Sign up for the ING newsletter to receive news and announcements.
Honoring the Prophet Muhammad, together with the prophets who came before him and the sages who carried forward their wisdom
By Maha Elgenaidi, Founder and Executive Director (Bio)
September 8, 2025
This month, Muslims around the world commemorate the birth of Prophet Muhammad, whose full name is Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim.[1] He is a descendant of Prophet Ishmael, the son of Prophet Abraham and his wife Hagar, and brother to Prophet Isaac, peace be upon them all.
In Islamic tradition, Muhammad is regarded as the final messenger in a long line of prophets beginning with Adam and Eve, men and women chosen by God to receive revelation, guiding their communities or, in the case of some, delivering God’s message to all of humanity. The Prophet Muhammad’s life represents the culmination of this mission, serving as a model for compassion and mercy as well as justice and human dignity.
The Prophet’s Character and Struggles
Over the years, as a Muslim and student of religion, I have studied at least five very different biographies of the Prophet Muhammad, exploring him as a family man, a community leader, and a head of state, as well as several commentaries of the Quran, a scripture that often addresses him directly, offering consolation and reminding him of his mission.[2]
From these readings, I have come to understand him as a noble man who courageously accepted and fulfilled his responsibility before God to carry and deliver His message.
Like the prophets before him, the Prophet Muhammad’s mission was to awaken us to our shared humanity, to cultivate integrity and nobility of character, to guide our dealings with justice, and to foster peace in our relations with one another—Muslims, Christians, Jews, pagans, and people of every background.
The Prophet, like the messengers before him, struggled immensely against rejection, hypocrisy, and the relentless pursuit of power by those who envied him and refused to believe he was worthy of being chosen as a messenger.
For twenty-three years, between 610 and 632 CE, he persevered through opposition and betrayal, conveying God’s revelation until his final breath.
His humility and sincerity were evident not only in his dealings with his family and community but also with those he knew to be insincere. He cared deeply for people, including those who neither cared for him nor wished him well.
His skillful diplomacy at critical moments such as the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, which secured a vital peace with the Quraysh (the powerful tribe that controlled Mecca) and opened the way for Muslim security; his covenants with the Jewish tribes of Medina, which established principles of coexistence and mutual protection; his outreach to the Byzantine empire, which extended Islam’s message beyond Arabia; and his principled dealings with the pagans, which modeled restraint and fairness reveals a man of principle who also understood the realities of power and the enduring need for diplomacy, skillful negotiation, and the pursuit of peace.
The Forgotten Vicegerency
Today, Muslims number more than two billion worldwide, spread across nearly fifty Muslim-majority nations and as large minority communities in places like Ethiopia, India, and China. Yet when I look at the current condition of Muslims, I am grieved. We are caught in cycles of underdevelopment, war, oppression, and persecution.
The statistics tell a painful story. Nearly half of the world’s refugees, between 45 and 55 percent, originate from Muslim-majority countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Sudan. Close to 300 million Muslims live in states of war and violent conflict. Another 70 million in Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Gaza endure famine or near-famine conditions. An estimated 250 million Muslims live as minorities under persecution in countries like China, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in Western nations, including in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia, Muslim minorities are experiencing the sharpest rise in anti-Muslim hate in decades. Despite their indigeneity in some regions, their multigenerational presence, and their vast contributions to public life, they often wield little political power to secure their rights or to influence foreign policy toward Muslim nations. The entrenched framework of Islamophobia—shaping how Muslims are perceived and stereotyped—remains a defining barrier to full belonging and justice.
How did a civilization that, for more than a thousand years, stood at the forefront of science, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, literature, governance, and culture fall from global leadership to its current state?
Muslim achievements were not accidental; they were the fruits of a worldview rooted in tawhid—belief in the oneness of God—which inspired a sense of purpose, responsibility, and human advancement and prosperity.
Colonialism and external forces bear part of the blame, but at some point, we must look at ourselves.
The Quran reminds us that “Indeed, God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.” (13:11) This verse places responsibility squarely on our shoulders: transformation begins with self-examination, humility, and constructive action.
Likewise, the Prophet Muhammad taught his companions to turn inward before assigning blame outward, urging believers to be introspective, to recognize their own shortcomings, and to correct them before attributing their problems solely to others.
Together, these teachings offer a profound framework for renewal: if we long to break free from cycles of oppression and decline, we must first cultivate accountability, integrity, and moral clarity within our own communities.
When Muslims affirm their cardinal belief—“There is no god but God and Muhammad is a Messenger of God”—we are doing far more than professing faith. We are accepting responsibility.
To utter the shahadah, the profession of faith, is to acknowledge the existence of and our dependence on the God of Abraham, to pledge ourselves to walk in the Prophet’s path, to embody his character, and to fulfill our sacred trust as vicegerents of God on earth. Yet the distance between this responsibility and our present reality remains vast.
A Shared Call to Stewardship
The call to stewardship is not unique to Muslims. People of many faiths, and even those who ground their values in human conscience alone rather than religion, share the conviction that we are entrusted with the care of one another and of the earth.
Jews speak of tikkun olam, the mandate to “repair the world.”
Christians are called to be “salt and light” for humanity.
Hindus and Buddhists stress duty (dharma) and compassion as sacred responsibilities.
Secular humanists speak of dignity, justice, and responsibility for our fellow human beings and the planet we share.
Across traditions, there is a recognition that our lives are not solely our own, and that we are accountable for how we treat others and how we safeguard all of creation.
Reviving Prophetic Legacies
Honoring the Prophet Muhammad’s birth month, and the legacies of all the prophets and teachers before him, is not only about remembering their lives, but about reviving their message in our own time.
Prophets and sages across traditions called humanity to return to God, to uphold justice, and to restore right relationships with one another.
To walk in their footsteps today is not merely to admire them, but to embody the principles that defined their mission, principles of forgiveness, renewal, knowledge, compassion, peace, and justice.
These timeless values are not only guides for personal conduct, but also the foundation of true leadership. For those entrusted with responsibility, or aspiring to it, the call is clear: lead with the courage, mercy, and integrity that the prophets exemplified.
- Seek Forgiveness. At the heart of every prophetic mission was the call to turn back in humility. Seeking forgiveness is not only about personal sins but also about acknowledging the collective wrongs that weaken our communities. By cleansing our hearts, we create space for truth, integrity, and compassion to take root again.
- Renew Our Moral Character. Truthfulness, humility, and integrity must guide both our personal and public lives. Patriarchal tendencies, tribalism, misogyny, racism, and hypocrisy have eroded institutions across religious communities and must be resisted at every level.
- Return to Knowledge and Excellence. Prophets and sages urged their followers to seek wisdom wherever it could be found. Communities flourish when the pursuit of knowledge—spiritual, ethical, scientific, and artistic—is embraced collectively and shared widely. Our future depends on rekindling this tradition.
- Strengthen Community Care. Compassion for the poor, orphaned, and marginalized is a hallmark of every tradition. In a world of displacement, hunger, and persecution, we cannot claim to honor prophetic legacies if we neglect the vulnerable.
- Model Peace and Reconciliation. Conflicts must be approached not with hatred, but with principled engagement grounded in dignity and integrity. The tools of diplomacy and negotiation should be used to ensure that interests and concerns are addressed with fairness and justice. Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Black racism, and all forms of bigotry call us to reject division and instead work together for reconciliation and healing.
- Stand Firmly for Justice. Sacred texts remind us to bear witness with fairness, even against ourselves and our own co-religionists. This principle must guide our relationships with people of every background, including those we consider adversaries. It we can’t call out and resist injustices in ourselves and our own community, why should we expect others to do so?
Living the Legacy Today
The Prophet Muhammad devoted his life to elevating humanity through compassion, justice, and peace, just as prophets and teachers across traditions did in their time. To honor these legacies is to accept responsibility for our condition, reclaim our dignity and self-respect, and advance our communities toward peace and prosperity. If we fail to do so, we risk reducing faith to words without meaning and rituals without transformation.
The question before us is whether we, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and people of conscience everywhere, will honor these legacies through the way we live our lives. Every tradition, and even secular moral visions, teaches that words must be matched with deeds, and that justice, mercy, and human dignity are sacred trusts.
See related article on Creating Inviting, Thriving Religious Communities here.
[1] Peace and blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad and all of the prophets and messengers of God. Muslims traditionally offer benedictions upon the prophets after mentioning their names.
[2] For readers interested in learning more about the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran, see Juan Cole’s Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires (Nation Books, 2018) for a historically grounded biography of the Prophet, and Thomas Cleary’s The Qur’an: A New Translation (Starlatch Press, 2004) for an accessible and elegant English rendering of Islam’s sacred text.