Conservation of Solitude

Reason, anger and lust are considered as the three fundamental powers of the ego. Each of these powers has its own source of energy and a field of deployment. In this article, I would like to delve into the power of reason, and then use it as a telescope to understand prophet Muhammad pbuh in a different way so that we can better emulate his example in our lives.

There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often. (33/21)

Reason is a distinctive property of the humans. Although the initial connotation of reason is individualistic, there is also collective reasoning through communication and through writing among individuals. Still, though, history testifies that revolutionary ideas and actions take spark from key figures, and spread from them. Masses, on the other hand, are associated with status-quo and constancy, and so, they need those unique individuals' initiative to reach a new state. As you can guess, such acceptance of a revolutionary idea or movement does not happen instantly. The society that will be the future home for that idea, more often than not, plays the antagonist during the developmental stage of the story. During this initial time period, those unique individuals who are the mothers of those ideas find solace in solitude.

If you think of solitude, it may sound negative, especially in this time of ubiquitous social media invasion and addiction. Historically, solitude is especially sought by those who are after wisdom and enlightenment. Imagine yourself sitting around a camp fire with a group of people. Although you are with others, watching the fire captures your soul, and you find yourself being dragged into a world of your own where you are blown away by thoughts, emotions and inspirations. That is you find solitude, despite being surrounded by people. Be careful, this solitude is not being lonely!

Seeking solitude and having ample time for contemplation alone are traits observed in the lives of many timeless leaders of humanity, messengers of God most prominent among them. The life details of Muhammad, the last and the best documented messenger of God, provide a fertile ground of study in this regard. It is well known that he used to climb the Mount Nour, and take shelter in the cave of Hira to contemplate. These sessions would last for days or weeks. His wife, Khatijah, would bring him food and water during these periods so that he, Muhammad, could go on with his seclusion without interruption.

Nevertheless, it was not normal for anyone to stay alone in the wilderness for so long. Therefore, this state of seclusion was alarming at the same time. Muhammad himself can be included among those who were concerned about this strange state of his, since when eventually the angel brought the first revelation, his reaction was to question whether he was going crazy or being possessed.

Before we go on, I think it is important to take a moment and see the big picture so far. Wisdom is sought and found not by masses but by individuals. Furthermore, wisdom is found not among people but in solitude. Plus, wisdom is fast embraced not by the society but by the individuals of critical thought. Life stories of messengers of God, especially prophet Muhammad for that matter, make a good example of all these points.

With all the known facts about wisdom and the events prior to the onset of the mission of Muhammad, you would guess that seeking solitude and wisdom at mountain tops would remain as an indispensable component of the messenger's routine, but it does not!

On the contrary, in an increasing rate, he becomes a public figure who is almost always surrounded by others, and whose house is visited by people even at inconvenient times. Those who are familiar with the occasions of revelations for certain verses in the Quran and are well versed in the prophet's life would appreciate the severity of these situations.

So, what happened to the solitude-seeking person? Ask anyone who loves solitude, they are going to tell you that being alone is like water and air for them, and that they cannot do without it. We understand that the same was true of Muhammad pbuh. Then, what happened to this intrinsic need of his? Did it miraculously disappear?

No! As his mission to convey the message of God to people required him to be with people, he also needed to refuel himself by being one-to-one with his Lord. That is, being alone in his former life transformed into being alone during his salaah. However, since he had to do the obligatory prayers in congregation, his thirst for being alone was channeled by God towards the voluntary salaah, which he could do alone.

In this world, women and perfume have been made dear to me, and my comfort has been provided in prayer. (Sunan an-Nasa'i, 3939, grade: hasan)

Indeed, if you read through the books of hadith, you may not find too many occasions where the prophet was alone, but you can find countless occasions when he was offering voluntary prayers to Allah during the day or night. So, the "lonely thinker" of the former life was transformed to the "lonely worshiper" of the latter life.

Returning to us, here and now, along with the communication age, staying alone and contemplating has become a rare property. The business routine and the increasing pace of life are not favorable to the timeless attitude of wisdom. In all this, one way for the believers to accommodate this essential ingredient in their lives is by working on their salaah, and transforming it to the alone-time with the Eternal Light, as in the example of the messenger of God.

This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah -who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them, (2/2-3)

Trustee of the Revelation

Have you ever witnessed violence against people or heard about it? What about a violence by the rich and powerful on the poor and weak? What about a violence by a famous one on an ordinary one? As you know, it is very easy and rewarding to fight against violence committed by the weak, poor and ordinary people. The same is not true for the opposite, though. If you are trying to stop an evil committed by the rich, powerful and famous, long before you suffer "correctional" sanctions, you face the public that admonishes you against what you are doing, either because they think you are going to get hurt or because they believe there is no way your accusations could be true of "such a nice person". Given all, you may feel divided between heeding your conscience and prioritizing your own safety. In such a case, what if the Creator of everything orders you to go forward with your cause?

"O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message..." (5/67)

Throughout the 23 years during which Muhammad pbuh performed his duty as a messenger of God, he had to go through similar situations several times. Sometimes, it was due to stopping evil, yet at other times, it was about changing the traditions, and at other times, it was going against the status-quo. So, you can say that the last 23 years of his life were very much stressful; a state not favorable for the core of his mission: preserving the Quran.

Aisha, one of the wives of the prophet Muhammad, when asked about the character of the prophet, had told that his morals were those of the Quran,  (Muslim, 746). This was so, indeed, because the divine book is not fully established in humans' perception, until and unless it is practiced. So, you could call the prophet, in this respect, the living Quran. Nevertheless, as time goes by, conditions change, and for example today, the events and traditions of the 7th century sometimes look irrelevant to us. So, the living example of prophet is not necessarily 100% applicable to us today. The good news is we have the book of God in its original form. And for that, we owe a lot to the messenger of God, since it was him who established the tradition of memorizing and preserving the text of the revelation. 

Today's science tells us that stress is detrimental for the memory. In the above paragraphs, I had mentioned that the period of Quran's revelation was also the same time frame that harbored countless stressful events. So, on top of those, keeping the Quran in your mind, a book that amounted to 600 pages over the span of 23 years, definitely brings another factor of stress. All together, the stress that Muhammad pbuh was going through could undermine his core mission. So, the Creator regularly sent relieving verses:

Then High above all be Allah, the True King. And be not in haste (O Muhammad SAW) with the Quran before its revelation is completed to you, and say: "My Lord! Increase me in knowledge." (20/114)

O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people. (5/67)

Then maybe you will kill yourself with grief, sorrowing after them, if they do not believe in this announcement. Surely We have made whatever is on the earth an embellishment for it, so that We may try them (as to) which of them is best in works. (18/6-7)

Do you not see that We have sent the devils upon the disbelievers, inciting them to [evil] with [constant] incitement? So be not impatient over them. We only count out to them a [limited] number. (19/83-84)

Indeed, We will cast upon you a heavy word. Truly the rising by night is most potent for governing (the soul), and most suitable for (framing) the Word (of Prayer and Praise). (73/5)

So, on one side, the messenger was facing extreme challenges, but on the other side, his courage was refueled by God. One of the challenges, and actually the very first one, was to proclaim that God is one and only one. In a society, where people believe in multiple gods, introducing the idea that there is one and only one God is a great challenge. Here, I am not going to talk about the aspect looking towards the people; rather, I want to focus on the messenger. 

As witnessed by the historical records, after he made this claim, people starting shifted from "being surprised" to "being insulted", and then they grew in animosity to the point of waging war against him. Before we go that far though, in the beginning times of his mission, the Meccan pagans made an offer to him, which he rejected saying "even if they put the sun in my one hand, and the moon in the other, I am not going to give up. Either I die on this way or God makes me succeed in my cause." When this event happened, Muhammad was not in excellent conditions. Yes, he had a good reputation of being honest and truthful, he was the best in morals in the society, but those did not necessarily translate into power. Not at first sight, at least. So, this meant, he had to rely on God's help for power. 

At this point, you can feel that such experiences were actually the surgical operations of God on His messenger to hone his belief. After all, if the messenger is not fully convinced of his own mission, how else could he stand against the entire world? Trusting in your Lord who set you out on your cause means that, in reciprocity, your Lord has put His trust on you. And the first thing that follows this trust is the clearing of the fake powers and wrong information from your heart.

Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant. (33/72)

Luqman advised his son telling him, "My son, do not consider anything equal to God, for it is the greatest injustice." (31/13)

Read in the name of your Lord Who created. He created man from a clot. Read and your Lord is Most Honorable, who, by the pen, taught the human being: Taught man what he knew not. (96/1-5)

Islam, when it was first established in the Arabian peninsula, accepted Jerusalem as its qibla; meaning, the holy temple in Jerusalem was the target direction for prayers, and it was held most holy. This, in the beginning, gave the believers a confirmation and mental comfort that Islam is in the same line of Judeochristian tradition. The same fact also gave a hint to the Jews and Christians about the veracity of the message brought by Muhammad pbuh. However, there was a subtle point in all this. Jerusalem was holy, not because it was holy on its own but, because God had appointed it as such. 

This meant that if God chooses another location as holy, things change accordingly. In other words, it is not that "you are on the right path because you are turning to the right direction", but that "you are on the right direction because you are on the right path". This distinction became clear when the qibla was shifted from Jerusalem to Mecca. Even some of the believers were challenged by this shift, because the mentality was not properly set before. In a society where the confirmation of things come from their roots in the tradition, establishing something that has no roots in the tradition, be it cultural or religious, is both radical and outrageous. So, as the person who started all this, Muhammad had to stand tall and strong in the face of any backlash from his followers and from the members of the other two religions.

But if they turn away, [O Muhammad], say, "Sufficient for me is Allah ; there is no deity except Him. On Him I have relied, and He is the Lord of the Great Throne." (9/129)

So, with knowledge comes power and freedom. And with freedom comes responsibility. A distinctive property of prophet Muhammad is that, unlike many other significant figures in history, throughout his mission during which he continuously rose to greater power, he always sided with truth, and did not become a tyrant that crushes the weak. A prime example of this was witnessed when a Christian group came to Medina and had a discussion with the messenger about the status of Jesus. This discussion later grew into a heated debate. My intention here is not to talk about the content of the talks but to describe the frame of events. This discussion is taking place in Medina, where the Christians had no power at all. They are discussing the topic not with an ordinary person but with the person at the top of the political and military power. And the venue for the discussion is not any public place or home but the mosque. Yet, the Christian group is not afraid of going forward with their arguments, which is a sign that they have not been treated badly nor had they been threatened in any way. Looking at such details of the frame of these events, it is obvious that such self-control on the side of prophet Muhammad is a sign of being trustworthy with the trust given by the Lord of the Worlds.

After all these, what is our take home message? The messenger of God was sent not only to the people of the 7th century Arabs but also to everyone until the end of time. So, looking at his example on being trustworthy with "introducing revolutionary elements", we can conclude that if we are convinced of the truth of an idea or an action, if we are sure that it does not contradict with the fundamental borders drawn by God, then we can trust the One who inspired us that idea or action.

God further enlightens those who seek guidance. To those who do charitable deeds which produce continuing benefits, your Lord will give a better reward and a better place in Paradise. (19/76)