ON THE UNIVERSAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE MERCY OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD[1]

   Assoc. Prof. Dr. Burhanettin TATAR

 Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to present, first, my sincere greetings to you all…
We find a very interesting verse in the Koran as follows:

"We only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds." (21:107).

Obviously, this Koranic verse attracts our attention first to the essence of the prophecy of Muhammad. The essence of the prophecy of Muhammad discloses itself not only in his receiving a divine revelation (i.e., Koran), but also in his presence in this world as a living symbol of mercy. Said more openly, this verse implies that the meaning of Koran is grasped not merely in its literal or linguistic expressions, but mostly in the actual mercy of Prophet Muhammad. Hence mercy is the beginning of penetrating into the living meaning of Koran.

To realize the basic point of this last sentence, let me remind you a narrative (hadith): Prophet was once hugging his beloved grandsons, Hasan and Hussayn, when Aqra ibn Habis told him: ‘I have got ten children. So far, I haven’t kissed any of them.’

God’s Messenger responded:

The one with no pity for others is not pitied.

In another version, he said:

What can I do for you if God has removed from you the feeling of compassion?

This narrative makes the following point clear for us: Basic humanly-understandingly relation between us takes place if we are gifted with the sense of love, mercy, compassion, and pity for each other. Namely, the basic meaning of our relation with a human being discloses itself if we are awarded already with a basic human sensitivity. In the similar manner, the basic meaning of our relation with Koran discloses itself if we have already a sense of love, mercy, compassion, and pity for each other.

We find another interesting Koranic verse which encourages us to reflect on this significant point over and over:

It was by the mercy of God that you were gentle to them; if you had been harsh and hard of heart, they would have dispersed from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult with them in the affair. And when you are resolved, then put your trust in God; surely God loves those who put their trust (in Him). (Al ‘Imran, 3.159)

Now we come to realize that the real sense and message of the Koran reveals itself basically within gentle, passionate and sensitive relations between human beings. In other words, the universal claim of the Koran is not something to be found in academic, religious, philosophical or metaphysical studies. Rather universality of Koranic claim is to be experienced merely within loving and merciful human relations.

At this moment, I am trying to attract your attentions to historical characteristics of our times: mostly after Muslim world has sensed a psychology of defeat regarding European world, and hoped to find a way to secure itself from this defeat, its perspective toward sacred texts, like Koran and hadith, underwent a great change. The most significant aspect of this change is that Muslim people started to regard Koran at the level of conceptions. Namely, language of Koran became the language of concepts, like scientific, social, psychological, historical, or metaphysical concepts. Obviously this change can be characterized properly as the process of “objectification”. Koran became the object for scientific or popular studies so much so that the effective living power of Koranic words were flattened in the sense that as if Koranic words are the same structure and nature with scientific objects.

We can call this process of objectification as “de-humanization of Koranic language”. I employ the expression of “de-humanization” in the sense that Koranic language started to lose its humanly-understandingly characters, which is emphasized by the verses above quoted: "We only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds." (21:107). It was by the mercy of God that you were gentle to them; if you had been harsh and hard of heart, they would have dispersed from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult with them in the affair. And when you are resolved, then put your trust in God; surely God loves those who put their trust (in Him). (Al ‘Imran, 3.159)

Apparently these verses disclose a world of meaning which allows us to reflect our different condition today: While, at the time of Prophet Muhammad, the language of Koran was revealing its essence only in gentle, passionate, and sensitive humanly relations, that is, it was the language of mercy which is actualized only within merciful and passionate relations between human beings, now it turned out to be a language of concepts. It became a language of reason, which is deprived of basic human values.

Now this perspective to Koran as the language of concepts is called “formal Islam” or “textual Islam”. As commonly known in Islamic world, for last two centuries, the expression “defense of Islam” has meant “defense of Islam as the language of concepts, i.e., reason”. As if Islam were victorious in its history by speaking the language of concepts! I believe, there is an apparent contrast or opposition between our conceptual language and above-quoted Koranic verse "We only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds." (21:107).

This verse clearly refers to the fact that universality of Islamic (or Koranic claim) is not reflected at the level of concepts or sciences, but rather at the deeper level of basic human relations. In other words, truth of Islam and Koran shows itself not within the language of reason, which is devoid of essential human values, but within the language of values which guide human reason! That is to say, the language of Koran cannot be objectified merely within concepts as the objects of scientific investigations. Accordingly, the proper meaning of “defense of Islam” is not to be apprehended by employing Koranic verses as if they refer to scientific discoveries. Employing Koranic verses as if they refer to scientific discoveries is nothing but a form of reduction of Koranic language to the language of concepts.

Doubtless Koran attracts our attentions to different aspects of our universe. However, truth of this Koranic reference to different parts of universe lies merely in its disclosing whole universe as the result of divine power and mercy. In other words, Koran accepts the natural facts in this universe as the signs of divine mercy. In this context, prophecy of Muhammad is the perfection and completion of this divine mercy. The well-known saying of Prophet Muhammad “I was sent in order to complete and perfect beauty of good morality” seems to reveal a significant aspect of divine mercy.

When we investigate the merciful characteristics of the life of Prophet Muhammad, we can conclude rapidly that the verse “We only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds." (21:107) indicates basically a world of morality opened up and experienced by Prophet Muhammad. In other words, while the creation of whole universe is the outward form of divine mercy, prophecy of Muhammad is the completion of this creation so as to yield beauty of the world of good morality. Hence universality of prophetic mercy is nothing but the universality of the beauty of good morality advocated by Prophet Muhammad himself.

Anecdotes or historical accounts of the life of Prophet clearly evidence that his merciful, passionate, lovingly relation with his people, enemies, children, and even animals are the signs of his powerful sense of morality. That is to say, the verse “We only sent you as a mercy to all the worlds." (21:107) reflects essentially his moral relation with his environment, people, and animals. Only in this moral relation, Koranic language show itself as the language of mercy and Prophet Muhammad as a mercy to all the worlds.

Said openly, this Koranic verse reveals before us a very significant point as follows: Prophet Muhammad was not merely sent as a mercy to the worlds which already exist around us; rather prophetic mercy is something to reveal or disclose before us “new worlds” which never existed before. This is because the proper meaning of mercy lies in the fact that when we are merciful, we create a new condition where we can live together in peace and happiness. Mercy is the transformation of already existed situation into a better one. Mercy is not merely forgiving and creating a distance between our opponents and ourselves.

Rather mercy is the creation of a new condition where we can have better relation and understand each other in a new way. From this perspective, Prophet Muhammad appears in our eyes not merely the sign of divine mercy in this universe, but also a prophet who transformed human world for our living in a better condition and our understanding each other in a new way. Accordingly prophetic mercy is not something past in the history; rather it will reveal itself as long as we understand Koran as the language of mercy and Prophet Muhammad as a man opened up a new moral world before us. This is another way of saying that prophetic mercy is the most basic condition for our living in a proper humanly world where Koranic and prophetic message reveal their essential meanings.