the pagan Arabs crashed headlong on the night of his birth, while fourteen parapets fell to the ground in Ctesiphon (Mada’en – Iraq), from atop the palace of the Sassanid King of Kings, Anushirvan, as the sacred fire in the Zoroastrian temple in the interior of Iran that had been kept burning for centuries, suddenly died down.

Similar miracles were witnessed in far off China, as well as in India and in the Roman Empire spread across Europe and North Africa – heralding the birth of the deliverer of mankind.

In this regard, God says in ayah 157 of Surah Araaf:

“Those who follow the Prophet, the unschooled Messenger, whose mention they find written with them in the Torah and the Evangel, who bids them to do what is right and forbids them from what is wrong, makes lawful to them all the good things and forbids them from all vicious things, and relieves them of their burdens and the shackles that were upon them —those who believe in him, honour him, and help him and follow the light that has been sent down with him, they are the felicitous.’”

Perhaps the skeptics may say that Islam has failed to prevail over all other religions – whose followers outnumber Muslims – and moreover there are deep differences amongst Muslims, with some of them calling others heretics. In addition, Islam today, especially in non-Muslim cultures, is the creed of cutthroats, thugs, mass murderers, cannibalistic terrorists, jihadi rapists, and the like.

This sorry state of affairs warrants us to scientifically probe the exemplary life of the Best of Creation; the legacy he left, for whom, and did those who claimed to be the political representative of the Prophet of peace, follow his advice and formula for unity, especially the following hadith:

“I am leaving behind among you the Thaqalayn (Two Weighty Things); the Book of God (Qur’an) and my progeny the Ahl al-Bayt; hold fast to them and you will not go astray, for the two never separate with each other even when they return to me at the Fountain (of Kowthar on Resurrection Day).”   

The answer is obvious. The caliphate was hijacked, and any usurper, whether of the past when naked military power subdued the lands from the borders of India and China to Spain in the West, or of our own times where Takfiri terrorists are masquerading as Muslims, cannot make their deviant ideologies prevail over all other religions.

This means, the Divine Promise of Islam’s peaceful prevailing over all creeds will only be fulfilled when the Master of the Affairs is the legitimate and divinely-designated successors of the Messenger of Mercy. For this reason, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny) said without mincing words – as recorded in the hadith compilations of our Sunni brethren as well – the world will not end until my descendent (Imam) Mahdi (AS) will appear to establish the global government of peace and justice by ending corruption and oppression on Planet Earth.

AS/ME