Seerah of the Prophet s.a.w. - The Calling

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace.

Insya Allah, the "place" I've decided to start with is at the very start of Prophethood. The Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was 40 years old and in the last few years, he had taken to visit a cave on the Mount of Hira, a few miles from Mecca for seclusion.

M A Salahi in his book speculated that it was partly because of "a widely intellectual gap" between him and the people of Mecca. Several modern biographers speculated that he might have done so due to being disturbed by the state of his people. Martin Lings suggested that the seclusion was likely a result of the visions that came to him; where he found that his dreams came true and the visions were like "the breaking of the light of dawn". This seemed to be derived from the hadith reported by Aisyah r.a. in Sahih Bukhari. It seemed that the Prophet used to go into seclusion during the month of Ramadhan and these retreats gave him comfort for the rest of the year.

Whatever motivated him to go into seclusion, I have always wondered why he chose the cave as opposed to other places or even in his own home. While I have never had a chance to visit the cave myself, the description of the cave was that it was well hidden and seemed very isolated. Described here by someone who had been there,

No one can stay there even for a minute or two without feeling lonely. In my second visit, which took place when we went for ‘umra, the pilgrims who were there before me left at some point and I found myself on my own for about 5 minutes before new visitors started to arrive. It was so lonely. You do not see or hear anyone, and you feel so apart from the rest of the world. It can be scary in the morning, but it must be utterly terrifying in the night. This is the place that Muhammad frequented and lived in for days and probably weeks, day and night. He wanted to be alone, away from all people, because he was seeking a different company. This is where Muhammad sought and worshipped Allah, the only God, who was going to inspire him, make him His last Prophet, and reveal the Qur’an to him.

Visiting the Cave of Hira’ was one of the most moving and memorable experiences of my pilgrimage and later ‘umra. Having seen how well hidden the cave is, even to someone at its path, there is no way Muhammad, looking up from the bottom of that mountain, could have guessed that somewhere near the summit of that mountain there was a totally isolated cave. We do not know whether he climbed up the mountain looking for the cave he felt existed and needed to find, or whether he was made to find it having been led to explore that summit. But what is certain is that Muhammad must have been drawn to the cave. Allah wanted him to find the cave and make it the private abode that he would frequent to be on his own with Him and think of the spiritual matters that preoccupied him.

My first visit to the cave left me with an overwhelming sense of amazement, reverence, and awe. The belief that it was Allah who led Muhammad to the cave was so intense. But the impact of what I saw and learned about that breathtaking cave and the Prophet’s miraculous journey to its discovery was too strong to easily neutralize by my knowledge that this miracle, like anything else, is easy for Allah to do.

And it was in the cave in the month of Ramadhan that the angel Gabriel came to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. with the first message. There are differing opinions on which was the first verse that was revealed in that fateful meeting but majority was of the opinion that it was that of the first verse of Al-'Alaq (The Clot of Blood) based on the authentic hadith reported by Aisyah mentioned above and that of a hadith reported by Abdullah ibn Az-Zubair r.a. (related by At-Tabari).

Gabriel approached Prophet Muhammad saying "Read." When he answered he could not read, Gabriel embraced him and pressed him hard before releasing him. This sequence of actions repeated twice over before Gabriel recited, "Read in the Name of Your Lord who created. It is He who created man from clots of blood. Read! Your Lord is the most bounteous, Who has taught the use of the pen. He has taught man what he did not know."

I shall stop the sequence of events here instead of going further to describe the Prophet's s.a.w. reaction. Instead, let us reflect for a minute on the significance of this moment.

1. Sayyid Qutb wrote in "In the Shade of the Qur'an":

This great event began to bear on the life of humanity as a whole right from the first moment. It marked a change in the course of history...It specified the source man should look up to in order to derive his ideas, values and criteria. The source is heaven and the divine revelations, not this world and man's own desires...Clear and permanent guidelines were established which cannot be changed by the passage of time or effaced by events.

2. In Sahih Muslim:

Anas related that Abu Bakr said to Umar after the death the Prophet: 'Let us go and visit Umm Ayman as the Prophet used to do.' When they went to her she burst into tears. They said: 'What are you crying for? Do you not realise that Allah's company is far better for the Prophet?' She replied: 'This is true, I am sure. I am only crying because revelation has ceased with his death.' This made tears spring to their eyes and the three of them cried together.

The significance of that first instance of prophethood and messengership is the direct word of Allah to us. For twenty three years, the Prophet and his Companions lived, guided by those words. For that period, there was a bridge between our world and the divine, one that shaped the first Muslim generation to be the best of generations. The impact of the Quran was so significant because the Companions let themselves be guided by it.

3. The choice of the first verses revealed matched the intellectual capacity of its target audience well. In it is information of three things
a. The creation of man
b. The transmission of knowledge
c. Most significantly, the author of both.

The Qur'an transformed a people (the Arabs) from an oral culture and tradition to those of letter and writing. The first university in the world was in the Islamic world and the library in Baghdad at the height of the Islamic civilisation was impressive. The Islamic civilisation produced scholars who excelled in many different branches of knowledge.

All of these stemmed from that first meeting between the Prophet Muhammad and Gabriel.

Seerah of the Prophet s.a.w. - Introduction and Motivation.

In the name Allah, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace.

I have been thinking about this for a while. As the Prophet s.a.w. encouraged his companions to teach and pass down their knowledge, so too I hope to pass some of the knowledge I have gathered on to others. Therefore, I have made the decision to write a series of blogs on the biography of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and what we can learn from it.

It will not be in a chronological order but topical. This choice was inspired by Celebrate Mercy, an organisation that has brought together some of the well-known scholars and da'ii of Islam to share some of their knowledge and insights to the Prophet s.a.w.

I am no scholar and therefore use the following books as my basis:
1. Martin Lings, "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources"
2. M A Salahi, "Muhammad, Man and Prophet: A Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet of Islam"
3. Ibn Kathir, "Stories of the Prophets"

and several others along the way which I will indicate.

May Allah guide me in this project. Ameen.

Celebrating the birth of the Prophet (Mawlid)

For as long as I remember, my family doesn't celebrate the Mawlid though it was and still probably is a big thing in the Muslim community in Singapore. My family follow the school of thought that the Mawlid is an innovation and the Prophet s.a.w. strictly forbid innovation.

But as you know there are always two school of thoughts and each school of thoughts have their points and leading scholars on this. As I grow older (and perhaps a bit more tolerant of differences), I think I can see the points of both sides. I am no scholar but as with all Muslims, I need to be able to understand and be comfortable with my own stand on it.

So, these are my thoughts:
1. The intention to remember the Prophet s.a.w. and therefore, his teachings and Sunnah is good.
2. If the celebration of the mawlid encompass only these reminders and remembrances, then I am comfortable in participating in them.
3. There should not be excesses in praising the Prophet s.a.w. to the extend of almost deifying him as there has been in some cases.

However, if it is our intention to remember the Prophet s.a.w. and to increase our love for him, then we should be doing it daily. We should be familiarising ourselves with his stories and the stories of his family and companions throughout the year. We should familiarise ourselves with his sayings and actions. We should strive to follow those sayings and actions; take inspiration and derive lessons from his history. It should not be left to only one day or one month of the year only.

That is my thought, may Allah forgive me if I'm wrong. Wallahu a'lam.

End of 2011.

2011 will end in a few hours and I think it is time to stop and take stock of what has taken place in my life and around me. A steady job, good colleagues and good friends are some of the blessings of this past year. Definitely my family has been the greatest blessing that God has given me.

This year has been a year of travel. From my yearly Singapore trips to the monthly trips to London and more, I've clocked more air miles and miles in the car than ever in my life. I am grateful to God for the companions He has given me on my travels. From Amy, Yiota and Alexia on my Cyprus trip to Huda, Samia, Shereen, Sumayia and Shahidah on my Birmingham trip, alhamdulillah, they have enriched my experiences. May God bless all of them for their companionship.

This year is also a year of being grateful - grateful for the little things like not being in debt, being relatively healthy, being in good company who always remind one another. Also grateful for - not being in Japan or New Zealand during the tsunami/earthquake, not being in Somalia/Horn of Africa for the famine, not being in Greece and other EU countries in grips of Sovereign crisis, not being in London during the riots, and so much more!

Oh Allah, may the new year bring my family, my friends and me closer to You. May next year bring us closer to one another as well. May next year also allow us enough to contribute enough to the wellbeing of our communities. May we be better people next year than we are this year. Ameen.

Is racial identity important?

Recently in Singapore, there is a big issue when the Minister of Environment, a Malay, remarked that Malay should be taught as a foreign language. On reading the various news and commentaries, I was unsurprised that I didn't really feel strongly about it other than the fact that I think it is unfair to the Malays. Seriously, it didn't affect me personally.

Several weeks before that, I met a Malay Singaporean who was studying in Cambridge and she asked me something to the point of whether I feel Malay? That is the question, isn't it? Do I think myself as Malay and therefore makes it part of my identity? Is then racial identity important?

If you ask me what my race is, I would say I'm Malay (and half Chinese), but that's because it is a fact that my father is a Malay. However, do I identify with Malays? Possibly not. I can probably say that neither my brother nor sister would identify themselves with Malays.

Perhaps that's because of our upbringing. Before going to the University, I had very few Malay friends. We grew up rarely mixing with the Malay kids in our neighbourhood, spending most times with friends from school. Given I went to CHIJ (a Catholic school) and then to Nanyang Junior College (a mainly Chinese dominated school), I grew up with a mixture of Chinese, Indian, Malay and Eurasian kids. At home, we spoke mainly English amongst the siblings and with our father. This was instituted by our father to improve our English. Culturally, my father did not and still does not practise much of the Malay traditions. We grew up mainly with Muslim values without the cultural baggage. For example, my parents did not do "kenduri doa selamat" which in the Malay tradition is a gathering where you invite people to pray for the dead and then feed them. But even then, I lost faith in the Muslim community as I saw them to be very inward looking, caring more for the form than the substance.

After going to the University, I rediscovered Islam. The friendships that I formed within the Muslim Society in university are mostly with Malays but the friendships were based on being Muslim brothers and sisters and not so much based on being Malay. However, as I grew up and started working and went on to explore the world, there are three great old friends who remained and none of them are Malays. I'm not sure whether they see me as my race but I seriously don't see them in a racial light.

As I look back now, I realise that race is not an issue for me. My family and friends are made up of a mix of different races and I feel belong to them. What I feel is I'm a Singaporean and I'm a Muslim. A Malay, a Chinese, an Indian, or any other race, or bi-racial, it does not matter as to who you are deep inside. What matters is the values you hold; that you should get to know people for who they are, not for what they are.

I think to reach a racial harmony in Singapore, the racial barrier and constant harping on racial identity need to be cast aside. We need to be racially blind if ever we want to reach true meritocracy. I think a race is an accident of birth...God's way to make things more colourful for us but nothing to impede our understanding of each other. This is especially true as we have more mix marriages. Like that of my brother's marriage. If he has children, they will be a quarter Chinese, a quarter Malay, and half Burmese. My sister's children are almost half Chinese, a quarter Malay and a quarter Indian (probably some Arabic blood as well). Are they expected to think of themselves in terms of a single race? Is it fair for them?

Therefore, no, I don't think a racial identity is important.