The Spiritual Development of the Prophet Muhammad

Challenges Faced by the Prophet

• The leaders of Quraysh

• The rumors

• The persecution

• Finding a safe haven for the believers

• Leading a community

• Balancing between personal and public life

Balancing between personal and public life

• Finding time to help at home

• Praying at home in private

• Giving his home life privacy

• Living humbly

• God instructing the Arabs to speak respectfully to the prophet

• Surah 49. The Private Apartments, The Inner Apartments

• 1. O Ye who believe! Put not yourselves forward before God and His Messenger. but fear God. for God is He Who hears and knows all things.

• 2. O ye who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as ye may speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds become vain and ye perceive not.

• 3. Those that lower their voices in the presence of God.s Messenger,- their hearts has God tested for piety: for them is Forgiveness and a great Reward.

• 4. Those who shout out to thee from without the inner apartments - most of them lack understanding.

• 5. If only they had patience until thou couldst come out to them, it would be best for them: but God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

• 6. O ye who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest ye harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what ye have done.

• 7. And know that among you is God.s Messenger. were he, in many matters, to follow your (wishes), ye would certainly fall into misfortune: But God has endeared the Faith to you, and has made it beautiful in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you Unbelief, wickedness, and rebellion: such indeed are those who walk in righteousness;-

• 8. A Grace and Favour from God. and God is full of Knowledge and Wisdom.

• 9. If two parties among the Believers fall into a quarrel, make ye peace between them: but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other then fight ye (all) against the one that transgresses until it complies with the command of God; but if it complies then make peace between them with justice and be fair: for God loves those who are fair (and just).

• 10. The Believers are but a single Brotherhood: So make peace and reconciliation between your two (contending) brothers; and fear God, that ye may receive Mercy.

• 11. O ye who believe! Let not some men among you laugh at others: It may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): Nor let some women laugh at others: It may be that the (latter are better than the (former): Nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other, nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames: Ill-seeming is a name connoting wickedness, (to be used of one) after he has believed: And those who do not desist are (indeed) doing wrong.

• 12. O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, ye would abhor it...But fear God. For God is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.

• 13. O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).

• 14. The desert Arabs say, "We believe." Say, "Ye have no faith; but ye (only)say, 'We have submitted our wills to God,' For not yet has Faith entered your hearts. But if ye obey God and His Messenger, He will not belittle aught of your deeds: for God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

• 15. Only those are Believers who have believed in God and His Messenger, and have never since doubted, but have striven with their belongings and their persons in the Cause of God: Such are the sincere ones.

• 16. Say: "What! Will ye instruct God about your religion? But God knows all that is in the heavens and on earth: He has full knowledge of all things.

• 17. They impress on thee as a favour that they have embraced Islam. Say, "Count not your Islam as a favour upon me: Nay, God has conferred a favour upon you that He has guided you to the faith, if ye be true and sincere.

• 18. "Verily God knows the secrets of the heavens and the earth: and God Sees well all that ye do."

The Prophet Adam and the Story of Creation

(30) And Lo! Thy Lord said unto the angels: “Behold, I am about to establish upon earth one who shall inherit it.” They said: “Will You place on it such as will spread corruption thereon and shed blood- whereas it is we who extol Your limitless glory, and praise You, and hallow Your name?” God Answered: “I know that which you do not know.”

(Chapter 2)

(31) And He imparted to Adam the names of All things; then He showed them to the angels and said: “Declare the names of these [things], if what you say is true.”

(32) They replied: “Limitless are You in Your glory! No knowledge have we save that which You have imparted unto us. Verily, You alone are all-knowing, truly wise.

(33) Said He: “O Adam, convey unto them the names of these [things].” and as soon as [Adam] conveyed unto them their names, [God] said: “Did I not say unto you, ‘Verily, I alone know the hidden reality of the heavens and the earth, and know all that you bring into the open and all that you would conceal’?”

(34) And when We told the angels, “Prostrate yourselves before Adam!” – they all prostrated themselves, save Satan, who refused and gloried in his arrogance: and thus he became one of those who deny the truth.

(35) And We said: “O Adam, dwell you and your wife in this garden, and eat freely thereof, both of you, whatever you may wish; but do not approach this one tree, lest you become wrongdoers.

(36) But Satan Caused them both to stumble therein, and thus brought about the loss of their erstwhile state. And so We said: “Down with you, enemies unto one another; and on earth you shall have your abode and your livelihood for a while!”

(37) Thereupon Adam received words [of guidance] from his Lord, and He accepted his repentance: for, verily, He is the Acceptor of Repentance, the Dispenser of Grace.

(38) [For although] We did say, “Down with you all from this [state],” there shall, nonetheless, most certainly come unto you guidance from Me; and those who follow My guidance need have no fear, and neither shall they grieve;

(39) But those who are bent on denying the truth and giving the lie to Our messages – they are destined for the fire, and therein shall they abide.

Challenges to Faith: Satanic Whispers

(22) And Satan will say when the matter is decided: "It was God Who gave you a promise of Truth: I too promised, but I failed in my promise to you. I had no authority over you except to call you but you listened to me: then reproach me not, but reproach your own souls. I cannot listen to your cries, nor can you listen to mine. I reject your former act in associating me with God. For wrong-doers there must be a grievous penalty." (Chapter 14)

Challenges of Life(31) And We shall try you until We test those among you who strive their utmost and persevere in patience; and We shall try your reported (mettle). (Chapter 47)

(155) Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere, (156) Who say, when afflicted with calamity: "To God We belong, and to Him is our return" (157) They are those on whom (Descend) blessings from God, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance. (Chapter 2)

Intuitive Knowledge of God

(172) When your Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They said: "Yea! We do testify!" (This), lest you should say on the Day of Judgment: "Of this we were never mindful" (Chapter 7)

Intuitive Knowledge of Good and Bad

(7) By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it;

(8) And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;-

(9) Truly he succeeds that purifies it,

(10) And he fails that corrupts it!

(Chapter 91)

The Human Predicament

- Free will

- Intelligence

- Intuitive Knowledge of God

- Intuitive Knowledge of Good and Bad

- Prophets and Revelation

The Story of Adam Retold• 7:10. It is We Who have placed you with authority on earth, and

provided you therein with means for the fulfillment of your life: small are the thanks that ye give!

• 11. It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels bow down to Adam, and they bowed down; not so Iblis; He refused to be of those who bow down.

• 12. ((God)) said: "What prevented thee from bowing down when I commanded thee?" He said: "I am better than he: Thou didst create me from fire, and him from clay."

• 13. ((God)) said: "Get thee down from this: it is not for thee to be arrogant here: get out, for thou art of the meanest (of creatures)."

• 14. He said: "Give me respite till the day they are raised up." • 15. ((God)) said: "Be thou among those who have respite." • 16. He said: "Because thou hast thrown me out of the way, lo! I will

lie in wait for them on thy straight way:

• 17. "Then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left: Nor wilt thou find, in most of them, gratitude (for thy mercies)."

• 18. ((God)) said: "Get out from this, disgraced and expelled. If any of them follow thee,- Hell will I fill with you all.

• 19. "O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and enjoy (its good things) as ye wish: but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression."

• 20. Then began Satan to whisper suggestions to them, bringing openly before their minds all their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: "Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest ye should become angels or such beings as live for ever."

• 21. And he swore to them both, that he was their sincere adviser. • 22. So by deceit he brought about their fall: when they tasted of the

tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: "Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?"

• 23. They said: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls: If thou forgive us not and bestow not upon us Thy Mercy, we shall certainly be lost."

• 24. ((God)) said: "Get ye down. With enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling-place and your means of livelihood,- for a time."

• 25. He said: "Therein shall ye live, and therein shall ye die; but from it shall ye be taken out (at last)."

• 26. O ye Children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover your shame, as well as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment of righteousness,- that is the best. Such are among the Signs of God, that they may receive admonition!

• 27. O ye Children of Adam! Let not Satan seduce you, in the same manner as He got your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their raiment, to expose their shame: for he and his tribe watch you from a position where ye cannot see them: We made the evil ones friends (only) to those without faith.

• 28. When they do aught that is shameful, they say: "We found our fathers doing so"; and "(God) commanded us thus": Say: "Nay, God never commands what is shameful: do ye say of God what ye know not?"

• 29. Say: "My Lord hath commanded justice; and that ye set your whole selves (to Him) at every time and place of prayer, and call upon Him, making your devotion sincere as in His sight: such as He created you in the beginning, so shall ye return."

• 30. Some He hath guided: Others have (by their choice) deserved the loss of their way; in that they took the evil ones, in preference to God, for their friends and protectors, and think that they receive guidance.

• 31. O Children of Adam! wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for God loveth not the wasters.

• 32. Say: Who hath forbidden the beautiful (gifts) of God, which He hath produced for His servants, and the things, clean and pure, (which He hath provided) for sustenance? Say: They are, in the life of this world, for those who believe, (and) purely for them on the Day of Judgment. Thus do We explain the signs in detail for those who understand.

• 33. Say: the things that my Lord hath indeed forbidden are: shameful deeds, whether open or secret; sins and trespasses against truth or reason; assigning of partners to God, for which He hath given no authority; and saying things about God of which ye have no knowledge.

• 34. To every people is a term appointed: when their term is reached, not an hour can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation).

• 35. O ye Children of Adam! whenever there come to you apostles from amongst you, rehearsing My signs unto you,- those who are righteous and mend (their lives),- on them shall be no fear nor shall they grieve.

• 36. But those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance,- they are companions of the Fire, to dwell therein (for ever).

• 37. Who is more unjust than one who invents a lie against God or rejects His Signs? For such, their portion appointed must reach them from the Book (of decrees): until, when our messengers (of death) arrive and take their souls, they say: "Where are the things that ye used to invoke besides God." They will reply, "They have left us in the lurch," And they will bear witness against themselves, that they had rejected God.

• 38. He will say: "Enter ye in the company of the peoples who passed away before you - men and jinns, - into the Fire." Every time a new people enters, it curses its sister-people (that went before), until they follow each other, all into the Fire. Saith the last about the first: "Our Lord! it is these that misled us: so give them a double penalty in the Fire." He will say: "Doubled for all" : but this ye do not understand.

• 39. Then the first will say to the last: "See then! No advantage have ye over us; so taste ye of the penalty for all that ye did !"

• 40. To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin.

• 41. For them there is Hell, as a couch (below) and folds and folds of covering above: such is Our requital of those who do wrong.

• 42. But those who believe and work righteousness,- no burden do We place on any soul, but that which it can bear,- they will be Companions of the Garden, therein to dwell (for ever).

• 43. And We shall remove from their hearts any lurking sense of injury;- beneath them will be rivers flowing;- and they shall say: "Praise be to God, who hath guided us to this (felicity): never could we have found guidance, had it not been for the guidance of God. indeed it was the truth, that the apostles of our Lord brought unto us." And they shall hear the cry: "Behold! the garden before you! Ye have been made its inheritors, for your deeds (of righteousness)."

The Wisdom of Luqman• 12. we bestowed (in the past) Wisdom on Luqman: "Show (thy)

gratitude to God." Any who is (so) grateful does so to the profit of his own soul: but if any is ungrateful, verily God is free of all wants, Worthy of all praise.

• 13. Behold, Luqman said to his son by way of instruction: "O my son! join not in worship (others) with God. for false worship is indeed the highest wrong-doing."

• 14. And We have enjoined on man (to be good) to his parents: in travail upon travail did his mother bear him, and in years twain was his weaning: (hear the command), "Show gratitude to Me and to thy parents: to Me is (thy final) Goal.

• 15. "But if they strive to make thee join in worship with Me things of which thou hast no knowledge, obey them not; yet bear them company in this life with justice (and consideration), and follow the way of those who turn to me (in love): in the end the return of you all is to Me, and I will tell you the truth (and meaning) of all that ye did."

• 16. "O my son!" (said Luqman), "If there be (but) the weight of a mustard-seed and it were (hidden) in a rock, or (anywhere) in the heavens or on earth, God will bring it forth: for God understands the finest mysteries, (and) is well-acquainted (with them).

• 17. "O my son! establish regular prayer, enjoin what is just, and forbid what is wrong: and bear with patient constancy whatever betide thee; for this is firmness (of purpose) in (the conduct of) affairs.

• 18. "And swell not thy cheek (for pride) at men, nor walk in insolence through the earth; for God loveth not any arrogant boaster.

• 19. "And be moderate in thy pace, and lower thy voice; for the harshest of sounds without doubt is the braying of the ass."

• 20. Do ye not see that God has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made his bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen and unseen? Yet there are among men those who dispute about God, without knowledge and without guidance, and without a Book to enlighten them!

• 21. When they are told to follow the (Revelation) that God has sent down, they say: "Nay, we shall follow the ways that we found our fathers (following). "What! even if it is Satan beckoning them to the Penalty of the (Blazing) Fire?

• 22. Whoever submits his whole self to God, and is a doer of good, has grasped indeed the most trustworthy hand-hold: and with God rests the End and Decision of (all) affairs.

• 23. But if any reject Faith, let not his rejection grieve thee: to Us is their return, and We shall tell them the truth of their deeds: for God knows well all that is in (men's) hearts.

• 6. Prose Translation by Arberry, 1961• The lament of the reed-flute is a symbol of the soul's sorrow at

being parted from the Divine Beloved• 1. Listen to this reed, how it makes complaint, ***

telling a tale of separation:• 2. "Ever since I was cut off from my reed-bed, ***

men and women all have lamented my bewailing.• 3. I want a breast torn asunder by severance, ***

so that I may fully declare the agony of yearning.• 4. Every one who is sundered far from his origin ***

longs to recapture the time when he was united with it.• 5. In every company I have poured forth my lament, ***

I have consorted alike with the miserable and the happy:• 6. Each became my friend out of his own surmise, ***

none sought to discover the secrets in my heart.• 7. My secret indeed is not remote from my lament, ***

but eye and ear lack the light to perceive it.• 8. Body is not veiled from soul, nor soul from body, ***

yet to no man is leave given to see the soul."• 9. This cry of the reed is fire, it is not wind; ***

whoever possesses not this fire, let him be naught!

• 10. It is the fire of love that has set the reed aflame; ***it is the surge of love that bubbles in the wine.

• 11. The reed is the true companion of everyone parted from a friend: *** its melodies have rent the veils shrouding our hearts.

• 12. Whoever saw poison and antidote in one the like of the reed?*** Whoever saw sympathizer and yearner in one the like of the reed?

• 13. The reed tells the history of the blood-bespattered way, ***it tells the stories of Majnun's hopeless passion.

• 14. Only the senseless is intimate with the mysteries of this Sense; *** only the heedful ear can buy what the tongue retails.

• 15. Untimely the days have grown in our tribulation; ***burning sorrows have travelled along with all our days;

• 16. Yet if our days have all departed, bid them be gone-- ***it matters not; only do Thou abide, O Thou incomparably holy!

• 17. Whoever is not a fish is soon satiated with His water; ***he who lacks his daily bread, for him the day is very long.

• 18. None that is inexperienced comprehends the state of the ripe, *** wherefore my words must be short; and now, farewell!

• --Translated by A. J. Arberry. From "Tales from the Masnavi," (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1961). Re-formated here to accord translations in verse format.