Here is one of
my favourite stories about Prophet Muhammad. It is noted in a hadith
that he and several of his companions were sitting down along a street
in Medina. Suddenly, a companion spotted a funeral procession
approaching the group. In respect of the dead human body, Muhammad stood
up as the procession crossed in front of him. At that moment, a
companion, who was still sitting down, said to the Prophet, "This is a
funeral of a Jew. He is not a Muslim."
Upon hearing these words,
Muhammad became upset and said to the companion, "Is he not a human
soul?" The message here is clear: Prophet Muhammad respected human
beings irrespective of their religion. He taught mankind that every
human soul is important, whether alive or dead. This is Muhammad’s
concept of dignity. He defended humanity.
Unfortunately, the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) militants or
their sympathisers do not care about humanity. In fact, they are the
antithesis of humanity. In the very city where Prophet Muhammad stood in
respect for the Jewish funeral procession, several people claiming to
be Muslims blew themselves up at the Prophet’s mosque, one of the two
holiest sites in Islam. The suicide attack killed four members of the
Saudi Arabian security force. In comparing the two events, we can see
that Prophet Muhammad honoured people who have passed away, while IS and
their sympathisers are the reasons why funeral processions happen in
the first place.
Any person in their right mind understands that there is nothing
"Islamic" about blowing yourself up and murdering other people. After
all, the Quran is unequivocal: "You shall not kill yourselves" (4:29).
Suicide is so far outside the boundaries of "normative" Islam that some
people – Muslims and non-Muslims alike - have started to seriously
question whether IS and their sympathisers are "anti-Islamic", and not
simply "un-Islamic", as they are popularly described. There is a
difference between these concepts. "Un-Islamic" means that Muslims are
acting in a way that opposes the basic principles of Islam. "Anti-Islam"
means that the actions of some Muslims are actually a threat to other
Muslims and to the very essence of Islam – mercy, compassion, justice
and peace.
We can notice Prophet Muhammad‘s love of humanity in how he
instructed his followers to respect the People of the Book, as commanded
in the Quran. In the year 622CE, the Prophet produced the Medina
Charter, also known as the Constitution of Medina, which contained the
rights and responsibilities of the Muslims, Jews and other tribal
communities in Medina. As the head of state, Muhammad guaranteed all
citizens of the city the rights of freedom of religion and freedom of
conscience. The charter declared that Muslims and Jews were equal
members of a new political community. Indeed, even polytheists were
granted equal rights. Moreover, Muhammad’s constitution did not treat
Jews as a monolithic entity; he recognised and respected their ethnic
and cultural diversities. All Jews were granted the rights of freedom of
movement, freedom of worship and the freedom of assembly.
Some consider the charter to be the first written constitution in the
world. Whether or not that is true is besides the point – the document
is a 7th century model for religious pluralism and civic rights.
Muhammad envisioned a society where people were united not by race or
religion, but rather by citizenship rights.
Jews were not the only religious community that Muhammad peacefully
reached out to in Medina. In 631CE, he sent letters inviting various
communities of the region to his city. One group, the Najran Christians
of modern-day Yemen, travelled 450 miles to meet the Prophet and his
companions in Medina. The Christian delegation consisted of about 45
scholars and 15 assistants.
After their diplomatic meeting, the Najran Christians needed to pray.
They exited Prophet Muhammad’s mosque and headed towards the street,
aiming to pray there. Uncomfortable with the idea that his Christian
guests had no place to pray, the Prophet told them that they could use
his mosque to worship. The Najrans accepted Muhammad’s offer. An
important bridge was made that day between Muslims and Christians.
And it is these kind of interfaith bridges that IS and their sympathisers want to destroy.
In-between Muslims and Christians is a space that I like to refer to
as "the grey zone". This is a space that challenges the binary of "us"
versus "them", of the "Muslim world" versus the "Western world". It is a
kind of environment where Muslims and Christians can interact and see
eye-to-eye with one another. The grey zone is a setting that fosters
dialogue, education, understanding, commitment and engagement with the
"Other"; all things that IS and their sympathisers want absolutely no
part of.
There exists two radically different visions of the city of Medina.
One is Prophet Muhammad’s. He produced a form of government that
emphasised egalitarian values. All people could belong to his community,
so long as they respected his authority and the rule of law. Citizens
of Medina were able to express themselves and give their opinions on how
best to run the community. Religious freedom flourished. The Prophet
safeguarded human rights and made sure that humanity trumped ethnic or
religious divisions.
Now compare that to the recent suicide attack outside Prophet
Muhammad’s mosque in Medina. The people who carried out that mission
were aiming to kill people who did not agree with their rigid
interpretation of Islam. Their goal was to instill fear, suppress
freedom and ultimately take life away. That is the antithesis of Islam.
Medina is meant to be a place of peace and goodwill between people of
different ethnic backgrounds and schools of Islam. Such a society is
commanded by the Quran, which notes: "Oh mankind, we have created you
from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know
one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the
most righteous of you" (49:13).
IS and its sympathisers do not follow what the Prophet had laid down
for mankind to follow. Their actions in Medina and elsewhere prove that.
- Craig Considine (PhD, Trinity College
Dublin) is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Rice University
in Houston, TX. His research interests include Muslim-Christian
Relations, Islamophobia, Prophet Muhammad and Islam and American
identity. His website is craigconsidinetcd.com. You can follow him on Twitter @CraigCons
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: Saudi security personnel gather at the site of the suicide
attack near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina
City on 4 July, 2016 (AFP).
