Website: www.aaiil.uk

The Holy Prophet Muhammad — As a mercy for the people of the world

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 3 October 2025

“Thus it is by Allah’s mercy that you are gentle to them. And if you had been rough, hard-hearted, they would certainly have dispersed from around you. So pardon them and ask protection for them, and consult them in (important) matters. But when you have determined, put your trust in Allah. Surely Allah loves those who trust (in Him).” — ch. 3, Āl-i ‘Imrān, v. 159	فَبِمَا رَحۡمَۃٍ مِّنَ اللّٰہِ لِنۡتَ لَہُمۡ ۚ وَ لَوۡ کُنۡتَ فَظًّا غَلِیۡظَ الۡقَلۡبِ لَانۡفَضُّوۡا مِنۡ حَوۡلِکَ ۪ فَاعۡفُ عَنۡہُمۡ وَ اسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لَہُمۡ وَ شَاوِرۡہُمۡ فِی الۡاَمۡرِ ۚ فَاِذَا عَزَمۡتَ فَتَوَکَّلۡ عَلَی اللّٰہِ ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ یُحِبُّ الۡمُتَوَکِّلِیۡنَ ﴿۱۵۹﴾
“Do not strain your eyes (with desire) at what We have given certain classes of them to enjoy, nor grieve for them, and make yourself gentle to the believers.” — ch. 15, Al-Ḥijr, v. 88	لَا تَمُدَّنَّ عَیۡنَیۡکَ اِلٰی مَا مَتَّعۡنَا بِہٖۤ اَزۡوَاجًا مِّنۡہُمۡ وَ لَا تَحۡزَنۡ عَلَیۡہِمۡ وَ اخۡفِضۡ جَنَاحَکَ لِلۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ ﴿۸۸﴾

Last week I recited a very well-known verse of the Holy Quran in which it is declared that Allah sent the Holy Prophet Muhammad as “a mercy to the nations” (21:107), which means to his own followers, then to all humanity, particularly to all its deprived sections, such as women, children, orphans, the poor, slaves, etc., and then going beyond that, to all other worlds, such as the animal world. This week I will expand further on this theme. The first verse I recited today was revealed after the battle of Uhud. Some Muslims during that battle had not followed the instructions given to them by the Holy Prophet, and their action placed the main Muslim army in a great deal of trouble and put the Holy Prophet personally in danger. Finally, before the battle ended, the Muslims managed to recover their position. You would expect the Holy Prophet to be severe and harsh on those who had gone against his orders. But in this verse God mentions that, after the battle, the Holy Prophet was gentle to all his followers, as he always was. And God not only mentions this, but informs the Holy Prophet of the great benefit of his being gentle. God says that if he had been a strict and stern leader of his followers, neglecting their feelings, then they would not have stuck so closely to him, as most of them stuck to him during the trouble in this battle. Then in this verse Allah urges the Holy Prophet to himself forgive the Muslims who infringed his orders and also to ask Allah to forgive them. Moreover, he should continue to seek their opinion in making decisions affecting the Muslim community.

The second verse I recited tells the Holy Prophet not to look with desire at the wealth and riches of his rejectors, wishing that he and his followers possessed the same, nor to feel sad over their attitude, but instead to look to his followers and show them love and mercy. The words translated as “make yourself gentle to the believers” literally mean: lower your wing to them, indicating that he should take them under his protection, be their guardian, shelter them like a bird sheltering its young.

Now I will mention some incidents from the life of the Holy Prophet, showing how great a mercy he was to those around him. It was said to the Holy Prophet by a Muslim: “send curse upon the idol-worshippers.” He replied:

“I have not been appointed (by Allah) as an invoker of curse, but I have been appointed as a mercy.” (Sahih Muslim, hadith 2599)

The Holy Prophet was very conscious that as a human being he might lose his temper with someone and say that he wished him something bad, while that person did not deserve it. He once said to a young orphan girl with displeasure: “May you never grow up and become mature!” She went crying to the woman who looked after her and told her this. That woman went to the Holy Prophet and asked him why he had said this. The Holy Prophet smiled and replied:

“Don’t you know that I have made this agreement with my Lord, that I said to Him: I am a human being and I become happy just as a human being becomes happy and I become angry just as a human being becomes angry. So for any person from among my followers whom I curse, and who in no way deserves it, let that, O Lord, turn for him into a source of purification and purity and nearness to Allah on the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih Muslim, hadith 2603)

The Holy Prophet also wanted to avoid punishing anyone who himself admitted that he had committed a crime. There is a report in Bukhari as follows:

“While I was with the Prophet, a man came and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have committed a sin which is subject to legal punishment (ḥadd), so inflict it on me.’ The Prophet did not ask him what he had done. Then the time for the prayer came and the man offered prayer along with the Prophet, and when the Prophet had finished his prayer, the man again got up and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have committed a sin subject to legal punishment (ḥadd), so inflict on me what is in the Book of Allah.’ The Prophet said: ‘Have you not prayed with us?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ The Prophet said: ‘Allah has forgiven your sin’, or he said: ‘your punishment’.” (Bukhari, hadith 6823)

The Holy Prophet always discouraged people from confessing to sins for which a legal punishment would have to be applied. That is why he did not wish the man in this incident to provide any further details about what he had done, and indicated to him that he should seek forgiveness of Allah in prayer. Please remember that if the man’s sin had resulted in loss to another party, who suffered due to that man’s action, then the man would have to seek forgiveness from that person and make up the loss before Allah would forgive him.

The Holy Prophet was also a mercy for women. In his time, as you know, when a girl was born, it was a custom that sometimes she was buried alive by the father due to the shame he felt in society at a girl being born instead of a boy. The Holy Prophet instructed his followers about this in these words:

“If anyone has a female child, and does not bury her alive, nor does he humiliate her, nor does prefer his children to her — meaning the male ones — Allah will bring him into Paradise.” (Abu Dawud, hadith 5146)

There is an incident reported that once Hazrat Abu Bakr went to visit the Holy Prophet and he could hear from outside the voice of Hazrat Aishah speaking to the Holy Prophet loudly in an argument. When he went inside he caught hold of her in order to slap her, and said:

“Do I see you raising your voice to the Messenger of Allah?”

The Prophet intervened to prevent him from slapping her and Abu Bakr went out angrily. After he left, the Holy Prophet said jokingly to Hazrat Aishah:

“Look, I rescued you from the man.”

Abu Bakr stayed away for some days, and then went back and asked permission of the Holy Prophet to enter. He found that he and Hazrat Aishah had made peace with each other. He said to them: “Bring me into your peace as you brought me into your war.” The Prophet said: “We have done so, we have done so” (Abu Dawud, hadith 4999). This hadith is categorised under “Making humorous remarks”.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad was also a mercy to slaves. Once a man met a well-known Companion of the Holy Prophet, Abu Dharr. He noticed that Abu Dharr had a slave with him who was wearing clothes similar to those which Abu Dharr was wearing. So the man asked him why his slave was dressed as if he is equal to him? Abu Dharr gave this reply:

“I once abused a man, calling him by a bad name because of his mother. The Prophet said to me: Abu Dharr! You called him by a bad name because of his mother. Surely you are a man in whom is ignorance.”

Abu Dharr had called this person as “son of a black woman” in an insulting manner, and the Holy Prophet said that this act was the kind of thing which Muslims used to do before embracing Islam. That period before they accepted Islam is known as the time of ignorance. He went on to tell Abu Dharr:

“Your slaves are your brothers. Allah has placed them in your charge. So whoever has his brother in his charge, he should feed him with what he himself eats, clothe him with what he himself wears. And do not burden them with work which overwhelms them. If you burden them (with such work), then help them in doing it” (Bukhari, hadith 30). Of course, slavery has been illegal for a long time now, but these instructions of the Holy Prophet are not meant only about the treatment of actual slaves but apply to anyone in your charge, working under you, as the Holy Prophet has said here: “whoever has his brother in his charge”.

This incident was about a male slave. Regarding female slaves the Holy Prophet said that a man will have a double reward from Allah:

“who has a female slave and he teaches her good manners, making her manners the best, and he educates her, making her education the best, then he sets her free and marries her.” 

Note that the Holy Prophet clearly stated that the teaching of manners and the educating is to be done to the best standard. This hadith occurs in Sahih Bukhari three times (hadith 97, 2547 & 3011), and in its first occurrence Bukhari has given it the heading: “A man teaching his female slave and his family.” Bukhari has himself added “and his family” here to show that if it is necessary for a man to teach and educate his female slave, it is obvious that he must teach and educate his own family as well. The hadith also says that the slave woman should be given her freedom after her education. In the USA slavery was abolished in 1865, yet freed slaves, male or female, and their descendants were denied proper education, and certainly they were denied the best education, for almost another hundred years in parts of the USA. In 1957 the President of the US had to send federal troops to force schools to admit black students because until then they only admitted white students and refused to admit black students.

There is also a hadith that the Holy Prophet said:

“None of you should address his slave as ‘my slave (‘abd)’ or ‘my female slave’, and a slave must not address you as ‘my Lord (rabb)’. The master of a slave should say ‘my young man’ or ‘my young woman’, and a slave should say ‘my master’ or ‘my mistress’. For you are all slaves and the Lord (rabb) is Allah” (Abu Dawud, hadith 4975).

This means that slaves of those times were declared by the Holy Prophet as equal to their owners.

May Allah grant us success in showing to the whole world that the Holy Prophet Muhammad came as a mercy for all of it — Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk