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Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan


Muhammad's Preliminary Education
The Mystical Life of the Prophet Muhammad
The Life of Muhammad

Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan


 

The life of Muhammad, from its beginning, speaks for his being meant to be the final messenger. The history of the world helps a mystic to see clearly the possibility, the necessity of a world-teacher being born, when almost the whole world has reached the state of Kamal, perfect degeneration. The life of Muhammad itself was a special training given to him before he was entrusted with the charge of the divine message.

 

In the first place he saw no father, so that he might seek for the divine Father in the absence of the mortal one. God wished him to recognize that He alone supported him and cared for him. Every child turns to its mother and father for food and help, but he was to know that God alone helped and sustained him. The death of his beloved mother, who was as both parents to him, showed him from his own experience what it is to be an orphan. The last illness and the death of his grandfather Abdul Muttalib gave him a great change of experience. He knew a mother's love and appreciated the care of his guardian uncle.

 

He had no education in the sense of reading and writing, so rare at that time, especially in the desert in which he was born. Still eloquence which was the education of that time was acquired by Muhammad in his association with certain families. This he easily achieved because, mystically seeing, eloquence is the best divine gift - which the Hindus call Wak devi, the deity on the tongue. By the simple home of Halima, his nurse, he was impressed with the home life of the people. The scene of the orgies at Okhodh was a study of the degradation of his people. Being in the desert with the cattle gave him an experience of the life of shepherds, of labourers. His presence at the battles in the defence of the Ka'bah showed him what it is to be a soldier, what battle is like, how necessary selfdefence is in life. His assistance to his people in their social and national affairs gave him a lesson in the nation's requirements, in social reform. His travelling to Syria showed him the other side of the picture: the state of degeneration of the people in those parts of the world; how righteousness is sacrificed under the spell of making a profit in business, how cold man's heart becomes by taking interest upon interest on his money, so earning without labour. He noticed the condition of the Jews; he saw the state of the Christians. He saw the hypocrisy of the religious authorities, the ignorance of the simple followers who were fully wrapped up in superstitions and made-up tales. All this was Muhammad's preliminary education, given especially for the purpose for which he was born on earth. If he had been an ascetic, if he had been born in a happy home, in a palace, if he had never seen a battlefield, if he had not known commercial life, if he had not been among shepherds, if he had not been married and known family cares, if he had not seen the degradation of the people, the hypocrisy in the name of religion, how could he have been able to give the final message of God which was meant to be given to the people of all walks of life, which was meant to be not a religion but Islam, the national, racial, moral, and spiritual brotherhood for the whole of humanity. He came as the world teacher here and in the hereafter, the inspired one - not for one race or one community, but for the whole humanity. Muhammad had to learn all the experiences of life, because the message to be given in his time was how to be a man, how to live as a human being. The message how to be spiritual had already be given.

 

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