Prophet Muhammad
(Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon Him)
It may come as a surprise to some that the name Muhammad is the most common name in the world. The man who these people are named after was considered by a non Muslim author recently to be the most influential man in history. While many people around the world have heard about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) one aspect of his early life is overlooked or unknown to many people and that is his truthfulness.
By Sabur Abdul-Basit*
When he first received revelation from Allah via the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel), after some time he was commanded to call his people to Islam. An important part of his mission was his absolute honesty and absolute integrity. He was known by his tribe (known as the Quraish) to have never told a single lie, large or small, not a black lie or a white one. Additionally he was known to have the best morals, manners and integrity of his tribe which was the leading tribe of Arabia at that time.
In his first public call to Islam he mentioned this to the people that he had invited to hear him speak. It is reported in the hadeeth (traditions) of Al- Bukhari that he said. “Do you see? If I inform you that cavalrymen are proceeding up the side of this mountain, will you believe me?” They said, “We have never heard you telling a lie.” So we see that from the beginning of his mission as a Prophet and Messenger of Allah, he was well known to his people and he was well known for his truthfulness and veracity.
His truthfulness is of monumental importance. This is because when a person, especially a person who is not a Muslim, reads about Islam or investigates the religion, he or she needs to be assured that it is indeed the truth and the man who was chosen by Allah to be His last Prophet and Messenger was not a charlatan, not a con man, and not someone whose integrity was questioned. In another tradition in Al-Bukhari, it is stated that when Abu Sufyan (who was a member of the Quraish tribe and was not yet a Muslim at the time) was on a trading mission to Jerusalem, he was called to the court of Heraclius who was the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Heraclius asked Abu Sufyan about the religion of Islam and asked him about Muhammad and his integrity.
Even though Abu Sufyan was not a Muslim, but rather was an enemy of Islam and the Muslims including Rasulullah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon Him), he had to admit to Emperor Heraclius that the man in question was always truthful and was of the highest integrity and morality.
Integrity and morality seem to be fading away more and more each day. With the advent of instant information via the internet and other forms of social media, we hear of scandals and general wrongdoing by the rich and famous and the not so rich and famous. So it behooves us to try to emulate Rasulullah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon Him) whose teachings about truthfulness, integrity and morality are as important and needed today as they ever were and maybe even more so.
* Sabur Abdul-Basit is a freelance author from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania in the United States of America .
