Once Khalifa Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with him, noticed a bird on a tree. He sighed deeply saying “O, bird! How lucky you are! You sit on the tree, you eat from the fruit, then fly away, you fear no accountability or punishment. I wish I was like you.”
Birds and animals, like us, experience similar biological processes. There is hardly any difference between a human being and other animals.
They are born, we are born
They eat and drink, so do we
They grow up, we grow up
They become sick, we do that as well
They have children, we have children
They die, we die
In some cases, animals are better than us because they do exactly what God Almighty has set them out to do. There are no disbelieving animals or hypocrites. They are all true Muslims submitting to God Almighty, worshiping Him, although Allah has told us that we don’t understand their form of worship.
Unlike animals, human beings are given the choice to select their way of life. God has shown us the right path and the wrong path. The right path is good for this world and the only way to succeed in earning the everlasting life in Paradise. Allah has also clearly told us the consequences of choosing the wrong path, which is bad for us in this world and leads to a horrific end in the Hellfire.
The right path requires us to live a mission-oriented life to be successful.
God sent Prophets after Prophets, from Adam to Abraham to Moses, Jesus, and finally Muhammad, God’s peace and blessings be upon them, to guide humanity to live a mission-oriented life. Their message was consistently aimed at helping people realize that they must rise above other animal life. This message called all human beings throughout history to live a purposeful life and to make this world a better place for all beings. It also reminded them of the promise of Paradise that they earn by doing this, a place where, by God’s mercy, we will instantly be blessed with whatever we ask for.
So what was the mission of all these Prophets in helping people live a purposeful life in alignment with God’s guidance?
God has told us in the Quran the mission of the Prophets:
We sent Our Messengers with clear evidences and sent down with them the Scripture and the balance of right and wrong, so that the people may stand forth in justice, fairness and equity; And We sent down iron, wherein there is awesome power and many benefits for people, so that Allah may know who, without even having seen Him, helps Him and His Messengers: For Allah is Full of Strength, Exalted in Might” (Quran 57:25).
The mission of the Prophets, therefore, was to establish justice, fairness, and equity. Based on this God-assigned mission, all Prophets engaged in a struggle to invite people to a Godly way of life. They also tried to establish justice through a system of encouraging values and laws in their societies. All Prophets were successful people in the eyes of Allah, although many were not blessed to be successful in getting their societies to accept that model of just living.
It was this Prophetic mission which let Prophet Muhammad, to envision a just society despite the overwhelming persecution he and his Companions endured. God’s peace and blessings be upon him. One example was Khabbab ibn Aratt, may God be pleased with him. After his conversion to Islam, he was tortured to such an extent that the fat of his body remained visible on his body. It was in this context that he asked the Prophet to curse the Makkans who were persecuting the Muslims. The Prophet did not. Instead, he reassured Khabbab his vision of peace and justice prevailing n Arabia, that an old woman laden with gold jewelry would be able to travel from one corner of Arabia to another with no fear of anyone but God. (source: Several Hadiths including one in Sahih Bukhari).
God blessed Prophet Muhammad with success in this world. He achieved his vision by fulfilling his Prophetic mission of establishing peace, justice, fairness, and equity in his lifetime.
As the Prophet delivered his farewell sermon on Mount Arafat, during the only Hajj pilgrimage he ever performed, he asked the audience: Did I fulfill my mission? Those present all responded, “Yes, oh Prophet of God.” He then made Allah his witness saying three times “Allahuma Ashhad” (“Oh Allah be my witness”).
Then he ordered the believers who were present to carry on this message to those who were not present there. He also said that perhaps the latter will understand the mission better than those present with the Prophet at that moment (Bukhari)
This was a reminder of God's command to fulfill the duty of Shahadah, the obligation to share the mission of the Prophet. This has also been described as “witnessing” his message by living, upholding, and spreading it to others.
“…It is God Who has named you Muslims, both before and in this (Revelation); that the Messenger may be a witness for you, and you be witnesses for humanity!.. (Quran 22:78).
When pilgrims circle the Kaba during the Hajj pilgrimage, they repeatedly say in sync, out loud:
Labbayk Allaahumma labbayk, labbayk laa shareeka laka labbayk, 'innal-hamda, wanni'mata, laka wal mulk, laa shareeka laka.
Here I am Allah, here I am at your service…
What is that service which the Hajj pilgrims are committing to? That is the Prophetic mission assigned by God to all the Prophets. That is the mission God has asked Muslims to carry out. That is the mission that the Prophet spoke of in his last sermon, reminding us as he left this world: That we need to live a purposeful mission-oriented life and work to establish justice, fairness, and equity.
There are five pillars of Islam. You must have read or at least seen books about Salat, Zakat, fasting, and Hajj. But it is the first pillar of Islam, Shahadah or affirming and witnessing to the faith, which requires us to read the life of the Prophet. His Seerah or biography, is how you learn how to fulfill this first pillar of Islam by establishing justice in society.
So if you would like to live a purposeful life, better than an animal life, adopt the God-given Prophetic mission to establish a just and peaceful society as your personal mission. This commitment does not require anyone to abandon this world. Allah does want us to take our share from this world. This ensures that both this world and the everlasting world will be ours with the blessings of God Almighty if we follow the mission of the Prophet.
Living a purposeful, mission-oriented life, does involve struggle, and sacrifice. But then who said Jannah is free?
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