The Reasonings (page 128)-
Explaining some of the proofs of Muhammad’s Prophethood
Introduction
“Every act and state of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, that is connected with his mission, proves his Prophethood. His absolute certainty in his actions, his indifference to objections- the fact that he paid no heed to the objections of his opponents- and his fearlessness clearly demonstrate his truthfulness and sincerity. In addition, he did whatever he did in accordance with the spirit of truth.
This great personage had absolute certainty in the truth of his mission, and so he paid no heed to the objections of his opponents, refused all offers of reconciliation and compromise, and showed no fear, hesitation, or worry in communicating his message, acting with an unshakable confidence even in the most perilous conditions. He always said and did exactly the right thing; he was always the first to practice whatever he communicated to others, and he established his message with his life. The seriousness, harmony, and consistency in all his sayings and deeds, and the perfect balance both in his life and his message are other irrefutable proofs of the truthfulness of his cause.”
The message of God equally addressed to the Prophet as well. The Prophet is a character or personage that took the message for himself/herself. The Prophet did not receive the message only to transfer it to others. Transferring the message to others was included in the message and was his response to that message.
By definition, whatever the Messengers are doing is ultimately for the sake of themselves because they have to do it, not only for the benefits of others. It sounds selfish, but applying it to oneself first shows their confidence in the message that it is true and correct and if it is so, why not represent it to others and demonstrate it? The benefit to others is an extension of his responsibilities.
We have been discussing on Prophethood in general as an institution, now we are going to discuss the Prophethood of Muhammad (historical person). By now, we are satisfied with the fact that the Creator of the universe must appoint someone to explain the purpose in Its act of creation to conscious beings. From now on, we will talk about a historical personage.
How can we make sure that this historical personage was as it is narrated by other people because we do not experience him first hand? Even if you lived in his time and in his household, you cannot make sure that this person is employed by God or is a messenger of God. You would not see the angel speaking to him. No one can prove that this person received revelation from God in physical terms. It is easier to be convinced about the Necessity of Messengership or understand the institution of Messengership by looking at the universe and seeing that the universe is full of mystery and human beings are full of questions and wonders.
We are concerned with what goes on around us minus the political situations. We cannot ignore anything because we are human beings and we wonder, why is it so? We have many questions and we either say that the Creator of the universe created this place in a mysterious way where we cannot explain the purpose in its existence OR the Creator created me with the curiosity of what is the purpose in my existence and does not provide me with the answers. If it is the latter, then it is pointless to create me with the ability to ask questions and wonder. There is no sign showing that wisdom is lacking in any of Its acts; so It must be a Wise Creator since It created me with the ability to ask questions and be curious about my own existence and the existence of other things.
- It must provide the answers for me in a way that I can comfortably understand in my language that I can speak.
Again, it is easy to be convinced about the existence of the institution of Messengership, but it is difficult to confirm that a person is the Prophet i.e. this is the person who is representing Messengership.
We must first understand that Messengership must be first established or fulfilled to complete the picture of creation in the universe, otherwise the picture of creation will be lacking something which is very disturbing to human nature and contradicting human reality: That is, the existence of creation necessitates Messengership and vice versa. “Whoever made me must explain to me why It made me?” “Which kind of Being the Maker is who made me in this way?”
The answers to these questions must be transferred to me by whoever made me through a vehicle. However, how can I make sure that this man is the one who receives and transfers the message to me where I am convinced that this is the Messenger of God?
- The message must make sense to my human expectations in its entirety.
If we are talking about a physically existing historical person to be the Messenger of God, then we must rely on the narration of the history about him as far as his actions are concerned because we are talking about a historical person. Even the contemporaries of the Prophet were hearing from each other by observing the man. They were not with him all the time and physically see signs that he is receiving the message from God. Also, the message was not building upon each other, rather scattered sentences or parts. Example: he would share/recite some parts he received from time to time. In 23 years, the life conditions changed radically. From being the most unwanted man in the society as narrated in the historical narrations and at the end of 23 years, he was the most esteemed man in the larger society. Who can keep the consistency in 23 years of receiving something while in an unconscious state and then recite it? People around him were convinced. They did not submit to him because of his authority or force, but because they were convinced with the message he presented to them, and he himself was the first to follow the message. They have witnessed the consistency and sincerity in his life.
We must rely on historical narrations if we want to make sure that a historical person is the subject of this Messengership. There is no other way. Even if we see him physically, we cannot make sure that he is the Messenger, however, we must see the signs in his life and see the consistency in the message he receives where he never contradicted that message for himself which he conveyed to others. Example: “You should rely on God” is what he conveyed. Relying on God is very difficult for people to act upon. But he acted well by reliance on God without swerving or hesitating in his action. Whatever he received in his early life and conveyed, mostly people rejected it. But he kept insisting to convey the message to relatives and neighbors: “That is what I am taught to do it”.
- The consistency in not giving up delivering the message.
- Also, the assurance in his life about what he delivered demonstrates that this man cannot be a liar by risking his life under any circumstances.
As a human being, he looked for the best way to convey the message, and nothing can stop him from conveying it.
- People around him were convinced because he obeyed the message he received, and he was consistent with it.
My conclusions about my belief in a Creator comes from the signs that I am physically experiencing right now. The sun is shining, and moon is turning and taking different shape and letting me know which position I am in physically. That needs a Conscious Planner. Belief in God is very easy, it is in front of our eyes. This Conscious Being must exist, and It is the Creator, not of the same nature that what It is performing, the action.
If I was expected to believe in God as someone physically appearing in front of my eyes, then I would not believe it. “Excuse me, you are a part of creation and you cannot be God.” Belief in God requires to believe in Absolute or “ghaib” (not palpable). This is because belief is not knowledge or information, it is confirmation of what one can infer from what he observes in the universe.
- Concluding that the Creator of the universe cannot be physically observable is the most convincing evidence for me. There must be such a One. Have I seen it? To believe in God is very easy. It is the logical conclusion of a human being after experiencing the universe. This logical conclusion concerning belief needs to be supported by human feelings as well in order to reach the level of conviction. However, to believe in the claim of a person as to be the Messenger of God is not easy.
When it comes to proving someone to be the Messenger of God, we must see some physical examples in his/her life. Again, the authenticity of the narration is NOT important. If you and I believe that Muhammad was a Prophet, then we are not bringing a physical being in front of our eyes. By looking at the end products of his life, I must rely on other people’s narrations although the narrations maybe filtered through the eyes of the narrators. Example: an event is witnessed by 100 people and afterwards the 100 people are asked to write about the event. Don’t you think that everyone’s narration will be different? Yes. The authenticity of the narration is NOT important, but we must see the consensus on the reality of the event people are talking about.
- Consensus= such an event has happened.
If you do not know how to read the hadith narration or have the criteria for it, then do not read it as you will completely deny it and lose your faith in the authenticity of the narration. Since the same event is described differently, to understand the event needs expertise. People who have shallow understanding of narration, they may deny easily the authenticity of all narrations and say that the Quran is enough for us. That is an expected result of such people. That is why while looking at the content of the narration, we must look at the consensus among all the narrations narrated. However, all narrators agree that they are talking about one person and accordingly they confirmed the Messengership. These narrations are about what he has done. The result was at the society level, the kind of society he lived in, the kind of life he presented to human beings and the kind of message he conveyed to other people. Their understanding of the message varied but the originality of the message (the characteristics about the person described in the narration) was the same.
- Content varies because the narrators are filtering the observations according to their own lenses.
If you study hadith narrations to understand the Messengership of Muhammad, then you can benefit from it without being an expert. Example: I narrate his consistency in a slightly different way than your narration about his consistency. The point here is that no narration says that the Prophet gave up an idea i.e. a proof of his being “consistent” with himself. He never gave up, he just kept on going. His unshakeable confidence in conveying the message shows that he is the one who brings the message.
If you want to understand the content of the narrations including his advices to the people around him you should be careful to not read them literally, rather pay attention to how he was addressing the people according to their capacities.
If the Creator of the universe does not bring me the answers to my questions, then the creation becomes contradicting itself.
- Creation is full of wisdom and if there was no explanation to my human questions in creation, then the most important point would be missing in wisdom as far as I am concerned. Hence, the Creator must explain to me as an answer to my instinctive question which is given to me as well by the same Creator. How I can receive this revelation is a matter of how much I am questioning?
Someone claims something, and I can see that this claim is consistent with creation and helps me interpret creation in a way that makes sense to me and satisfies my questions. The message of the Quran is different from the Messenger’s speech. When I read the Quran, I realize that the Creator is educating me and giving me the answers to my human questions. That is the second stage of being sure that it is the word of the Creator of the universe to me.
- It is easier to believe in the Quran as to be the word of God than believing in a person to be the one who conveys the message to me in practical form as an appointed messenger by God.
Historically, a man who is called “Muhammad” conveyed the message and consistently was obeying the message, conveying the message and following the message with no fear and reconciliation. Whoever this person is, must be the Messenger employed by God. Whoever has this quality of being consistent with the message he conveys must be the Messenger.
First Stage: Believing in God by observing His acts.
Second Stage: Believing in the Word of God by examining the message.
Third Stage: Believing in a person to be the Messenger of God by carefully reading the narrations of the eye witnesses’ account of his acts and sayings.
- I do not know who Muhammad was, but such a person must exist, and this person is a Prophet for me with these qualities as mentioned by the author of the text that we are reading (depicted on page 1).
Comment: Why are we looking at different ways to verify the Prophet?
After being convinced about the second stage, that this universe must have a manual, we need instruction on how to apply this manual. When it comes to the instruction of the manual, we must rely on a historical personage and historical narrations about him. That is, what other people observed of him in his life and what they said about him. He is not the author of a manual, rather he is the one who is instructing me about the content of the manual and guiding me to apply it while I am using the universe for myself.
When you carefully read the Quran, all the stories and irrelevant things are in fact directly related to your personal life. That is why, the Quran is a psychological book (as per this age’s lingo) teaching me: What am I supposed to do here, how am I going to utilize my human feelings and how am I going to have the best satisfactory and happy life? The Quran provides this for you. However, if you look at the Quran for the rulings (physical actions called rituals), then you are in trouble. As a result, you will have to find out other ways of verifying the Prophet. That is why the Quran does not give a picture of rituals in physical forms. Example: Fast from sunset to dawn. Do not eat. That is it! Hence, we understand that to go into details, I must ask the instructor: “What is the meaning that I read from the manual and how can I apply it to my life practically?” The instructor is expected to explain it to you. The problem lies in the instructor’s explanation which is narrated by people but we need to be careful that these narrations are inevitably filtered by the lenses of people. That is why we cannot apply the same principle as we use for belief in the existence of God to believing in the message of a particular person to be the Messenger of God.
- What we must do is that there must be such a person, historically narrated to me as someone called “Muhammad” living in a particular geographic area living in a certain time of history.
Narration needs to be read about the consensus not the details. Fiqh (Jurisprudence) specialists never pay attention to the consensus side (is this person the messenger?) of the narration, rather, which narration is more correct about this action. Here, belief is taken for granted and they mostly miss the belief aspect to the actions/rituals.
If you come across Fiqh books, then you will turn away from it based on your own biases. Example: The transformation of physical actions into a special physical definite form, you will question why God employed a Messenger for these details: “There is no need for the Creator of the universe to teach me that I have to wash my arms and hands up to here and no part should remain dry. That does not make any sense”. You do not need to get the message of God to teach this to people. These are such minor things conveyed by people who are obsessed with Fiqh rules. Did you spend your time and wisdom for this? Even the Prophet himself was so relaxed about it and you are making it tough.
Muhammad is the messenger of God is taken for granted: “We are believers and how can I follow his way of life?” is the common rhetoric. The Quran is the word of God is taken for granted. Belief in God is taken for granted and what we inherited is nothing but fiqh Islam. That is not entirely wrong, but it is missing the fundamental aspect of belief matter.
We cannot verify the person “Muhammad”, rather such a person represented the message of God and he conveyed the message to his people in this way so let me benefit from this message. We are not concerned about the person of Muhammad per se. The content of the narration is not important, rather the consensus about the people narrating about his behaviors as the one who received the Quran and obeyed it first is important. No one says that I have seen Muhammad contradicting himself as he transferred the message to me. Their observations may be different, but consensus is most important.
To prove that this person is the Messenger of God is not the concerns of fiqh. After accepting him as the Messenger of God, you follow his way of life. As far as we are concerned, we must follow a way of life of an instructor who acts according to the message. In the Islamic tradition, the most effective witness of the Prophetic way of life is the Quran, the others are secondary. The narration is so powerful about the physical details of his life. Example: how Prophet performed his prayers, what he said about a particular matter etc.…