Submitters Perspective   Feb 1999

Courtesy of www.masjidtucson.org

Prophet Muhammad

An example for us for following the Quran alone

[10:15] When our revelations are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet us say, “Bring a Quran other than this, or change it!” Say, (O Muhammad) "I cannot possibly change it on my own. I simply follow what is revealed to me. I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the retribution of an awesome day.”

How would the prophet Muhammad fare in our society today? I hate to describe the prophet Muhammad with any of our contemporary descriptions but if I have to, that is how he would be described today, a liberal. He would be severely criticized by most of today’s Muslim scholars. The Mullahs, Imams and religious leaders would attack him and they may even have a fatwah (decree) that calls for his head. He would be arrested in any of the so-called Islamic countries, jailed and probably tortured to death. The Mullahs, scholars and religious

leaders would be disturbed by him following the Quran alone and refusing all the innovations that filled the Hadith and Sunnah books and added to today’s Islam 200 years after his death. He would denounce the Hadith and Sunnah books, those who wrote them and those who follow them. The prophet Muhammad would have found himself a stranger among the Muslims today. He would probably feel so much disappointment, he might tell God what he will be telling Him on the Last Day as stated in the Quran, “My Lord, my people have deserted this Quran” (25:30).

Was the prophet Muhammad really a liberal? It all depends on the definition of liberal. By the standard of the Muslim scholars, Mullahs and religious leaders of today, he would be described as a liberal, far too liberal. But by the standard of the Quran, he would be very conservative. He followed the book of God to the letter and when he made mistakes he was admonished by God and corrected loudly and publicly. After his death and for 200 years innovations were

written daily in the prophet’s name. Lies were told to support a certain sect or raise some families above others, and Islam was rewritten in books claiming to be the teachings and actions of the prophet. These books changed the face of Islam and created a new religion that was not based on the book of God but rather on the new books of Hadith and Sunnah, the books that the prophet never authored, saw, advocated or upheld.

The Prophet and Women

Let us, for example, check the women in the prophet’s life. The wives of Prophet Muhammad were vibrant, outspoken women. His first wife, Khadija was a successful businesswoman in trading. She actually was the employer of Muhammad in his early life. Aisha during her life acted as a judge, a political activist and a warrior. Among the other wives were a leather worker and an advocate of the downtrodden, revered in her days as the “mother of the poor.” If any of these women were alive today and practicing what they did back then, they would be condemned by the contemporary Islamic leaders and probably stoned, insulted and forced to stay home. This is not the Islam of the prophet Muhammad but rather the Islam invented after his death and claimed to be his.

Muhammad would look like a liberal man compared to any of those who claim to be following the teachings that he never advocated. In Afghanistan, Muslim women were killed by the radical Islamic groups for the crime of working in women’s centers or with foreign aid organizations. Women in Iran and Afghanistan are forced to wear the veil, a cultural dress code that is not Islamic but was made the law by these Muslims leaders. Working Muslim women in Algeria were attacked for being out working. Unveiled women in many of the so-called Islamic countries are being attacked, disfigured or at least insulted for not following the man-made law of dress code for women. Many of these Islamic countries are advocating laws to curtail the rights of women, rights that were guaranteed for them in Islam.

Certainly, Muhammad was a liberal man for his time and our time. He helped out around his various households, mended his own clothes, gave his wives the freedom to help in their community and believed emotional and sexual satisfaction were a woman’s right. The Islam he founded was totally based on the Quran and Quran alone. It outlawed female infanticide, made the education of girls a sacred duty and established a woman’s right to own and inherit property. None of the complicated laws that restrict the women’s freedom as we see it today in the so-called Islamic countries can be traced back to the prophet or to the book he brought, the Quran. All the oppressive laws are innovations added to Islam by Mullahs, scholars, and political or religious leaders and have nothing to do with the true Islam.

If anything can be learned from the Islam practiced by the majority of the Muslims today, it is not to judge the true Islam by what the Muslims do. We need to continuously remember and remind ourselves and our children why the messenger will complain to God on the Last Day about his people (See 25:30). If we do, maybe we can be among the few who will not be with the misguided majority (See 12:103 and 106).

If we are to follow the prophet Muhammad and bring Islam back to its glorious days, we must do like the prophet Muhammad, follow the Quran alone. Only then God’s victory can be ours in this life and in the Hereafter.

Khadija Ismael