The popular saying relates this account, “One day, the Prophet Muhammad was induced by the crowd to perform a miracle, so he promised that with GOD’s help he would cause a mountain to move and come closer to him. Having thus placed himself at a certain distance from the mountain, he prostrated himself and began to pray, but when after a time it was evident that the mountain did not hint at moving, the Prophet got up and walked toward the mountain, saying, ‘If the mountain does not go to Muhammad, Muhammad goes to the mountain.’
Meaning
This is a well-known saying in the Western world, “If the mountain does not go to Muhammad, Muhammad goes to the mountain,” and usually refers to the ability to turn the fate of an unexpected event into success. Yet there are some interesting questions in this saying: who was Muhammad? Which mountain are we talking about?
The origin of the proverb is not known, but it is certainly not an episode found in the Quran, nor so much as in the Islamic tradition (not even in the Sunnah and hadiths), but nonetheless it refers to the “father” of Muslims. The origin is purely Western since no trace of this saying is found in the East, and the earliest attestation dates back to 1625 in the “Essays of Francis Bacon” (in Italian Francesco Bacone, London, January 22, 1561 – London, April 9, 1626). The author speaks of “boldness”: “A bold person will do many times what the miracle of Muhammad does.” Obviously this is in line with anti-Muslim thinking in the West at the time, and the Prophet Mohammed (Muhammad) is taken as an example of boldness. But clearly Bacon is only drawing on popular legends of the time, wanting to discredit the religion opposed to his Christianity: “To people of great judgment, bold people are fun to watch; and also to the people. Boldness always possesses something ridiculous. If absurdity is the object of laughter, no doubt great boldness possesses an absurd side.” And again, “The boldness has bad ideas but good practice.” yet the only real bad idea is to discredit others in order to give vigor to one’s own beliefs. No one knows absolute Truth except GOD, and so it is good to respect everyone without disparaging anyone.
If this also happened to the Prophet Mohammed, surely it could also be interpreted differently from Bacon’s thought: One cannot always expect everything to come to us, sometimes as believers in GOD we will also need to know how to move “on our own feet.” So if a problem does not solve itself, it has to be dealt with, and this narrative might therefore not emphasize Mohammed’s “failure to perform a miracle,” but his great intelligence in showing the crowd that we should not expect miracles from GOD, but we must be the faithful ones to go out to meet our mission, not always asking, but acting on our own behalf by going out to meet our difficulties to “climb” (the metaphorical mountain in the narrative).
Conclusions
A tale or story that serves to discredit or ridicule someone’s work does not divulge good, working instead to increase evil. Even one’s enemy is to be respected and loved, for behind this great effort lies a great reward.
In Matthew 5:43-44 Jesus states, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies also. Pray for those who treat you badly.”
It seems very difficult to be able to love even those who are not good to us, yet for the believer this corresponds to behaving as worthy children of GOD, loving those who do not love us brings us closer to holiness and makes us spreaders of love.
If we think of that time when someone was kind to us even though we did not know the reason why, then we can also remember the happy feeling we had. We probably also felt like being kind to our neighbor, following the example Jesus gave us: rejected, ridiculed and crucified, but on the cross he still prayed for his enemies, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34). There is also a magnificent hadit that gives us an account of Mohammed’s unconditional goodness, and it gives us much food for thought about what has just been said: The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had a neighbor who threw his garbage in front of the Prophet’s door every morning. This was a way to humiliate him, since he did not believe in the teachings and the truthfulness of his Divine Message. The Prophet, without making controversy, for a very long time every single day collected it, throwing it into the disposal area along with his personal garbage. Then one morning Mohammed ﷺ did not see the garbage in his step, but he did not worry about it much, but when even in the following days he did not see the garbage, he became concerned. He probably knew his neighbor’s determination, and so he decided to visit him thinking that in order not to leave the house anymore to throw garbage, he was not well. In fact, the neighbor was sick and staying in bed, and so Mohammed ﷺ took care of that neighbor. Soon that man began to follow the prophet’s teachings, recognizing his unconditional justice and great compassion.
Bibiografia
- Bacon, Francis (1625), chapter 12, in Essays
- Gregory Y. Titelman (1996) Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, New York: Random House.
