The Prophet's bravery and courage:

The Prophet's bravery and courage:

Abu Usamah At-Thahabi

Ali (رضي الله
عنهم ) said: 'When the war become hot and
we met and faced the enemy, we shielded ourselves behind the Messenger
of Allah (صلي الله عليه
و سلم ) and there was no one who was closer
to the enemy than he was'. Ahmed

Al-Baraa ibn Aazib (رضي الله
عنهم ) said: 'Wallahi, if the war become
severe we would shield ourselves from the enemy, by getting behind
the Prophet, and the brave one from amongst us was the one who would
stand next to the Messenger of Allah'. Muslim

Anas ibn Malik (رضي الله
عنهم ) said: 'The Prophet (صلي
الله عليه و
سلم ) was the best of the people, and he was the
most generous of the people, and the bravest of the people'. Bukhari/Muslim

From the clear examples of the Prophet's (صلي
الله عليه و
سلم ) bravery on the battlefield is the fact he
use to ride a mule as opposed to riding a horse or a camel. This
shows he never intended to escape from the heat of the battle, as
the mule is an animal that is not capable of moving very fast.

But instead, he was on the battlefield to either kill the enemy
or to be killed by them, in the cause of Allah and in defending
Islam. An example of this is what has been collected by Imam Muslim
on the authority of Salamah ibn Al-Akwa' (رضي
الله عنهم ). He
narrated that in the battle of Hunain, many of those who accompanied
the Messenger of Allah (صلي الله
عليه و سلم ) , after
being defeated by the Kuffar, they turned away from the battlefield.

Salamah ibn Al-Akwa' (رضي الله
عنهم ) said: 'And I also turned away defeated,
and I was wearing two mantles. One was used to cover my lower extremities
and the other was used to cover my shoulders. And my Izaar became
unfastened so I gathered all of my clothes together. He said, 'I
passed by the Messenger of Allah (صلي الله
عليه و سلم ) while
in this defeated state and he was riding on his white mule. The
Prophet (صلي الله عليه
و سلم ) said to me, "Verily Ibn Al-Akwa'
finds himself as being utterly perplexed"

These are a few of the many examples of his bravery on the battlefield.
But his Sunnah is filled with many other examples of his courage
while he called the people to the Deen.

Anas ibn Malik (رضي الله
عنهم ) said: 'The Messenger of Allah (صلي
الله عليه و
سلم ) was the best of the people, and he was the
most generous of the people, and the bravest of the people. One
night the people of Medinah heard a loud noise and they became overwhelmed
with fear. The men went out to see what the noise was, only to find
the Prophet (صلي الله
عليه و سلم ) riding
his unsaddled horse, and coming from the direction of the noise
with his sword wrapped around his neck. He said to them, "Don't
be afraid, don't be afraid. I found (my horse) very swift".

In this hadith, Anas ibn Malik (رضي الله
عنهم ) described the Prophet (صلي
الله عليه و
سلم ) as being the bravest of the people because,
as we can see, all of the people made preparations to meet the pending
danger (noise) by completely preparing themselves for battle. They
saddled their animals and they gathered their weapons. Whereas the
Messenger of Allah (صلي الله
عليه و سلم ) simply
jumped on his horse, and took the closet weapon he could find and
he went directly towards the danger.

Before his companions reached the outskirts of Medinah, he was
already on his way back to Medinah with the news that there was
nothing to fear or to worry about.

Another example of his courage can be seen in the way he told Quraish
about the religion of Islam. And not being afraid to introduce issues
to them, no matter how strange it would appear to their minds. And
in many instances, he would stand alone in his efforts like in the
case of the Israa and the Mi'raaj.

He could have told his trusted and beloved companion Abu Bakr (رضي
الله عنهم ) about
this incident before he told anyone else, so as to receive support
from Abu Bakr. But instead, we find him telling this miraculous
story to those who he knew would find it hard to comprehend, not
to mention difficult to believe!

When he told them about the incident, he found their response varied.
There were those who began to clap their hands in surprise and utter
amazement. And others disbelieved him and they begin to ridicule
his story. And there were those from the Muslims who apostated and
left Islam upon hearing this news. As for the Messenger of Allah
(صلي الله عليه
و سلم ) , none of that deterred him from
his mission of calling the people to the Deen, and relaying the
message of Islam in a clear and concise way. Which shows his high
level of courage. Many times we as Muslims, are afraid to even allow
people to know about Islam, or to know that we are even Muslims.

There are those of us who change our beautiful Islamic names, to
the names of the Kuffar in an effort to hide our Deen. An example
of that is changing the name Muhammad to Moe, of Daud to David,
or Saami to Sam! The Messenger of Allah (صلي الله
عليه و سلم ) would
never take such a despised and weak position when dealing with the
Kuffar. But instead, he would establish his Deen and his Islamic
identity.

In addition to that, he use to seek refuge in Allah from falling
into such a despicable act. From the authentic supplications that
come to us from his Sunnah is that he use to say, "Oh Allah! I seek
refuge in you from being incapable, and from laziness, and from
being a coward, and from senility". Bukhari/Muslim

The Muslim man and the Muslim woman is need of some level of courage
in order to establish their Deen. The Woman must have courage to
wear the Hijab, and to practice the dictates of the religion inspite
of the censorship of the Kuffar. And likewise, this is the case
for the Muslim man. He is in more need of courage then the woman
is, as the Deen and the Dawah will not prosper and flourish at the
hands of cowards.

This is what we find the Prophet (صلي الله
عليه و سلم ) and
his Companions (رضي الله
عنهم ) upon when we read their history,
and this is what we should strive to be upon. And verily Imam Malik
(may Allah have mercy upon him) spoke the truth when he said: 'The
last of this Ummah, will not be rectified, except by that which
rectified the beginning of this Ummah'.

And our Tawfeeq is only with Allah the Most High and the Most Mighty,
who said in His Book: "Oh you who believe, whoever of you should
revert from his religion, Allah will bring forth (in place of them)
a people He will love, and they will love Him. (Who are) humble
towards the believers, powerful against the disbelievers; they strive
in the cause of Allah and don't fear the blame of the critic…".
Maidah Ayat 54

And Allah is the best of those who dispose of our affairs.