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The Birth of a Man, the Birth of a Nation! |
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Mohammed Hashas - AlJazeeraTalk - Oujda, Morocco
 Any true student or researcher in history would not deny the fact that the birth of Muhammad PBUH (born 570 – died 632) marked a turning point in human history. With him humanity has come to know a new religion, Islam, and to see the growth of a new nation, a new civilization, and a new phase in human history. Like more than a billion of Muslims worldwide I would like to say few words about this day, taking it for granted that my words are very sketchy and known by any wise man, be him a Muslim or simply a human being. Admittedly, whatever I say here is not enough. I opt for raising questions more than for providing answers.
What I should stress here is that Muhammad PBUH is not like every enemy of Islam thinks of him, as the repeated caricatures describe him in Denmark. What these caricatures demonstrate is that the caricaturists – who are after fame and money- and those who applaud them know nothing about a religion and a civilization that have existed for 15 centuries now.
This means that the billions of Muslims that are on every spot on this earth have been invisible to these Westerners (with my respect to the good share of them) for 15 centuries. I do not think that these caricatures have weakened the faith of Muslims in their prophet and religion. On the contrary, they have strengthened it and have become more aware of the fact that ignorance is still rampant in the West. More than that, we have heard of many Europeans who have converted to Islam. Caricatures are weapons that have turned against their users!
Islam and the Muslims do believe in Christianity and Judaism and respect the other doctrines. Muslims revere the previous prophets, peace be upon them all, but the Judaeo-Christian Europe seems to have forgotten that, Europe which calls for democracy, freedom of expression, and human rights! This is in brief how the Other sees Us and celebrates the birth of our prophet Muhammad PBUH, but what about Us and how do we celebrate it? It is a point of more interest to me.
It is very nice to receive phone calls or messages in your mobile or email from family and friends to wish you a delightful and blessed day and life in general. It is also very nice to see people absorbed in supplications and prayers. But that is not the entire story. If we criticize the Other for being crude to our prophet, we should confess that we also do him some harm. How? Can we answer these questions: How many of us know the prophet’s biography and how many of us read السيرة and تاريخ الحضارة الإسلامية ? How many books do we have in our libraries at home about the many fields of studies we know? How many do we have about our identity in comparison? Let us go count and we will find that it is shameful the result.
Identity construction starts at home. Identity destruction also starts at home. Our crisis starts at home. Our revival also starts at home. Let us look indoors before we see what is the problem outdoors. Our Birth started with the birth of the prophet PBUH, and our re-birth behoves our return to his teachings.
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your article is very well written with strong argument. i like very much yourr titlr , because it summurizes all the story in one phrase.