“Truly, O believers, a Messenger has come to you from among yourselves – one upon whom it weighs heavily that you should suffer in this life or in the life to come, who is solicitous about you and your welfare, whose very nature towards the believers is sheer kindness and mercy…” Qur’an 9 V 128-128.
The account of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in the Quran indicates that there is no doubt, those who listed him as the great man did not make mistake. The Quranic account of the prophet presents him as the greatest human being on earth.
But, as the starting point for this conversation, what is greatness? Greatness is not by size or being big. It is by being unique, distinct, eminent, and enigmatic. Greatness is an enigmatic quality that makes someone to be an impossible being. Impossible in the sense that things that he will do or what will happen to him and his response to those things would ordinarily be impossible. And the life of the Prophet is replete with such instances of impossible things. Seven instances will be referenced in this conversation, if Allah permits us. They are basically, response of three categories of people to his personality. One, response of women, his wives mainly, a few of them. We are going to look at this with reference to the damage control that Allah did for certain situations concerning response of his wives to him as contained in Qur’an 24 (Nur), 33 (Ahzab) and 66 (Tahrim).
Two, response of his followers, particularly three incidents to appreciate the fact that the response of people to a great man depends on how great they are. So, we are going to look at the commencement of the message, the response of people to him especially his people, family members such as Abu Lahab, Abu Jahl and Umar bn Al Khattab and comparing it with the response of his wife – Khadija; his cousin – Ali and his friend, Abubakar.
To be discussed also are incidents of Isra’i Wal Miraj (the night journey and ascension to heaven) in Makkah, the changing of the Qibla in Medinah; as well as the responses of the Ahlu-l-Kitab, especially the people of the book.
But the starting point is that what are the characteristics of the great man using Quranic verses 128 and 129 of Suratu Tawbah (Chapter 9) as well as verses 45 and 46 of Suratul Azhab (Chapter 33).
The star quality of a great man (as mentioned in the above quoted verses) is emotion. It is unfortunate that this is the best way to identify a great man. A great man behaves like a woman, but a great woman behaves like a man. A great woman will not be emotional, whereas every woman is emotional, but the great woman is not emotional. She is not going to use that woman emotion to react but responds. A great woman does not react but responds. Account of two great women in history will be used later to illustrate this point.
The great man reacts unfortunately emotionally. He will take action because of the outcome of emotion! One, he doesn’t care about himself, he cares about others. He doesn’t think he will be happy unless other people are happy. His happiness is based on the happiness of others. So, while he is interacting with any human being and the human being will only be happy if he takes certain action, the great man does not hold the break. He does not mind the red line. He does not consider the boundary, but he goes ahead to make people happy.
And immediately the great man takes that action, he will suffer the consequence personally! He may cry, but if the cry is probed deeply, he is not crying because he is regretting his action, but because he could make somebody happy at his own expense, so he has achieved! It is only when he commits a sin while trying to make somebody happy that he cries if he is a believer. If he is an unbeliever, he doesn’t cry if he commits sins. What he thinks is that it is not a sin. If a woman wants him to sleep with her, and that is the only way that woman will be happy, he will sleep with that woman and he will not think that he has committed a sin. He would think that he has made somebody happy. So, the great man suffers a lot. His emotions make him a selfless person. All his life, he thinks about people suffering. How can he change the world that is what he thinks about. That is the characteristics of a great man.
He is always looking for solution to people’s problem. He always thinks that whatever can make people suffer should not be taken lightly and whatever can be done to ameliorate the situation should be done quickly.
The great man, therefore, suffers inexplicable attraction by the women. A great woman does not attract men rather she makes men fear her, but she is not only attracted to the great man, she is desperate to have a great man because a man that is not great will not successfully marry a great woman. It is also vice versa.
An average woman will not make a successful marriage of a great man that is why they always suffer either divorce or separation or incessant crises in their marriages. There is hardly a great man that doesn’t have marital issue. It is either he is suffering divorce, separation, crises, or his children are not worth his greatness. He must have family issue, if he is not with his wife and children, it is with his own family. He may be a persona non grata to his family. For example, this great man that goes out helping everybody, he will not have time to help his family and look at them as part of him. If he is not enjoying, his family should not compel him to want to enjoy. They should allow him to share happiness to others and endure. No family would like to hear this kind of thing or can tolerate this thing. But this is the life of a great man.
So, a great man has that trouble. Every woman that meets him, wants to have a relationship with him. And the women that want a relationship with a great man cannot explain. Sometimes, this man is not rich like a great driver whose boss’s wife and daughters want relationship with! You will not be able to explain it, you will be wondering, perhaps the driver is using Juju! This is because every woman has what is called ESP (Extra-sensory Perception).
This ESP occurs and lives with women in degrees. When a woman that has high degree of ESP sees a great man, she does not see the poverty. She doesn’t see the beauty. She sees the thing inside him and the future. And she’s ready to work with him, to have a relationship with him so that they would grow and reach the future together.
Every woman wants to associate with a great man, and it depends on how emotional the woman is, If she wants intimacy because attraction can grow into love. She may want intimacy not because she wants to commit Zina, but she just wants to be attracted to that man. When an average woman loves, she wants to express it with what we call lovemaking. Love making is another word for sex, intimacy. So, these are the troubles of a great man. He himself cannot explain it. He is selfless and very consistent.
But there are three qualities that are not quite good about a great man. This is because they are not things people commonly understand. A great man is narrow-minded. You can’t convince him that he should look at matters objectively. Whatever he thinks about any matter, he doesn’t want to listen to another opinion, that’s why they listen to their own voices. They don’t listen to other people’s voices. This leads to the second problem. They don’t take advice. The advice you give a great man that he seems to take is an advice that is consistent with his own view. If it is not consistent with his own views, then, he won’t accept it. The great man does not take advice because he is narrow-minded. He doesn’t care about what people have to say. He is very controversial. He doesn’t have a broad mind to consider all options. He just believes that if this action has to be taken, it must be taken. And whatever the consequences are, let people talk they have their mouth. Great men believe that criticism is distraction. So, they move on and that’s what makes them controversial.
That is why when you read the Qur’an, you find Allah (SWT) telling the prophet what people are saying behind him. You know at the beginning of the message, when Abu Jahl said Tabatiyadaka, when the Prophet climbed the mountain, asked them (his people including Abu Jahl), ‘if I told you that an army is behind this hill, and ready to attack you, will you believe’ and they said, they would believe. And he (the prophet) asked them why? They said, he never lied before. So, a great man may have integrity if has faith. A great man with faith has everything good about him, yet not everyone likes him, and he doesn’t care.
So, you see stubbornness, arrogance, and all sorts of things. If you see a great beggar, it will shock you. A great beggar will reject what you offer him if he looks at it and reasons that you are trying to put him down. Then, you start wondering, how can a beggar be arrogant or what could make a beggar to be proud! He is not proud; he is only being great. So, greatness has all these tendencies.
To look at the Prophet in this regard, he was described in the two verses (128 and 129) of Surah Tawbah quoted above. The verses summarise the five attributes of the Prophet thus: he is among the people but is worrying about what the people are going through. He worries and suffers along with them. He is anxious and bothered about what is going to happen to his people, the consequences of their actions. But to the believers, he is Raufu, Raheem (kind and merciful).
Also, in verses 45 and 46 of Suratul Ahzab (chapter 33), another set of sterling attributes is enumerated thus: “O Prophet! Indeed, We have sent you as a witness to all the world; and as a bearer of glad tidings of everlasting delight in Paradise to those who believe; and as forewarner to humanity of God’s nearing judgment; and as a caller to God, by His permission; and as a luminous beacon to all nations.”
• Prof AbdulAzeez is Chief Imam, University of Abuja. He spoke via zoom at the Special Ta’alim organised by the Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria marking the 1445AH birthday anniversary of Prophet Muhammad on September 27, 2023.
To be continued
