The prophetic life of Prophet Mohammad
Beloved Ones of God,
Now we come to the Prophet Mohammad. His father, Abdullah, had died before the birth of the Prophet. He did not see his son, and the child was left with the mother. And even the mother had to be taken away soon in his life in order to make him understand what the life of an orphan is. He was being prepared to sympathize when he grew up to be the Prophet, so that from his childhood he must experience the absence of the father and then absence of the mother. It shows how the masters were made lame first, in order to take heavenly feet; their earthly feet were taken away and heavenly feet were given to them so they could stand on earth again, and stand more firmly. Because their struggle was great, their task was great, and the opposition and tests that they had to go through were great. If they had not heavenly feet they could not stand against all the difficulties of life.
Now we come to the life of Mohammad. He said to his people, ”Never touch liquor.” They have obeyed for many centuries. And some who would like to have a glass hide themselves. They do not want to give the example to the others. And next day they say, ”Toba, toba,” which means, ”God forbid.” They are very sorry, they are ashamed of themselves. They do not stand and say, ”We do not care for the law the Prophet has given.” They don’t say, ”We like to drink.” Never. They say, ”We are sorry.” They will go on drinking perhaps all their life, but at the same time never with that boldness, that ”What do I care, let them keep the law in the court.” Never. It is the sacred law, and they take it as sacred.
They did not know what kindness meant. Besides, all the imagery that the Prophet has given to his people, the people were of that particular evolution. He could not have told them about the soul’s greatness and a natural evolution. He had to tell them, when they said, ”What is paradise, what is its life?” he had to tell them, streams of honey and fountains and milk they will find in Paradise. Because honey and milk to them was dearer than wisdom. He had to frighten them with the fire of hell; if not, they were ready to fight. But imagine that the words of the Prophet could fight with swords. What can be a greater miracle? It is not true that the Prophet always used his sword. The sword has in the cover. It was the Prophet’s personality which won. No one but a soldier would have made impression on those people, who were ready to fight; who showed himself to be one among them, and at the same time God’s messenger, together with the courage and bravery and strength and power that the Prophet showed.
The charm of the Prophet’s personality was so Feat, his tenderness, his gentleness, the mildness was so great. Once his pupils said to the Prophet, ”This man who came here, he always talked against you, Prophet, and he is always working against you. He is not worth anything. Why did you rise when he came?” That consideration, that thoughtfulness, even to his enemies. When the daughter of the Prophet was killed by an accident, but the Arab was brought, the Prophet said, ”I forgive you; God may forgive you.”
The Prophet’s manner was so gentle with people that one day (every day when he used to go to offer his prayers in the mosque a woman who was very antagonistic wished to throw garbage on the Prophet, every day, and he used to shake the dust off his robe; he never looked back, he never stopped) but one day the dust was not thrown on him. That day he went to the house and knocked at the door, and the man came and said, ”Is you wife very well?” The man looked at the Prophet, and said, ”She has been so bad and so unkind against you, and called you so many names, how have you come?” ”I have never taken any notice of it, only today I thought she has not appeared; is she well?” That was his manner with his enemies.
And there are many disciples of that nature: a hundred times they came to him, a hundred times they ran away. Every time they came again, even after having fought with him, and he received them with open arms, saying, ”You are my own.”
In the end there was an opportunity given for him to be the king of Hijaz. He was the conqueror, conqueror of his own people. They had none among them so great and good; they all wished, they considered it their greatest privilege and honor, to have of them their sultan. The Prophet refused; the wealth of the earth was nothing to him. His whole life was given to the cause of humanity, to the work of God. The day when he conquered, the enemies were brought, especially those who had killed his relatives, his pupils, his most devoted disciples, those who worked shoulder to shoulder with him and saved his life with many difficulties, who had opposed the Prophet in every way for many years, throwing him out of his country three times in his life, putting out every one of his followers, and giving no opportunity for him to spread his message in his own country.
And in the end he is the conqueror, and those people are brought before him. And when there was a question what to do with them he said, ”God forgive them.” That is all. ”I forgive you, my brothers.” The humanity is never too evolved to follow that principle, the principle of forgiveness, to forgive one’s bitterest enemies. The Prophet was an example, an example of the art of humanity, the art of personality. Both sides of nature, Jelal and Jemal, equally balanced: ready to handle the sword, ready to defend his country, toil on the land, march like a soldier, take interest in the affairs of the nation; and meditative of such a great, kind, and wonderful capacity that he would go in the forest and live there without food for months and months, meditating and communicating with his Lord, living in the midst of the world, proving not to be of the world.
It is that impression which has conquered the followers of the Prophet. If by the sword they had been converted, today they would have been indifferent to him. There is no influence of the sword just now. It was not the sword, it was charm of personality, kindness of spirit, that even today hundreds and thousands of Muslims, when you mention the name of the Prophet, their eyes bring tears, nothing else in the world then manifests before them than the picture of the Prophet.
This shows that every time when the message of God has been given to the world, there was a certain peculiarity in the way it was presented to the world because every messenger was made fit for his own time, and his message suited to that particular time. But behind it all there is one Truth, and one Divine Wisdom in all religions; and it is to spread that Divine Wisdom throughout the world that the Sufi Message has been destined.
God Bless You!
Hazrat Inayat Khan
