Re: In praise of God-The Prophet’s Birthday by Hamza Yusuf
In a period of twenty-three years Muhammad, Peace be upon Him, had succeeded in uniting a feuding people trapped in cycles of violence into one people with a sense of destiny and a mission that would transform the world.
He elevated the low, and he lowered the elevated that they might meet in that middle place known as brotherhood. He infused in them a love of learning unleashing a creative power that would lead to some of the most extraordinary scientific breakthroughs in human history. The spirituality he inspired in his people led to the construction of seven hundred mosques in the Spanish city of Cordoba in the West, and a restoration of the temple mount of the Jews in the East. Upon it his followers built the Dome of the Rock, a testimony to the Unity of God.
He died on the same day he was born, in the same house he had lived in for ten years in Medina, on a small bed made of leather stuffed with palm fibers, in the arms of his beloved wife Aishah. His dying words were, “Treat your women well, and do not oppress your servants, the prayer, the prayer, don’t be neglectful of the prayer. O God, my highest companion, O highest companion.”
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