Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)
The moral and intellectual greatness
of the message brought by the final Prophet Muhammad,
peace and blessings be upon him, testifies to its own truth.
How is that possible?
(dramatic music)
One way to look at it is from the lens of Plato,
who famously argued
in his triad of transcendental values that truth, beauty,
and goodness or justice are actually inseparable.
In that sense, appreciating the inherent beauty
and goodness found in the Islamic lifestyle
not only attracts us to its message
but it serves as a testament to the legitimacy
of the final prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
that he was in fact, in truth a messenger of the divine.
A second way that the message
vouches for the prophethood of Muhammad,
peace and blessings be upon him,
is the fact that it aligns so well
with the message of other previous prophets
on fundamental creedal points.
Interestingly in the Bible, for instance,
the book of Deuteronomy argues that
a false prophet is revealed by his teachings.
And so if he were to call you to evil teachings
such as worshiping other gods then he's a false prophet
even if he were able to perform great feats
such as predicting the future, the book says,
but does he not call to goodness?
Without that he is not a true prophet.
A third way is to marvel at the sheer volume
of what's been documented of Muhammad's teachings
despite his brief 23 year ministry
not being expected to offer all of this.
The Quran, the scripture he brought from God,
and the Sunna, his lived and spoken example,
can never be compared for instance with the Bible,
because the latter is an aggregated historical canon
that developing it spanned centuries.
But with the Prophet Muhammad,
peace and blessings be upon him, his brief lifetime,
his brief ministry offered so much depth,
so much substance on such a wide breadth,
wide scope of teachings.
It defined the person's relationship with their maker,
people's relationships with each other,
even codified our relationships with animals
and even inanimate objects,
providing all of this timeless wisdom on the individuals
and the society's wellbeing at large seemingly overnight.
And from there, a person may be drawn to a fourth merit
of the message of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him,
its internal consistency.
You see a system and a message that informs theology,
spiritual enlightenment, personal conduct,
interpersonal behavior, civil laws, foreign policies,
with all of these intricacies should not be expected
yet the harmoniousness internally of this entire message
is something that has caused many people to believe
that is just beyond human sophistication.
In other words, this is a balancing act
that is more indicative of God's wisdom
than any human construction.
Fifth and finally, we can appreciate the message
after its comprehensiveness through its profundity
and its resilience, its ability to survive the test of time
and the test of criticism in a way that other doctrines,
other systems, other messages simply could not.
In our age of technology
with the circulation of ideas through globalization,
through the ability to fact check, people feel disillusioned
by the teachings of Christianity
and leave it for that reason more and more and more,
but this same is not true with Islam,
and not only do people leave Islam
in smaller numbers at slower speeds
but we have on the opposite ends, the rapid growth of Islam
despite its many detractors due to the veracity
of the message brought by Muhammad,
peace and blessings be upon him,
and how it can be appreciated even in our age
in a way that other messages and systems cannot.
No society let alone an individual
has ever been able to devise a comparable system
that offers such equilibrium
and such holistic wellbeing to people of all walks of life.
Captioning provided by MUHSEN (www.muhsen.org)