Islam's Reformers .pdf

wrong and eccentric. To say that he went to Byzantium, Persia,Ethiopia and Yemen and attempted to reform his nation byexploiting what he had learned in these places, and to behaveinsolently towards Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) bysaying “this experienced man” are not what a Muslim would do.It is written on page 391 of Qisâs Anbiyâ’ that Rasûlullah(sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) was ummî, that is, he had notlearned anything from anybody. He did not use to write or read.He had grown up amongst illiterate people. In Mecca, there wasnot a scholar who knew the history of old peoples. He had notgone to other places to learn anything from anybody. He hadnot started a job for earnings. So as he was, he communicatedthe knowledge in the Tawrâ, in the Injîl, and in all other booksthat had descended from heaven and the facts about pastpeople. In those days, historical knowledge had beeninterpolated and defiled. There were very few people todistinguish the correct from the incorrect. He responded to menof every religion and silenced them all. These accomplishmentsshow that he was and is the Prophet (’alaihi ’s-salâm) sentdown by Allâhu ta’âlâ. Though he defied the literary men andthe poets of his time, none was able to express even a line likethe Qur’ân he revealed. Indeed, the Meccans were interested inreading poems and making speeches and strove hard andcompeted with one another in this way. They took pride inspeaking coherently. The Qur’ân beat all the poets. They couldnot compete against the Qur’ân. In desperation, they threw theirswords into the scale, which would mean ‘to fight’ and, ifnecessary, ‘to die’. Unais, Abû Dharr’s brother (radiy-Allâhu’anhumâ) was a famous poet who had outdone twelve poets.As soon as he heard the Qur’ân, he understood that it wasAllâhu ta’âlâ’s word and embraced Islam. The 48th âyat of thesûrat al-Ankabût says, “You had not read any book beforethe Our’ân descended; you had not written. If you had beenliterate, they would have said that you had learned it fromothers.” Seeing these witnesses of Allâhu ta’âlâ and of Islamicscholars anybody with îmân and reason will not have difficulty indeciding definitely about Hamidullah’s writing above. On thefortieth page, he says:“For an unknown reason he bit his foster-sister’s shoulder soseverely that its scar remainded all through her life. In a holywar, his foster-sister Shaimâ, too, was amongst the slaves- 297 -