❞ كتاب The Needs Of Humanity In The Mission Of Prophet Muhammad ❝ ⏤ عبدالرزاق معاش

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and
blessings and peace be upon Muhammad , seal of the
prophets and messengers.
Some Westerners are presently asking what new
aspects Prophet Muhammad 1

offered to the world.
Undoubtedly, all those who conveyed great messages
were great in themselves, great in their lives. And
although they appeared during specific periods of
history, they left their mark, not only on their own
societies, but on the history of the entire world.
Among them was our Prophet, Muhammad .The
outstanding feature of his greatness lies in the fact that
he was the bearer of a divine monotheistic message. It
was a comprehensive message aimed basically at the
amendment of human life, shifting it from barbarism
and paganism to a monotheistic civilization based on
certainty of faith.
Will Durant, the American research scholar and
author of “The Story of Civilization”, wrote:
"When we judge greatness by what effect a great person left
on people, we could say that Muhammad  was one of the
greatest figures in history. For he took it upon himself to
elevate the spiritual and moral level of a people cast into the
shadows of savagery by the heat and aridity of the desert. He
succeeded in the realization of that goal on a scale never
1
Blessings and peace be upon him

NEEDS OF HUMANITY
achieved by any other reformer in history. Very seldom do
we find someone who actually achieved that of which he
dreamt. It was not merely because he was an extremely
religious person, but because there was no influence other
than that of religion which motivated the Arabs of that time
to follow the path he pursued. When he began his mission,
the land of Arabia was an arid desert inhabited by a few
disunited polytheistic tribes. But by the time of his death it
had become a unified, cohesive nation. He had tamed the
anarchy of fanaticism and superstition and established a
religion over Judaism, Christianity and the ancient beliefs of
his land that was uncomplicated, lucid and powerful, a
bastion of morality, honesty, valor and national honor.
Within a single generation he was able to triumph in a
hundred battles, to found a great nation within one century,
and remain until this day a formidable power throughout
half of the world."2
We, of the Program for Introducing the Prophet of
Mercy  , consider it among our obligations to answer
the questions pertaining to what Prophet Muhammad 
offered to the world and to humanity with reference to
the topics that follow.

2
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, 13/47.

NEEDS OF HUMANITY
The Worship of God Alone
Muhammad  through revelation from God
(whose proper name in the Arabic language is "Allah")3
,
transferred humanity from obedience and submission to
other human beings to the worship and submission to
Allah, the Exalted4

, alone, associating nothing with
Him. Consequently, humanity became free from
servitude to anyone other than Allah and that is the
greatest honor bestowed on humanity.
The prevailing condition before Prophet
Muhammad's  mission was a class system based on
tribal loyalties, financial supremacy and slavery. The
wealthy and influential leaders were masters to be
obeyed and served, while the poor and colored (mostly
blacks) were servants and submissive followers. Slaves
were no more than material possessions which a person
could own, buy, sell or give away without the least
consideration of human feelings when separating a
parent and child or a husband and wife through such
dealings.
The masters of society would impose customs and
conditions bordering on legislation, compelling the
people to submit to them. They had set themselves up as
3
The meaning of Allah is "the one and only God" who alone is worthy
of worship. Muslims use this name throughout the world regardless of
their spoken language.
4 Henceforth, the Arabic symbol will be used instead of the Exalted.

NEEDS OF HUMANITY
rivals in authority to the one true God, while He alone
is worthy of worship and obedience. All people,
whether white, black, rich, poor, highborn or slave
should be subject only to the authority of Allah and
His judgement. It is for this purpose that He sent His
Prophet, Muhammad , with the message of Islam as
represented in the testimony:
"There is no [true] god except Allah, and Muhammad is the
Messenger of Allah."
Paganism was practiced in the form of idol
worship, the worship of statues, trees and stones. In
contrast, Prophet Muhammad  invited people to
acknowledge the unity of God in His lordship, His
divinity and His right to unconditional worship and
obedience alone. For He said in the Qur'an:
"O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and
those before you, that you may become righteous." (2:21)
And He said:
"O people, an example is presented, so listen to it. Indeed,
those you invoke besides Allah will never create as much as
a fly, even if they gathered together for it. And if the fly
should steal from them a [tiny] thing, they could not recover
it from him. Weak are the pursuer and pursued."5
(22:73)

A comparison is made to the worshipper of a false deity and that
which he worships.

NEEDS OF HUMANITY
One of the Prophet's  companions described the
transformation, which Islam brought to the life of the
Arabs from dishonor and slavery to honor and dignity;
how they left the darkness of servitude to people, for
the worship of Allah alone. This enabled them to
perceive the true scope and capacity of this world. As
Rab`i ibn `Amir 6

said when addressing a Persian

general,
"Allah has sent us to liberate whoever wishes, from the
worship of His servants to the worship of Allah, from
the restriction of this world to its vastness and from the
tyranny of other religions to the justice of Islam.”7
The Frenchman, Etienne Denier (who took the
name "Nasiruddin"), speaks in his book entitled
“Muhammad , the Messenger of Allah” about the
balance, universality and possible future role of the
divine message. He says:
"A very important thing is the absence of an
intermediary between a person and his Lord. This is
what practical minded people find in Islam, due to its
freedom from mystery and saint worship. It has no need
for temples and shrines because all of the earth is a
suitable place for the worship of God. Moreover, some
of those who believe in God while expressing higher
6
May Allah be pleased with him; () this Arabic symbol will be used
henceforth.
7
Ibn Katheer, Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah, 39/7.

NEEDS OF HUMANITY
aspirations can find in Islam a pure perspective regarding
belief in God. They will find therein the most
extraordinary and sublime acts of worship and
unimaginable expressions of supplication."8
Liberation of the Mind from Superstition
Through revelation from God, Muhammad 
liberated the human mind from superstition, deception
and submission to false objects of worship as well as
those concepts contrary to reason, such as the claim that
God had a human son whom He sacrificed to atone for
the sins of humanity.
Before the coming of Prophet Muhammad , the
Arab mind was dominated by many beliefs and legends
incompatible with sound reason and with intellect that
cannot accept what is contrary to reason. One
prominent belief of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance
was that stone or wood carved by people with their own
hands could benefit or harm them. So, they worshiped
these along with Allah or instead of Him. They feared
their vengeance and intimidated their subordinates, who
in turn closed their minds, unable to distinguish error
from reality in such matters.
Then Allah sent Prophet Muhammad  with the
religion of Islam, which honored man through his
intelligence and made him worthy of responsibility for
8
Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, p.362-363.

NEEDS OF HUMANITY
religious obligations and prohibitions, while exempting
the mentally deficient and the child who has not yet
matured. Islam promotes and rewards one for using his
mind to discover facts about the universe in the fields of
science. And it prohibits everything which affects the
clarity of the mind, such as various kinds of intoxicants
and drugs.
Islam began by purifying religious doctrine from
superstition and deception. Its creed addresses the mind,
to convince it of the truth conveyed in the Qur'an and
to refute the false beliefs of ignorant people, such as
belief in the plurality of divinities. One example is in
Allah's statement:
“Allah has not taken any son, nor has there ever been with
Him any deity. [If there had been], then each deity would
have taken what it created, and some of them would have
sought to overcome others. Exalted is Allah above what they
describe.” (23:91)
This clear argument in such concise words shows
that the true God is a dynamic Creator who can benefit
His servant and keep him from harm. So, if there had
been more than one god, the other one would also have
created and acted, so there would have been rivalry
between them. One of them would then have overcome
and seized the creation of the other, as do the kings of
this world in their kingdoms. And when one is unable
to subdue the others there can be one of three results:

NEEDS OF HUMANITY
• Each one would hold on to his own creations and
sovereignty
• Some of them would eventually overcome others
• All of them would be subservient to one sovereign
or one God, who would have complete control
over them.
The arrangement of the heavenly and earthly
worlds, their interrelation and their operation according
to a precise system that neither changes nor becomes
corrupted is the strongest evidence that there is a single
manager, besides whom there is no other deity. As it is
impossible to have two equal creators for the world, it is
impossible to have two objects of worship. This is but a
portion of the evidence attesting to the soundness of
what the Prophet of God, Muhammad , conveyed
regarding the oneness of divinity.
One Lord, who alone is worthy of worship, is
what is most acceptable to intelligent minds. This stands
out against claims that God is part of a trinity or that
idols can share His divinity and His right to be
worshipped alone. So, what can be greater than this
crystal clear concept of monotheism, which was
unknown at the time the Prophet of Mercy  was sent
to humanity? And what belief about God is more
compatible with the sound intellect than this one?

 : This is a research that was developed to answer the Westerners who presently asking what new aspects Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him offered to the world?