Issues of Ijtihad

INSIGHT BORN OF FAITH spreading of his message. He used to go to the people and tell them: “Say there is no God but the one God and you will be saved.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 16022) That is, abandon idolatry and worship only one God and you will earn salvation. This shows the correct prophetic method of the Islamic movement. That is, first of all, to bring about a change in the character and thinking of the people through peaceful intellectual campaigns. Only when this initial work has been performed to a considerable extent should practical steps be taken and only if circumstances permit. Tolerating Insult Ibn Ishaq, the Prophet’s earliest biographer, says that the Quraysh had given the Prophet the nomenclature of Mudhammam (the condemned one), then they used to heap abuses on him using this derogatory name. The Prophet said to his companions, “Don’t you wonder how God has saved me from the abuses of the Quraysh? They abuse and condemn a person named Mudhammam, while I am Muhammad.” (Sirah Ibn Hisham, Vol. 1, p. 356) During the Makkan period when the Quraysh developed enmity and hatred for the Prophet, they did not like calling him by his actual name, which was Muhammad, because it meant ‘praiseworthy.’ Therefore, to satisfy their inimical feelings, they named him Mudhammam,