The Role Model… A Guiding Light
Allah,
Glorified and Exalted is He, sent down the Scriptures and sent the messengers,
as He says: {We sent Our messengers with clear
signs, the Scripture and the Balance.} [Al-Hadid
57:25] He also says: {Then God sent prophets
to bring good news and warning, and with them He sent the Scripture with the
Truth.} [Al-Baqarah 2:213]
In this way,
Allah completed His blessing upon His servants by providing both theoretical
guidance and practical application: the theoretical guidance contained in the
Scriptures, and the practical embodiment of that guidance demonstrated by the
messengers.
Since all the
heavenly Scriptures shared the same fundamental principles of faith, broad
foundations of religious law, and enduring moral values, {Believe in the message I have sent down confirming what
you already possess} [Al-Baqarah 2:41]; {We sent to you [Muhammad] the Scripture with the truth,
confirming the Scriptures that came before it, and with final authority over
them} [Al-Ma’idah 5:48]; and {
The Scripture We have revealed to you
[Prophet] is the Truth and confirms the scriptures that preceded it} [Fatir 35:31], the lives of
Allah’s prophets and messengers served as practical examples for those who came
after them.
The Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him, expressed this unity when he said: “The prophets
are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.”
The
Prophets as Examples to Follow
The Quran
repeatedly directs believers to learn from the lives of the prophets. After
mentioning a number of prophets and messengers in Surat Al-An'am, Allah says: {Those were the people God guided, ‘[Prophet], follow the
guidance they received.} [Al-An'am 6:90]
Allah also
presents Abraham, His close friend, peace be upon him, as an example: { You
have a good example in Abraham and his companions, when they said to their
people.} [Al-Mumtahanah 60:4]
He likewise
commanded the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him: {Then We revealed to you, [O Muhammad], to follow the
religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth.} [An-Nahl 16:123]
And He says: {And the people who are closest to him are those who
truly follow his ways, this Prophet, and [true] believers- God is close to
[true] believers.} [Ali`Imran 3:68]
The Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him, himself drew upon the experiences of earlier
prophets when facing difficult circumstances. When he was harmed, he recalled
the patience of Moses, peace be upon him, saying: “May Allah be merciful to Moses, for
he was harmed with more than this, yet he kept patient.”
On another
occasion, he said: “May Allah bestow His Mercy on Lot. He wanted to have a
powerful support.”
Abdullah ibn
Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated: “It is as though I can see the
Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, relating the story of one of the
prophets: his people had beaten him until he bled, yet he was wiping the blood
from his face and saying, ‘O Allah! Forgive my nation, for they have no knowledge.’”
These were not
merely stories of the past. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
invoked the experiences of earlier prophets as living lessons for his own
community.
A Legacy
That Grows with Every Generation
For the
generation among whom each prophet was sent, the prophet himself may have been
the primary practical example of how divine guidance should be lived. But for
the generation that followed, another layer of examples emerged: the companions
whom that prophet had nurtured and trained.
The Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him, said: “There was no prophet whom God
raised up among his people before me who did not have from among his people
apostles and companions who held to his sunna and followed what he commanded.”
As generations
followed one another, the number and diversity of exemplary figures continued
to grow. The generation of the Followers of the Followers, for example, had the
Companions and the Followers as examples to learn from. The fourth generation
had the Companions, the Followers, and the Followers of the Followers. As for
us, living in the fifteenth century after the Hijrah, we have fifteen centuries
of exemplary lives from which to draw guidance and inspiration.
Yet there is
also a painful reality behind this abundance.
Of the
righteous followers of Jesus, peace be upon him, we possess almost nothing
today in terms of their recorded lives and examples. The same is true of the
companions of Moses, peace be upon him, and the companions of the other
prophets sent by Allah. Among the Children of Israel alone, there were numerous
prophets. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Banu Isra'il
were ruled over by the Prophets. When one Prophet died, another succeeded him.”
But where are
the companions of those prophets today? Where did their lives and stories
disappear? And how much has humanity lost as a result?
Without doubt,
it is a great deal.
The renowned
scholar Ibn Hajar recorded more than twelve thousand Companions in his
extraordinary work Al-Isabah fi Tamyiz As-Sahabah. We know the immense
influence these noble men and women have had as examples for generations of
Muslims. How much richer would our heritage be if the lives of the companions
of the other prophets and messengers had also been preserved?
The
Contemporary Role Model
Having role
models in our religion, and consequently in our lives, is one of the greatest
blessings Allah has bestowed upon us. It is also a blessing that continually
renews itself.
When we reflect
on this renewal, we realize that contemporary role models have a particular
advantage over those who lived in the past. Their advantage is even greater
when compared with figures whose lives belong to the distant depths of history.
The person who
lives among us today faces the same circumstances we face. They witness the
same events, carry similar responsibilities, confront the same challenges, and
encounter many of the same obstacles. For that reason, they provide the closest
and most tangible example of how our values can be put into practice in our own
circumstances.
This does not
diminish the importance of historical role models. On the contrary, their lives
remain an essential part of our heritage and a source of wisdom for every
generation. But contemporary examples deserve an even greater degree of
attention because they demonstrate that faith, integrity, perseverance, and
excellence are not merely virtues of the past. They can be lived here and now.
This makes
preserving the lives of contemporary exemplary figures an important
responsibility. Their stories should be documented and passed on so that they
do not disappear as so many others have disappeared before them.
Otherwise,
future generations may look back and regret that these examples were lost—and
we may be held accountable for allowing their stories, struggles, sacrifices,
and achievements to vanish without a trace.
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