Islamic Bridges

Assalamualaikum,

This week sermon was about building bridges. Not bridges as in civil engineering field, but bridges that refer to human-to-human interactions. In this sermon, the Imam gave examples of how Rasulullah SAW managed to build bridges between him and the unbelievers. The bridges meant here were his good actions that had won over the hearts of many unbelievers so much, so that they had embraced Islam willingly.

Being a bit late to the sermon today, I managed to gathered only a few but important points on how Rasulullah SAW did just that.

1) His willingness to forgive in the face of abuse from the enemy

This characteristic was displayed in a story about how a Jewish came to the Prophet to collect the money that the Prophet owed him. He came much earlier than the Rasulullah had promised to pay him. This Jewish man then, cursed the Prophet and said that he knew that the Prophet and his lineage (tribe) starting from his great grandfatherAbdul Manaf were notorious for not paying debts. Having heard that, Umar, who was beside the Prophet at that time, asked permission from the Prophet to chop off the Jew's head. Instead, the Prophet said, "I didn't expect to hear that from you, Umar. You shoud have given me advice on how I can pay this man's debt, or at least advice on how to answer to this man so that he can collect the debt later."

The Jew then said, "I just wanted to see the proof that you are the last prophet sent by Allah, because in Taurah, it is said that one of the last prophet characteristics is your willingness to forgive in the face of abuse from the the enemy." He then recited the 'kalimatul syahadatain' and became a Muslim.

2) Rasulullah (s.a.w) always smiled

The power of a smile was manifested in the story about one sahabah, Amr bin 'As, before he became Muslim. He was one of the most fierce enemies of Islam. He once was sent to Habsyah by the unbelievers of Bani Quraish to poison the mind of Habsyah ruler to not to tie any relationship with Islam government in Madinah. So, one day he came to Madinah, and saw that the Prophet smiled at him though the Prophet already knew who he was. He said he was surprised and amazed by the Prophet positive attitude and became a muslim.

3) Rasulullah used wealth to win the hearts of Muallaf (new muslims)

After Hunain battle, Muslims collected so much booties (rampasan perang) in silver & gold, camels etc. He had given many of the muallaf camels as many as 100 camels. The least he gave was 30 camels to one of the muallafs. By doing that, the Muallafs would feel protected and taken care of by fellow muslims.

There are many more examples of how the Prophet built bridges to bring people towards Islam. The challenge lies on us as new generation of Muslims. Are we able to do like that? Do we even have strength to build bridges among ourselves as Muslims. It seems that we are not even capable of finding solutions to minor differences among us. Suggestion is to, forget small differences, forgive mistakes, and InsyaAllah we will be able to build bridges among ourselves as Muslims, and as importantly between Muslims and the non-muslims.

Wallahualam.