No religion is just divinity and spirituality or rites and rituals. The great celebrities of history whom we see as founders of various faith traditions were not just prophets or avatars, messengers or incarnations of God; they were indeed great social reformers of their times. They did not teach only how to worship God, but also how people should conduct their lives in a way that is conducive to human happiness in general and peace in society. The rules of prayers and fasting, religious service and pilgrimage, puja and namaz, prarthna and dua — generally believed to be their main teachings — are not an end in themselves but means to infuse discipline in a person’s life.

What has been said above is true of all religions and their founders; and surely no less of Islam and its Prophet. It is unfortunate that the average Muslims pays so much attention to Islam’s reported teachings on worship and spirituality that it eclipses their noble faith’s revolutionary rules of guidance for temporal aspects of life. A little more, if not the same, attention paid to the latter would bring about a metamorphosis in the world’s perception of Islam, which is awfully misunderstood today.

The Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi, is celebrated in the subcontinent with great fanfare every year on the 12th day of Muslim calendar’s third month. Milad (birthday) and Seerat (life story) functions are held everywhere, at which speeches are made on the life and times of the Prophet. It’s a pity that on such occasions people take solace in supernatural beliefs about the great Prophet — how he had split the moon into two pieces, how djinns used to be in attendance at his sermons, and so on. All this about a great humanist who never claimed to be a superhuman and was never tired of pronouncing Innama ana basharun (verily I am a human being).

... contd.