In Makka, his people inflicted on him every kind of suffering eventually forcing him to emigrate to Madina, and then fought against him for five years. However, when he conquered Makka without bloodshed in the twenty-first year of his Prophethood, he asked the Makkan unbelievers, awaiting his decision about them: How do you expect me to treat you? They responded unanimously: ‘You are a noble one, the son of a noble one.’ He announced to them his decision:

You may go away! No reproach this day shall be on you; may God forgive you. He is the Most Compassionate of the Compassionate. (2)

The same announcement was made by Mehmed, the Conqueror, the seventh Ottoman sultan, to the defeated Byzantines, when he conquered Istanbul, eight and a quarter centuries later. Such is the universal compassion of Islam.

The Messenger’s compassion towards the believers was of the utmost degree. The Qur’an describes his compassion in the following verse:

There has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him is your suffering; anxious is he over you, full of concern for you, for the believers full of pity, compassionate. (al-Tawbah, 9.128

He lowered unto believers his wing of tenderness through mercy (al-Hijr, 15.88), and was the ‘guardian’ of believers and nearer to them than their selves (al-Ahzab, 33.6). When one of his Companions died, he asked those present at the funeral whether that Companion had left any unpaid debt. On learning that he had left a debt, he mentioned the above quoted verse and announced:

I am his guardian. Let the creditors appeal to me to collect their debt. (3)

The compassion of God’s Messenger even encompassed hypocrites and unbelievers. Although he recognized the hypocrites of his time, he never disclosed them so that they could enjoy the rights of full citizenship to which their outward confession of faith and practice entitled them. Since they lived among Muslims, their unbelief in eternal life after death may have been reduced or changed to doubt, and therefore their fear of death and the pain caused by the assertion of eternal non-existence after death might have been diminished. As for unbelievers, God removed the collective destruction from them. He had eradicated many peoples before. God says:

But God would never chastise them while you were among them; God would never chastise them as they begged forgiveness. (al-Anfal, 8.33)

This verse refers not only to the unbelievers in the time of God’s Messenger, but also to all those coming later. God will not destroy peoples altogether so long as people who follow the Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, continue to live in the world. Besides, He has left ‘the door of repentance’ open until the Last Day. Anyone can accept Islam or beg God’s forgiveness, however sinful he is. For this reason, a Muslim’s enmity towards unbelievers is, in fact, in the form of pitying them. When ‘Umar, the second Caliph, saw a priest of eighty years, he sat down and sobbed. When asked why he was sobbing, he replied: ‘God assigned him so long a life span, but he has not been able to find the true path.’

‘Umar was the disciple of God’s Messenger, who said:

I was not sent as one to call down curses on people, but I was sent as a mercy. (4)

He also said:

I am Muhammad, and Ahmad (praised one), and Muqaffi (the Last Prophet); and I am also Hashir (the final Prophet in the presence of whom the dead will be resurrected); and the Prophet of repentance (the Prophet for the cause of whom ‘the door’ of repentance will always remain open), and the Prophet of mercy. (5)

The archangel Gabriel also benefited from the mercy of the Qur’an, which was revealed to God’s Messenger. Once he asked Gabriel whether he had any share in the mercy contained in the Qur’an. Gabriel answered, ‘Yes, o God’s Messenger,’ and explained,

I had not been certain about my end. However, when the verse (One) obeyed, and moreover, trustworthy and secured (al-Takwir, 81.21) was revealed, I felt secure about my end. (6)

When Ma‘iz was punished for a serious crime, one of the Companions reproached him saying: ‘He disclosed the sin he had committed secretly and died like a dog.’ God’s Messenger frowned at him and said:

You have backbitten your friend. His repentance and asking God’s pardon for his sin would be enough for the forgiveness for all the sinners in the world. (7)

A member of the clan of Banu Muqarrin beat his maidservant. The poor woman referred the matter to God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, who sent for the master and said to him: You have beaten her without any justifiable right. So, set her free. (8) Setting a slave free was far better for his or her master than being punished in the Hereafter because of the slave.