Editorial
The principles of the Prophet
Let them be reasserted in life
The life of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) remains a defining principle of existence for Muslims everywhere. That is so because of the values which the founder of Islam enunciated and then inculcated in his followers between his attainment of prophethood and his passing, values which through the generations have come to embody a code of life for millions around the world. When, therefore, we recall Muhammad (pbuh) today, it is essentially a journeying back to his ideals that we undertake, the better to ask ourselves whether we as followers of Islam have adhered to those ideals or whether we have let some of those ideals get overshadowed by more mundane concerns. Truly, religion is a matter of unquestioning faith. And when faith wavers, it is our religiosity that gets to be undermined.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has left behind a heritage where precept must be followed by example. If Islam is a religion of peace, so goes the reasoning and rightly too, it is important that we in our times take a moment to reflect on the extent to which we have seen Islam play a paramount role in our lives. Obviously, it is, first and foremost, the equality of all humankind before the Creator which Islam has always espoused. That principle has in turn opened up a wider area of deliberation, bringing in its wake the many ways in which a Muslim can demonstrate his devotion to the Almighty --- through prayers, through caring for his family and his neighbour and his country, indeed through respecting the sanctity of life in order to come at an understanding of the life which awaits us beyond this temporal world. Islam has little time for hypocrisy and affectation and pretence. Its practice must spring from deep within the soul. The ostentatious, the prophet informed us long ago, is the enemy of faith and whoever indulges in it in the name of religion does huge disservice to Islam.
Islam being a religion of peace, it then becomes necessary for us to sideline or neutralize those who have tried to interpret its fundamental principles in a manner that has aroused fear of the faith among the followers of other faiths. Today as also in the times ahead, it is important that the religion be reclaimed from those who have commandeered it in their narrow interests and let the world know once more that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) preached the unity of all men. It was an idea he based on tolerance and respect for other beliefs and other principles. It is only proper that we recall this lesson as we observe Eid-e-Miladunnabi today.
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