Muhammad the Master of the Universe,
By: Ibn KammunaIf you ever lived in the Middle East, you are more likely than not to have heard the imam of themosque using the loudspeakers, and making it heard to everyone on the surrounding streets andneighborhoods, saying the following: “ Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammad wasallim.” Aliteral translation of this sentence may go like this: “ O’ Allah pray on our master Muhammadand say hello to him.” Now, I know, the translation does not make much sense. Well, the originalArabic sentence does not make much sense either. What does it mean to ask Allah (the Arabiangod) to pray on someone, whether it be Muhammad or any other person of your choice? DoesAllah need to pray too? Who is He going to be praying to? Prayer is usually performed betweena created being who does the praying, and the creator who is prayed to. But lo and behold, inIslam things are different. Allah, the god of the Arabs, is asked to pray on Muhammad (whatever that means). The last word “wasallim” is asking Allah to say hello to Muhammad. Muhammad isdead now. He’s gone to be with Allah, who is omnipresent. So, if Allah is omnipresent, thenMuhammad is always in his/her presence. We humans usually say “hello” to each other duringthe beginning of a meeting. We do not say “hello” during or at the end of a meeting. It just doesnot make sense for Allah to say “Hello” to Muhammad, since both are in the presence of eachother. Even so, this nonsense sentence above is heard all over the Middle Eastern mosques. Theodd thing is that people don’t even question such a sentence. In a way, this is telling of howmuch of a critical thinking is instilled into the educational systems of the Middle East.Another part of that sentence installs Muhammad as a “Master”. Not just any master. He is“sayyidina” (our master). Are we to think of Muhammad as someone who is “a cut above”everyone else? Well, after 1400 years of writing books about the Qur’an and the Hadith and theSunna and the history of Islam, I think we have reached some understanding about whyMuhammad is to be viewed as a master. Not just any master, Muhammad is, as the imamsconvey through their loudspeakers in Middle Eastern mosques, “Sayyed El-Alameen”. InEnglish, that expression translates to: “Master of the worlds” or “Lord of the worlds”. I wouldlike to show the reader, why Muhammad is worthy of the name, through just one of his greatacts. Clearly, a man of his caliber must have done some acts that made him worthy of the name“Lord of the worlds”. There are many stories that I can present to the reader. It was difficult for me to choose, but finally I decided on one story to reserve space. The story comes to us from Sir.W. Muir’s book
The Life of Muhammad
, (Edinburg 1923, Pages 307-8). It is the story on howMuhammad accomplished the killing of Banu Qurayza’s adult males. History tells us their numbers were between 600 and 900 men:
“During the night, trenches sufficient to contain the dead bodies of the men were dug across themarket place of the city. In the morning, Mahomet, himself a spectator of the tragedy,commanded that male captives to be brought forth in companies of five or six at a time. Eachcompany as it came up was made to sit down in a row on the brink of the trench destined for its grave, there beheaded, and the bodies cast therein. … The butchery, begun in the morning,lasted all day, and continued by torchlight till the evening. Having thus drenched the market place with the blood of seven or eight hundred victims, and having given command for the earthto be smoothed over their remains, Mahomet returned from the horrid spectacle to solace
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