It is the month of Rabi ul Awwal, when I look forward to holding a Milad and attending those at my friend’s homes. The twelfth of Rabi ul Awwal, the third month of the Hijrah, Islamic calendar is the both the day Prophet Muhammad came into this world and left for the Hereafter. On the same date he arrived in Madinah, the Hijrah, migration, from Makkah marking the beginning of the Hijrah calendar. Milads, collective gatherings to celebrate the Prophet’s birth, are effective ways of melting hearts and increasing one’s love for God.
The Sufi creed in which Milad celebrations are held remains the dominant creed for Muslims in the sub-continent. In Pakistan, the radical groups who follow the Saudi inspired Wahabi ideology are opposed to holding Milads. Some years ago, a suicide bomber targeted a Milad gathering, killing many devotees. In Saudi Arabia, singing or listening to naat, praises of Prophet Muhammad and holding collective religious functions can lead to arrest by the mutawwah, religious police. Thankfully in India, religious expression is freely allowed and the old tradition of Milad celebrations continues to be held throughout the country.
For mystics, Prophet Muhammad mirrors Allah’s attributes. During my Sufi initiation, I was taught that loving and following the Prophet was to love God. He remains the perfect vehicle to inner enlightenment, for even in slumber, he remained connected to Allah.
As Rumi glorifies:
The Prophet said, ‘My eyes sleep,’
But my heart is not asleep to the Lord of Creation
While your eyes are closed and your heart slumbers,
My eyes are closed and my heart opens in the contemplation of the Divine
Do not judge me with your own inadequacy;
What is night for you is bright day for me,
What for you is a prison is for me an open garden.
In the very midst of worldly engagement I am detached.
It is not myself that sits beside you; it is my shadow;
My reality is beyond the realm of thoughts,
For I have passed beyond all thought,
Racing ahead, far past that realm.
This month of the blessed birth invites reflection on the Prophetic character, his teachings, and tribulations and how he forgave his worst enemies. Prophet Muhammad inspired with the words, ‘I have come to perfect noble character.’ Ayesha, his wife once commented, ‘His character was the Quran.’ Prophet Muhammad said the bankrupt ones are those who despite good deeds of prayer and worship, abuse one another, treat neighbours badly and lack good character.
The Prophet’s personality was based on moderation in spirit, generosity, justice, dignity, moral excellence, humility, bravery and firmness in the face of death, good fellowship, sympathy for others, detachment of the world, and constant fear of the Lord. He chose poverty over wealth, sleeping on the floor with a bed made of stuffed palm fibers.
With revenge becoming the order of the day, we forget that thirteen assassination attempts were made on the Prophet’s life and not once did he seek revenge. He told the Muslims not to respond to persecution with aggression, assuring them that Allah reward those who exercise patience.
The Prophet remained sympathetic to those who had left Islam due to persecution from their families and no sanctions were issued against them. Ubaydullah ibn Jash, who had migrated to Abyssyina with the first batch of immigrants converted to Christianity and abandoned his wife Um Habibah bint abi Sufiyan. None of the Muslims in Abyssyina took any action against him and he died upholding the Christian faith. When the Prophet settled in Madinah, he made it clear that he wanted relations with the new society to be egalitarian
Rabi ul Awwal, literally meaning the first spring, symbolizes birth and renewal. More importantly, it is the season of moderate weather, reminding of the Prophetic call to moderation and repeated warnings of extremism, a recognized discourse in his time.
Muslims seem unable able to grapple with the challenges of modernity. Faced with the political and scientific triumph of the West, they are increasingly forgetting Prophetic traditions of moderation, forgiveness and mercy.
Once, the radicals, who wanted to ‘revivify’ Islam, were few but clearly the extreme has broadened and the middle ground of the Prophetic example is giving way, dislocated and confused. A sad state for a religion that once surpassed all others in its capacity for allowing both debate and dissent.
With global Muslim communities in turmoil, it is a critical junction for us. The Islam of the neo-revivalists that concerns itself with outward appearances and politics must not be allowed to gain any ground. The ‘middle way’, has to be restored, one that defines Islam as an authentic summon to cultural and spiritual renewal.
