I wish we could understand and carry into our lives as much as we commemorate. Commemorations of ALLÂH’s Messenger (SAWS) are meaningful if they open the door to understanding and carrying him (SAWS) into our lives.

There is such love that makes it easy to understand the loved one. There is such love that makes it difficult, and even impossible, to understand the loved one. The former is the love for which the price has been paid and the latter is the one for which the price has not been paid, which has not been given its due. Those who have established a deeply felt and intense relationship with the life of ALLÂH’s Messenger (SAWS) do not pay any attention to the cases of extraordinariness that were invented later. They feel no need for this. For, he who has discovered such a clear and limpid source of life needn’t dive into the muddy and turbid waters.

The statement of Ibn Hazm in Jawami’u-Seerah will suffice to illustrate what I mean: “If there were no other proof of his (SAWS) prophethood, his (SAWS) life on its own would be sufficient as proof.” We see the same attitude in teacher Muhammed Hamidullah, who has dedicated his lifetime to understanding and explaining the life of ALLÂH’s Messenger (SAWS). It is not easy to say this. In order to say this it is necessary to realize this. In order to realize this it is necessary to understand him (SAWS).

To understand ALLÂH’s Messenger (SAWS) is to understand what “weighed heavily on him”. It is to understand “the weighty and valuable Word” (Qawlan Thaqeelan) whose descent base was the heart of ALLÂH’s Messenger (SAWS). When ALLÂH’s Messenger (SAWS) began to receive the Divine Revelation, his hair was jet-black except for a few indistinct white strands. But when he (SAWS) reached the age of 47, the proportion inverted. Once Abu Bakr (RA) said “Your hair has turned white (quickly), o ALLÂH’s Messenger!” and he (SAWS) replied “It is Sûrahs Hûd, Al-Waqi’ah, Al-Mursalat, Amma yatasalun and Idha’sh-shamsu kuwwirat that have caused my hair to turn white.”

To understand him (SAWS) is also to understand a little the thing that weighed heavily on him and caused his (SAWS) hair to turn white.

He (SAWS) had a concern which was called “human being”. It was such a concern for him (SAWS) that the Noble Qur’ân would have to warn him in the following manner: “You shall soon torment yourself to death with grief over them because they do not become believers!” A similar expression occurred in a different phrase in Sûrah Al-Kahf: “But would you, perhaps, torment yourself to death with grief over them if they are not willing to believe in this message?”

He (SAWS) was under the Divine Control. He (SAWS) was controlled from the most remote place. He (SAWS) knew that he had to cope with all the adversities of life under the Divine Control and Protection. When he (SAWS) was stoned on the day of Ta’if, the earth seemed narrow to him (SAWS) in spite of its utmost width. He (SAWS) was sent as a Mercy to the worlds but had nowhere in the worlds to go to and no place of refuge except ALLÂH (SWT). Like all of those who truly love, his (SAWS) love too was tested. All in blood, he (SAWS) made this supplication with tears running down his cheeks while watching from afar Makkah he could not enter:

“O ALLÂH!

I plead my powerlessness before You!

I complain to You that my strength has diminished,

that I have been humbled in the people’s eyes!

O the Most Merciful of the merciful!

You Are the Lord of the oppressed!

You Are my Lord!

In whose hands Did You Leave me?

In the hands of the strangers who are cruel to me?

Or, the enemies demanding my Da’wah in return for their supporting me?

But, if You Are Not Displeased with me,

Surely, I do not care about them,

Yet, Your Aid will reassure me!

I take refuge in Your Light,

In Your Light that illuminates darkness,

In Your Light that will illuminate for me both this world and the Hereafter!

I seek refuge to escape from Your Wrath to come, from Your Anger to reach me.

I took refuge with You, all I wish is that You Be Pleased!

Do Not Leave me alone with myself even for an instant!

Power and Might are from You, You Alone!”

During the night of migration he (SAWS) did not wait at the foot of Mount Savr, but he (SAWS) reached the peak which was the point where a slave’s strength is completely finished. And there he (SAWS) said, “O Abu Bakr! Who can do anything to the two who are with ALLÂH?” He (SAWS) knew that the Help of ALLÂH (SWT) would commence at the point where the slave’s strength was completely finished.

Even his (SAWS) feelings were finely adjusted through the warnings of the Divine Revelation. In some situations when he (SAWS) was strict, he (SAWS) would receive such warnings as “treat them in a more gentle and nice manner”, “let them alone”, “never mind”, “follow your own agenda”, “mind your affairs”. When he (SAWS) behaved in a too mild manner, he would receive such admonitions as “be stricter towards them”, “keep them at arm‘s length”.

Isn’t the weight of the burden that weighed heavily on him (SAWS) better understood after these examples? I suppose it was these that caused him (SAWS) to say “I am the Prophet of Sorrow”. Moreover, it was these that caused him (SAWS) to say “Don‘t cry, my daughter, your father will not grieve any more” to his daughter Fatima who was crying at the head of his (SAW) bed on the day he (SAWS) passed on.

May my Lord (SWT) Bestow His Favour upon all slaves in loving, understanding and carrying him (SAWS) into their lives!

(07 April 2006)