Arguments for Messengership – Part 26

The Reasonings (page 129-130)-

The Fourth Point: A judgment that is given or valid for a whole may not be valid for each of its parts.  (Although this is a generally true fact, Prophet Muhammad upon him be peace and blessings, is an exception to it.  That is, no act or state of Prophet Muhammad contradicts his Prophethood.)

Analogy:  If the lighting system of a building supplies light and even though some of its internal circuits may not be functioning, then you are still thankful for the light being supplied.  You do not use the defect in the house circuit to criticize the power supply center.

But, when it comes to the Prophets lives, if they are Prophets, then they are expected to be consistent not only at a global level but also at a local level i.e. in their particular life events.  Example: some events happened, and the Prophet got angry/happy, it means that in that situation, a man is expected to be angry/happy.  Not because of a lack of consistency that he is angry, rather that type of situation is a state where one must be angry/happy.  It does not mean that he is a perfect human being, of course he may lack something about which he was not taught by God.  As a Prophet representing the message of God, he must be perfect as far as training his potentiality is concerned (i.e. achieved highest human capacity) because the message of God is perfect.

• Perfect message, by definition cannot be represented by a person who is not perfect in his behavior to be the conveyer of the message and to practice it in his life.

Hadith narrations are about particular events in the lives of the Prophets.  “Particular event” is narrated to us and if we can say that in this event, the Prophet was not consistent because he is a human being who may fail, then this hadith cannot be representing the Prophetic message because there is a human weakness and the Prophet then cannot be the exemplary guide for human beings.

Every hadith narration must represent the Prophetic perfect message.  According to us, we may have some sort of concept that may portray us as human beings with our human reality or human weakness.  That is why the Prophet gets married, excited about it and gets angry/happy.

• All these events are appropriate to human reality, that is how we are created.

When you read the hadiths, you have to read the narrations from the perspective of the Prophetic message, NOT from the perspective of him being weak/fallible human being.  His being a weak human being is concerned with his created-ness and related to his employment.  He is not the source of the message he is delivering to people.  That is, he is a created being and he does not have any Divine quality.  He is an abd i.e. a worshipper first as a created being and then he is a messenger or Rasool (ahsadu anna muhammadun abduhu wa rasuluhu).  He is not a part-time abd or may fall sometimes.

Torah narration always attributes some sort of defect to the Prophets.  One reason is that narrations must be distorted. Then narrators attribute such statements to the fallible side of human beings who narrate the defect in the Prophets, not to the Prophets themselves.  If this is true, then he is not a Prophet.

Here are three perspectives to understand the passage:

1. It is necessary for messengers to be consistent even in particular events.
2. Hadith narrations are about particulars and we must take hadith narrations as one event is narrated (it may be fabricated/distorted or innocently and wrongly thought what the Prophet said etc. is the weakness of human beings). What we should be concerned about is that if the Prophet was here, then he would do this to solve this dispute.  Example: Person A keeps narrating how valuable certain chapters of the Quran are.  Person B said, are you sure that this is taught by the Prophet, what is your evidence that the Prophet encouraged this?  Person A says that I see that people are neglecting the Quran and so I am trying to encourage them.  With good intention, narrated that Prophet would love people to read a Chapter X of the Quran and so he would encourage people to read.  That is, if you read Chapter X for example, something good will happen.  Never forget the weakness of the narrator.  If we see something from narration that does not seem correct, (example Prophet was not in good mood or he seemed distressed, then disregard it as it goes against the principles of belief in Messengership.  Also, our expectations may not be appropriate, and we need to question that as well.  Example: According to me, we should not laugh at this, but the Prophet laughed, so we should check ourselves as well.
3. When we are reading the hadith, we must follow the fundamental belief principles established in the Qur’an, and accordingly read the hadiths, otherwise we cannot benefit from the points mentioned in the narrations of the hadiths.

Check yourself, do not make a judgment without considering your own understanding as well.  “I may be wrong” and so you revise it.

• Don’t be biased and say: “according to me, it is wrong”.

Comment: Prophets were consistent with their human nature or with the message, right?

How can I separate human nature from the message?  Message is the real representation of human nature.  Human nature is different from human weakness.  The Prophet is not the Source of the message, he is a worshipper like you and I and then he is a messenger (abduhu wa rasooluhu).  That is to say, that he is not reflecting to us what he thought is right according to him.

There is a famous attitude of the Prophet saying:  You come to me and bring a case.  I listen to you and make a judgment as the community leader of this administration.  I pass a judgement on the way you present the case.  When I say you are right and in reality, you are wrong, then what I deem is right does not necessarily mean “you are right” because I judge according to what he presents to me.

This does not mean that if the Prophet said that you are right and so in reality you are right.  Prophet was a human being and he does not know who is right, only the Creator of the universe would know that.

• Where is the Prophetic message there? Prophetic message is conveying to us that if a judgment is passed, it is passed according to the evidence presented, it does not mean that you are conveying the Divine knowledge, that is the Prophetic mission.  Similarly, in the society, when a judge makes a decision about you, it is based on evidence and that does not mean that you are in fact right.

What is right is according to the evidence that a person presents and say that it is right.  According to the evidence, I say that this is right.  The paper gets a 100%, not the person. They might have cheated in the exam, we do not know.

The Prophet says that when I pass a judgment about a person being right and another being wrong, do not go home and say that the Prophet said that I am wrong.  No, my evidence shows me that I am wrong.  In reality, what I am, no-one knows except God.  That is the Prophetic mission.  It means practically the judge will pass a verdict according to one’s evidence, not reality.  That is the Prophetic exemplary life (showing us how to behave).  Not that the Prophet passed the judgment according to the reality.

• The Prophet is an exemplary life showing us how we should behave and at the same time, any judgment against you or for you does not represent your reality.

Divine message says that as a human being, you should never pass judgment about this man’s heart, rather judge about the paper he presents to you.  That is Divine guidance.

Comment: Why do you need the Prophet then?

To give this example to you.  Example: I am a fallible man (be careful about human nature and weakness).  I am not expected to judge someone’s heart, only what they present to me.

• Prophet represent the exemplary life which matches human nature. As a human being, how I should act which would show the basis on which this event is judged is right?
• Lesson: I am not responsible to read people’s heart, so I did right.
• The Prophet is also teaching that it is against human nature to cheat.

When it comes to passing judgment between human beings, the Prophetic teaching is that we must do so according to evidence.

We give judgement according to “zahir”, what appears in front of me materially, otherwise we cannot say that this guy sits in an innocent way, maybe he is a spy. There is no evidence.  Hence, have a good intention about people in general unless you see a material physical evidence, that is the Prophetic message.  This principle prevented the sincere people from passing judgment without having material evidence about people on people.  This caused lots of fights among the community that this guy is not sincere.  Without physical evidence you cannot judge anyone.  You can think that I am sincere, otherwise if you see an evidence of not being sincere, then you will judge about my sincerity accordingly.  Otherwise, keep having positive perception of people. 

No one came here with a bad intention.  You must have a positive perception about anyone unless you see a physical evidence.

Do I always keep the consciousness that anything to do with the future, keep in mind only if God wills to happen?  It is a teaching that we do not remember or have this consciousness, as soon as you realize that you have done something wrong, turn back and say “if God wills” that I cannot guarantee anything for the future.  That is human nature and we are trained according to our human nature in order not to fall into our fallible side.  When you do a mistake, turn back.

If you realize what you did was wrong, then as soon as you realize that it was wrong, then you are right.  Not in the past you are right.  Now you are expected to do admit it and it will be right.  You are on the right track now.  Don’t worry about the past mistake anymore.  When you take a wrong exit, you realize that you are on the wrong way, then you go back and that is right.  Why do you bother, I made a mistake, I took a wrong exit?  Do not refer to the past anymore, you accepted it, you are on the right road now, why do you bother?

Comment: Prophets correct our error and the Divine corrects the guide itself?

Why do you frown? (Qur’an, 80: 1) We take it literally and say that the Prophet made a mistake.  If we are engaged with someone very important according to our eyes, then we neglect unimportant ones.  God is teaching me through examples that be careful that this attitude is wrong.  This is the exemplary principles presented in the life of the Prophet, that is what we are learning.

If the Prophet always made perfect actions, then how can I correct my imperfect actions?  By going through these stages, he is presenting to us how to realize our nature.  It is the Prophetic mission to show that when you make a mistake, then you have to correct it this way.  Prophets are guide for us.

Why was the Prophet defeated in one of the wars?  With the same understanding. Some people claimed in defense of the prophet that even he seemed to be defeated, at the end he was victorious.  This attitude misses the point. Prophetic mission needs to teach me as my nature requires me to be taught.  I will be defeated, it is quite normal, it is in the human nature and I will be victorious, it is quite human.  I must learn this.  As a Prophet, he must be defeated at least once, otherwise, he would not represent my reality and teach me what to do when I am defeated.

Human weakness is a part of human reality. Problem comes from reading the Quran with its historical context and confining it to that historical event.  Example: Prophet frowned, and God said do not frown at someone because of his low status in the society.  Prophet must present every case as a human being that we go through and teach me what to do when I feel in a certain way.  Example: Mayor comes and sits in class that these people are talking about the truth.  Human nature would say, look, Mayor is here.  However, what I learn from Prophet is that it does not matter if the Mayor comes or the janitor comes in here, I learn from this narration that status does not matter, I cannot attribute value to status.  Who is sincere and seeking the truth?

People want to justify this event.  Rather, you should say to yourself: “I can share the truth only with those who seek”.  If someone does not seek the truth, they do not get any benefit from it.  Importance of majority does not matter as well.  Is the person seeking the truth and sharing with you or not?  We should not be concerned with the other qualities of this person.  Everyone takes in according to their capacity.  His capacity is not my business.

• Is s/he sincerely looking for the truth?

If you think that you are conveying the truth, you must share with this person.  If a famous man accepts Islam, then everyone will follow him, take notice of his/her every act and will benefit from him/her.  This is not the right starting approach according to the Quranic teaching.  It would be right to narrate that as a historical event, but as a guide for human nature, I need to be sincerely yearning for the truth for myself as part of my human nature.

• Prophet represents life principles as the result of Divine inspiration which is human nature or how human nature needs to be trained.

Prophetic mission does not concern about passing judgment about your reality.  Prophetic mission is teaching me about how to act according to the evidence only.  Prophets said: “I am not here to pass judgment about people’s heart.  I am not here to claim that I know “unknown”.

• If the Prophet acts according to knowing the unknown (ghaib), then he cannot be the Prophet because he is not being the guide for me who cannot know unknown.

I never know ghaib and he knows ghaib, so he cannot be my example and he cannot be my guide.  Prophet only says that I can only know about ghaib when I am thought by ghaib/God, so I reveal it to you because God taught it appropriate to reveal this ghaib to human beings as they can manage it according to their human capacity/nature.  Example:  Resurrection is ghaib.  This ghaib news came to us and we can manage with it and have evidence for it and confirm it.  To confirm this news is within our capacity.  Prophet was taught about ghaib and he revealed ghaib to us because our human nature can manage with it.

• Our human nature cannot manage to know people’s heart. Prophet never presented any example of it.  I cannot pass a judgment according to one’s heart.

Comment: I cannot even pass a true judgment about myself.

Never trust a judgment about yourself by yourself.  Ask other people.

You can pass a judgment about yourself and this judgment will be more probably correct about judging yourself.  But, bear in mind that human beings like to lie about themselves.  If you look at the world, they feel very comfortable with this. Another type of excuse to justify that I am right.

If I think seriously about myself, I realize that I make excuses.  If I do not intend to see what is in me and why do I have certain attitude towards life, then I would just be carried away with it.  The teachings of the Quran say: “(Insert your name), you may come up with lots of excuses to justify yourself but be careful if you think and reflect on it, then you will know what your reality is in that particular case” (Qur’an, 75: 14-15).  Usually, we cover it up.  People  seem to be comfortable, no one seems to be troubled with their lives, very few exceptions.  No one sits and says: “what I am doing here, is it really what is expected of me?”  These verses teach me that I must go back and make an introspective analysis of myself.  You will have to go back and think about your reality, you will catch some cases.  In most cases, we always lie to ourselves about ourselves.  That is the tendency of human nature.  Quran says go back to your justification and see if it is a justifiable justification or unjustifiable one, go back.  It is an advice.  Ultimately, everyone knows who he is with one condition: “question and you cannot know ghaib”.  Despite that, my heart is ghaib to me as well, but I can guess as an obvious case.  Deep down, no one can be sure that I will be a candidate for Paradise.  For the same reason, that you cannot know your ghaib as well.

Comment: Unless it is revealed to you, I can only know my heart as much as it is taught to me by my Creator.

Your Creator teaches you that “I have forgiven your past and future sins.” (Qur’an, 48: 2)  It means do not worry about it.  People say that you are under the guarantee of God, so why are you forcing yourself to be perfect worshipper of God, why do you exhort yourself and cry at night for perfection?  Did the Prophet take it for granted that I am saved now, here is the Divine revelation?  Divine is beyond time and space. 

• If the Prophet was not going to continue his worshipful attitude, definitely God would know it and would not say it.

Even if God tells you that you are saved, you must take care of your responsibility of worship that is what we learn from verses of the Quran.  Otherwise, the Prophet’s wife would say that God has forgiven your sins, why do you exhort yourself?  Do you think I was worshipping God in order to be saved or I was worshipping God because it is my reality to practice it, nothing to do with being saved?  It is my reality to be in acknowledgment of God i.e. worshipping It.

That is why Sufi tradition is clear about it: “We do not do anything to gain Paradise.”  A lot of scholars say this attitude: “Do not be a business man in your transactions with God.”  If it is true, then do it according to your understanding, if it is wrong, then do not do it according to your understanding.

Comment: Doesn’t one’s Source of Existence know them better than they know themselves?

Yes, because I do not know my future, but He knows because His knowledge is not restricted to time.  He is the Creator of time or creation.  Now and then, creation is equal to the Absolute One.  He speaks from His perspective knowing that the Prophet would not stop worshipping God because he is saved now, and not to take anything easy and relaxed.  Ultimately, verses tell us that God knows about past, future and present.

• Mind your business now, what am I supposed to do now as far as my existence is concerned?

Comment: I must struggle to get to know myself.

Why do you bother?  What are you going to do with knowing yourself?  Concentrate with what you are doing now.  If you are a good person or a bad person, what are you doing with it?  If I try to get to know myself, then I find lots of faults in my life and it is a disappointing thing to me and puts me off or makes me arrogant that I am going to clean myself of all the faults and claim to be the perfect man.  In both cases, I am wrong.

Do not bother about your reality and yourself, concentrate on your duty from now onwards, what am I supposed to do?  So far, I have been a bad man or good man, what are you going to do now?  That is what the Prophetic message teaches us: “He was worshipping God even after he was told that he is cleared of all sins. Still he continued his way of life in the same way.”

• Do not bother about your past and future. What are you expected to do now?

We are learning how to read the Quran.  Try to get the criteria of reading the Quran.  Quran never speaks in abstract sense because we are not equipped to understand abstract ways.  Quran speaks in concrete sense with narrations and events.  Example:  There was a man who was called Noah…These people did this…  None of my business if that even happened or not historically.

• Quran is to be read to get universal message from it.