Renaissance - 3

Do you believe in the messenger of God, because he performed miracles? What if he had not performed a single miracle! What if the revealed book that was sent with him did not have any miracles in it, but merely truths and goodness? What if the life and teachings of the prophet were merely rational, good and just! Would you still believe in him as a messenger of God, or would you say "there are a lot of philosophers and good people around, and Muhammad is a good person, too; but why would I hold him special when he is no different than others?"

The above paragraph includes several key elements for unlocking many Pandora's boxes or opportunities for growth in faith, depending on your perception of them. Let's see these one by one.

A significant factor that consolidates disbelief is the fact that the messenger of God is a normal person among others. Many a times, we hear the disbelievers voice this notion (e.g. 23/24, 23/33, 21/3). So, if you say that you wouldn't believe in "someone who claims to be the messenger of God but not performing miracles", then be aware that if you had lived at the times of the messengers, you could have been among the disbelievers. Then, you can ask, "how can I be sure that the man is actually the messenger of God?"

This question is reflective of a desire of the human nature, i.e. seeking the unusual, something that intimidates the reason in order to be convinced. However, in the Quran, God presents the normal things as His signs (trees, clouds, rain, stars, night-and-day,...) (e.g. 2/164, 35/27-28), rather than extraordinary miracles. Then, is Quran not trying to convince us? On the contrary, when you defeat the reason by a miracle, it is not called convincing. It is called surrendering. Quran is trying to make its addressees active players in the process of conviction, where they study and discover the connections to God through the commonplace things and events. When people shun such mental effort, they fail to get moved by the ordinary signs due to their familiarity, and they fail to recognize the godliness of the regular people among them, hence the disbelief towards the messengers. What is demanded from people is to remove the veil of familiarity and see the art and genius woven into everything surrounding them, and appreciate those things as miracles from God.

Similarly, in order for a renaissance in faith, it is imperative to modify/improve our faith of the prophet so that we believe in him not due to miracles but due to the content of the message he brought. During this new journey of faith, our conscience, our reason and a direct connection to the word of God are the devices given to us in order to distinguish and appreciate the truth. This improvement of faith can also alleviate the one-man-obsession among the Muslims, whereby they center everything around a single person who gradually becomes in their eyes an entity between God and them. Once this illness is healed, the believers can become helpers to each other on the path to God, that is normal people becoming proclaimers of word of God to each other (103/3). In order to elaborate on this topic, you can read these: Slaughter your Gods, Thousand Years Late, Misconceptions Among Muslims Leading to Intellectual Stagnation.

A consequence of the obsession to unusual things is the expectation that everything done or said by the prophet be miraculous. According to this mentality, "if you happen to see something in the life of the prophet that is not miraculous or something that is faulty, then that's because your limited and mortal human perception is unable to comprehend the infinite wisdom hidden in those words and actions". Furthermore, the owners of this mentality that holds suppression of human reason as a virtue present Quranic verses to support their claim, too:

Nor does he speak out of desire. It is not but a revelation revealed, (53/3-4)

And whatsoever the messenger gives you, take it. And whatsoever he forbids, abstain (from it). (59/7)

After such strong back up, miracle-obsessed minds find an unparalleled authority. So, they bring several implications of the words and actions of the prophet on our shoulders as "Islamic", and they erect many prohibitions around us to avoid the "non-Islamic". Among many others, stoning-to-death due to adultery, mistreatment of non-traditional genders, killing those who abandon Islam, waging an incessant war against non-Muslims, obsession to acquiring political and military power and using them to enforce "Islamic" life, suppression of women in social life are all jurisdictions that stem from this line of thought. After all, in that view, "even if you don't feel ok about these, you have to understand that your feelings are prone to Devil's plots, but the book of God and His messenger are not".

Do you feel appalled by the previous paragraph? The image above formed shortly after the prophet Muhammad pbuh. In fact, it was not the prophet who supported such zealotry, but those who came later did. And all of this is alarming for several reasons, but from an intellectual stand point, the things above, among many others, are suffering from one or more of the following:

1. Reading the Quranic verses out of context,
2. Lacking a holistic understanding of the Quran,
3. Treating the prophet above human level in all of his actions,
4. Copying rather than understanding the actions of the prophet,
5. Reading the prophet's actions out of context,
6. Lacking a holistic understanding of the philosophy of the prophet,
7. Interjected personal opinions of the "scholars and/or leaders", who are devoid of a divine connection and whose motivations may be contaminated by politics and worldly ambitions,
8. Downgrading the human reason and conscience in the face of blind imitation, which is a clear violation against countless Quranic verses.

Prophet Muhammad pbuh is a messenger of God, not because he was able to override the human limits at will but, because he was a man of reason, conscience and good morals who also brought the word of God to us and did his best to act according to what is revealed to him. For such a man, seeing his believers in the current imitative state would be a torture. And learning that all this is done in his name would crush his heart. For further reading on this matter, you can see To Praise or not To Praise the Messenger, Peace on the Messenger, Doing Prayers, Chosen From Among Us Humans.

So, in order to renew our faith in the prophet, it is imperative to read and understand both the Quran and the life of the prophet in a holistic perspective. Then, it is as essential to treat the prophet as human in his actions, unless he was known to act according to an explicit guidance from God. Last but not the least, you must trace something told in the name of the prophet or in the name of Islam to its roots, so that you can avoid deceptions and abuses.

"The superiority of the scholar over the worshiper is like my superiority over the least of you; verily, Allah, His angels, and the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, even the ant in his hole, even the fish, send blessings upon the one who teaches people to do good." (Grade:Good, Tirmidhi, 2685)