Civil Society

In defense of the Prophet Mohamed against offenders

By Dr. Sheikh Ahmed Subhy Mansour

Recently, certain Western newspapers launched a hate campaign against the Prophet Mohamed. Muslims and Arabs have responded with their customary demonstrations, boycotts and threats of violence. The West justifies its actions in the name of free speech, a principle which is equally applied to insults against their own religions, and is part of an established embrace of critical thinking. Western governments are perceived to have no right to compromise this freedom and the independence of the private media.

We Muslims are faced with a dilemma in responding to the recent insults of the West.  After all, Westerners don’t have sacred taboos and we can’t respond by insulting Jesus or Saint Mary, whom we too honor. Also, demonstrations, boycotts or violence from our side will encourage the Western fanatics to insult and mock the Prophet more. Violence will beget greater violence against Westerners abroad and Christians within our lands, leading us to breach God’s instructions not “to burden a person with sins of another.”

Let’s imagine that the Prophet Mohamed were living among us and facing the same problem. What would he do? There is no need for imagining, for as long as the holy Qur’an is among us, readable and citable, then the messenger is among us. Let’s go back to Qur’an for guidance:  How did God advise Mohamed to answer those who accused him of deception, madness, and priesthood? Did he ask him to lead a demonstration with demands to kill them? Did he order him to kill them?  Of course not. On the contrary, in dozens of passages the holy Qur’an orders the Prophet to be patient with them. Patience was a desirable attribute because it was a concept associated with strengthening one’s relationship with God. This is based on the Qur’anic principle of total freedom of choice for mankind, since God is the only one who can punish those who sin in the hereafter. So, the Prophet’s position towards them wasn’t only forgiving, but sympathetic, because of the severe punishment that lay in front of them. 

Such an act of forgiveness is an instruction from God for all of us, not only for the Prophet, but to all those who insult us. The reason for this, as the Qur’an explains, is to heal the offender, not to punish him (AlMoamenon 96). Nevertheless, the Qur’an approves fair punishment for those who were offended by an insult directed at them personally (Alnahl 90). This theory is considered “man kind’s rights” rather than “God’s rights”, in which only God can punish in the hereafter. However it still encourages true believers to be patient and forgiving (Fosselat 34-35).

Thus, the only acceptable response to today’s insults is peaceful, forgiving, demonstration. This is the only way that can make the offenders apologize, not through threats or acts of terror. I have no doubt that the Prophet Mohamed would have chosen to react in this manner through the moral guidance of the holy Qur’an. It also goes without mentioning that this approach will grant us the respect of the whole world as well.

In the end, there is a message for Muslim fanatics. We are imploring them to obey our holy God. For them we say: “You have been annoying the whole globe over some nonsense that was published in some obscure magazines, which helped spread nonsense across the world by diverting everybody’s attention and paving the way for more mocking and insults for Islam, Muslims, and the Prophet Mohamed. This could have been easily avoided through abiding by Qur’anic instruction to ignore nonsense, which would have allowed the issue to pass unnoticed like much other nonsense before it. But in your sincere effort to ruin the relations between Muslims and the followers of the other religions, you exploit each and every marginal event to inflame religious conflict. By doing so, you are neglecting two important matters: firstly, the approach of the Islamic nobility with regard to dealing with offenders. Secondly, that your Sunni predecessors had hurled the most outrageous assaults towards the Prophet and towards God himself. Not only that, but you have persecuted me after I kept exposing such offences out of your holy books for the last thirty years. If you really care about the Prophet Mohamed, you would have taken my side against Al-Bukhary and other narrators who have dedicated themselves to defaming the Prophet, his family, and his message. This is a clear case where you have decided to take your own sacred offender’s side against the Prophet. If you are really sincere about defending the Prophet, why don’t you start by defending him against those offenders who are so eager to turn on the whole world if some other Westerner would have done the same? Westerners only attack the picture of Islam that you have shown them through your ignorance, fascism and terrorism. This is what they are mocking and attacking, which is exactly the enemy of real peaceful gracious Islam. The real Islam that I have been persecuted to show for the world.  It is an irony that YOU would claim defending Islam after all that.”