Muslims in the West are increasingly finding themselves in a dilemma. While some are still searching for an identity and a sense of belonging, almost all are confronted at one time or another with the growing mass of competing trends that claim to represent true and authentic Islam.
As we approach the birthday of the Prophet Mohamed celebrated this year on March 21, coinciding with the 12th day of the Islamic calendar month of Rabi al-Awwal, it s an interesting time to consider this paradigm. Is there any better way for Muslims to comprehend world events than through the prism of Prophetic character?
The celebration of this event has left its imprint on the lives of many Muslims. The Prophet s birthday is celebrated throughout most of the Muslim world as a national holiday. It is an occasion when poetry is sung in the honor of the Prophet Mohamed and stories of his life are retold.
The Prophet was described by God as a mercy for all of mankind, and the mawlid, the celebration of the Prophet s birthday, reminds Muslims of the life and character that they are instructed to follow and emulate. This occasion inspires Muslims to pause, take stock of their own lives and reflect upon the standard that the Prophet Mohamed established through his example.
Muslims gain a new way of looking at the world through the Prophet s life story. For example, the Prophet was mocked in his own city of Mecca when he did not retaliate after being subjected to insults, persecution and physical abuse. While many Arabs of that time saw this as being weak, the Prophet Mohamed came to break the cycles of violence, not to perpetuate them.
This isn t to say that Muslims should not seek to redress wrongs. However, the Quran instructs Muslims to control their anger (Quran 3:134) and not to become so engulfed with rage that it prevents them from dealing with justice.
When Islamic scholarship had reached its zenith, Muslim scholars had identified four virtues shared by the whole of mankind: prudence, courage, temperance and justice. Al-Ghazali, or Algazel as he is known in the West, author of one of the most widely read texts, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, argued that for these virtues to be effective they had to be in harmony, otherwise the virtues would quickly degenerate into vices.
Today, these virtues are out of balance. Muslims must demand justice both from within and outside, but not without balancing their actions with the virtues of temperance and prudence.
Wanton rage is not from our tradition, and until the etiquette that Islam demands from its believers is observed, we are only going to see more destruction, supposedly either in the name of Islam, or in defending the honor of the Prophet Mohamed.
Muslims can only defend the honor of the Prophet when they themselves are upholding the lofty ideals and virtues that he brought. God did not just ennoble the Muslims; He ennobled the whole of mankind. The Prophet Mohamed imbued this Quranic ideal with a message: show compassion for all people, for the one who does not, would not be shown compassion by God.
The Prophet s birthday is an invaluable opportunity for Muslims young and old to partake in a celebration of joy and mercy; a celebration that recounts the compassion of the Prophet Mohamed and invigorates dampened spirits. It serves as a reminder that whatever trials and tribulations one faces, the Prophet of God faced greater trials and tribulations, yet he never once allowed anger or hatred to determine his actions. Rather, he insisted: Love for humanity what you love for yourself.
Aftab Ahmad Malikis a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture at the University of Birmingham. He is the editor of The State We Are In: Identity, Terror and the Law of Jihad (Amal Press, 2008). This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.
