Notis: Det följande är en reproduktion av artiklen "How did Muhammad look?" i Augusti-upplagan 2001 av Submitters Perspective, den mĺnatliga bulletinen av United Submitters International.

Should I care? We learn from the Quran that it is the message that we should give importance to, not the messenger, especially when he is already dead. It is the message that is alive, not the messenger. However, there are many so-called Muslims who are serious about knowing and praising the Prophet’s physical appearance even though the Quran did not give us any clue. They concentrate on Muhammad as a person; how he looked, how he ate, how he slept etc., instead of the message he brought to us from God, the Quran. However, praising and exalting the messenger after his departure, instead of the Almighty God who sent him, is a human tendency in all religions, not only in Islam. Thus the purified religion always gets distorted with time as people get diverted from the true teachings of the messengers.

The distortion and nonsense is now carried out in well-established “Islamic” web sites on the internet. The backers and supporters of these web sites think that they are doing a favor to the religion of Islam. They think that they are enlightening the masses about Islam. They don’t realize that what they advocate is generally the rubbish that surrounds our pristine and beautiful religion, and practically nothing to do with true Islam. They follow mostly conjecture, traditions, and hadiths (sayings) that are falsely attributed to the prophet and those around him. Thus, they abandon God’s revelations in the Quran in favor of man-made innovations. Unfortunately, the usual practice for the people in these UNTRUE ISLAM web sites is to wrap the truth from the Quran with falsehood and ignorance, and furnish to the unsuspecting people.

Here is an example from such a web site where one person wrote that he thought he had seen Muhammad in his dream. He was asking the so-called Islamic scholar available on that site how he could verify that it was indeed Muhammad in the dream. The religious “expert” in total ignorance of the Quran, and with no common sense, relayed the following answer to this question:

We will quote below a number of ahaadeeth [hadith] which describe the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). If what you see in your dream is in accordance with this, then you did indeed see the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), because he said: “Whoever sees me in a dream has really seen me, because Shaytaan cannot appear in my image.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, 5729).

Rabee’ah ibn Abi ‘Abd al-Rahmaan said: “I heard Anas ibn Maalik (may Allaah be pleased with him) describing the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). He said: ‘He was of average height, not too tall and not too short, with a pinkish colour, not very white and not dark, and his hair was neither very curly nor very straight. The Revelation came to him when he was forty years old, and he stayed in Makkah for ten years after the Revelation came, then in Madeenah for ten years. When he died, there were no more than twenty white hairs on his head and in his beard.” (al-Bukhaari, 3283).

Al-Baraa’ ibn ‘Aazib said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was broad shouldered and had thick hair coming down to his shoulders and earlobes. He was wearing red garments. I have never seen anything more beautiful than him.” (Reported by Muslim, Kitaab al-Fadaa’il, Baab Sifat Sha’r al-Nabi (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), no. 2338).

Ali said: “He was neither tall nor short, and had large hands and feet. He had a large head and was big-boned, and the thin line of hair (starting from his chest and extending to the navel) was long. When he walked, he would lean forward, as if he was walking downhill. I have never seen anyone like him, before or since.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 3570, who said this is a saheeh hasan hadeeth).

Jaabir ibn Samurah said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was dalee’ al-fam, ashkal al-’ayn and manhoos al-’aqib.” Shu’bah said: “I asked Maalik, ‘What is dalee’ al-fam?’ He said: ‘Wide-mouthed.’ I asked, ‘What is ashkal al-’ayn?’ He said, ‘Big-eyed.’ I asked, ‘What is manhoos al-’aqib?’ He said, ‘His heels were not fleshy.’“ (Saheeh Muslim, Kitaab al-Fadaa’il, 2339).

So how would you describe Muhammad now that you know what he looked like?!!!

Abdullah