Ali Zohery, Ph.D.
Modesty was of equal value to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. Modesty, according to him was capital in getting to Paradise . To be modest with everyone was nearness to Allah.
About his teachings on modesty the Prophet said: “Shall I tell you about the inhabitants of Paradise ? They are all modest persons.” “Shall I tell you about the inhabitants of Hell? They are all ignoble, rude and proud ones” (Bukhari, 2671). In essence, they were to choose between hell and paradise when deciding to be modest or not to be modest. This statement aforementioned was not in any way intended to threaten his followers. Rather, and, more importantly, it was softly spoken so that it can keep echoing in their minds about why he is insisting about being modest while on earth. The retribution after death may be very frightful if they choose not to be modest while still living.
To show that the Prophet was not only limiting in his message about modesty to followers of Islam, he made this important statement: “Every religion has a character and the character of Islam is modesty” (Muwatta, 47.2.9). In essence, he was rallying support as well for more following in Islam even though other religions equally have important characters.
The Prophet always preferred to follow the middle course between two extremes. Since modesty and kindness are related to each other in treating others, Prophet Muhammad also laid emphasis on kindness as an important element of the spirit.
The kind of modesty that Prophet Muhammad possessed was exemplary. According to Rahman, (1992), Prophet Muhammad was so modest to the extent that people will literally seek him in a crowd. He preferred to sandwiched himself between the people preferring not to stand out to be noticed by everyone. This sometime created problems to those who would come to a place purposely to seek him out and ask questions or needing help. This is how he reacted to a man looking for him:
I went with a deputation of the Banu Amir to Allah’s Messenger and we said: “You are our Lord” to which he replied: “ The Lord is Allah”. Then we said ‘ And then one of us most endowed with excellence and superiority’. To which he replied: ‘Say what you have to say, or part of what you have to say, and do not let the devil make you his agents”. ( Ahmad and Abu Dawud in Rahman, 1992, p.136)
This is clear demonstration of modest behavior. It is true that Prophet Muhammad is the Lord, the excellent and superior Messenger from Allah but he does wish to be associated as such. He thinks that being associated with such high sounding characteristics does not make one modestly appreciated. Rather associating with those superlatives only signal pride and arrogance for which he did not want to be associated with. Being called superior is next to being Allah whereas he knew that he was not Allah. He was just his Messenger who had to employ all modest tactics to get his message across to the people he loved so dearly. Today we have leaders who have been called the wisest human being and the most magnificent and they have accepted those traits because if we do not call them that then we will not be guaranteed our own slice of the national cake when they accede to power. There are also several verses in the Qu’ran that teach people how to be modest:
“ And the servants of (Allah) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility and modesty, and when ignorant address them, they say peace”.(25:63)
“ Seek ( Allah’s) Help with prayer and perseverance: it is indeed hard except to those who bring lowly spirit.” ( 2: 45)
“ Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty…and say to the believing woman that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty” ( 24: 30-31)
The idea of lowering ones gaze is the next attempt at being modest and humble before everybody. If you are not modest before everybody then it will be difficult for you to be modest before Allah.
Another area where human being had to show modesty was in terms of knowledge display. It is becoming customary for most people to flounder about the amount of knowledge that they have accumulated and they boast about the total number of degrees that they have earned. Prophet Muhammad was not the type to preach about pride and arrogance when it came to knowledge. This is what Chaudhri ( 1999) says about Prophet Muhammad notion of us being true to ourselves especially with respect to teachers and teaching:
He should not only be true to himself but true to his pupils also. In the opinion of the Prophet, he cannot lay claim to the proud title of a scholar if he is not true to himself. “ A person hardly deserves the name of a scholar if he does not fashion his life activities according to his scholarship” ( Chaudhri, 1999, p. 260)
To be true to oneself means that one has to exercise modesty in judgment, calmness of spirit and deep reflection before any given utterance that would portray one as a modest scholar because the boundaries of knowledge are really unfathomable. Only Allah knows the end of knowledge. We are just agents, students all the time trying to learn about the wonders of the world. And the fact that we hardly come close to the truth about the mystery of this life and the world is indicative of the fact that we have to be modest when displaying any knowledge that we have acquired. We can be challenged by another scholar more eminent than us in our own field.
Prophet Muhammad Leadership
