1500th Anniversary Of The Beloved Prophet’s Birthday
Developing Just LeadershipZafar Bangash
Rabi' al-Awwal 08, 1447 2025-09-01
Opinion
by Zafar Bangash (Opinion, Crescent International Vol. 55, No. 7, Rabi' al-Awwal, 1447)
September marks the 1500th anniversary of the Prophet’s birthday. It is an historic event in contemporary Muslim history. Such events occur after every 100 years. The current generation will not witness another such event in their lifetime.
While Muslims have triditionally celebrated the Prophet’s birthday with nasheeds, speeches and even lighting candles, it should involve more than that. The Mawlid (aka Miladun Nabi) should not be reduced to a ‘feeling good’ event.
In order to understand the Prophet’s seerah properly, we must turn to the Qur’an for guidance. Allah tells us in His noble Book:
“Without doubt, in the Apostle of Allah you have an excellent role model for he who looks forward to Allah and the Final Day [with hope and anticipation] and who persistently is conscious of Allah.” (Surat Al-Ahzab, ayat 21);
In another ayat, Allah says:
“[He (Allah) has sent] an Apostle who corelates for you Allah’s clear demonstrations [of power and authority] so that He might extricate those who are committed to Him and do what is right and righteous, from obscurity into light (Surat At Talaq, ayat 11).
In order to follow the “excellent role model” of the Prophet (ﷺ), we must have a better understanding his Seerah. Anecdotes and parables, as Muslims often narrate, will not suffice.
These two ayats should dispel the notion that the Prophet (ﷺ) was merely a spiritual guide. His mission was holistic, not compartmentalized to exclude the many diverse activities of life.
His life’s struggle involved not only providing guidance at the personal level but also included guidance, based on Qur’anic injunctions, for family and community life. Similarly, he taught us how to conduct our social, political and economic affairs.
He waged numerous battles in defence of the Islamic State that was established after Muslims were forced to migrate from Makkah to Madinah. In some battles, the Muslims were victorious, in others they suffered setbacks but ultimately, the Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions triumphed.
Despite facing injustice, persecution and oppression, the Prophet (ﷺ) built a community and state that stood for equity, truth and social justice to establish Allah’s laws on earth. He did not use the mushriks’ platform of Dar al-Nadwa. Instead, he established a separate meeting place: Dar al-Arqam, where he taught Muslims the Qur’an.
There are many dimensions of his blessed personality but we will consider only a few.
1: For 13 years, the Prophet (ﷺ) delivered the message of Islam to the people of Makkah. He had lived among them all his life. They were aware of his lofty character, conferring upon him such titles as Al-Sadiq and Al-Amin. Yet, in 13 years, only about 200 people entered the fold of Islam.
Muslims were persecuted, tortured, exiled and even killed. In Makkah, Islam remained confined to a very small group of people out of a total population of some 5,000.
In the 10-year period in Madinah, more than 100,000 people entered the fold of Islam. What accounted for this great disparity in numbers?
It had to do with power and authority. In Makkah, the Prophet (ﷺ) had no power even though he exercised authority over the small group of his followers. In Madinah, with the establishment of the Islamic State, he acquired state power.
Two factors appear to be responsible for our faulty perception of the Prophet’s Seerah (life-history). Since only a few of the estimated 124,000 Prophets acquired worldly power and authority, Muslims have assumed that such affairs are outside the domain of Prophetic responsibility.
Second, since politics is dominated by dishonest people, many have assumed that Prophets could not be involved in such activities. This reflects a lack of understanding of both politics and Prophetic history.
True, only a few Prophets—Yusuf, Daud and Sulaiman (as)—ruled anywhere, but this does not mean that acquiring state power falls outside Prophetic responsibility. Since the Prophet (ﷺ) was the last and final Messenger of Allah, his Seerah encompassed all aspects of life. Politics is not separated from it since it has to do with the exercise of power.
The political dimension was an essential part of the Prophet’s message. Allah did not want any field of human endeavour to be excluded from his domain of responsibilities.
Let us consider some specific acts of the Prophet (ﷺ).
Upon arrival in Madinah, he established the Muakhata: brotherhood between the Ansar (the helpers of Madinah) and the Muhajiroon (immigrants from Makkah, the majority of whom were destitute). The muakhata prevented a serious social problem from erupting in society.
The Prophet (ﷺ) took three other steps before the famous battle of Badr.
1: He promulgated the Covenant of Madinah;
2: He built the Masjid al-Nabawi; and
3: He sent missions to the outlying tribes along the Red Sea coast.
Each of these steps had profound political and strategic implications.
The Covenant of Madinah, described as the first written constitution in the world, laid out the rights and responsibilities for all the constituent parts.
The Masjid al Nabawi was both a place of worship, the first madrassah of Islam and a seat of government. It also served as home for the destitute and poor, the Ahl al-Suffah.
Alliances with tribes along the Red Sea coast was a form of economic pressure on Makkah’s trade caravans to Syria.
All three acts had to do with the power projection of the Islamic State.
Badr was a battle of choice; Muslims had not been tested before. This was the first time a direct clash occurred between the power of Imaan and the forces of Jahiliyyah.
Despite their disadvantage in numbers and weapons, Muslims with strong Imaan won readily. It has important lessons for Muslims.
Skipping the details between Badr (2 AH) and the liberation of Makkah, we will consider what led to the Muslims’ march on Makkah in the 8th year of the Hijrah. To understand this properly, we will have to step back a little to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in the 6th year of the Hijrah.
One of the terms of the treaty was that tribes and clans were now free to align themselves with whomever they liked. Hitherto, many tribes did not align with the Muslims for fear of antagonizing the Quraysh.
After the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, this door was opened.
The Banu Khuza‘ah became allies of the Muslims while the Banu Bakr of the Kinanah tribe were allies of the Makkan mushriks. Two years after Hudaybiyyah, the Banu Bakr violated the treaty by killing a member of the Banu Khuza‘ah. This was compounded by committing the crime in the precincts of the Haram.
The Banu Khuza‘ah came to the Prophet (ﷺ) in Madinah to seek help. He (ﷺ) told them that he will address it appropriately.
The Prophet (ﷺ) sent three proposals to the Makkan chiefs to address this serious violation.
1: Punish the offender(s);
2: If they won’t do it, lift their protection of the violators and the Muslims will deal with them directly; and,
3: If neither is acceptable, then consider the treaty to be null and void.
In their arrogance, the Makkan mushriks went for the third option.
Abu Sufyan, who was the leader of Quraysh, was not in Makkah at the time. When he returned and found out what had happened, he rushed to Madinah to make amends. He asked to see the Prophet (ﷺ) but was refused permission.
Thereupon, he went to see Abu Bakr Siddique. He too refused to entertain him. Abu Sufyan then went to his daughter, Um Habiba who was the wife of the Prophet (ﷺ). This honourable lady also refused to intercede on her father’s behalf.
Abu Sufyan returned to Makkah empty-handed.
Let us consider why the Prophet (ﷺ), who was Rahmatul lil ‘Alamin, refused to renew the treaty. Violation of the treaty was a grievous sin; it could not be forgiven. Offenders had to be punished.
It was in these circumstances that 10,000 Muslims marched on Makkah in 8 AH. They entered the city peacefully but it is important to understand what transpired next.
It would have been perfectly acceptable if the Prophet (ﷺ) had ordered the execution all of his Makkan foes. After all, they had tormented the Muslims for 13 years, tortured and even murdered some of them. The Muslims’ wealth and belonging were also plundered.
Even after migrating to Madinah, the Muslims were not left in peace. Repeated attacks were launched against them.
Violation of the treaty of Hudaybiyyah was clearly a serious offence. When Makkah was subdued, what did the Prophet (ﷺ) do? He let them go but did not call them his Sahaba (companions).
Instead, he called them tulaqa, meaning amnestied prisoners. In other words, they were guilty but the Prophet (ﷺ) was letting them go.
The Prophet (ﷺ) knew that just because they were forced by circumstances to accept Islam, the Quryash had not abandoned their jahili practices. Unfortunately this part of Islamic history is not properly understood. The impression one gets is that once Makkah was liberated, its inhabitants instantly became good Muslims.
This ignores both human nature and historical reality.
Surely, these newly converted Muslims did not have the same level of Imaan as those who were with the Prophet (ﷺ) from the beginning. They endured many hardships and made huge sacrifices for Islam.
Subsequent tragic events in Muslim history showed that the Prophet’s designation of these people as tulaqa was based on an accurate assessment of their mentality. We must likewise develop a clearer understanding of history and the Prophet’s Seerah.
His mission was not only to inform but to transform society. In this he was immensely successful.
