IKIM VIEWS By DR MOHD ZAIDI ISMAIL
Senior Fellow / Director, Centre for Science and Technology, Ikim
Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (Mawlid), on the 12th day of the third month in the Islamic Lunar Calendar (Rabi ul Awwal), is celebrated
THERE is no doubt that the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be blessings and peace, is so dear to Muslims, dearer even than their own selves.
To many who may be deemed to have attained a higher selfhood, he is in fact their identity.
They always hold him in veneration, expressing joy for his presence, not only “once in history” but also “always in their conscious life.”
The unrivalled position he holds in the minds, hearts and lives of Muslims is demonstrated, for instance, in the established tradition among Muslims worldwide to commemorate his birthday (Mawlid), every 12th day of the third month in the Islamic Lunar Calendar (Rabi ul Awwal). This year, it coincides with the 20th day in March.
To the Muslims in Malaysia, it is customary to celebrate such a momentous occasion for a whole month.
The commemoration basically involves gathering people together; reciting parts of the Quran; invoking blessings on him, his family and his companions; delivering speeches about him from various angles and in different modes – such as narrating stories about the Prophet’s birth and signs that accompanied it, reciting poetry praising the Prophet, or on piety, which moves hearts and drives them to do good and work for the Hereafter; giving charity; and serving food and drink.
To the Muslims, the Prophet’s appearance in space and time is Mercy made manifest.
And, to them also, he is the human personification of Truth and Justice – the actual “Straight Path” to be trodden by anyone serious about attaining salvation.
Muhammad Ali al-Tahanawi (d. 1158H) in his well-known and voluminous dictionary of technical terms, the Kashshaf Istilahat al-Funun, conveys it as follows:
“Literally, justice (al-adalah) means being upright or straight (istiqamah). According to the experts in Islamic Law (ahl al-shar), it is the station of restraining oneself from religious prohibitions and is itself of different degrees. The highest station is to remain firm as one is commanded, which is found only in the very person of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him.”
It is the understanding of Muslims also that there is always a strict correspondence between one’s deeds in this world and its resulting reward or punishment on the Day of Reckoning.
As such, Muslim scholars have emphasised with persistence, that one’s ultimate salvation, which refers not to this temporal world but instead to the Hereafter, depends to a great extent on one’s sincere strive to be just, on one’s always following the middle course between extremes of deficiency and excess, on one’s neither transgressing nor falling short of the limit of truth, on one’s remaining firm on the Straight Path.
Indeed, one’s success or failure to cross the very fine eschatological Path (al-sirat), stretched over Hell, is determined by just how one has been – by how resolute and unwavering one has been on the Straight Path in this world, namely, the religion of Islam as exemplified by the Prophet.
Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali, the great scholar of Islam of the 6th century of the Hijrah, highlighted the following in his work, Mizan al-Amal.
“Whoever remains right upon the Prophetic Path in this world,” he explains, “will really stand erect on the Path in the Hereafter, for a man dies in the state in which he lived and he will be assembled later on in the manner in which he died.”
In short, to actualise Justice in its totality boils down to one’s returning to the True Religion (din al-haqq), the one verified to be the Straight Path (al-sirat al-mustaqim) as exemplified in the very person of the Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil), the Last Prophet, Muhammad, may God shower blessings and peace upon him.
Senior Fellow / Director, Centre for Science and Technology, Ikim
Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (Mawlid), on the 12th day of the third month in the Islamic Lunar Calendar (Rabi ul Awwal), is celebrated
THERE is no doubt that the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be blessings and peace, is so dear to Muslims, dearer even than their own selves.
To many who may be deemed to have attained a higher selfhood, he is in fact their identity.
They always hold him in veneration, expressing joy for his presence, not only “once in history” but also “always in their conscious life.”
The unrivalled position he holds in the minds, hearts and lives of Muslims is demonstrated, for instance, in the established tradition among Muslims worldwide to commemorate his birthday (Mawlid), every 12th day of the third month in the Islamic Lunar Calendar (Rabi ul Awwal). This year, it coincides with the 20th day in March.
To the Muslims in Malaysia, it is customary to celebrate such a momentous occasion for a whole month.
The commemoration basically involves gathering people together; reciting parts of the Quran; invoking blessings on him, his family and his companions; delivering speeches about him from various angles and in different modes – such as narrating stories about the Prophet’s birth and signs that accompanied it, reciting poetry praising the Prophet, or on piety, which moves hearts and drives them to do good and work for the Hereafter; giving charity; and serving food and drink.
To the Muslims, the Prophet’s appearance in space and time is Mercy made manifest.
And, to them also, he is the human personification of Truth and Justice – the actual “Straight Path” to be trodden by anyone serious about attaining salvation.
Muhammad Ali al-Tahanawi (d. 1158H) in his well-known and voluminous dictionary of technical terms, the Kashshaf Istilahat al-Funun, conveys it as follows:
“Literally, justice (al-adalah) means being upright or straight (istiqamah). According to the experts in Islamic Law (ahl al-shar), it is the station of restraining oneself from religious prohibitions and is itself of different degrees. The highest station is to remain firm as one is commanded, which is found only in the very person of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him.”
It is the understanding of Muslims also that there is always a strict correspondence between one’s deeds in this world and its resulting reward or punishment on the Day of Reckoning.
As such, Muslim scholars have emphasised with persistence, that one’s ultimate salvation, which refers not to this temporal world but instead to the Hereafter, depends to a great extent on one’s sincere strive to be just, on one’s always following the middle course between extremes of deficiency and excess, on one’s neither transgressing nor falling short of the limit of truth, on one’s remaining firm on the Straight Path.
Indeed, one’s success or failure to cross the very fine eschatological Path (al-sirat), stretched over Hell, is determined by just how one has been – by how resolute and unwavering one has been on the Straight Path in this world, namely, the religion of Islam as exemplified by the Prophet.
Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali, the great scholar of Islam of the 6th century of the Hijrah, highlighted the following in his work, Mizan al-Amal.
“Whoever remains right upon the Prophetic Path in this world,” he explains, “will really stand erect on the Path in the Hereafter, for a man dies in the state in which he lived and he will be assembled later on in the manner in which he died.”
In short, to actualise Justice in its totality boils down to one’s returning to the True Religion (din al-haqq), the one verified to be the Straight Path (al-sirat al-mustaqim) as exemplified in the very person of the Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil), the Last Prophet, Muhammad, may God shower blessings and peace upon him.
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