Today is Eid-e-Milad. This is both the birth as well as death anniversary of Prophet Muhammad. It is however celebrated mostly as His birth anniversary. The day is also known as Milad-un-Nabi or, more popularly, as Barah Wafat.

“Whenever gentleness is in anything, it beautifies it; when it is stripped from anything, it makes it ugly.” If I could use one word to describe Muhammad, it would be gentle; if I could describe him in any way, it would be with gentleness. One cannot pick up a startling red rose amongst a garden of weeds, smell its lingering fragrance, and declare it contemptible. It is against the nature of a rose to be held in contempt and it is against the nature of the onlooker to perceive it as contemptible when surrounded by weeds. Does it surprise you that Muhammad (peace be upon him) should be so? After all, the media and the voices that can be heard above all other voices state the opposite. A moment of reflection: why do I write “peace be upon him” after the mention of his name? If you’ve ever loved anyone-- been a parent or a lover-- and seen them leave you to step into the world or even out of it, your heart skips a beat and you pray that they’ll always be protected. You love them so much that only prayers can come out, even if you didn’t believe in God. Every Muslim, every time the Prophet’s name is mentioned, says “peace be upon him” for our love is so deep that, through the ages, we are still sending prayers for him.

Why all this love for one man? What did he do that was so worthy of enchanting so many? Something strange about humans: they love beauty whenever they see it; were they to reach the lowest levels of debauchery and disillusion, the appearance of beauty would still arrest their footsteps. We have always been very sensitive to it. I am not speaking of the beauty of physical appearance—there is no doubt of that beauty, but it is only external. I am speaking of beauty both internal and external and internal beauty captivates much more than the external. Internal beauty shines with truth, with wisdom, with trust, with faith and caring for those who are not a part of you; it shines with love for all creation because they came from the love of the Creator. That was the internal beauty of Muhammad.

Do you want to see him in action? Imagine that you, out of your struggle and hardship, build your first house or church or synagogue; you furnish it and it is the pride of your heart. Imagine a man comes in and vandalises it before your eyes. What would you do? Gut reaction? Does the image of yelling come to mind? Maybe some police streaming in? One day the Prophet was sitting with some of his companions in his Masjid (mosque), built by their own hands. A man walked in and began to urinate in the corner of the Masjid. The Companions jumped up to restrain him, yelling “Stop, stop!” But the Prophet stopped them instead and said not to interrupt the man. Afterwards, the Prophet spoke with the man and with gentleness and affection told him that it was a place of worship and should be kept clean. He could have yelled at him, embarrassed him, or even scandalized him behind his back, but that was not his way. He believed in preserving human dignity and bringing the best out in every person, not the worst.

When the Prophet began to preach about Islam in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, he was persecuted along with his few converts. They migrated to another city, Medina, for religious freedom. His daughter, Zainab, who was pregnant also wished to undertake the journey. On her travel through the desert, a man from the Mecca side injured her with a spear, causing her to fall from her camel and abort her baby. She died as a result of the injury and it was a deep pain to the Prophet’s heart. He was the champion for women at the time when women had little or no rights. He was the champion for non-violence when the world was steeped in violence. To have his own daughter killed along with his unborn grandchild was his silent pain. The Prophet had gained power—but, something rare in this world, he never abused it. He never used to take revenge, especially when it was so personal. That very same man came one day and converted to Islam, the real Islam which has only peace written on it, and the Prophet never rebuked him and pardoned him instead. It was not to say he did not stand for justice; he was staunch in justice, especially for the common man. But when he saw the sincere conversion of the man to a path of peace, he did what only he could do, he forgave him. One sees things by their opposites. If the American President’s daughter was killed in such a brutal way and the murderer appeared, reflect on the final result.

Whenever there was a good cause, the Prophet would wholeheartedly support it. He would strive to beautify and care for his environment, for in Islam you cannot even unjustly cut down a tree—if you need wood, you take branches, not the whole tree. Such care was provided to animals, that he once told a group of men who wanted to take a bird’s eggs, to leave them alone because they were horrifying the mother bird. Horrifying her! He was so sensitive to the plight of an animal that, hundreds of years later, those who followed his example were afraid to stucco walls without checking every last corner to make sure no animal would suffocate, having made their nests in the wall.

His love for humankind was immense. He could not stand the suffering of anyone. For the Muslim view is not that we are East and West, the uncivilized or civilized, but rather that we are all humans joined in our humanity. There are no biases in Islam, no prejudices, no divisions: black or white or male or female or poor or rich. Does it surprise you? You’ve heard something else. So have I, but I know what the truth is and I want you to know what the truth is. I will not excuse anyone, for yesterday I saw a crowd of Rolling Stone fans vandalising buildings and getting hurt over not being able to see a Rolling Stone concert. Last week, I saw Muslims in a rage over cartoons of their beloved Prophet. It is not the practice of my Prophet to yell and scream and get angry, just as it is not the practice for any thinking person to rage over losing Rolling Stone tickets. But guess what, that’s human nature. And anger and out-of-control passion is an instinctual human response to something dear to oneself. But it is not the way of the Prophet just as it was not the way of Jesus (peace be upon him), so do not confuse Islam with the media, because the media is not Islam. It is a 24-hour channel that needs to air something strong enough to grab viewers and it is a political schema. Realize the difference.

Humans have great dignity; every human, whether they are disabled or a minority or in a coma. I believe it because I have seen it in overall history and especially in the history during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. If you want the truth, you have to search for it. If you are desperate for beauty, for the meaning of existence when the world looks as if all sanity is disappearing, find those models that were shining with it. That was Muhammad. A funny thing, when I first heard of the cartoons, I wanted to laugh, not cry, because the thought of the Prophet being a terrorist was as ridiculous as saying that Gandhi was a terrorist or a rose was a weed or the sun was green. The ridiculousness was laughable, not the cartoons.

Muhammad is not a man to be easily forgotten, for how can one so easily forget the footsteps of sincerity? It is easy to be a cynic and create a scandal; far harder to be sensitive enough to distinguish a real diamond. Do not accept things at face value; search instead for deeper meanings. What was the reason for him holding such high moral values? He said, “God is gentle and loves gentleness.” How then could a follower of God be anything but gentle? I close with a saying of my Prophet about what my relationship to you is, about what humanity is. He said “Love all; in it is half of wisdom.” Love all, even if they do not reciprocate your love, for that alone is the highest form of dignity and wisdom in human beings.