CHANGE BEGINS WITH…LEARNING FROM MUHAMMAD (SAW)

While we were away, President Muhammadu Buhari launched a project dear to his heart and dear to our hearts too – a Project he named “Change Begins With Me…!” Although controversy has trailed the launch of this all important campaign with accusations and counter accusations of originality, betrayal and padding, that does not and should […]

While we were away, President Muhammadu Buhari launched a project dear to his heart and dear to our hearts too – a Project he named “Change Begins With Me…!” Although controversy has trailed the launch of this all important campaign with accusations and counter accusations of originality, betrayal and padding, that does not and should not reduce, in any material particular, the import and need for such a social intervention. And we accept that Change Must Begin!
We, as writers and commentators, are much used to quoting philosophers and other wise people when justifying some good intent or action but, as Muslims, we sometimes tend to forget to quote directly from source of all Change Agenda, and any positive agenda for that matter, that one man who Allah Himself directs us to copy and learn from – Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, a man who departed this earth 1428 years ago, a man whose words and actions are relevant lessons to eternity.
We intend to present a series of “Change Begins With…” articles on this page over the coming weeks, but it is most appropriate that we start this campaign about Good Conduct squarely where it belongs, that is, beginning with a person of such unimpeachable character, a person whom Allah Himself vouches for when He said of him: “Wa innaka la ala khuluqin azwim” (‘And truly you are on the best moral conduct’). And this, we have narrated on this page sometimes in the past. For ultimately, good conduct is the greatest difference we can make for our fellow humans.
Once, the Prophet was asked, what would be the most important facilitator for people to enter paradise on the Day of Judgement. He did not mention the prayer or the fasting or the other essentials in the life of Muslims; he had replied: “Fear of God and good conduct.”
To support this, the Prophet once asked his companions: May I not tell you something which is worthier than prayer (salat) and fasting (sawm) and all other devotions. The companions replied in the affirmative; surprised they were that there would be such a thing greater than the Five Pillars of Islam. The Prophet continued: “Good conduct”.
To illustrate why little things matter so much, the Prophet once told his companions the story of a woman who was condemned to hellfire on account of her cat. The woman, narrated the Prophet, restrained the cat without feeding it and without letting it go free to fend for herself and eat from what God would have provided it. As a result of the woman’s wickedness, the cat starved and died. For that, God condemned the woman.
In another story from the Prophet, a woman of easy virtue, who would otherwise have been likewise condemned, was forgiven by God and admitted into paradise on account of a dog. The woman was walking and became very thirsty. She came across a well, got down into it, drank the water and came out. She then saw a dog panting and licking mud because of excessive thirst. The woman understood the dog’s state of thirst and went down the well again, filled her shoe with water, held it in her mouth, crawled out and quenched the dog’s thirst. God thanked her for that deed and forgave her.
And we remember the story of a worshipful woman who was reported to have been diligent in night prayers and observant in voluntary fasting. But when she died, the Prophet reported that the woman had been condemned to hell. On investigation, she was found to have been bad mannered to her neighbours, despite her apparent religiousness. For her bad conduct, she was condemned.
On the matter of neighbours, the Prophet had said, as reported by his wife A’isha and his companion Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with both): “Jibril (Archangel Gabriel) continued to recommend me about treating the neighbours in a kind and polite manner so much so that I thought he would order me to make them as my heirs.”
Elsewhere, as narrated Abu Shuraih, the Prophet said, “By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe!” The Prophet was asked, “Who is that, O Allah’s Apostle?” He said, “That person whose neighbour does not feel safe from his evil.” Abu Huraira added that Allah’s Apostle also said, “Anybody who believes in Allah and the Last Day should not harm his neighbour…”
Still on the matter of making a difference through good neighbourliness, the Prophet tells us about the Ash’aris, a clan in Medina during his time. Whenever their provisions ran low in peacetime or in war, the Ash’aris would gather all their community’s worldly wealth in one place and add it all up and then divide it equally between the number of households in their community. The Prophet said of the Ash’aris: “They are of me, and I am of them.”
The communists were later in 1917 to steal this exact same idea of 1,400 years earlier and call it ‘collectivisation’. Only difference was that the Ash’aris did it voluntarily, without prompting or coercion; while the communists had to destroy whole communities to do it.
People who have no good conduct, people who thrive in making life difficult for others, are people whom Allah, God, does not like. In the Qur’an, Luqman the Wise exhorts his son: “Turn not thy cheek in scorn toward folk, nor walk with pertness (impudence) in the land. Lo! Allah loveth not each braggart boaster. (Qur’an Luqman 31:18)
Hear that! Allah does not love the arrogant boaster! A’isha, the Prophet’s wife (may Allah be pleased with her), once narrated that a man asked permission to enter upon Allah’s Apostle. The Prophet said, “Admit him; what an evil brother (or son) of his people.” But when the man entered, the Prophet spoke to him in a very polite manner. And when that person left, A’isha said, “O Allah’s Apostle! You had said what you had said, yet you spoke to him in a very polite manner?” The Prophet said, “O ‘Aisha! The worst people are those whom the people desert (or leave) in order to save themselves from their dirty language or from their transgression.”
Another companion of the Prophet, Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), reports that the Prophet had directed, “Make things easy for the people, and do not make it difficult for them, and make them calm (with glad tidings) and do not repulse (them).”
But the greatest difference would come to us from God Himself on the Day of Judgement. Safwan ibn Muhriz Almazini reported that once when he was walking with the Prophet’s companion Abdullah ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), a man came and asked ibn Umar, “What have you heard from Allah’s Apostle about An-Najwa (secret talk between Allah and His servant on the Day of Judgment)?” Ibn ‘Umar said, “I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘Allah will bring a believer near Him and shelter him with His Screen and ask him: “Did you commit such-and-such sins?” He will say: “Yes, my Lord.” Allah will keep on asking him till he will confess all his sins and will think that he is ruined. Then Allah will say: “I did screen your sins in the world and I forgive them for you today.” And then he will be given the book of his good deeds.
The Prophet had said with an oath: “By One in whose hand there is my life, none shall enter paradise except one who has got good conduct.”
Therefore, indeed, Change Begins With…Learning From Muhammad, upon whom be peace.
Sallal Lahu ala Muhammad!