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How can a father’s love for his son be known?
This love itself is not something visible or tactual. It can be known
only from his behavior, attitude and words towards his son. If a wise
and fair person pays due attention to Rasulullah’s (sall-Allahu
‘alaihi wa sallam) utterances and studies the reports describing his
efforts to guide men to the right course, his strictness in protecting
everybody’s rights, and his magnanimous and compassionate efforts
for the establishment of beautiful morals, he will clearly see that
his love for his umma is much more than that of a father for his son.
A person who realizes his astounding accomplishments, the astonishing
reports in Qur’an al-karim, which were revealed through his tongue,
and his utterances foretelling the bewildering events that will happen
at the end of the world, will certainly see that he attained high
grades above the intellect’s capacity and comprehended facts beyond
the intellect’s limit of comprehension and realization. Thus, it
will be apparent to him that his words are all true.
A reasonable person who learns and meditates over
the knowledge revealed in Qur’an al-karim and who studies his life
will see this fact clearly. Imam [1]
Muhammad al-Ghazali (rahmatullahi ’alaih) said, “A person who
doubts whether or not someone is a Prophet should either see his life
or study objectively the reports about his life. A person who knows
the science of medicine or fiqh [2]
acquires information about a scholar of medicine or fiqh by studying
the reports about his life. For example, knowing whether or not
al-Imam ash-Shafi’i (rahmatullahi ’alaih) was a scholar of fiqh,
or whether or not Calinos was a physician, requires learning the
concerned branches of knowledge well and then studying their books in
these branches. Likewise, a person who acquires knowledge of
prophethood and then studies Qur’an al-karim and the Hadith
ash-sharif [3] will perfectly
understand that Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salam) is the Prophet and
occupies the highest degree of prophethood. And if he learns of the
effectiveness of his words in purifying the heart and then obeys his
revelations, by which his own heart begins to see the truth, his
belief in his prophethood will become absolutely certain (yaqin).
GLOSSARY:
[1]
imam: i) profound ‘alim; founder of a madhhab; ii) leader in
congregational salat; iii) caliph.
[2]
fiqh: knowledge dealing with what Muslims should do and should not do;
actions, a’mal, ‘ibadat.
[3]
hadith (sharif): a saying of the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam).
