When Muhammad (saaw) was given the Prophethood by Allah (swt), the Meccan society, and Arabs in general, lived under a social system that failed to preserve the dignity of the human being. They would bury their young daughters, deny inheritance to women, and institutionalize adultery. In addition, some men would send their wives to the noble men of the tribe, so that she would give birth to a son from the blood of that noble man. Even beyond this, sons would inherit the wives of their father as their own wives, and the lineage of adopted children was mutilated, severing the ties of kinship.
Looking to the Seerah of Muhammad (saaw), we see that he (saaw) struggled not simply to reform this degenerate type of behavior, but to uproot the entire basis of the society, replacing it with the Islamic ideology at every level. o_nce the Prophet (saaw) had implanted the Islamic ideology in the minds of the people and established its political authority, he (saaw) began to, through Allah’s revelations, build a new social system. If o_ne looks to the Seerah of Muhammad (saaw) with this frame of reference, he would come to understand the dynamics of the struggle to change society. This chapter will focus, however, o_n the efforts of the Prophet (saaw) to rebuild the social system o_nly.
When Muhammad (saaw) was in Mecca, he (saaw) struggled with the Mushrikeen (idolators) of Quraysh when attempting to make them realize that their way of life was incorrect and that the Message which he (saaw) had been sent with could liberate them from the oppressive nature of their system. o_ne aspect of this struggle was that the Prophet (saaw) challenged the well established social customs in the society. As an example, Allah (swt) says,
“And when the female (infant) buried alive shall be questioned for what sin she was killed?” (At-Takwir 81: 8-9).
This Ayah clashed directly with the Arab custom of burying their first born daughters alive (due to the “shame” it brought to them) Family loyalty, whether for good or bad, was valued highly among the Arabs, and Islam directly clashed with this because of some family members who accepted Islam, while the rest within would not. Thus, the pagan Arabs used to accuse the Prophet (saaw) of having undermined their goals and rupturing the relations within families.
Before Islam, the inhabitants of the known world grouped themselves along many superficial lines. This grouping intensified and fueled the futile rivalries existing among nations as well as within nations and did nothing to melt these differences together. In the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs were aligned along tribal affiliations and family ancestry. To the East and West, nationalism and religious commonalities formed the basis of the Persian and Byzantine empires. Islam abolished all of these bonds, replacing them with a strong ideological bond that was not confined to a specific group of people or a geographic origin, but had the potential for including all of humanity regardless of race, color, or creed.
Before Islam, an Arab would look down upon a black person for no other reason than the color of his skin, and tribes would fight and kill o_ne another for decades in the name of family pride. Islam established itself so firmly within the hearts of humans that, upon declaring their allegiance to Islam they would willingly shed away all of their previous affiliations to enter into the Brotherhood of Islam. For the Muslims, the color of skin, the family name, the geographic origin, or the wealth of the individual did not matter. When the Prophet (saaw) began his Da’wah, he (saaw) established a core of leadership consisting of a Persian, a Roman, an African, people from among the Jews and Christians, and indigenous Arabs, and nothing bound them together but the idea they embraced. Thus, the Brotherhood emanated from the idea to such a degree that they would wage war against their own family blood to protect o_ne another. Hence, Abu 'Ubaydah fought his father, who was an idolater, and killed him when he met him in the Battle of Badr, and he showed no concern for the body of his disbelieving father as it was dragged away and thrown into the well of al Qabil at Badr.
When the early Muslims embraced Islam, they comprehensively accepted the idea with a clear conviction. They acknowledged Allah (swt) as the Rabb and the o_nly o_ne worthy of their worship and their allegiance. With this clear understanding and submission, they wholeheartedly accepted all of the consequences of their conviction. When Allah (swt) mentioned,
“The believers are but a single brotherhood…” (Al Hujurat 49: 10); and,
“O you who believe, take not for protectors your fathers and brothers if they love infidelity above faith; if any of you do so, they do wrong (Al Tawbah 9: 23),” the Sahabah (raa) found no difficulty in forsaking all of these affiliations and replacing them with the obedience to the Shariah.
The example of Mus’ab bin Umair is representative of the way in which Islam divided the family in Mecca. Mus’ab bin Umair (ra) was extremely loved by his mother and he too loved her. He was wealthy, well respected, and admired by the women in the society. Upon his acceptance of Islam, however, his mother became extremely upset and refused to eat until he renounced his Islam. Prior to accepting Islam, Mus’ab bin Umair would never have tolerated harm coming to his mother. After Islam entered his mind and heart, he replied to her that even if she had multiple souls and he saw each o_ne leave her o_ne by o_ne due to death from starvation, he would not renounce Islam. This attitude reflects the impact that Muhammad’s (saaw) call had o_n the social structure that existed in the Makkan society.
As Ibn Ishaq narrated: “Ibn Wahb, a confederate of Banu Abd al Dar told me that when the Prophet received the prisoners of war (from Badr), he divided them among his companions and said: ‘Treat them well.’ Abu 'Aziz ibn ‘Umayr’ ibn Hashim, the full brother of Mus’ab ibn 'Umayr was among the prisoners. Abu 'Aziz said: 'My brother Mus’ab passed me, and said to the Ansari who had captured him: ‘Don’t release him. His mother is rich; perhaps she will pay you a ransom for him.’”
Furthermore, Ibn Hisham narrated: “This Abu 'Aziz was the flag bearer of the Mushrikun after al Nadr ibn al Harith had been killed. When his brother (Mus’ab) spoke thus to Abu al Yusr, who had captured him, Abu 'Aziz said to him: ‘O my brother, is this what you recommend for me?’ Mus’ab said to him: ‘He (Abu al Yusr) is my brother, not you.’” Mus’ab willingly severed all his ties with his own blood brother and addressed another Muslim, who had no family relation to him, as his own brother in precedence to his own family, because he realized that his obedience no longer belonged to his family lineage or his ancestry or his place of origin, but to Allah (swt), and that Allah (swt) has determined his family and the criterion of brotherhood.
Once the Prophet (saaw) was able to establish the authority of the Islamic ideology via the Nusrah from the people of Medinah, Allah (swt) began revealing to him (saaw) the laws which would be the foundations for a radically new social system. Unlike other human beings who establish laws based o_n their own minds and implemented them upon everybody but themselves, Muhammad (saaw) being the Messenger from Allah (swt) was the first to act upon the injunctions which Allah (swt) revealed.
“O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allah is a better Protector for both (than you)…” (An-Nisaa 4: 135)
Thus Allah (swt) made the family ties to be based o_n the belief in Allah (swt) first, thus negating the absolute loyalty of the individual to his family or tribe and replacing it with the loyalty to Allah (swt).
Islam confined brotherhood and close friendship exclusively to the Believers when Allah (swt) said:
“The believers are but a single brotherhood…” (Al Hujurat 49: 10). Also, Islam forbade close friendship between Believers and Unbelievers from among the Mushrikeen, Jews or Christians, even if they were the fathers, brothers or sons of the Believers, and that any Believer who did so had committed a grave sin, when the Qur’an mentions,
“O you who believe, take not for protectors your fathers and brothers if they love infidelity above faith; if any of you do so, they do wrong (Al Tawbah 9: 23).”
Islam established a society in Medinah o_n the basis of love and mutual support exemplified by the Hadith: “The Believers, in their love, mutual kindness, and close ties, are like o_ne body; when any part complains, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever.” Affection, compassion and keeping in touch formed the basis of the relationship between the citizens of the Islamic society, regardless of age, social status, or wealth.
The Seerah of the Prophet (saaw) also serves as a legislative source of how the family life is to be structured. The Prophet (saaw) used to look to the emotions of his wives and take care of them. He (saaw) would treat them justly, help them in their work, and would take care of his needs by his own efforts. This is in sharp contrast to the status of the Muslim families now, at a time when the Islamic ideology, as a comprehensive way of life, has all but vanished from the minds of the Ummah. Insha’Allah, if we commit ourselves to study the Seerah of Muhammad (saaw) as it relates to ALL affairs of life, not o_nly will we be able to restore the dignity of the Muslim family, but the Muslim Ummah as a whole.
