The Prophet Muhammad, may
the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, was described as a “Mercy for all
the Worlds”, as God said in the Quran:
“We have sent you as a mercy
for all the worlds.” (Quran 21:107)
The recipients of this
quality were not limited to just the Muslim nation, but it also extended to
non-Muslims, some of who spent all their effort trying to harm the Prophet and
his mission. This mercy and forgiveness is clearly demonstrated in the
fact that the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, never
took revenge on anyone for personal reasons and always forgave even his staunch
enemies. Aisha said that the Prophet never took revenge on his own behalf
on anyone. She also said that he never returned evil for evil, but he
would forgive and pardon. This will, God willing, become clear after a
deep analysis of the following accounts of his life.
In the earlier portion of
his mission, the Prophet traveled to the city of Taif, a city located in the
mountains nearby to Mecca, in order to invite them to accept Islam. The
leaders of Taif, however, were rude and discourteous in their treatment of the
Prophet. Not being content with their insolent attitude towards him, they
even stirred up some gangs of the town to harass him. This riff-raff
followed the Prophet shouting at and abusing him, and throwing stones at him,
until he was compelled to take refuge in an orchard. Thus the Prophet had
to endure even more obstacles in Taif than he had had to face in Mecca.
These ruffians, stationed either side of the path, threw stones at him until
his feet were injured and smeared with blood. These oppressions so
grievously dejected the Prophet and plunged him into in such a state of
depression that a prayer, citing his helplessness and pitiable condition and seeking
the aid of God, spontaneously came from his lips:
“O God, to You I
complain of my weakness, lack of resources and humiliation before these
people. You are the Most Merciful, the Lord of the weak and my
Master. To whom will You consign me? To one estranged, bearing ill
will, or an enemy given power over me? If You do not assign me any worth,
I care not, for Your favor is abundant upon me. I seek refuge in the
light of Your countenance by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair
of this world and the next is set right, lest Thy anger should descend upon me
or Your displeasure light upon me. I need only Your pleasure and
satisfaction for only You enable me to do good and evade the evil. There
is no power and no might but You.”
The Lord then sent the
angel of mountains, seeking the permission of the Prophet to join together the
two hills and crush the city of Taif, between which it was located. Out
of his great tolerance and mercy, the Messenger of God replied,
“No! For, I
hope that God will bring forth from their loins people who will worship God
alone, associating nothing with Him.” (Saheeh Muslim)
His mercy and compassion
was so great that on more than one occasion, God, Himself, reprimanded him for
it. One of the greatest opponents of Islam and a personal enemy, was
Abdullah bin Ubayy, the leader of the hypocrites of Medina. Outwardly
proclaiming Islam, he surreptitiously inflicted great harm to the Muslims and
the mission of the Prophet. Knowing his state of affairs, the Prophet Muhammad
still offered the funeral prayer for him and prayed to God for his
forgiveness. The Quran mentions this incident in these words:
“And never (O Muhammad) pray
for one of them who dies, nor stand by his grave. Lo! They
disbelieve in God and His Messenger, and they died while they were evil doers.”
(Quran 9:84)
Abdullah bin Ubayy worked
all his life against Muhammad and Islam and left no stone unturned so as to
bring him into disrepute and try to defeat his mission. He withdrew his
three hundered supporters in the battle of Uhud and thus almost broke the
backbone of the Muslims at one stroke. He engaged in intrigues and acts
of hostility against the Prophet of Islam and the Muslims. It was he who
tried to bring shame to the Prophet by inciting his allies to falsely accuse
the Prophet’s wife, Aisha, of adultery in order to discredit him and his
message.
The mercy
of the Prophet even extended to those who brutally killed and then mutilated
the body of his uncle Hamzah, one of the most beloved of people to the
Prophet. Hamzah was one of the earliest to accept Islam and, through his
power and position in the Quraishite hierarchy, diverted much harm from the
Muslims. An Abyssinian slave of the wife of Abu Sufyan, Hind, sought out
and killed Hamzah in the battle of Uhud. The night before the victory of
Mecca, Abu Sufyan accepted Islam, fearing the vengeance of the Prophet, may the
mercy and blessings of God be upon him. The latter forgave him and sought
no retribution for his years of enmity.
After
Hind had killed Hamzah she mutilated his body by cutting his chest and tearing
his liver and heart into pieces. When she quietly came to the Prophet and
accepted Islam, he recognized her but did not say anything. She was so
impressed by his magnanimity and stature that she said, “O Messenger of God,
no tent was more deserted in my eyes than yours; but today no tent is more
lovely in my eyes than yours.”
Ikrama,
son of Abu Jahl, was a great enemy of the Prophet and Islam. He ran away
after the victory of Mecca and went to Yemen. After his wife embraced
Islam, she brought him to the Prophet Muhammad under her
protection. He was so pleased to see him that he greeted him with the
words:
“O
emigrant rider, welcome.”
Safwan
bin Umaya, one of the chiefs of Mecca, was also a great enemy of Muhammad and
Islam. He promised a reward to Umair ibn Wahab if he managed to kill
Muhammad. When Mecca was conquered, Safwan ran away to Jeddah in the
hope of finding a berth that would take him to Yemen by sea. Umair
ibn Wahab came to Muhammad and said, “O Messenger of God! Safwan ibn
Umayya, a chief of his tribe, has run away from fear of what you might do
to him and threatens to cast himself into the sea.” The Prophet sent him
a guarantee of protection and, when he returned, he requested Muhammad to
give him two months to come to a decision.. He was given four months,
after which he became a Muslim by his own will.
Habir ibn
al-Aswad was another vicious enemy of Muhammad and Islam. He inflicted a
serious injury to Zainab, daughter of the Noble Prophet when she decided to
migrate to Medina. She was pregnant when she started her migration, and
the polytheists of Mecca tried to stop her from leaving. This particular
man, Habbar bin al-Aswad, physically assaulted her and intentionally caused her
to fall down from her camel. Her fall had caused her to miscarry her
baby, and she herself, was badly hurt. He had committed many other crimes
against Muslims as well. He wanted flee to Persia but, when he decided to
come to Muhammad instead, the Prophet magnanimously forgave him.
The tribe
of Quraish the were archenemies of Islam and, for a period of thirteen years
while he was still in Mecca, they would rebuke the Prophet, taunt and mock him,
beat him and abuse him, both physically and mentally. They placed the
afterbirth of a camel on his back while he prayed, and they boycotted him and
his tribe until the social sanctions became unbearable. They plotted and
attempted to kill him on more than one occasion, and when the Prophet escaped
to Medina, they rallied the majority of the Arab tribes and waged many wars
against him. Yet, when he entered Mecca victorious with an army of
10,000, he did not take revenge on anyone. The Prophet said to the
Quraish:
“O people
of Quraish! What do you think I will do to you?
Hoping
for a good response, they said: “You will do good. You are a noble
brother, son of a noble brother.”
The
Prophet then said:
“Then I
say to you what Joseph said to his brothers: ‘There is no blame upon you.’
Go! For you all free!.” [1]
Rarely in
the annals of history can we read such an instance of forgiveness. Even his
deadliest enemy Abu Sufyan, who led so many battles against Islam, was
forgiven, as was any person who stayed in his house and did not come to fight him.
The
Prophet was all for forgiveness and no amount of crime or aggression against
him was too great to be forgiven by him. He was the complete example of
forgiveness and kindness, as mentioned in the following verse of the Quran:
“Keep to
forgiveness (O Muhammad), and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the
ignorant.” (Quran 7:199)
He always
repelled evil with the good of forgiveness and kind behavior for, in his view,
an antidote was better than poison. He believed and practiced the precept
that love could foil hatred, and aggression could be won over by
forgiveness. He overcame the ignorance of the people with the knowledge
of Islam, and the folly and evil of the people with his kind and forgiving
treatment. With his forgiveness, he freed people from the bondage of sin
and crime, and also made them great friends of Islam. He was an epitome
of the verse of the Quran:
“Good and
evil are not alike. Repel evil with what is better. Then he,
between whom and you there was hatred, will become as though he was a bosom
friend.” (Quran 41:34)
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