The Prophet Muhammad

He reminded people after they had long forgotten that what matters is not who their mothers and fathers are, nor who their tribes were, nor what their skins look like. He taught people that there is only One Creator and that this One Creator is Merciful, Oft-forgiving. But This Creator doesn't want them to give in to heedlessness, nor betray the precious gift He gave them, by seeing nothing but materiality and believing in nothing but the life they live, short, uncertain and deceptive as it was/is.

He urged them to remember that it makes no sense to worship one another, or to worship wealth, or to assume that they have been created by some sort of accident. He pleaded with them to think, to ponder, to look beyond what their eyes see and what their ears hear. He wanted them to read the pages of the beautiful creation around them in search of meaning, not pastime.

He was brave. He was humane. He was humble. He was the best teacher, the most eloquent orator, the most brilliant strategist, the most successful community leader and the best father and husband. Although he was respected by foes and revered by friends and although he died and his community was thriving, he left no palace, nor great show of wealth. He was in fact indebted.

He was the man who introduced to the mankind the best concept of peace and the most refined rules of military engagement at the time of war. He did so during a time many call Dark Ages. But the light that shone then is still by far the most radiant, luminous and enlightening.

He ordered at a time when no one has a code that civilian infrastructure should be spared, that men and women not engaged in war should be left alone if even used as shield by the enemy and that religious institutions be left untouched.

He might have been born one of these day over 1400 years ago. But his legacy is still very much alive. 1.5 billions and more know the man--did I say know the man. I was mistaken. 1.5 billions love the man.

I am just one.