Perhaps my favorite story of all the stories about the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم is when he is rejected by the people of al-Ṭāʾif (a city near Makkah where he went to preach), and stoned by its children. It is reported that he prayed to God while suffering from his wounds:

“As long as You are not angry with me, I do not care (إن لم يكن بك عليَّ غضب فلا أبالي)”

We forget that sometimes he was making it up as he went along. God did not lay out all the details for him every day. He just had to make his ijtihād (judgement call) and strive to be mukhliṣ (sincere) in his effort. And when things went south, he turned to God with desperation and passion.

This separates Islam from religious traditions where God incarnates on Earth. If God incarnates, everything God does on Earth is absolutely perfect. In contrast, the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم was a human being who sometimes was left to his own devices. The Qur’an tells the Prophet: “Say to others, ‘I have no power to benefit or protect myself, except by the Will of Allah. If I had known the unknown, I would have benefited myself enormously, and no harm would have ever touched me. I am only a warner and deliverer of good news for those who believe.’” [7.188]

We too are like that. We have great responsibilities before us to carry the prophetic message in the 21st century, but we are not perfect. And so I take comfort in this prayer:

Dear God, as long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Popularity has never been a sign of tawfīq (success) in the Qur’an, and the Prophet and his family (upon them all peace) underwent many moments of rejection, even by their own followers. At the end of Sūrah al-Jumuʿah, it says that some Companions got up and walked out of his khuṭba to go do some buying and selling! That has never even happened to me! What right do I have to be more respected as the Imam during Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah than the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم himself in Madinah?! Yā Allah! I entered this religion for You, and as long as You are not angry with me, I care not. But if I am on the wrong path, yā Hādī, then please turn me back to the right way, yā Tawwāb. I have shown You again and again that I am willing to change for You, and so I do not mind changing again if I must, even if that leaves me all alone like my master صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم on the day of al-Ṭāʾif. What else can I do but try to walk in his shoes, walking every day back home to You, by Your Mercy, Most merciful of those who show mercy!