Muhammad's extraordinary insight into the world of the unseen was not
just restricted to making accurate predictions about the future, but it also
included the rejection of false superstitious beliefs and practices which
were prevalent in his time. Earlier in the book we covered a number of
modern day false superstitious beliefs and practices such as astrology and
numerology. The seventh century Arabs at the time of Muhammad were
no different, in fact superstition formed a large part of how society ran.
Some of these included belief in omens, astrology, seeking blessing from
objects, and soothsaying. All were rejected by Muhammad who advocated
for people to follow truth and not myths and false superstitions:
Those who follow the Messenger [Muhammad]… who enjoins upon
them what is right and forbids them what is wrong and makes lawful
for them the good things and prohibits for them the evil and relieves
them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them...
[Qur'an, 7:157]
History has recorded a large number of myths and superstitions pertaining to the Arabs. Astrology was one of the most popular forms.
There is a notable incident recorded that on the same day that the infant son
of Muhammad died, there was an eclipse of the Sun and Moon. The
people linked the two events together by saying that even the Sun and
Moon were saddened by the death of his child. Muhammad personally
denounced such beliefs, saying: "The Sun and the Moon do not eclipse
because of the death or life (i.e. birth) of someone…" [174].
Is there really any reason Muhammad would go against the superstitions of
his people, especially when he came from a tribal culture that blindly
followed the traditions of their forefathers? Had Muhammad been an
imposter, then this would have been the perfect opportunity to take
advantage of the ignorance of the people, but he did not. The Qur'an
also records some of the superstitions of the Arabs relating to the Sun
and the Moon, which they used to worship: "The night, the day, the Sun,
the Moon, are only a few of His signs. Do not bow down in worship to
the Sun or the Moon, but bow down to God who created them, if it is
truly Him that you worship" [41:37].
The pre-Islamic Arabs also widely believed in the concept of good and
bad omens. For example, they believed that certain months of the year
(such as the month of Safar) brought bad luck [175], and that certain
birds were bad omens. When someone died and was buried, a night
bird (known as 'Haamah' in Arabic) was said to hover over the grave of a
murdered person whose blood had not been avenged [176]. Muhammad
denounced both of these beliefs when he said: "There is no bad omen
(from birds), nor is there any Haamah, nor is there any bad omen in the
month of Safar" [177].
When it comes to disease and medicine we know that magic and superstition
played a very large part in the life of the Arabs [178]. For example, once
there was an epidemic of fever in the Arabian oasis of Khaybar, people
visiting the place would bray at the gates like donkeys to protect themselves.
The reason was that they believed the fever attacked only humans. By
imitating donkeys they hoped to avoid catching it. In another example, a
man could repel an attack of insanity by befouling himself with menstrual
cloths and surrounding himself with dead men's bones. An illness could
be expelled by transference to someone else. For example, in a fever, a
thread was tied round the arm of the patient. Whoever undid the thread
would have the fever transferred to him, and the patient would recover.
If someone was bitten by a snake, it was believed he could be cured if he
held pieces of women's jewellery in his hand and rattled them all night
[179].
The advent of Islam did away with all of this. There is an incident
where a Bedouin approached Muhammad and asked, "O Messenger of
God, should we not treat sickness?" Muhammad replied, "Treat sickness,
for God has not created any disease except He has also created the cure,
except for one disease." The Bedouin asked, "O Messenger of God, what
is it?" Muhammad responded, "Old age" [180].
When it came to contagious diseases, Islam was way ahead of its time as it instituted practices
such as isolation and quarantine. Today these are strategies which are
implemented by public health authorities.
Muhammad said: "If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place" [181].
In fact,
entire books have been written on the medicine of Muhammad, such as
The Prophetic Medicine by the classical scholar Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.
Let's compare such seventh century teachings of Muhammad on disease,
medicine, and quarantine control, to the situation in Europe where, as
late as the fourteenth century, it was still widely believed that distant
planets caused diseases here on earth. The Bubonic Plague, also known
as the Black Death, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human
history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people
in Eurasia and peaking in Europe in the years 1346 – 1353 CE. It spread
so quickly through Europe because medical knowledge had stagnated
during the Middle Ages [182]. The most authoritative European account
at the time of the Black Death came from a medical faculty in Paris. They
produced a report in 1345 CE that was sent to the king of France, placing
the primary source of the disease on a conjunction of three planets that
caused a "great pestilence in the air":
We say that the distant and first cause of this pestilence was and is the
configuration of the heavens. In 1345, at one hour after noon on 20
March, there was a major conjunction of three planets in Aquarius.
This conjunction, along with other earlier conjunctions and eclipses,
by causing a deadly corruption of the air around us, signifies mortality
and famine, and also other things about which we will not speak here
because they are not relevant… These effects were intensified because
Mars – a malevolent planet, breeding anger and wars – was in the sign
of Leo from 6 October 1347 until the end of May this year… [183]
When we look to the writings of Europe's distant past, we find similar
accounts. The Iliad, an ancient Greek epic poem believed to be written
c. 1194–1184 BCE, also attributes illness to stars:
Priam was the first to see him sparkling on the plain, bright as that
star in autumn rising, whose unclouded rays shine out amid a throng
of stars at dusk-the one they call Orion's dog, most brilliant, yes, but
baleful as a sign: it brings great fever to frail men. [184]
It seems like fourteenth century European medicine had advanced very
little and was still steeped in the superstition of the ancient Greeks over
2,000 years before them.
Sadly, a much more sinister explanation for the
Black Death was prevalent in other parts of Europe. Here a chronicle by
a fourteenth century Franciscan friar reports that Jewish people were
blamed for the cause of the disease:
In 1347 there was such a great pestilence and mortality throughout almost the whole world that in the opinion of well-informed
men scarcely a tenth of mankind survived. The victims did not
linger long, but died on the second or third day. The plague raged
so fiercely that many cities and towns were entirely emptied of
people.
Some say that it was brought about by the corruption of
the air; others that the Jews planned to wipe out all the Christians
with poison and had poisoned wells and springs everywhere. And
many Jews confessed as much under torture: that they had bred
spiders and toads in pots and pans, and had obtained poison from
overseas... God, the lord of vengeance, has not suffered the malice
of the Jews to go unpunished. Throughout Germany, in all but a few
places, they were burnt. For fear of that punishment many accepted
baptism and their lives were spared. This action was taken against
the Jews in 1349, and it still continues unabated, for in a number of
regions many people, noble and humble alike, have laid plans against
them and their defenders which they will never abandon until the
whole Jewish race has been destroyed. [185]
We can see that even as late as the fourteenth century, Europe was still
attributing the causes of disease to astrology as well as conspiracy theories
about minorities. Compare all this to the teachings of Muhammad on
disease, its cures, and quarantine control over 600 years prior.
Another area where mankind has suffered due to superstition is the
criminal justice system. The seventh century Arabs lived by the tribal law
of retaliation. According to this custom, when a noble person of a strong
and influential tribe was killed, it was not enough to kill the perpetrator,
especially if they had not been of equal rank. Therefore, many innocent
members of the other tribe used to be killed. If such revenge was not
sought then it was believed that the victim's tribe would be shamed, and
the adult males of the tribe would have to abandon wine, perfume, and
fancy food until they avenged their tribe [186]. To appreciate the extent
to which the Arabs could take this practice, there is a famous incident
where one tribe killed a camel belonging to another and it led to the start
of a terrible war which lasted for 40 years, killing scores of people from
both sides [187].
Muhammad condemned such systems of justice as immoral. Collective punishment gave way to individual responsibility, as the Qur'an
declares that innocent people are not to be held accountable for the
actions of others: "And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of
another" [35:18]. When it comes to punishing a person who is said
to be guilty of a crime, the accused is presumed to be innocent until
concrete evidence is brought forward. Muhammad declared: "Had
men been believed only according to their allegations, some persons
would have claimed the blood and properties belonging to others, but
the accuser is bound to present positive proof" [188]. One example of
such evidence is multiple, corroborating eyewitness testimony, and
each witness must be a reliable individual whose word can be trusted.
The testimony of known liars, for example, would be rejected. We
can see that Islam did not come with spirituality alone, but it also
brought with it very practical approaches to solving our problems
and challenges in day to day life.
You may be thinking to yourself, is this really so impressive, as this
is just the norm in criminal justice systems around the world. Today
we take things like presumption of innocence, trials, testimony, and
evidence for granted. But such legal systems are quite different to the
ones that were practised up until only a few centuries ago. Throughout
Medieval Europe, justice was heavily influenced by superstition. The
most important figure in a court of law was not a judge or jury, in fact
they were not human at all. When a person was accused of a crime,
they would have to perform a ritual during which God would reveal
the guilt or innocence of the accused. People from poorer backgrounds
would undergo a trial by ordeal [189]. For example, the accused might
have to hold a red-hot iron. The wound would be bandaged and reexamined three days later by a priest, who would pronounce that God
had intervened to heal it, in which case they were seen as innocent,
or that it was merely festering—in which case the accused would be
condemned as guilty. Nobles and people from a rich background would
undergo a trial by combat. If a man was accused of a serious crime, he
could prove his innocence by fighting his accuser. Fights took place
in front of a huge crowd and had the atmosphere of a country fair.
The battle would last until one of the men surrendered or was killed.
It was still considered divine justice, as God would ensure that the
innocent party would always prevail [190]. Eventually, trials by ordeal
and combat gave way to trials by jury, but such superstitious justice
systems were in place in Europe throughout the Middle Ages; over a
thousand years after Islam rejected superstitious trials and introduced
an evidence-based system.
Even racism, one of the great evils of history, has its roots in superstition.
The Curse of Ham (also known as Noah's Curse) refers to an incident in
the Bible, in the book of Genesis, regarding Noah and his son Ham. In
this story, Noah gets angry with Ham, and places a curse on his descendants (the Canaanites), condemning them to slavery.
There is a racist
interpretation of this curse that some in the West have taken in order to
justify slavery. The explanation that black Africans, as the "sons of Ham",
were cursed, possibly "blackened" by their sins, was advanced during the
Middle Ages and became increasingly common during the slave trade of
the 18th and 19th centuries [191].
Even the Greek philosopher Aristotle,
who is considered a shining example of enlightened thinking, considered
some human beings to be inherently inferior to others from the moment
of their birth: "For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing
not only necessary, but expedient from the hour of their birth, some are
marked out for subjection, others for rule." Then he concludes, "some
men are by nature free, and others slave, and that for these latter slavery
is both expedient and right" [192].
Even Mahatma Gandhi, one of the
most revered spiritual leaders of the twentieth century, expressed racist
views. Gandhi spent 21 years living in Colonial South Africa, from 1893
to 1914. He arrived there during a time when the nation was suffering
severe political unrest and racial discrimination against black people. In
1895, Gandhi began actively promoting racial segregation in Durban. The
Durban post office had two doors: one for whites and the other shared by
93
Indians and black Africans. Being Indian, Gandhi was required to share a
door with black South Africans, which deeply offended him. He petitioned
the authorities to create separate entrances for Indians and was granted
his wish when the authorities provided three separate entrances, one
each for black Africans, Indians, and Europeans [193]. In 1903 Gandhi
wrote: "We believe also that the white race in South Africa should be the
predominating race." [194]. Gandhi shared many of the discriminatory
racial views of his time. He was perhaps a product of the rigid Hindu
caste system which divides people into different categories, with anyone
falling outside of these categories being classified as "untouchables" and
treated as social outcasts.
The Arabs of the seventh century were no better; they wrongly believed
that the most superior of people were those who descended from the
Arab race and had Arab blood. This is reflected in the widespread and
brutal treatment of slaves before the advent of Islam. Racism is an idea
that Islam completely rejects:
O mankind, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should recognise
one another. In God's eyes, the most honoured of you are the ones
most mindful of Him: God is all knowing, all aware. [49:13]
Here the Qur'an speaks of human equality in no uncertain terms. Islam
rejects the notion that certain individuals or nations are favoured because
of their wealth, power, or race. God created human beings as equals who
are to be distinguished from each other only on the basis of their faith and
piety. The life of Muhammad is a beautiful realisation of this Qur'anic
standard. Throughout his prophethood, Muhammad advised his people
to set aside their ignorant and perverse values and to live by the Qur'an.
Muhammad's love for humanity, irrespective of race or nationality, is
demonstrated in his famous Last Sermon. In perhaps the most noteworthy manifestation of anti-racism of any religious figurehead in recorded
history, he challenged an ultra-nationalistic and highly racist society by
calling on people to unite under a banner of humanity:
O People, lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether after this
year, I shall ever be amongst you again. Therefore listen to what I am
saying to you very carefully and take these words to those who could
not be present here today... All of mankind is from Adam and Eve, an
Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor does a non-Arab have
any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a
black, nor does a black have any superiority over a white, except by
piety and good action. [195]
Muhammad's anti-racist mentality helped lead his people out of the
darkness of nationalism and racism and into the light by guiding them
onto the path of racial equality. The fact that Islam spread amongst all the
colours and races of the world is testimony to the fact that Islam did not
accept these false divisions. Today millions of people across the world,
black, white, Asian, African, and European are all part of the unique
Islamic brotherhood and sisterhood.
Muhammad's anti-racist views were apparent very early on in his Prophetic mission through his friendship with Bilal ibn Rabah, a black slave
who rose to a leading position within the Muslim community of seventh
century Arabia. He was appointed by Muhammad to make the public
call to prayer. In choosing Bilal for this honourable role, Muhammad
demonstrated that social exclusion and subordination based upon skin
colour was not to be permitted in an Islamic society. Muhammad broke
down racial barriers for black believers in a part of the world that had
one of the poorest track records for human rights, preceding the Western civil rights movement and Martin Luther King by over 1,400 years.
It's no wonder that British historian Professor Arnold J. Toynbee wrote,
"The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of
the outstanding moral achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary
world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this
Islamic virtue" [196].
If Muhammad's main motivation was to gain power, as some argue, then
why did he go against racism? He had absolutely nothing to gain by up
lifting the status and rights of slaves in tribal Arabia. Quite the opposite
in fact, as his stance only served to alienate and create enemies of those
who were in positions of power over slaves and had a vested interest in
maintaining the status quo.
Muhammad spoke out against racism, and
every evil in tribal Arabia, because the Qur'an commands believers to
uphold justice, even if it goes against one's self-interests: "You who believe,
uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves,
your parents, or your close relatives. Whether the person is rich or poor,
God can best take care of both. Refrain from following your own desire,
so that you can act justly– if you distort or neglect justice, God is fully
aware of what you do" [4:135].
In conclusion, we've seen how Muhammad rejected the superstitions
that were present in virtually every level of seventh century Arabian
society. We should not be surprised by their widespread popularity.
Just think about the level of knowledge about the natural world at
the time of Muhammad, over 1,400 years ago. Mankind lacked the
technology we have today and so came to many incorrect conclusions
about how the natural world works. Legends and myths were invented
because they lacked a means of scientifically explaining the world
around them. Of course, some thinkers and philosophers at that time
still managed to make some amazing discoveries, such as accurately
estimating the circumference of the earth, but for everything they got
right, they also got a lot wrong. Lack of education is another issue; we
take for granted the ability to read and write but most people in the
world at that time lacked these skills. Arabia itself had extremely high
rates of illiteracy. It is estimated that the number of literate people
in Muhammad's city of birth, Mecca, did not exceed seventeen [197].
Taking into account all of these circumstances, it would have been
very difficult to identify the falsehood of such beliefs and practices.
Muhammad was born and raised in a world that was filled with baseless
superstitions, he was subject to the same technological limitations as
everyone else, and he could neither read nor write [198]. Yet he was
unique, in the sense that he saw through all the falsehood that those
around him were indulging in.