Muhammad— The Truthful (PBUH)

Columnist Lt Col (Retd) ZAMAN MALIK talks about the life and person of our Prophet Muhammad (PUBH).

We need to know more about the spiritual rules of how to live, what is good for our spiritual development, what we must do to have not only healthy bodies and minds but healthy souls as well.

We know nothing; no theory, no structure, either mathematical or of bricks and mortar, can survive on an unsound foundation. Either a thing is accurate, true, conforms to fact, or it is false and cannot support anything; either the foundations and frames of a house are sound, and strong enough to support it or else the house will fall down. The same applies to our characters and the first fundamental ingredient they require is truthfulness. Lying, deceit, hypocrisy; are unsound material; they are unsound because they are untrue, they cannot bear the light of investigation, whereas truth is foursquare and will stand up to any test.

Nature is based on truth, it cannot be fooled; only what fits, what goes into its own place, what maintains the balance, is accepted. Shams, substitutes, are thrown away. But man being relatively free, has the royal prerogative of choice; he can decide if he is going to be a liar or truthful — but his life is going to be warped, entangled, starved, if he weaves lies into it. The cloth of his character is going to be full of substitutes and weaknesses if he is continuously putting in false things instead of good, solid, true values. Yes nature is based on truth and we must hold the cable of truth most firmly.

The life of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), serves a beacon of light and guidance for mankind to the end of time. “I dwelt among you a whole lifetime before it (came to me). Have you then no sense.” (YUNUS -Jonah: 17).

Once all the leading men of Quraish had assembled to talk about the problem posed by the Prophet’s defiance of pagan gods. AL-Nadir b. AL- Harith, got up and said: “ O Quraish, a situation has arisen which you can’t deal with. Muhammad was a young man most liked amongst you, most truthful in speech and most trustworthy, until, when you saw grey hairs on his temples and he brought you a message, you said he was a sorcerer, a diviner, a poet and was possessed, but by God, there is nothing of this sort in Muhammad for I have heard him speaking and preaching”. (Ibn Hisham, p. 191)

Abu Jahl was a greater enemy of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). He said to him: “Muhammad I do not call you a liar but I do not think that whatever you preach is correct”. It was on this occasion that the revelation came- “We know well how their talk grieveth thee, though in Truth they deny not thee (Muhammad), but evil doers flout the revelations of Allah”. (Q. VI: 232).

After the envoy of the Prophet had delivered his message to the king of Byzantine Emperor, Heraculius, the latter called for Abu-Sufyan, the most bitterest of all the enemies of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH), for making enquiries about the man who had dared to address him. Abu-Sufyan knew that if he could somehow provoke the passions of the powerful Emperor against his adversary, the Roman legion could devastate Madina in a couple of days. But this was the conversation that passed on between the two.

Heraculius first demanded: “Tell me first about his lineage among you”. “It is pure”, replied Abu-Sufyan, “our best lineage”. Heraculius again, “Has any of his house made the same claim earlier?” “NO”, replied AbuSufyan.

Heraculius now demanded again, “Did anybody possess sovereignty in his family?” Abu-Sufyan had again to say “NO”, in reply. Now Heraculius put another question, “What sort of men are those who have accepted his religion? Are they poor or influential people?” “Weak and helpless”, replied AbuSufyan. Heraculius asked again. “Is the number of his followers increasing or decreasing?” “Increasing”, Abu-Sufyan had to acknowledge it, in reply. “Has he ever told you a lie?” demanded the Emperor.

Abu-Sufyan again replied in negative and the Heraculius enquired, “Has he ever been treacherous?” “NO”, said Abu-Sufyan in reply, “But we will see what he does in future” “And what does he teach you”? — was the last question asked by Heraculius. “He asks us” replied Abu-Sufyan “to worship only one God, to offer prayers, to become virtuous, to speak the truth and to discharge our obligations to the kinsmen”. (Ibn Is haq, the life of Muhammad, p. 655). Of course, Abu-Sufyan came back empty handed. “If I were to tell you that the enemy is lying in ambush behind this hillock to attack you?” The reply he received was, “Oh yes, for we have never heard you speaking a lie.”

If you can once get your values so mixed until the frontier between what is ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ becomes invisible! Truthfulness is the rock on which character must be built, then no amount of storm can cast the structure down. This vast, busy universe, pulsating, expanding, evolving, is real, all its values are genuine, there is no place for anything false. The fact of life is the ‘Truth’. The Holy Prophet Muhammad, as of course all the previous prophets; has left the best living example of Truth, for us.

Humanity needs three things says Dr. Sir Mohammed Iqbal: “A spiritual interpretation of the universe, spiritual emancipation of the individual, and basic principles of universal import directing the evolution of human society on a spiritual basis. Unfortunately, says Iqbal, the formalistic religious outlook that has been created by the so-called man of the pulpit, with their cock and bull stories, have been progressively leading to the unconscious acceptance of the naturalistic and, for all practical purposes, materialistic view of human being as a mere ‘Superior animal’, though he is essentially a spiritual being.

Being spiritual being, man cannot survive without following the Truth, which has been most glaringly exemplified by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Truth will have all the Abu-Sufyan hang their heads in shame!