الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي أنزل القرآن، وأرسل محمدًا رحمةً للعالمين، نحمده ونستعينه ونستغفره، ونؤمن به ونتوكل عليه، ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهده الله فلا مضل له، ومن يضلل فلا هادي له، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك وله الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير، ونشهد أن سيدنا ومولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، أرسله بشيرًا ونذيرًا بين يدي الساعة، من يطع الله ورسوله فقد اهتدى، ومن يعصهما فإنه قد ضل، وإنه لا يضر إلا نفسه ولا يضر الله شيئًا. أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم، ومن يطع الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما.
قال الله تعالى في كتابه الكريم: كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ
“This is a Book We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], so that you may bring mankind out of darkness into light by permission of their Lord—to the path of the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy.” (14:1)
The state of the world immediately before the rise of Islam was plagued by moral and social decay and economic or material slavery in various civilizations surrounding the Arabian Peninsula. Persia and Byzantium, the two superpowers of the time, were both deeply entrenched in a self-destructive spiral, evident in their religious and social practices.
In Persia, Zoroastrianism, which was the state religion, included practices such as incestuous unions, with Yazdajird II reportedly marrying his own daughter. This was a period where religious and philosophical conflicts abounded, and sects such as Mazdaism emerged, promoting the sharing of women and wealth as common property among groups of men. This state-sponsored perversion became so bad that parents couldn’t identify their own children.
The Eastern Roman Empire also known as Byzantium, which was dominated by the colonialist spirit, was embroiled in a religious dispute with the Christians of Syria and Egypt (over the divine and human qualities of Jesus A.S.), and relied on its military power and imperialistic designs in order to develop and manipulate Christianity for its own base purposes. However, Byzantium was no less decadent than the state of Persia, immorality, degradation and of course economic injustice due to excessive tributes and taxes was the order of the day.
Greece, though once the cradle of philosophy and civilization, had by this time descended into obsessions with myths and theological superstitions that offered little of value to the real world.
Meanwhile, India was divided into petty states, and was experiencing its most decadent period religiously, morally, and socially. Ever increasing gods, promiscuity at every level, giving their widows the choice between slavery or self-immolation (burning themselves on the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands) and of course the caste system that legally made a segment of society lower than animals and more degraded than a dog and placed another segment above the law and man himself.
The Jews, scattered and without a homeland, were either tolerated or persecuted depending on the circumstances. They were notorious all over the world for their excessive pride of blood and greed. Meek and submissive in distress, they were tyrannical and mean when they had the upper hand. Hypocrisy, deceit, treachery, selfishness, cruelty and of course usury had become the normal traits of their nature. Christianity, outside the influence of Pope Gregory, was splintered into various factions, each interpreting its creed in increasingly complex and often violent ways.
In the Far East, the absolute monarchy, they believed that the emperor was the offspring of the male sky and the female earth unlike the romans who believed that they were the sovereign race and that all other races were created to be subservient to them.
China, as usual, was embroiled in internal conflicts. The Sui Dynasty had just been replaced by the Tang, which would rule for three centuries. Japan, under its first Empress, was oscillating between perverted Buddhism and barbaric paganism.
And finally, the nations of north-western Europe – broken and bloody. Muslim Spain had not yet appeared on the stage of history to show them light. From the 5th to the 10th century, Europe was in darkness and England was divided into seven warring kingdoms
The populations of the world were split into two sections. One section comprised the rich and the privileged – princes, noblemen, wealthy landlords and merchants. They enjoyed an abundance of wealth and even adorned the shoes of their horses with jewels and hung brocade and silk on their walls. The other section comprised the common people – artisans, peasants, labourers and small traders. For them life was an unending series of hardships. Caught in an ever- tightening trap of taxes, tolls and duties, they lived in abject poverty. To make their lives still more wretched, they foolishly yielded to the temptation of imitating the customs and habits of those occupying the higher rungs of the social ladder. The result was lives full of bitterness and minds full of worry and confusion.
In analysing these civilizations, it becomes clear that the common denominator which caused these various nations to fall into such disintegration, turmoil, and misery was a civilization and culture founded upon material values alone, without there being any ideal to guide it along a straight, sound path. After all, civilization with all its varied components and expressions is nothing more than a means and a cause. A civilization based solely on materialism and sensualism is doomed to collapse under its own weight, as evidenced by the fall of the Roman Empire.
Now as for the Arabian Peninsula, it was surrounded by a number of other nations. It stood exactly midway between two superpowers: the materialistic civilization of the West, and the utopian spiritual civilizations of the Far East. While for the most part isolated from these civilizations, was in a state of “lostness” as described in the Qur’an:
ۖ وَٱذْكُرُوهُ كَمَا هَدَىٰكُمْ وَإِن كُنتُم مِّن قَبْلِهِۦ لَمِنَ ٱلضَّآلِّينَ
“…remember Him as He has guided you, for indeed, you were before that among those lost” (2:198). This state of “lostness” among the Arabs, when compared to the surrounding nations at that time, is more of a defence than a criticism. The other nations, despite their many moral deviations, were looking for guidance in the lights of advanced civilization and culture. As a result, they were fully aware of their own corruption, yet they continued to indulge in it knowingly. Whereas the Arabs were victims of their own ignorance. Living in the darkness of a simple, untarnished ignorance, they were prone to going astray from such human values; hence, one would find them killing their children in pursuit of honour and chastity, squandering needed wealth in pursuit of generosity, and stirring up armed conflicts amongst themselves in a demonstration of pride and courage.
Now that we have a clearer understanding of the darkness that engulfed humanity during that time and the urgent need for Islam, the question arises: Why was the Arabian Peninsula chosen as the birthplace of Islam?
أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم
الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، أرسله بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة اللهم صلِّ وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين، ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته
The divine wisdom in choosing the Arabian Peninsula as the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the Arabs as the first carriers of Islam is profound and multifaceted. Allah, in His infinite wisdom, selected the Ka’bah—the first house of worship established by Ibrahim (AS)—as the birthplace of Islam and the final Messenger ﷺ, thereby linking our mission directly to the mission of Ibrahim. The strategic location of the Arabian Peninsula, at the crossroads of major civilizations, made it an ideal centre for the rapid spread of Islam to surrounding nations. Additionally, Allah chose Arabic, a language unparalleled in its depth and precision, as the medium for His final revelation, ensuring that the Qur’an’s message would be conveyed with unmatched clarity.
This choice, as some might have you believe, was not based on the simplicity or relative lack of corruption among the Arabs compared to other civilizations. Instead, it emphasises that Allah’s will is beyond human limitations of difficulty or ease; Allah could have chosen any place and any people for His message, and it would have succeeded by His command. Yet, His wisdom required that the Prophet ﷺ be unlettered, so that no one could doubt the divine origin of his message. The environment into which he was sent, likewise unlettered and untouched by the complexities of neighbouring civilizations, served to make the miracle of Islam’s rise all the more evident. Had the message arisen in a highly civilized and philosophically advanced nation like Persia, Greece, or Byzantium, skeptics might have attributed Islam’s success to cultural evolution rather than divine intervention.
Allah makes this wisdom clear in the Qur’an:
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى بَعَثَ فِى ٱلْأُمِّيِّـۧنَ رَسُولًۭا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ لَفِى ضَلَـٰلٍۢ مُّبِينٍۢ
“It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves, reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom, although they were before in clear state of lostness” (62:2). The unlettered nature of the Prophet ﷺ and his people highlighted the miraculous nature of the revelation and removed any doubt that this was a divine message, not a product of human learning or culture.
It was not the Muslims that made Islam great; it was Islam that made the Muslims great.
Alghumdulilah, We praise and thank Allah, for blessing us with the gift of Islam and for His favour upon us with our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, an unlettered Prophet whom He sent with the truth as a Messenger to all of humanity. We ask, our Most Merciful Lord, to make our hearts firm upon His wisdom, to keep us steadfast in His obedience, and to help us convey His message just as His beloved prophet Muhammad ﷺ did.
إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً.
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن أم المومنين عائشة التي أمرنا الله في سورة النور أن ندافع عنها، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شُيُوخِنَا، وَعَلَى رئيسنا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ،. ربنا آتنا في الدنيا حسنة وفي الآخرة حسنة وقنا عذاب النار.
إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.