Sunshine in Medinah [1 ed.] 9780860371960

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Sunshine at Madinah

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ZAKARIA BASHIER

THE ISLAMIC FOUNDATION

Sunshine at Madinah Studies in the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (salla Alldhu ‘alayhi wa sallarn)

ZAKARIA BASHIER

THE ISLAMIC FOUNDATION

Published by THE ISLAMIC FOUNDATION Markfield Conference Centre Ratby Lane, Markfield Leicestershire, LE67 9SY, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1530 244944/5, Fax: +44 (0)1530 244946 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.islamic-foundation.org.uk

Distributed by Kube Publishing Ltd. Quran House, P.O.Box 30611, Nairobi, Kenya P.M.B.3193, Kano, Nigeria

Copyright © The Islamic Foundation, 1990/1410 H. 1st Reprint 1988/1419 H. 2nd Reprint 2007/1428 H.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Bashier, Zakaria Sunshine at Madinah 1. Islam. Muhammad (Prophet) I. Title 297’.63

ISBN 9780860371960 Pbk Cover design Nasir Cadir

Printed and bound by Antony Rowe Ltd

Contents Foreword - Khurshid Ahmad

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Introduction

Chapter 1:

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Pillars of the Prophet Muhammad’s Society

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A.

The First Pillar: The Qur'anic Dimension 1. Prologue 2. Al-Madinah, the Qur'anic Village 3. The Dominant Qur'anic Themes

B.

The Second Pillar: Building the Prophet's Mosque .. 1. The Thatching of Moses 2. The Killers of‘Ammar 3. The Significance of the Prophet's Mosque

45 45 47 49 50 50 51 54

C.

The Third Pillar: The Personality of the Prophet .... 1. The Advent of the Prophet 2. A Pen-Portrait of the Prophet 3. His Character Traits 4. The Qur'anic Universe that was Muhammad ...

56 56 58 61 66

D. The Fourth Pillar: Institution of Brotherhood Among Muslims 1. The Story of ‘Abd ar-Rahman and Sa'd 2. The Pairing Off of Muslim Brothers 3. The Concept of Muwalat

66 66 68 70

The Fifth Pillar: The Establishment of Congregational Prayer 1. The Ordinance of Prayer and Adhan 2. The Change of the Qiblah 3. The Uniqueness of Muslim Prayer

72 72 74 76

E.

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80 81 83 84 84 G. The Seventh Pillar: Formation of the Muslim Army 87 1 The Phase of Peaceful Resistance in Makkah ... 87 88 2 The Permission to Wage War.............. 3 The Concept of Daf Allah................................ 89 4 The Formation of a People’s Army.................... 91 5 The Prophet's Intelligence Service................... 94 Notes and References...................................................... 95

F.

The Sixth Pillar: The Muslim State........................... 1. The Primary Meaning of Hijrah........................ 2. The Prophet's Islamic Movement..................... 3. How the Muslim State was Set Up in Madinah .. 4. The Constitution of the New State.....................

Chapter 2:

Two Documents of the Prophet’s State ..

A. The Sahifah......................................................... 1. Laying Down the Foundations of the First Muslim State................................................. 2. The Origin, Date and Authenticity of the Sahifah .......................................................... 3. English Translation of the Sahifah.............. 4. The Political Import of the Sahifah.............. 5. The Contractual Strength of the Sahifah..... 6. The Prophet's Insights and the Jewish Anticipation........................................................ 7. The Lasting Significance of the Sahifah............

B. The Prophet's Farewell Address.............................. 1. Prologue ............................................................. 2. Ibn Kathir's Account of the Farewell Address .. 3. The La-haraj Maxim......................................... 4. Mixed Feelings of Joy and Sadness.................... 5. The Augmented Text of Ibn Kathir’s Additions 6. Central Themes of the Farewell Address..... 7. ‘I am Merely a Conveyer'.............................. 8.

The Common Ground Between the Sahifah and the Farewell Address.......................

Notes and References..................................................

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99 99 99

103 104 108 115 116 119 120 120 123 126 128 129

131 136 136 138

Chapter 3:

The House of the Prophet Muhammad (Some Aspects of His Private Life).......

139

A.

Prologue .....................................................................

139

B.

The Three Major Divisions of His Day................

141

C.

The First Part: The Family of the Prophet.......... 1. The Several Marriages of the Prophet......... 2 Strengthening Bonds of Affection and Solidarity ................................................................... 3. The Prophet's Marriage to ‘A'ishah..................... 4. The Prophet's Marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh ..

142 143

D. The Second Part: The Prophet's Free Time............... 1. The Prophet's Conduct at Home.......................... 2. ‘Umar Cries ............................................................... 3. Dispute in the House of the Prophet...................

152 153 154 154

E.

The Third Part: Devotion to God Almighty.......

156

F.

The Role of Muslim Women in the Prophet’s Society........................................................... 1. ‘A'ishah ................................................................ 2. Other Wives of the Prophet............................. 3. Nusaybah bint Ka‘b............................................ 4. The Personality and Role of Asma' bint Abu Bakr ............................................................. 5. Khawlah bint Tha‘labah (The Disputant).... 6. Umm Sulaim bint Milhan ibn Haram........... 7. Umm Haram bint Milhan ................................ 8. The Prophet Visits a Bride............................... 9. Other Muslim Women Whom the Prophet Visited................................................................... 10. The Phenomenon of Women Combatants ... 11. Hijab and the Role of Muslim Women.........

Notes and References......................................................

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145 148 151

157 157 160 161

162 162 163 165 166

166 167 169 171

The Socio-Economic Dimensions of the Prophet’s State ............................................

175

1.

Some Basic Concepts.................................................. 1.1 Muhammad the Man.......................................... 1.2 The Khallfatu Allah that is Man...................... 1.3 The Basic Role of a Muslim............................... 1.4 Supremacy of Islamic Law................................ 1.5 Life-Affirming Vision ....................................... 1.6 The Religion of Optimum Balance................. 1.7 The Dominating Spirit of the Qur’an.............. 1.8 The Early Madinan Qur anic Themes.............

175 177 177 178 178 178 179 179 180

2.

The Qur’anic Phenomenon......................................... 2.1 The Two Fair Ones (az-Zahrawan)................. 2.2 The Jewish Dilemma.......................................... 2.3 The Jews’ Prayer Invoking the Name of Muhammad (al-Istiflah).................................... 2.4 Reference to the Jews in the Qur’an............... 2.5 The Socio-Economic Themes of the Two Fair Ones............................................................ 2.6 The Family is Sacred.........................................

183 185 186

Chapter 4:

3.

The Conception of Woman (The Early Concept of Hijab)................................... 3.1 The Role of the Prophet's Wives.................... 3.2 Unique Relationship with Some Outstanding Muslim Women................................................. 3.3 Men and Women in the Private Service of the Prophet..................................................... 3.4 Madinah: A Community of Faith...................

Notes and References...................................................

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190 192

197 210 210 212 213

216 219 224

Foreword God's greatest blessing on mankind is divine guidance. This guidance has come through two channels - the Book and the Prophet. The uniqueness of this strategy lies in the fact that the Book and the Prophet represent two facets of the same reality. Though not a substitute for each other, they represent an integrated and indispensable source for human guidance. The Book represents the Will of the Lord, in its sublime purity, the Word of God. the revelation with all its divine grandeur. The Prophet is the person through whom this guidance is revealed. He is the trusted receptacle, the one who receives the divine message, preserves it and communi­ cates it to mankind without tampering or interpolation. But he is not a mere clearing-house for guidance. He unlinks that guidance in a manner that his life and character become the noblest personification of that guidance. He is also not a mere communicator. He is assigned the responsibility of teaching, explaining and reconstructing individual life and social order in accordance with this guidance. He initiates a movement, a process of change and leads it in the desired direction. His life is a chronicle of the historic process of da'wall and the consequent transformation of individuals and society. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. is the last of the Prophets and the Qur'an is the final book revealed by God. Ever since the advent of Islam, the Sirali of the Prophet has remained a fascinating subject and a major instrument of da'wah. This has been such a favourite theme for Muslim writers and scholars in all periods of Muslim history and in all parts of the Islamic realm that it can be claimed that the largest number of books in Islamic

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history have been produced on the Sirah of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Yet the topic remains unexhausted, perhaps even unexhaustible. one of the miracles of Islam. My brother and colleague. Dr. Zakaria Bashier. joined the galaxy of writers on Sirah by producing, almost a decade ago. a pioneering work: The Meccan Crucible. He breathed a new freshness into a subject, the story of an era, covered a thousand times. His approach was unique. He looked upon the life of the Prophet through the prism of the Qur’an. His was not a chronicle of events. It represented the study of the life of a man who brought about the greatest revolution in human history, a study that focused on the man in the context of the mission. It was not a book of history either. It not only portrayed the major events of an era, it tried to peep behind the curtain of history, in an effort to understand its whys and hows. The focus moved beautifully and mean­ ingfully from man to mission, from individual to movement, from past to the present and the future, from chronicle of events to ethos of society and history. This was new to the methodology of Sirah, and a contribution which must not go unacknowledged. I had the pleasure of requesting Brother Zakaria Bashier to continue his studies on the Sirah and cover other aspects of the life of the Prophet to complete the picture. I am happy he has continued this valuable work. A small volume. Hijra: Story and Significance, has already been published by the Islamic Foundation. Now I am happy that a third study is seeing the light of day: Sunshine at Madinah. This contains four major studies: Pillars of the Prophet Muhammad's Society; Two Documents of the Prophet's State; The House of the Prophet Muhammad, and The Socio-Economic Di­ mensions of the Prophet's State. A fifth and very valuable study on an approach to the study of Sirah has been added as an introduction to these studies. In fact this is an introduction to the entire series, beginning with The Meccan Crucible, going through Hijra and Sunshine at Madinah, and hopefully to be concluded by a fourth volume on War and Peace in the Life of the Prophet. I hope and pray that Brother Zakaria Bashier will be able to produce this final volume in the near future.

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Every age has its own needs. The Islamic Ummah is today engaged in a struggle to re-establish its true ideological identity in a world steeped in secularism and worship of wealth, technology and power. Islam is not averse to wealth, technology or power; but it refuses to pursue these as goals and objects of human life. They arc useful only as long as they remain means and instruments in the service of sublime goals and objectives of life - the pursuit of Godliness and the establishment of a social order based on justice and brotherhood. When these means begin to be looked upon as ends, that paves the way for disaster. Such is the predicament of mankind today. In this context, Islamic resurgence represents a movement to rebuild human society on values of Tawhid, Taqwd and 'Adi. The inspiration for this historic struggle cannot come but from the life of the Prophet, peace be upon him. But his life has to be looked upon from a new perspective. Brother Zakaria Bashier's trio, in my humble opinion, provides one such source, not as a study that comprehends all important aspects of the life of the man who alone can provide the model for today and tomorrow, but at least as an approach to that rich and revolutionary life which is to be looked upon as a beacon for our own times. I am grateful to all who helped in the production of the book, especially Dr. M. Manazir Ahsan, the Director Gen­ eral of the Foundation and Mawlana Iqbal Azami who read the manuscript and suggested numerous changes and im­ provements. Dr. Jamil Qureshi and Mr. Eric R. Fox deserve special thanks for meticulous editing and seeing the book through the press. Finally I would like to thank Mrs. Barratt for typing the manuscript more than once. May Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ald* accept our humble effort and make it a source of inspiration and guidance for all. Khurshid Ahmad

Leicester, RabT‘ al-Awwal, 1410 AH. October 1989

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Allah and His Angels send blessings on the Prophet. Oyou who believe! Send your blessings on him, and salute him with all respect. (al-Ahzab 33: 56)

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