Power of Change

The Messenger of God lived in an age that well-manner had been long forgotten and in a place in which daughters were subject to infanticide. You will have an idea of their well-manner, by only looking at the way they spoke. At that time of the history, a child called his father by name; like “‘Umar”, like “Abu Bakr” and his mother like “Umm Salama.” Once a bedouin asked questions to the Prophet one after another about obligations of a believer and then as if in a negotiation said,

“By God who sends you down, I will not perform neither more nor less than this.”

Someone named Dhu’l-Khuwaysira, while dividing the shares, came to the Prophet and said,

“Be just, O Muhammad”

in an inappropriate manner. Let’s suppose that manner was toward ourselves; well, it is possible we could be unjust. However, the one who was being addressed in this inappropriate manner was the Prophet who was under the protection of God. He, on the other hand, absorbed all of these rude acts and language. Why? Because it is the most important task to help someone earn the eternal bliss and he was facing every cruelty in order for his community to reach the salvation, the eternal bliss.

Among people like these, came out the Companions of the Prophet who are a miracle of the Qur’an because the Qur’an led them to the morality step by step with these verses below:

O You who believe! Do not put yourselves forward before God and His Messenger; but fear God, for God is He Who hears and knows all things. O you who believe! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as you may speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds become vain and you do not perceive. (Hujurat 49:1-2)

The phrase in the first verse: “Do not put yourselves forward before God and His Messenger” means, when a question asked or if there a problem occurred in the presence of the Prophet, do not jump to answer or solve the matter for God will let His consent known through the Prophet; and following his footsteps is to obey God’s rules. Therefore, do not attempt to teach the Prophet how he will answer by getting into the conversation before him. Therefore, well-manner toward the prophets is well-manner toward God since they open our way to the eternal bliss by bringing down the revelation and by illuminating it with their teachings.

When the second verse “Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet” was revealed, Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas went home and started crying out that he was doomed to Hellfire. The Prophet asked his neighbor, Sa’d bin Muadh about Thabit. He went to see how he was doing. Thabit said,

“When I heard this verse I thought that I will be one of the residents of the Hellfire because I have the highest pitched voice.”

Then Sa’d narrated the situation to the Prophet. The Prophet called him and said that he indeed will be among the residents of Heaven. Sa’d had a very high pitched voice by nature so the Prophet told him that it was his natural voice and what was meant in this verse was he who spoke in an inappropriate manner in a very rude way.

Educated and disciplined by the Qur’an, the Companions have captured the degree of perfection in well-manner. 

They became the examples for the future generations. Nobody raised their voices in the presence of the Prophet any more and everybody spoke and acted in a very well-mannered way. Nobody among them spoke before his turn, accorded his voice before speaking and tried to finish their question or comment the shortest way possible. They were aware that any rude behavior toward the Prophet would cancel all of the good deeds they had performed. And a time came that their well-manner toward him reached to a degree in which like they had a bird on top of their head and in order to make that bird not to fly away, they were afraid of moving a muscle. So they were that quite.

They set the examples for us by not wasting any of words of the Prophet in their life.