The Way of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ): Lessons on Peace, Mercy, and Generosity

9/4/2025

By: Ubaydullah Evans

ALIM Resident Scholar

I have strong conviction about the religion of Islam. And precisely for that reason, the great diversity of religious expression among the human family is a source of inspiration for me. Consider the myriad systems of belief—theistic and non-theistic, celestial and terrestrial—human beings have engaged in our quest for meaning. All of them suggest a uniquely conscious creature, imbued with a soul and unsparing curiosity. In the Qur’an, we recite:

{“And they ask you [O Prophet], about the soul. Say, ‘The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And humankind has been given but little knowledge.’”}[17:85].

Concerning the relationship between Islamic teachings and other religious traditions, one Islamic scholar put it succinctly, “Everything the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said was true. However, he (ﷺ) didn’t say everything that is true.”

In that connection, I have always been deeply inspired by the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, the Italian mystic, poet, and Catholic friar:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
to be loved as to love
for it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

I encounter this prayer as a follower of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and find within it, with qualifications, of course, expressions of some of his most inspiring teachings.

“Lord make me an instrument of Your Peace.” Islam is not a religion of unqualified pacifism but a religion of peace. Islamic teaching embraces flexibility with regard to warfare in connection with statecraft and self-defense. However, this should not be equated with an ethos that sacralizes war or sanctifies violence.

The highest aim of our Prophet (ﷺ) was peace. Even in his martial engagement, the goal was not internecine war but rather the eradication of oppression and the establishment of peace. Upon arriving at Madinah, after his flight from Makkah, “Spread peace!” was the first public declaration of the Prophet (ﷺ). “O Allah, You are the Peace. And peace emanates from You. And unto You returns peace. Imbue our living with peace. And enter us into Your Paradise, the abode of peace…” the Prophet would offer at the conclusion of each prayer.

Further elaborating on the opening of the Prayer of St. Francis, the Prophet (ﷺ) did not promote an understanding of peace that was simply the passive outcome of not harming anyone. On the contrary, he taught that peace resulted from actively cultivating harmony between you and others. Even if those others don’t share your commitment to peace. In an authentic Prophetic tradition, we find the Prophet (ﷺ) being questioned about “birr” or righteousness. He responded, “Righteousness is to give to those who withhold from you; to reconcile with those who cut you off; and to pardon those who wrong you.”

“Where there is hatred let me sow love. Injury/pardon. Doubt/faith. Despair/hope. Darkness/light. Sadness/joy.” I listed this part of the Prayer of St. Francis in this manner intentionally. Separating these words with a simple slash allows us to see more clearly the dichotomy between them. Sowing love is difficult. However, sowing love where there is hatred is Prophetic.

In the Qur’an, we recite, {“We have sent you ‘O Prophet’ only as a mercy for the whole world.”} [21:107]. If the Prophet had only spent his ministry as an itinerant preacher, giving glad tidings to the faithful and caring for the less fortunate this would’ve been a tremendous expression of Prophetic love and mercy. Nonetheless, to perform the aforementioned and add to them disrupting an immoral status quo, challenging corrupt power brokers, earning the contempt of the wicked, and establishing justice, all while never swerving from your commitment to mercy is a higher station.

The Prophet (ﷺ) fought against oppression—risking life and limb to give victory to the Truth—but he never succumbed to the tendency to become a reflection of his adversaries. Their fight was for political power and hatred. His was a higher calling (May God bless him and grant him peace).

Thus revelation tells us, {“Now perhaps you ‘O Prophet’ will grieve yourself to death over their denial, if they continue to disbelieve in this message.”} [18:6]. One does not fret over the salvation of an enemy he hates. We also find in that connection, {“Good and evil cannot be equal. Respond to evil with what is best, then the one you are in a feud with will be like a close friend.”} [41:34].

In fact, if we look at hatred, injury, doubt, despair, darkness, and sadness, we see a profound correlation. With the exception of sadness, which in some cases the Prophet (ﷺ) embraced as an inevitability of the human condition, those states represent arrows in the quiver of Satan. He uses them to demoralize people.

Observation, however, reveals that Satan only needs to directly influence a few people by way of these states. Those people, in turn, are able to generate a centripetal force of evil that otherwise good people are unwittingly pulled into. Before many of us realize it, we have forsaken our commitment to being instruments of God’s peace by responding to harm we have been caused. So the Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Don’t cause harm and don’t reciprocate harm.”

Seemingly confident and intelligent, cynical thinkers present macro-readings of human history that make our existence an elaborate dance to nowhere. Faced with such exuberant hubris, the believer feels provincial and gullible and begins to doubt her faith. So the Prophet (ﷺ) said, “The believer is ghirrun (trustful) and kareemun (high-minded). And the disbeliever is khabbun (cunning) and la’eem (ignoble).

These examples, which are captured so beautifully in the prayer of Francis of Assisi, are places in which the believer must create his own momentum. To the extent that he is rooted in his own God-pleasing sense of becoming, he can prevail over evil and even pull IT into his centripetal force of good. Hence, the Prophet (ﷺ) informed us that the devil who accompanied him submitted and only encouraged him to do good.

Finally, the Prayer of St. Francis closes with the words, “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

This is a poignant distillation of the Way of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). Everything mentioned in this concluding portion of the prayer is about generosity of spirit. The Prophet gave as indiscriminately as the free-flowing wind. Not simply with his money but also with his attention, {“Some of them abuse the Prophet saying, ‘He is an ear…’”} [9:61]. So attentive to the needs of people was the Prophet that he was mocked by his enemies.

He was similarly generous with his concern, {“...He is concerned by your suffering, anxious for your well-being, and gracious and merciful to the believers.”} [9:128].

A culture such as ours, that prioritizes “self-care,” begs the question: He was listening to others but who was listening to him? He was consoling others but who consoled him? He understood and accepted the shortcomings of others but to whom did he turn when exhausted or overwhelmed by responsibility? Allah!

“For it is in giving that we receive.” When we allow our spirits to be generous, God always outdoes us in generosity. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “God remains in support of the one who belongs to Him as long as that one is supporting others.”

“Have mercy on those on Earth and the One over the Celestial Realm will have mercy on you” was his fundamental teaching. “In pardoning we are pardoned.” Oh Allah have mercy on our Prophet among the first and among the last and within the highest assembly until the Day of Resurrection. Amin.

About The author

Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans is ALIM’s first Scholar-in-Residence. He converted to Islam while in high school. Upon conversion, Ustadh Ubaydullah began studying some of the foundational books of Islam under the private tutelage of local scholars while simultaneously pursuing a degree in journalism from Columbia. Since then, he has studied at Chicagoland’s Institute of Islamic Education (IIE), in Tarim, Yemen, and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he is the first African-American to graduate from its Shari’a program. Ustadh Ubaydullah also instructs with the Ta’leef Collective and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) at times. As the ALIM Scholar-in-Residence, Ustadh Ubaydullah is a core instructor at the ALIM Summer Program. He teaches History of Islamic Law, Shama'il, and Aphorisims of Ibn Ata'illah along with other courses.

0 Comments

Blog