The lot of my research work is the summary from Prof. Ramakrishna Rao’s book, “Muhammed, the prophet of Islam”. Even though wrote by Non Muslim, (The Professor do not profess Islam), The book has effectively covered the topic and brought to light many useful and silent issue concerning the topic.


“WHO SUBDUE THEIR ANGER” (HOLY QURAN 3.134)


To the Arab who would fight for the forty years on the slight provocation that a camel belonging to the quest of one tribe had strayed into the grazing land belonging to another and both side had fought till they lost 70,000 lives in all, threatening the extinction of both tribes, to such furious Arabs, the Prophet of Islam taught self-control and discipline to the extent of praying even on the battlefield.


WAR FOR SELF-DEFENCE:


When, after repeated efforts at conciliation had utterly failed, circumstances arose that dragged him into the battlefield purely in self-defence, the Prophet of Islam change the whole strategy of the battlefield. The total number in all the wars that took place during his lifetime, when the whole Arabian Peninsula came under his banner, does not exceed a few hundred in all. He taught the Arab barbarians to to pray not individually but in congregations to God Almighty even amidst the dust and storm of warfare. Whenever the time for prayer came, and it comes five times every day, the congregational prayer had not be to be abandoned or even postponed. A party had to be engaged in bowing their head before God while another was engaged with the enemy. After finishing the prayer, the two parties had to exchange their positions.


BATTLEFIELD HUMANIZED


In the age of barbarism, the battlefield itself was humanized and strict instructions were issued that not to embezzle, not to cheat, not to break trust, not to mutilate, not to kill a minor child or a woman or an oldman, not to hew dawn death palm nor burn it not to cut down a fruit tree, not to molest monks and persons engaged in worship. His own treatment of his bitterest enemies was the noblest example for his followers. At the conquest of Mecca, he stood at the Zenith of his power. The city which had tortured him and his followers, which had driven him and his people into exile and which had angrily persecuted and boycotted him even when he had taken refuge in a place more than 200 miles away, that city now lay at his feet. By the law of war he could have justly avenged all the cruelties inflicted on him and his people. But what treatment did he meet out to them, Muhammed’s heart overflowed with the milk of love and kindness as he declared. “This day, there is no reproof against you and you are all free’’.


BITTEREST ENEMIES PARDONED


This was one of the chief object why he permitted war in self-defence to unite human beings. And when this object was achieved, even his worse enemies were pardoned. Even those who had killed his beloved uncle, Hamza, mitilated his dead body, had vipped it open and chewed a piece of his liver.


THEORY MERGED WITH PRACTICE


The principle of the universal brotherhood and the doctrine of the equality of mankind which he proclaimed represent very great contribution of Muhammed to the social uplift of humanity. All great religions have also preached the same doctrine, but the Prophet of Islam had put this theory into actual practice and it’s value will be fully recognized, perhaps sometime hence, when international consciousness being awakened, racial prejudices would disappear and a stronger concept of the brotherhood of humanity come into existence.


PEASANT AND KING, EQUAL BEFORE GOD


Sarojini Naidu, speaking about this aspect of Islam , say “it was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy, for in the mosque, when the AZAAN (the muslim call to prayer) is sounded and the worshippers are gathered together the democaracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when peasant and king kneel side by side and proclaim, “God alone is Great”. The great profess of India Continue, I have been struck over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes a man instinctively a brother. When you Egyptian, an Algerian, a Nigerian and a Turk in London, what matters is that Egypt is the motherland of one and India is the motherland of the another.


PILGRIMAGE – HAJJ- A LIVING TESTIMONY


Every year, during the pilgrimage season, the worlds witness the wonderful spectacle of this International Exhibition of Islam in leveling all distinctions of race, colour and rank. Not only the Europeans, the Africans, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese all meet together in Mecca as members of one divine family, but they are all clad in one dress every person in two simple pieces of white seamless cloth, one piece round the lion and the other piece over the shoulders, bare-headed, without pomp or ceremony, repeating “Here am I, O God: at Thy Command: Thou art One and the Only: Here am I”. Thus there remains nothing to differentiate the high from the low and every pilgrim carries home the impression of the international significance of Islam. In the words of Prof. Hurgronje “the league of the Nations founded by the Prophet of Islam put the principle of International Unity and human brotherhood on such Universal Foundation as to show candle to other nations”. He continues, the fact is that no nation of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has done towards the realization of the idea of League of Nations.

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