FARAH EL-SHARIF
“إنَّ المَغْلُوبَ مُولَعٌ أَبَدًا بِالاقْتِدَاءِ بِالْغَالِبِ فِي شِعَارِهِ وَزِيِّهِ وَنِحْلَتِهِ وَسَائِرِ أَحْوَالِهِ وَعَوَائِدِهِ
“The vanquished (defeated) is always infatuated with imitating the victor in his slogans, clothing, beliefs, and all other conditions and customs.” — Ibn Khaldun
As we mark yet another Mawlid in monstrous times, I often wonder if we are diluting the immense, life-giving legacy of the Prophet ﷺ by focusing on his gentleness and loving traits only. So many invoke the verses wherein Allah himself praised the Prophet ﷺ: “you are indeed of the loftiest character,” (Qur’an 68:4) and “We have not sent you but as a mercy to all of creation,” (Qur’an 21: 107) but do we really understand the true depth and implications of these verses?
While it is imperative to learn and speak of the gentleness, pacifism and beautiful nature of the characteristic of the Prophet ﷺ, often, it is only one side of his virtues that gets discussed. Often, his warriorship, his indignant stances and righteous anger gets left out of the story. When such central aspects of prophethood get left out, that belies a misunderstanding of authentic, divinely bestowed, virtue ethics. It also indicates a misunderstanding what mercy truly is, and what being merciful entails.
Is virtue simply to be nice, to be lovely, softspoken, gentle and appeasing?
Is mercy truly merciful if it perpetually turns the other cheek, if it is constantly passive with evil?
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