Editorial

Abstract

When the tribes of Makkah decided to rebuild the Ka`bah, they worked
together well until it was time to return the Black Stone to its corner. Each
clan wanted the honor of this task, and tensions ran high for four or five
days due to the stalemate over who would have the honor of lifting the
Black Stone so that it could be returned to its proper place. With battle
preparations underway, one man decided to try and avert a fight by suggesting
a rather unorthodox idea: The first man to walk into the area would
be appointed to arbitrate the dispute. Everyone agreed and began to wait.
And so it was that Muhammad ibn Abdullah was the first to enter. Seeing
this, the men reached a spontaneous agreement that he was indeed the best
one to resolve this crisis, for he was known to all of them as a person of
truth. Muhammad analyzed the situation and then asked for a cloak.
Telling them to spread it out on the ground, he asked each clan to take hold
of a corner. After placing the Black Stone in the middle, he asked them to
raise the cloak so that he could place the Black Stone back in its proper
place.
This was Muhammad ibn Abdullah, a man of truth, integrity, and peace;
a man who, according to Muslim belief, later became the last Prophet of
God. Muhammad ibn Abdullah: about whom Muslims say “salla Allahu
`alayhi wasallam” (May the peace and blessings of God be upon him) each
time his name is mentioned; about whom they ask God to bless, just as He
had blessed Abraham his family, at each of the five daily prayers; about
whom it is said that God say ten prayers on anyone who says one prayer on
him. In contrast with the 1,400 year old Muslim tradition of reverence
toward Muhammad ibn Abdullah (pbuh), (indeed toward all of the
prophets), a European tradition gradually sprung up dedicated to depicting
Muhammad ibn Abdullah as an evil “magician” out to destroy Christendom.
Pope Innocent III (1161-1216) even called him the Anti-Christ. During the
medieval era, the bogey used to frighten naughty children into obedience
was “Mahomet.”
This negative image of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) remains deeply
ingrained in the European psyche (and, by extension, the colonized New
World, now known as “the West”). Indeed, it is so deeply ingrained that ...