{"id":1092,"date":"2012-07-29T13:24:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-29T11:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/web\/?p=1092"},"modified":"2012-07-29T13:25:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-29T11:25:25","slug":"the-forgiveness-of-muhammad-shown-to-non-muslims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/?p=1092","title":{"rendered":"The Forgiveness of Muhammad Shown to Non-Muslims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, was described as a \u201cMercy for all the Worlds\u201d, as God said in the Quran:
\n\u201cWe have sent you as a mercy for all the worlds.\u201d (Quran 21:107)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The recipients of this quality were not limited to just the Muslim nation, but it also extended to non-Muslims, some of who spent all their effort trying to harm the Prophet and his mission.This mercy and forgiveness is clearly demonstrated in the fact that the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, never took revenge on anyone for personal reasons and always forgave even his staunch enemies.\u00a0 Aisha said that the Prophet never took revenge on his own behalf on anyone.\u00a0 She also said that he never returned evil for evil, but he would forgive and pardon.\u00a0 This will, God willing, become clear after a deep analysis of the following accounts of his life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the earlier portion of his mission, the Prophet traveled to the city of Taif, a city located in the mountains nearby to Mecca, in order to invite them to accept Islam.\u00a0 The leaders of Taif, however, were rude and discourteous in their treatment of the Prophet.\u00a0 Not being content with their insolent attitude towards him, they even stirred up some gangs of the town to harass him.\u00a0 This riff-raff followed the Prophet shouting at and abusing him, and throwing stones at him, until he was compelled to take refuge in an orchard.\u00a0 Thus the Prophet had to endure even more obstacles in Taif than he had had to face in Mecca.\u00a0 These ruffians, stationed either side of the path, threw stones at him until his feet were injured and smeared with blood.\u00a0 These oppressions so grievously dejected the Prophet and plunged him into in such a state of depression that a prayer, citing his helplessness and pitiable condition and seeking the aid of God, spontaneously came from his lips:
\n\u201cO God, to You I complain of my weakness, lack of resources and humiliation before these people.\u00a0 You are the Most Merciful, the Lord of the weak and my Master.\u00a0 To whom will You consign me?\u00a0 To one estranged, bearing ill will, or an enemy given power over me?\u00a0 If You do not assign me any worth, I care not, for Your favor is abundant upon me.\u00a0 I seek refuge in the light of Your countenance by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Thy anger should descend upon me or Your displeasure light upon me.\u00a0 I need only Your pleasure and satisfaction for only You enable me to do good and evade the evil.\u00a0 There is no power and no might but You.\u201d
\nThe Lord then sent the angel of mountains, seeking the permission of the Prophet to join together the two hills and crush the city of Taif, between which it was located.\u00a0 Out of his great tolerance and mercy, the Messenger of God replied,
\n\u201cNo!\u00a0 For, I hope that God will bring forth from their loins people who will worship God alone, associating nothing with Him.\u201d (Saheeh Muslim)<\/p>\n

His mercy and compassion was so great that on more than one occasion, God, Himself, reprimanded him for it.\u00a0 One of the greatest opponents of Islam and a personal enemy, was Abdullah bin Ubayy, the leader of the hypocrites of Medina.\u00a0 Outwardly proclaiming Islam, he surreptitiously inflicted great harm to the Muslims and the mission of the Prophet.\u00a0 Knowing his state of affairs, the Prophet Muhammad still offered the funeral prayer for him and prayed to God for his forgiveness.\u00a0 The Quran mentions this incident in these words:
\n\u201cAnd never (O Muhammad) pray for one of them who dies, nor stand by his grave.\u00a0 Lo!\u00a0 They disbelieve in God and His Messenger, and they died while they were evil doers.\u201d (Quran 9:84)
\nAbdullah bin Ubayy worked all his life against Muhammad and Islam and left no stone unturned so as to bring him into disrepute and try to defeat his mission.\u00a0 He withdrew his three hundered supporters in the battle of Uhud and thus almost broke the backbone of the Muslims at one stroke.\u00a0 He engaged in intrigues and acts of hostility against the Prophet of Islam and the Muslims.\u00a0 It was he who tried to bring shame to the Prophet by inciting his allies to falsely accuse the Prophet\u2019s wife, Aisha, of adultery in order to discredit him and his message.<\/p>\n

The mercy of the Prophet even extended to those who brutally killed and then mutilated the body of his uncle Hamzah, one of the most beloved of people to the Prophet.\u00a0 Hamzah was one of the earliest to accept Islam and, through his power and position in the Quraishite hierarchy, diverted much harm from the Muslims.\u00a0 An Abyssinian slave of the wife of Abu Sufyan, Hind, sought out and killed Hamzah in the battle of Uhud.\u00a0 The night before the victory of Mecca, Abu Sufyan accepted Islam, fearing the vengeance of the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.\u00a0 The latter forgave him and sought no retribution for his years of enmity.
\nAfter Hind had killed Hamzah she mutilated his body by cutting his chest and tearing his liver and heart into pieces.\u00a0 When she quietly came to the Prophet and accepted Islam, he recognized her but did not say anything.\u00a0 She was so impressed by his magnanimity and stature that she said, \u201cO Messenger of God, no tent was more deserted in my eyes than yours; but today no tent is more lovely in my eyes than yours.\u201d
\nIkrama, son of Abu Jahl, was a great enemy of the Prophet and Islam.\u00a0 He ran away after the victory of Mecca and went to Yemen.\u00a0 After his wife embraced Islam,\u00a0 she brought him to the Prophet Muhammad under her protection.\u00a0 He was so pleased to see him that he greeted him with the words:
\n\u201cO emigrant rider, welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safwan bin Umaya, one of the chiefs of Mecca, was also a great enemy of Muhammad and Islam.\u00a0 He promised a reward to Umair ibn Wahab if he managed to kill Muhammad.\u00a0 When Mecca was conquered, Safwan ran away to Jeddah in the\u00a0 hope of finding a berth that would take him to Yemen by sea.\u00a0 Umair ibn Wahab came to Muhammad and said, \u201cO Messenger of God!\u00a0 Safwan ibn Umayya,\u00a0 a chief of his tribe, has run away from fear of what you might do to him and threatens to cast himself into the sea.\u201d\u00a0 The Prophet sent him a\u00a0 guarantee of protection and, when he returned, he requested Muhammad to give him two months to come to a decision..\u00a0 He was given four months, after which he became a Muslim by his own will.
\nHabir ibn al-Aswad was another vicious enemy of Muhammad and Islam. He inflicted a serious injury to Zainab, daughter of the Noble Prophet when she decided to migrate to Medina.\u00a0 She was pregnant when she started her migration, and the polytheists of Mecca tried to stop her from leaving.\u00a0 This particular man, Habbar bin al-Aswad, physically assaulted her and intentionally caused her to fall down from her camel.\u00a0 Her fall had caused her to miscarry her baby, and she herself, was badly hurt.\u00a0 He had committed many other crimes against Muslims as well.\u00a0 He wanted flee to Persia but, when he decided to come to Muhammad instead, the Prophet magnanimously forgave him.<\/p>\n

The tribe of Quraish the were archenemies of Islam and, for a period of thirteen years while he was still in Mecca, they would rebuke the Prophet, taunt and mock him, beat him and abuse him, both physically and mentally.\u00a0 They placed the afterbirth of a camel on his back while he prayed, and they boycotted him and his tribe until the social sanctions became unbearable.\u00a0 They plotted and attempted to kill him on more than one occasion, and when the Prophet escaped to Medina, they rallied the majority of the Arab tribes and waged many wars against him.\u00a0 Yet, when he entered Mecca victorious with an army of 10,000, he did not take revenge on anyone.\u00a0 The Prophet said to the Quraish:
\n\u201cO people of Quraish!\u00a0 What do you think I will do to you?
\nHoping for a good response, they said: \u201cYou will do good.\u00a0 You are a noble brother, son of a noble brother.\u201d
\nThe Prophet then said:
\n\u201cThen I say to you what Joseph said to his brothers: \u2018There is no blame upon you.\u2019\u00a0 Go!\u00a0 For you all free!.\u201d[1]
\nRarely in the annals of history can we read such an instance of forgiveness. Even his deadliest enemy Abu Sufyan, who led so many battles against Islam, was forgiven, as was any person who stayed in his house and did not come to fight him.
\nThe Prophet was all for forgiveness and no amount of crime or aggression against him was too great to be forgiven by him.\u00a0 He was the complete example of forgiveness and kindness, as mentioned in the following verse of the Quran:
\n\u201cKeep to forgiveness (O Muhammad), and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the ignorant.\u201d (Quran 7:199)
\nHe always repelled evil with the good of forgiveness and kind behavior for, in his view, an antidote was better than poison.\u00a0 He believed and practiced the precept that love could foil hatred, and aggression could be won over by forgiveness.\u00a0 He overcame the ignorance of the people with the knowledge of Islam, and the folly and evil of the people with his kind and forgiving treatment.\u00a0 With his forgiveness, he freed people from the bondage of sin and crime, and also made them great friends of Islam.\u00a0 He was an epitome of the verse of the Quran:
\n\u201cGood and evil are not alike.\u00a0 Repel evil with what is better.\u00a0 Then he, between whom and you there was hatred, will become as though he was a bosom friend.\u201d (Quran 41:34)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cMukhtasar Seeratur Rasool\u201d<\/em>, Muhammad ibn Sulayman at-Tameemi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, was described as a \u201cMercy for all the Worlds\u201d, as God said in the Quran: \u201cWe have sent you as a...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[53,99,276],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prophet-muhammad","tag-forgiveness","tag-non-muslims","tag-prophet-muhammad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1095,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/1095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}