In answer to the video "Allah is Merciless"
Like in every community with a charismatic leader, there will be people who will be inclined to overstep the bounds of reverence, even when the leader explicitly tells them not to do so. And when these leaders are prophets, per the Quran the highest rank a human being can reach in terms of spiritual eminence, then this tendency among the followers becomes more pronounced. The prophet Muhammad disliked being honoured like a royalty, and hence forbade his people to stand up for him. His followers knew it and despite their love for him would refrain from doing so
"There was no person more beloved to them than the Messenger of Allah." [He said:] "And they would not stand when they saw him because they knew that he disliked that."This resulted in many times visitors being unable to distinguish between him and the remaining assembly. In contrast, one thing God made sure of is that the believers should lower their voices and carefully listen to the prophet in their midst and on whose instructions salvation depends 49:2. He would not let people stand for him although he himself would stand up for others, as he did when
"A funeral passed by the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and he stood up. It was said to him, “It is a Jew.” The Prophet said, “Was he not a soul?”.Just as he refused for others to stand up for him, he did not let anyone bow down for him out of reverence
"When Mu‘aadh ibn Jabal came from Syria, he prostrated to the Prophet, who said, “What is this, O Mu‘aadh?” He said, I went to Syria and saw them prostrating to their archbishops and patriarchs, and I wanted to do that for you. The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said, “Do not do that".
Once, during Badr
"The Prophet was arranging the ranks with his switch (miqra`a) and he nudged Sawad’s belly with it, scratching him inadvertently, with the words: “Align yourself with the others.” Sawad said: “Ya Rasulallah, you hurt me, so give me reparation.” The Prophet handed him the switch and said: “Take reparation.” Sawad approached him and kissed his belly. The Prophet said: “What made you do that, O Sawad?” He replied, “Y Rasulallah, the time has come for what you see, and I loved that my last action in this dunya be to touch you.”As is clear here, the prophet Muhammad did not expect this, nor did he ask for it, nor did he command others to do it. Kissing in this manner in Arabian tradition was understood as reverence as is done to a leader. Even the Jews, upon the prophet's arrival in Medina
"kissed his hands and his feet, and they said: 'We bear witness that you are a Prophet.' So he said: 'Then what prevents you from following me?' They said: 'Because Dawud supplicated to his Lord that his offspring never be devoid of Prophets and we feared that if we follow you then the Jews will kill us".
Many ahadith, let alone the Quran, explain that there is a fine line between justified reverence, due to a person's righteousness only, and unjustified over exaltation
”A group of men once said, ‘O Muhammad! You are our most righteous person, and the son of our most righteous person, our ‘sayyid’ (great Master) and the son of our ‘sayyid.’ The Messenger of Allah thereupon said, ‘O people! Say what you have to say, but do not allow Satan to deceive you. I am Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdullah, Allah’s Servant and Messenger. I do not like that you elevate me above the rank that Allah, Almighty and Ever-Majestic be He, has granted me.’ “ The prophet further said “Do not exagerate in praising me as the Christians praised the son of Mary,for I am only a slave. So, call me the slave of Allah and His Messenger".The result is that despite the reverence of the multitudes, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, for various reasons, towards this righteous, humble and God-fearing man, neither he nor his admirers, past and present, claimed that he was a son of God, His incarnation or divine in any other way, but instead he always was and still is the slave and messenger of Allah. This was certainly no false humility. Although he was known as the most trustworthy individual among his contemporaries, enemies and friends alike who would both entrust him with valuables, as well as the fair distribution of charity, to the point that he was given the epithet al-amin/the trustworthy one, he showed that this quality, even in its supreme form is not his prerogative
"The Prophet said, "Every nation has an Amin (i.e. the most honest man), and the Amin of this nation is Abu 'Ubaida bin Al-Jarrah"
He consistently refused the offers of worldly compensation by his opponents in exchange for giving up or changing some of his message. Even when the community had grown prosperous he maintained a simple, sometimes bordering on ascetic lifestyle. Some particular incidents of overexaltation were condemned by him, as he was being treated by cupping he ordered to
We would have certainly seen the kind of ridiculous post Jesus innovations by Christians the likes of the Eucharist cannibalistic ritual of metaphorically drinking and eating Christ's body. The most reliable report in that matter is the one depicting a soldier, during battle took the injured prophet and
On a similar occasion somebody drank the bowl in which he had urinated at night, despite his order to
"take this blood and pour it away so no one will see it.” When he had departed from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), he went and drank the blood. He said: “O ‘Abd-Allaah, what have you done?” He said: “I put it in the most secret place where I thought it would be most hidden from the people.” He said: “Perhaps you drank it.” He said: “Yes.” He said: “Why did you drink the blood? Woe to the people because of you and woe to you because of the people"in another version the prophet ended with
"because of what your people will go through because of you".Of course blood is impure to consume, human or else 6:145 and if found on oneself should be cleaned before standing for the ritual prayer. All the versions of that hadith have the prophet instructing his blood be discarded but contrary to the above condemnation of the one who drank it, other reports, none of them standing the test of authentication, have the prophet approving the act and even sometimes mentioning the salvific nature of his blood. Surely had this been true there would have been countless other cases of muslims asking for or going around drinking and eating their prophet's blood or flesh.
We would have certainly seen the kind of ridiculous post Jesus innovations by Christians the likes of the Eucharist cannibalistic ritual of metaphorically drinking and eating Christ's body. The most reliable report in that matter is the one depicting a soldier, during battle took the injured prophet and
"sucked the wound so that to clean it until there was no blood and the whiteness of his skin showed. It was said to him: Spit it out. He said: No, by Allaah, I will never spit it out. Then he went and fought. And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever wants to see one of the people of Paradise, let him look at this man.” Then he was martyred".The words have no ambiguity in them, the man applied this method of treatment out of physical necessity, not for the purpose of gaining salvation through the blood. The prophet, as with the other reports did not want his blood be drank, both because of the Quranic instructions and to avoid idolising him. Further nothing is said of the prophet's reaction after the man refused spitting the blood and immediately resumed fighting, nor is there a connection between the blood and the statement about him being of the dwellers of paradise. The prophet could have made this final remark in relation to the man's warrior spirit and fighting zeal, which in fact led him to be martyred soon after.
On a similar occasion somebody drank the bowl in which he had urinated at night, despite his order to
"Throw away whatever is in the bowl"and then proceeded to tell the person she had nevertheless ingested a beneficial remedy for stomach pain, as per his own understanding of folk remedies. Besides the recognized weakness of this report, especially the bit about drinking the bowl, nowhere does it say anything of the prophet commanding to do so, why would he when he himself took great care so as to avoid sprinkling urine on his garments because of it being a ritual impurity?
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