In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
It began nearly 1400 years ago with a revelation from God in a cave on this mountain.
Today, the Prophet's followers number nearly a thousand million.
Many in the West are unsure how to respond, seeing us only as a series of simplistic stereotypes.
This image is just as disturbing to ordinary Muslims like me, perhaps even more so.
It is so very far away from the living Islam which we know and which is our inspiration.
The living Islam, which with all its difficulties and dilemmas, all its choices and challenges,
is at once our civilization, our culture and our faith.
This is a bit like Christmas in the Christian world.
We are in Cairo and we are celebrating the birthday of our Holy Prophet.
And unlike Jesus, who was a divine figure for Christians, our Prophet was just a man,
but not any ordinary man.
For Muslims throughout the world, he is Insani Kamal, the perfect person.
And because of the great reverence they have for him, whenever they hear his name, Muhammad,
they add, Peace be upon him.
This looks almost as much like a political demonstration as a religious celebration.
Well, it is.
Islam recognizes no distinction between religion and politics.
And because the reality of life in so many countries is all too often far from the ideals
of the Muslim faith, celebrating the Prophet's birth can imply a reproach to rulers who don't
match up to the Prophet's standards.
But like Christmas, the Malaad al-Nabi is a celebration for children too.
The Malaad al-Nabi is a celebration for the day the Prophet was born, and people celebrate
it every year.
So, where is the Prophet born in Mecca?
He was brave and strong, and he was able to endure the torture of the infidels.
The most important thing is that he reminds us of many things that the Prophet did,
such as his character and morals, and the characteristics of the people he was represented by.
And on this day of celebration, people don't forget what the Prophet did.
And he was a role model for all people.
Before the message came out, he told me to look at the tools they made of stone, and
to say, it's unbelievable, this is a blow to the one who created me.
And he looked at the sun and said, is this my Lord?
And the sun disappeared and said, no, it's my Lord.
And the moon said, this is my Lord, and he said, no, it's my Lord.
For children and adults alike, the life of the Prophet, Insani Kamil, set an example
everyone should aspire to, celebrated with songs, with sweetmeats, or by recalling the
99 names of God.
Islam is, above all, a religion of models, of practical examples.
The Islamic state founded by the Prophet is still the model for all societies, the Prophet's
own character and way of life, the model for every Muslim.
The Prophet's life of modest devotion to God, his conversion by force of personality of
the feuding, hard-drinking pagan Arabs, these things are hard for us to imagine today.
So little is left of the Prophet's own country as it once was.
But if we travel west, across the width of Africa, towards the western-most fringes of
the Islamic world, we come to a land of desert and oasis, of small trading towns built of
sun-dried brick.
Here, if anywhere, we may find a trace of the spiritual and religious atmosphere of
former times.
We are in Mali, West Africa, where pagan villagers are still converting to Islam, where nomads
still come in from the desert to trade in Timbuktu, where pilgrims still travel long distances
to visit the holy man of Dili and assemble in Djenne to pray in its famous mosque.
Fanging in Freedom
You are asking us to pray?
Yes.
Allah
Come to us
Allah
Together we travelled
we arrived in a village
and he asked the people to accept the religion
All of them accepted
but in this village there was a baobab
a baobab tree
which was adored by the population
The population wanted the marabout to hunt the genie
which was around the baobab
But there is a danger
whoever plants a metal in this wood will die
Griots, travelling entertainers, whip up the excitement of the crowd
as the marabout is greeted by the headman of the pagan village of Gantili-Bogo
The great marabout, very proud, accompanied by the whole converted population
went towards this wood
and arrived with a hatchet
and gave each side of the cardinal point a blow
After having done this, the population said to themselves
the marabout will not see the night
and said to him
Inshallah I will spend three nights and three days at your place
Indeed, the great marabout stayed for these three days and three nights
The population was very, very proud
and since then, all these villages, until today, remain in the religion
Through his speech maker, the marabout applies gentle persuasion
This is the way Islam spread through sub-Saharan Africa and through Asia, South and East
not by the sword, but by saintly example
The faith offers release from a terrifying world of black magic and demonic powers
where any tree may be inhabited by an evil spirit
and any animal might be a sorcerer in disguise
The blacksmith is first to have his head shaved, signifying rebirth as a Muslim
Where a blacksmith leads, the rest of the village will follow
To convert to Islam is to recite the declaration of faith in front of witnesses
One of the marabout's men will stay behind in the village for a few weeks
to teach the new Muslims their prayers and their duties
Now, there is only one more duty to be performed
to destroy the fetishes and magic talismans of the old religion
and with them, the belief in forest gods, spirits, demons and sacred trees
In their place will be the five pillars of Islam
Faith in one God and his prophet, prayer five times a day, alms giving to the poor
fasting during the month of Ramadan and, for those who can, the pilgrimage to Makkah
To become Muslim does not mean to give up all traditional culture
Everywhere, local custom is put to the service of Islam
As an anthropologist, I was fascinated by the symbolism of the celebrations
Yesterday's evil water spirit, disguised as a scorpion, is surrounded and brought to bay
Villagers joyfully welcome the bird from Makkah, resplendent and serene in victory
All Muslims keep an image of the prophet in their hearts
Whether they live in Asia, Africa or here in Paris, among Western Europe's largest Muslim community
And, just as Muslim society in Mali has an unmistakably African appearance
So here in Paris, it presents a more European style
And Muslim thinkers here adopt a very French intellectual approach
In the time just before the emergence of the Quran
We have an Arabian society which is mainly a Bedouin society
Except of course in the cities, especially Makkah, which was already a city of merchants
Who were trading to the north, from Yemen to the north, to Syria and also to the Gulf
And through this trading, Makkah became a center of culture which was linked to the Middle East
What we can call Middle East culture
Which was a very rich mixture of many ancient cultures
Going back to the time of Babylon, going back to the time of Persepolis in Iran
Going back to the time of the Assyrian civilization
Going back to the Aramean culture which will be the culture of Jesus in Nazareth, in Palestine
So all the Greek culture from the time of Alexander, all this is a mixture of many trends of cultures
And these trends of cultures found their way through oral narratives, oral literature
Found their way to Makkah, to some educated people
Why I say this? Because it's in the Quran
This is the Kaaba, the holiest of the holy in Makkah
Five times a day the Muslims of the world turn towards this spot to pray
But modern travel and communications have changed the city almost out of recognition
Not so long ago, to reach Makkah meant a difficult and even hazardous journey
Yet Makkah has been a destination for pilgrims from time immemorial, long before the Prophet
Muslims believe that the Kaaba, God's house, was first built in Makkah by Adam at the beginning of the world
Later, it was rebuilt by Abraham, together with his eldest son Ishmael, ancestor of all Arabs
Islam is heir to both Judaism and Christianity
When Ishmael was expelled with his mother Hagar from Abraham's camp, it was here they sat down in the desert to die
The book of Genesis tells us that God said to Hagar
Arise, lift up the lad and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation
And God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well of water
And in the year 610, in a cave on a nearby mountain, the angel Gabriel appeared to a man known to neighbors as modest and saintly
And revealed to him the words recorded in the 96th chapter of the Holy Quran
He created man from a clasp
Read, and your Lord is the most noble
He who taught with the pen
He taught man what he did not know
The Quran is a divine word of God and it is revealed to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him
And it is a final message coming from heavens so that we as a human being should receive the accurate message
That how we are going to live on this earth
And it is source of inspiration for me to seek strength from the creator and also to help the community to guide them in their daily life
For Muslims the language of the Quran is unparalleled because it is the eternal word of God
But many western scholars also recognize its special qualities
Here in my own University of Cambridge, Dr Clive Holes has made a detailed study of the Arabic of the Quran
Well Clive, you're a linguist and an Arabist. I wanted to know how would you place Arabic in its linguistic context?
Well Arabic is one of a group of languages which are normally called Semitic languages
I suppose the two most well known examples of Semitic languages apart from Arabic would be Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament
And Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke
What does Quran actually mean? I suppose the most accepted rendering into English would be recitation
The Quran was an oral performance, it was never a kind of legal tome which was revealed as a book
It was revealed over a period of 20 years, it was performed to people who would have been listening
And it bears all the hallmarks of an oral composition
It's got a very vocative second person kind of tone to it
But the fact that it was revealed over such a long period and the fact that the Muslim community changed over that period
Is reflected in different styles within the Quran
I think to put this into a more concrete kind of frame, I think perhaps if I read a couple of bits of early Meccansura
It'll give you some idea of exactly what the Arabic sounds like
And I can point to one or two of the features which I think make it poetic
إِذَا السَّمَاءُ انْفَطَرَتْ وَإِذَا الْكَوَاكِبُ انْتَثَرَتْ وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ فُجِّرَتْ وَإِذَا الْقُبُورُ بُعْثِرَتْ عَلِمَتْ نَفْسٌ مَا قَدَّمَتْ وَأَخَّرَتْ
Which translated is
When the heaven is cleft asunder, when the planets are dispersed, when the seas are poured forth and the sepulchres are overturned
A soul will know what it has sent before and what it left behind
Now it's obvious the first four verses here are exactly structurally parallel
And they all end in a verb which ends in at
إِذَا سَمَاءُ انْفَطَرَتْ وَإِذَا الْكَوَاكِبُ انْتَثَرَتْ وَإِذَّا الْبِحَارُ فُجِّرَتْ
And so on. All of the first four verses are exactly the same syntactic structure
That when the heaven is cleft asunder, when the planets are dispersed, when the seas are poured forth
And this creates a kind of a tension really in the listener
What actually is coming? These are all subordinate clauses as linguists say
What's actually, what is the main point?
And we're held in suspense until suddenly with a tremendous punch we get the fifth verse
عَلِمَتْ نَفْسٌ مَا قَدَّمَتْ وَأَخَّرَتْ
A soul shall know what it has sent before it and what left behind
In other words, on the day of judgment, which is what the first four verses are talking about
What will happen? Every person will know exactly what he's done and exactly what he hasn't done, what he's left undone
Soon after the death of the Prophet, the Muslim community found itself in real conflict within itself
And there were wars going on at the time
All these resulted in casualties among the Muslims themselves
Many of the Muslims fighting in these wars were the so-called hafaz
Those who memorized the Quran by heart to retain it for posterity
The real fear was that with their passing, the Muslim community may lose some of the divine revelations
Therefore they set about producing a written, documented copy of the revelation
And here we have, in front of us, for the first time perhaps
A folio which may well belong to one of these codices which were produced
It's a panem set, that's to say the earlier material writing on it was wiped clean
And the same folio was used for writing the Quranic text a second time
It may well be by the hand of the Chief Secretary of the Prophet who was entrusted of organizing and coordinating this important exercise
Namely Zayd Ben Thabit
This of course set in motion developments in calligraphy and reform of the script
As the Quranic text was the most paramount in the life of the Muslims, and still is
It compelled them to reform the script, it also compelled them to beautify it, and later illuminate it in golden colors
Which is the sacred art of Islam, which is till today at the center of all Islamic arts
The revelation of the Quran which has brought comfort and enlightenment to the generations of Islam set the Prophet himself on the lonely path of prophethood and ultimately of exile
The pagans of Makkah first ridiculed him, then persecuted him
In the end, he and his followers chose to leave their birthplace to seek freedom to practice their faith
This was the Hijra, the flight from Makkah in the Christian year 622, the moment from which the Muslim calendar begins
Hijra is a theme all too often repeated in Muslim history
In our own time, when we think of Hijra, we think of Afghanistan, of Bosnia, Bulgaria, Burma, of Kashmir, Kosovo, and as here, Kurdistan
A list like the number of refugees seems never ending
The Prophet came to the oasis of Yathrib where he was made welcome by friendly tribesmen
Here he built the first mosque, founded the first Muslim community, and in time, the first Islamic state
Yathrib became known as Madinat-nabi, the city of the Prophet, Madinah for short
Muslims always look to the earlier stage of the Prophet Muhammad's life and the Madinah community becomes a model for them
because it has been a state, society, culture, and community altogether
Muslims all over the world always look at how Prophet has really practiced the law of Islam in general terms
and have given us the guidance on how we are going to practice in our daily life
Madinah's state becomes a model for us and also becomes a source of applying our daily life into the practice
Quranic revelation continued to come down to the Prophet as he established in Madinah the first practical embodiment of God's ideal society
The power of that ideal was unstoppable. From small beginnings, the Muslim state led by the Prophet grew to encompass much of Arabia
The message was simple, one God, one book, one Prophet
After the Prophet died, his immediate successors quickly incorporated the whole of the peninsula, including the Holy Land
where even today the Jordanian camel corps serve under ruler and commander in chief, King Hussein, who is a direct descendant of the Prophet of Islam himself
Five years after the Prophet's death, Muslim armies took Jerusalem, the third city of Islam known in Arabic as Al-Quds, the Holy
It was a bloodless conquest. The city of King David and of King Solomon, the city of Jesus, had once been visited by the Prophet himself on a miraculous night journey from Mecca
Here he ascended to heaven from a rock on the site of the former temple where today this sacred building stands
Jerusalem had been the first direction of Muslim prayer
God wanted to give great importance to the city of Jerusalem, so he started with the first Qibla, or represented the first Qibla in prayer
to link what is between Mecca and the city of Jerusalem, and also to link between religions and to be tolerant of other religions
God's will led Muslims to start their prayer in the city of Jerusalem, and after Mecca was purified from the idols, they went to the Kaaba
And still the Islamic Empire grew. Soon Egypt and Iran were part of the Muslim world
The conquest of Iran was different from that of Jerusalem. Palestine was the imperial possession of a weakening power, Byzantium
Iran was an ancient and sophisticated civilization with its own monotheist religion, Zoroastrianism, imagined here by the last Shah in 1971
The fight was bitter, the conquest total. Iran's repressive feudal system was destroyed by the ideals of the Madinan state, simplicity, equality and justice for all
Even the most rugged Sasanian castles offered no protection against the power of such ideals
As the faith spread across Asia, new peoples were becoming part of the Muslim world, peoples whose traditions were far from the culture of the Middle East
Here, Muslim armies found ancient fortresses and temples built to serve very different gods
Here they heard age-old folk tales, myths and legends, whose roots were in Turkestan and the Mongolian steplands to the northeast
Here they discovered local saints and heroes, whose stories fitted only with difficulty into the Muslim vision of the world
But for the future of Islam, the Central Asian lands were among the Arabs' most significant conquests
For they quickly became a haven for artists and architects, historians and poets, philosophers and theologians, as the great cultural centers of Medina, Damascus and Baghdad declined
Just outside the Central Asian city of Bukhara, we have come to the shrine of Bahuddin Naqshband, one of the greatest saints of Islam, whose followers number many millions all over the world
Bahuddin was a Sufi, a teacher of the religious discipline which emphasizes universality and mysticism, personal awareness of God
Of course, for most ordinary simple Muslims, the actual practices of the Sufi masters may be too difficult to emulate
For them, it is comfort and blessing enough to drink from the well he himself filled with holy water from far distant Makkah and to be in the presence of his grave
For me personally, Bahuddin's philosophy of tolerance and compassion, his central idea of Sulaikul, peace with all, have been an important support in difficult times
Sufi doctrines are shared by all sects in Islam. Sufis claim the Prophet as the first of their number. Saints like Bahuddin Naqshband are honored by all Muslims
In fact, though disputes between Muslims are far from unknown, the arguments have almost always been about temporal, not spiritual matters
As soon as the Prophet died, for example, there has been a rebellion against the new small administration put in Medina
The first Caliph had to fight against this rebellion of Bedouins who wanted to reject this new system of controlling the society and this new hierarchy brought by the new religion
So this will continue and there has been a lot of struggles, of wars among the first Muslims and there is this very big quarrel which is called in Arabic the fitna al-kubra, the biggest quarrel among the first community which took place in the time of Ali
Ali was the Prophet's son-in-law and father of the Prophet's grandchildren. To the party of Ali, the Shia, he was the Prophet's rightful successor
Uncompromisingly idealistic, he was passed over three times in the struggle for the succession. Finally he became the Caliph but was assassinated
One son, Hassan, was poisoned. His younger son, Hussein, was trapped by the usurping Caliph's army outside what is now the sacred city of Karbala
It was a tragedy for all Islam and is reenacted every year in towns and villages all over the Shia world, as here in Iran
10 days of negotiation failed to persuade Hussein to give up his claim to the Caliphate. He faced an army of 4000. He had with him only 72 retainers and his family. This man plays Hussein's son, Ali Akbar
The Caliph's general ordered him to give in, to no avail
Battle was joined. One by one, the members of Hussein's party were cut off from the Caliphate
The Caliphate was cut down
Hussein's lament for his son, knowing his own life will be forfeit next. Even the wild beasts came out of the forest in Hussein's support
This is the central passion of Shia Islam. The annual confirmation that a Muslim's duty is to support the right and the true, at no matter what cost, even of life itself
For the audience, that monstrous injustice, the martyrdom of the Prophet's grandson and rightful successor, is an everlasting tragedy
Hussein washed his hands in martyr's blood and prepared to die, calling on God to witness the crime and to have mercy on his soul
The story of the events at Karbala and what they mean to ordinary Shias is similar to the story of the events in Karbala
It is the central to that understanding
Hussein in方,E Mes Wei dues G شوه جن great
It is the living memory of Karbala which explains why these volunteers running to join up in
the Iran-Iraq war wear headbands on which are written the names of Ali, Hassan, Hussain
and Karbala. It explains why the million casualties in each of the seven years of that terrible
war saw themselves and are seen by all Iranians as martyrs in the eternal battle of right
against wrong, of good against evil, God against the devil.
It's not a war with countries, it's a war with religion and as I didn't feel that I
came to Iran to fight for Iran, I came to here to fight for Islam. That's why so many
people go to fight in this war. Sometimes you're kind of scared of like when an artillery
bomb falls in front of you, sometimes it's Shant Alawi.
And for the tragic many who fell in the appalling slaughter, their names are forever joined
in mourning with that of Hussain martyred at Karbala.
One should not mistake differences in emphasis between the Shia and the mainstream Sunni
Islamic traditions for differences of belief. On the Prophet's birthday in Cairo, once
a Shia capital and now inhabited mostly by Sunnis, both pray in this mosque side by side.
That unity and sense of community, the Ummah, is an important source of support and comfort
for Muslims as we face the many issues and challenges of living Islam today.
It is some of those issues, challenges and opportunities which I shall be looking at
and trying to address this day.
You