A Brief Sketch of the Life of The Prophet Muhammad by Muhammad Ali Muslim Town, Lahore, India (1946)
Quotes & Further Islamic Resources
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia - Southern Spring of '96

The following quotes, mainly from the Qur'an - where the standard references are provided - are taken from the further chapters of the publication The Prophet Muhammad [Living Thoughts Library, 1948], by Muhammad Ali of Muslim Town, Lahore, India. These are presented for the contemplative reference of the student of life, for whom this entire publication is dedicated. The brief commentary at the commencement of each of these subsequent chapters, is quoted from the author, to whom the credit for this publication should be directed.

In examination and reflection upon the following it is observed that the wisdom of Islam and the wisdom of Christianity and the wisdom of Hindi and the wisdom of Buddhism and the wisdom of the lore of the elders of the native and indigenous peoples and cultures from all the terrestrial lands beneath the sun ... are the different aspects of the One Wisdom.

Peace.

PRF Brown
BCSLS (Freshwater)
Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
Southern Spring of 1996.

Chapter 1: A Brief Sketch of the Prophet's Life

The first five parts of this web publication on the wisdom if Islam, and of the Prophet Muhammad presents this first chapter is completeness, and thereby provides a comprehensive introduction to the life and the times of the Prophet. Refer to the index at the end of this page to access the contents of this first chapter, or alternately, fetch this publication's Index Page.

The secret of the Prophet's success, a success admittedly unparalleled to this day, lay in his strong faith in God. He had a deep conviction that God had a plan for the uplift of man, to bring to perfection not one nation or one people but the whole world, and that no power in the world could frustrate the Divine purpose. The Prophet's well known prayer, which is now the prayer of millions of his followers around the planet, five times a day, begins with the words:

"All praise is due to Allah, the Nourisher to perfection of all nations" [7:158]

"We are nearer to man than his life-vein" [50:16]

"We are nearer to your soul than yourselves" [56:85]

"We are nearer to man than his life-vein" [50:16]

"And surely the unjust are friends of each other,
and Allah is the Friend of those who have regard for their duty" [45:19]

"He who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it,
And he who has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it." [99:7,8]

Chapter 3: The Oneness of Humanity:

The idea of the oneness of humanity is the Prophet's unique contribution to human civilisation, and it came as a natural sequel to that foundation-stone of his teachings, the Unity of God. A perusal of world history shows the idea of the whole of humanity being a single nation as first dawning upon the Prophet's mind. It was a revelation from on High in the truest sense of the word. No country was more unsuited than Arabia, either to give birth to such an idea or to see its accomplishment ... yet it transpired ...

"All people are a single nation;
so Allah raised prophets (among all)
bearing good news and giving warning,
and He revealed the Book with truth" [2:213]

"And people are naught but a single nation but they disagree" [3:102]

The Prophet impressed upon the people of Islam, that all people were equal before God. The principal was further laid down that noone was to be honoured because he belonged to a particular race, or a particular family or spoke a particular language or had a particular colour; honour was due to him who had the greatest regard for his duty:

"Oh you men!
We have created you of a male and a female,
and made you families and tribes that you may know each other;
the most honorable of you with Allah is the one among you
who has the most regard for his duty." [49:13]

Chapter 4: The Dignity of Manhood:

Another unique contribution made by the Prophet to the human civilisation was the idea of human dignity. This too, was a natural sequel to the idea of oneness of God, on which he laid so much stress. Man was the noblest of God's creation, according to the Prophet, and it was degrading for him to worship things, or to bow down before things which he really excelled:

"What!
Shall I seek for you an object of worship other than Allah,
while He has made you excel in all things?" [7:140]

"What!
Do you serve what you hew out?
And Allah has created you and what you make" [37:95,96]

From the slave of nature's forces which man generally was at that stage of human civilisation, the Prophet thus raised him to the dignity of the master and the ruler, and it was due to this realisation of man's position in the universe that the Muslims in their very early history took vigorous strides towards an expansion of knowledge and the advancements of the sciences. Reading and writing was within a few years spread throughout Arabia and other countries which came under the influence of Islam ... in the natural state man was pure; and every child whether born of Muslim or non-Muslim parents was sinless:

"Surely we have created man in the best make." [95:4]

"So set thy face upright for religion in the right state -
the nature made by Allah in which He has made men;
there is no altering of Allah's creation;
that is the right religion but most people do not know." [30:30]

Explaining this verse of the Holy Qur'an, the Prophet is reported to have said:
"Every child that is born conforms to the true religion (lit: human nature);
it is his who make him a Jew or a Christian ot a Magian" [Bukhari 32:79]

The doctrine of sinlessness of man by birth was an aid to leading a sinless life. If a man did good and avoided evil he was true to his nature, while if he went against good and did evil he was false to his nature. It further strengthened him to overcome sin, becasue he knew that nature had fitted him for this task. But there was yet a further step to raise him spiritually to a very high level.

According to the Prophet not only no impurity attached to man in the natural state, i.e. by birth, but he, in a certain sense, also partook of the Divine nature, for it was the Divine Spirit that was breathed into man, into every human child:

"Who made good everything that He created,
and He began the creation of man from dust;
Then He made his progeny of an extract,
of water held in light estimation;
Then He made him complete and breathed into him His spirit." [32:7-9]

Evidently, the Divine Spirit spoken of here is something distinct from the animal soul which animates the whole animal kingdom, including man. It shows the mystic relation of the spirit of man with the Divine Spirit, and refers to the higher life of man:

"O soul that art at rest!
Return to thy Lord,
well-pleased with Him,
well-pleasing Him,
So enter among My servants,
And enter into My Garden." [89:27-30]

The goal of life was liqa-Allah, or the meeting of God:

"O man!
Thou must strive to attain to thy Lord
a hard striving until thou meet Him. [84:6]

"They are losers indeed who reject the meeting of Allah" [6:31]

"They will perish indeed who call the meeting of Allah to be a lie". [10:45]

"He regulates the affair,
making clear signs that you may be certain of meeting your Lord." [13:2]

"And surely most of the people are deniers of the meeting of their Lord". [30:8]

"O you who believe!
Turn to Allah a sincere turning;
maybe your Lord will remove from you your evil
and cause you to enter gardens in which rivers flow,
on the day on which Allah will not abase the Prophet
and those who believe with him;
their light shall run on before them
and on their right hands;
they shall say, Our Lord!
Make perfect for us our light and grant us protection,
for Thou hast power over all things." [66:8]

Chapter 5: Prayer to God:

Another unique service the Prophet rendered to humanity was that he made prayer to God not only the foundation-stone of the individual development of man, but also the basis of the vast brotherhood of humanity which he established through Islam. The first three commandments which, he said, he had received from on High, were in the following order. Read and write, to attain a place of honour, was, as we have already seen, his very first revelation. His second revelation was a command to warm people and declare the greatness of God:

"O thou enveloped in thy garment!
Arise and warn, And thy Lord do magnify." [74:1-3]

The third commandment, his third revelation in the historical order, was to pray to God; not only to pray to Him in the daytime but even during the night:

"O thou who has wrapped up thyself!
Keep awake in the night for prayer except alittle,
Half of it or lessen it a little,
Or add to it and recite the Qur'an,
reciting it in slow measured accents." [73:1-4]

The Prophet introduced a system of prayer in that it was interwoven into man's daily work: a prayer in the morning when he arose from his bed; a prayer at lunch time, as an indication that if his body needed a diet, so did his spirit; a prayer in the afternoon when he retired from his daily work; a prayer at sunset and a prayer when going to bed.

The object aimed at was to deepen in the human heart the roots of God-consciousness, with which man was endowed by nature; to make him remember again and again that he owed a duty to his Maker ...

Chapter 6: The Service of Humanity:

In the earliest teachings of the Prophet as much stress was laid on prayer to God as on service to humanity, perhaps more on the latter. In fact, prayer to Him was meaningless if it was not accompanied with service to humanity. It would be a mere show, severely condemnable:

"Hast thou consdiered him who gives the lie to religion?
That is the one who treats the orphan with harshness,
And does not urge the feeding of the needy.
So woe to those who pray,
Who are heedless of their prayers,
Who make a show of their prayers,
And refuse small acts of kindness (to their fellow human beings)." [107:1-7]

"And (have We not) pointed out to man the two conspicuous ways?
But he would not attempt the uphill road.
And what will make thee comprehend what the uphill road is?
It is the setiing free of a slave,
Or the giving of food in a day of hunger,
To an orphan near of kin,
Or to the needy one lying in the dust." [90:11-16]

Chapter 7: Charity:

The Prophet's charity was proverbial. He was not known to have ever said "No" to anyone who asked of him anything. "He was the most charitable of men," was the description of him given by his companions to later generations, and as if these words did not sufficiently express the Prophet's charity, it was added:

"The Messenger of Allah,
may peace and blessings of Allah be on him,
was more charitable than the wind
which is sent forth on everybody." [Bukhari, 1:1]

The Prophet preached that the love of God should be the basis of charity:

"Righteousness is this that one should believe in Allah
and the last day and the angels and the Book and the prophets,
and give wealth out of love for Him
to the near of kin and the orphans
and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars
and for the emancipation of the captives." [2:177]

Chapter 8: Character Building:

One of the earliest works to which the Prophet applied himself was the building up of character. His heart ailed, as we have already seen, for the physical ills of humanity; the slave, the widow, the orphan, the needy, the one in distress, the oppressed and the wronged, had a very high place in his heart, and he would do what he could to help them and to make others feel for them as he himself felt. But moral considerations had a still higher place in his programme of reformation, and long before he introduced any reforms in regard to social relations, sex problems and state polity, he was enganged in the moral uplift of man. All wrongs had to be redressed, later on, by means of laws and regulations, but he was aware that even good laws could benefit humanity only when they were worked out by men standing on a high moral plane. It was, therefore, at Mecca and in the very early days that, while introducing the high ideals of One God and One Humanity and applying himeslf to lead men to prayer and charity, he was equally devoted to raising men to a very high moral level.

Truth

"Surely truth leads to virtue,
and virtue leads to paradise,
and a man continues to speak the truth
until he becomes thoroughly truthful;
and surely falsehood leads to vice
and vice leads to the fire,
and a man continues to tell lies
until he is written down a great liar with Allah." [Ibid, 78:69]

Islamic Information for Teachers - Council on Islamic Education, based in Fountain Valley, CA

The following is an extract of an article at the above site which has been prepared for the use of teachers concerning an outline of the important religious celebrations and holidays of Islam, so that they might be aware of these when teaching. It provides a reasonably concise introduction to the life of the Prophet Muhammad:

The Holy Qur'an (the divine scripture) were revealed by Allah (God) to Prophet Muhammad (570-632 C.E.). From time to time, Muhammad used to go out from Makkah, where he was born and where he worked as a caravan trader, to reflect and meditate in solitude. Like Abraham before him, he had never accepted his people's worship of many gods, and felt a need to withdraw to a quiet place to reflect on the One God. One night, while contemplating in a cave near Makkah, he heard a voice call out, telling him to "Read!" Muhammad protested that he was unable to read. The voice insisted again, and then a third time, and Muhammad found himself reciting the first verses of the Qur'an:
Read, in the name of thy Lord, Who created
Created man, out of a clot (embryo)
Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,
He Who taught the use of the pen -
Taught man that which he knew not.
Nay, but man doth transgress all bounds,
In that he looketh upon himself as self-sufficient.
Verily, to thy Lord is the return (of all)." [96: 1-8]

The voice was that of the angel Gabriel, and he confirmed that Muhammad was selected for an important and challenging mission - he was to call people to monotheism and righteousness.

Sell this present world of yours for the next world
and you will gain both in entirety.
But do not sell the next world for this world,
for so shall you lose the two together.
Act towards this world as if it were not.
And towards the world to come as if it would never cease to be.

Hasan al-Basri (d.728, born in Medina, died in Basra. Eminent Sufi)

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A Brief Sketch of the Prophet's Life (571-634) The Prophet Muhammad by Muhammad Ali Lahore, India (1946)
Further Islamic Resources & the Sufi
	Preface	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
	Part 4	Part 5		Index
	Further Islamic Resources
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia - Southern Spring of '96