Anoth­er Ratio­nal Approach To The Prophet­hood of Muhammad

This is a con­tin­u­a­tion of our ear­li­er dis­cus­sion where we have talked about a ratio­nal approach to the prophet­hood of Muham­mad. It is well known that the Prophet Muham­mad^(P) was vic­to­ri­ous over all his oppo­nents, to him and to his fol­low­ers sub­dued many states and king­doms, peo­ple entered Islam in large num­bers and his call result­ed in Islam­ic Caliphate and civ­i­liza­tion for so many cen­turies. We also agree that God is Omni­scient, Omnipo­tent and Wise.

So is it pos­si­ble for the Most Wise to enable a liar to be vic­to­ri­ous, assist him, aid him against his oppo­nents and make the end result in his favour and his fol­low­ers, although this liar con­tin­u­ous­ly invent lies and forg­eries against God claim­ing that He sent him, attribut­ing to Him false reli­gion and false laws and mak­ing all this God’s Words and inspi­ra­tion, then this liar stays vic­to­ri­ous and over­pow­er­ing dur­ing his life­time and after his death, while peo­ple are fooled by him accept­ing his lies and forg­eries against God ? Or does God’s Wis­dom require that he is beat­en in every bat­tle and every field, and over­pow­ered and defeat­ed by every­one in every war and that he builds no state but God destroys it, so he dies con­quered and over­pow­ered as God does with all those who false­ly claim prophet­hood, divin­i­ty or inspiration ?

If we apply this to Muham­mad’s claim of prophet­hood, we notice that he^(P) made it clear that he is a prophet of God, inspired by Him and recit­ing His Words.

More­over, Muham­mad^(P) made it clear that God aids him against his oppo­nents and He was going to make him vic­to­ri­ous over all, the Holy Qur’an says :

If any thinks that Allah will not help him (His Mes­sen­ger) in this world and the Here­after, let him stretch out a rope to the ceil­ing and cut (him­self) off : then let him see whether his plan will remove that which enrages (him).Sura Al-Hajj, verse 15

The mean­ing is that if any­one thinks that Allah would not make Muham­mad^(P) vic­to­ri­ous in this life and in the Here­after, then let him do his best in fight­ing and oppos­ing him (peace be upon him), and if he failed, let him stretch a rope to the ceil­ing of his house and hang him­self on for Allah will inevitably aid His prophet.

Just imag­ine it. A man claim­ing prophet­hood and inspi­ra­tion recites vers­es affirm­ing that God helps him and will make him vic­to­ri­ous over his ene­mies, and then he actu­al­ly defeats all these ene­mies and becomes vic­to­ri­ous over them in the end.

And imag­ine again. This man recites the fol­low­ing verse :

And if the mes­sen­ger were to invent any say­ings in Our name, We should cer­tain­ly seize him by his right hand, and We should cer­tain­ly then cut off the artery of his heart : nor could any of you with­hold him (from Our wrath).Sura Al-Haqqah, vers­es 44 – 47

Please read the vers­es again and pon­der upon their meaning.

Here we have a man claim­ing he is inspired and sent by God and chal­leng­ing that if he does not tell the truth, God will cer­tain­ly destroy him. How­ev­er, we see that God nev­er destroyed this man, on the con­trary, he sup­port­ed and assist­ed him and made him vic­to­ri­ous and glo­ri­ous before all his opponents.

This means one of the following :

1) God does not exist in the first place.
2) God exists but He is igno­rant for He is unaware of all these chal­lenges spo­ken by this impostor.
3) God exists and is Omni­scient, but He is impo­tent for He can do noth­ing about the chal­lenges spo­ken by this impos­tor. So He sits and watch­es the promis­es and chal­lenges of the impos­tor come true.
4) God exists and is Omni­scient and Omnipo­tent, but He is unwise for He mis­leads peo­ple to the utmost, by swal­low­ing the chal­lenges of impos­tors while He can actu­al­ly stop them. Not only that, He also exe­cutes all their promis­es with vic­to­ry and glo­ry for them.
5) God exists and is Omni­scient, Omnipo­tent and Wise, and Muham­mad is tru­ly His Prophet whom He aid­ed and supported.

So, choose for yourself !

So, we con­clude that it is impos­si­ble of Muham­mad^(P) to lie regard­ing prophet­hood because we believe that God’s Wis­dom neces­si­tates that if he was an impos­tor, God would humil­i­ate him. But this did not hap­pen. On the con­trary, God aid­ed and sup­port­ed him dur­ing his life­time and after his death which is a deci­sive indi­ca­tion that he was a true prophet of Allah.

This deci­sive argu­ment is irrefutable ; for we believe that Allah’s Wis­dom neces­si­tates aid of true prophet and humil­i­a­tion of false prophet, and we know that Allah sup­port­ed Muham­mad^(P) and did not let him down, so he must be a true prophet.

In the light of this argu­ment, we can­not accept the claim that Muham­mad’s vic­to­ry was due to world­ly rea­sons for this would be a com­plete rejec­tion of God’s Wis­dom and Omnipo­tence. More­over, it is well known that Mus­lims were marked­ly few­er in num­ber than their oppo­nents in all the wars they fought begin­ning with the bat­tle of Badr till their wars with Per­sian and Roman armies, except for the bat­tle of Hunayn.

Before the advent of Islam, it was very usu­al of a small num­ber of Per­sian or Roman sol­diers to attack a large pop­u­lat­ed Arab tribe, cap­ture their men and enslave their women. Dur­ing wars, large num­bers of Arab fight­ers were often defeat­ed by small num­bers of Roman or Per­sian soldiers.

After the advent of Islam, the oppo­site was true ; small num­bers of Prophet’s Com­pan­ions used to defeat large num­bers of Roman or Per­sian sol­diers, even though Mus­lim sol­diers were poor­ly equipped. Roman and Per­sian kings were always amazed how their huge well-equipped armies were defeat­ed at hands of Mus­lims despite their small num­ber, weak­ness and lack of equipment.

Rev. George Bush (1796−1859) says about Muham­mad^(P):

He laid the foun­da­tion of an empire, which, in the short space of eighty years, extend­ed its sway over more king­doms and coun­tries than Rome had mas­tered in eight hun­dred. And when we pass from the polit­i­cal to the reli­gious ascen­dan­cy which he gained and con­sid­er the rapid growth, the wide dif­fu­sion, and the endur­ing per­ma­nence of the Mohammedan impos­ture, we are still more aston­ished. Indeed, in this, as in every oth­er instance where the for­tunes of an indi­vid­ual are entire­ly dis­pro­por­tioned to the means employed and sur­pass all rea­son­able calculation …

And con­fess­es :

…we are forced to resolve the prob­lem into the spe­cial prov­i­dence of God. Noth­ing short of this could have secured the achieve­ment of such mighty results ; and we must doubt­less look upon Mohammedanism in the present day as a stand­ing mon­u­ment of the mys­te­ri­ous wis­dom of Jeho­vah, designed to com­pass ends which are beyond the grasp of human minds, at least till they are accom­plished.Rev. George Bush, The Life of Mohammed ; Founder of The Reli­gion of Islam, and of The Empire of The Sara­cens, pub­lished by Harp­er & Broth­ers, 1844, pp. 156 – 157

This is in ful­fil­ment of God’s Promise in the Holy Qur’an :

Already has Our Word been passed before (this) to Our Ser­vants sent (by Us), that they would cer­tain­ly be assist­ed, and that Our forces, they sure­ly must con­quer.Sura Al-Saf­fat, vers­es 171 – 173

And :

We will, with­out doubt, help Our mes­sen­gers and those who believe, (both) in this world’s life and on the Day when the Wit­ness­es will stand fort.Sura Ghafir, verse 51

And :

Allah will cer­tain­ly aid those who aid His (cause); for ver­i­ly Allah is Full of Strength, Exalt­ed in Might, (Able to enforce His Will).Sura Al-Hajj, verse 40

And God’s ulti­mate promise :

Allah has promised, to those among you who believe and work right­eous deeds, that He will, of a sure­ty, grant them in the land, inher­i­tance (of pow­er), as He grant­ed it to those before them ; that He will estab­lish in author­i­ty their reli­gion- the one which He has cho­sen for them ; and that He will change (their state), after the fear in which they (lived), to one of secu­ri­ty and peace : They will wor­ship Me (alone) and not asso­ciate aught with Me.’ If any do reject Faith after this, they are rebel­lious and wicked.Sura Al-Nour, verse 55

This is marked­ly dif­fer­ent from dis­be­liev­ers who are made vic­to­ri­ous and estab­lished in author­i­ty for their estab­lish­ment and vic­to­ry is not due to divine aid, rather it is due to frank mate­r­i­al caus­es like wealth and pow­er. None of them ever claimed prophet­hood, nor that Allah ordered them to wor­ship Him alone. None claimed that who­ev­er obeyed him would go to Heav­en and who­ev­er dis­obeyed would go to Hell. On the con­trary of the one who claims inspi­ra­tion from Allah, he is either a truth­ful prophet of Allah, so Allah aids him and makes him vic­to­ri­ous, or he is an impos­tor, so Allah humil­i­ates him and cuts him off.

This is the answer to those who may argue that Allah had estab­lished in the land many dis­be­liev­ers and fol­low­ers of false reli­gions and made them pre­vail and suc­ceed like Bud­dhists and Confucius.

Oth­ers may argue that Mus­lims nowa­days are weak in com­par­i­son to oth­er nations of dis­be­lief, so how come Allah assists them ?

The answer is that Allah made Mus­lims vic­to­ri­ous over oth­er nations when they adhered to it, so He humil­i­at­ed peo­ple of dis­be­lief like Jews and Chris­tians. This is the case with the true reli­gion of God, if its peo­ple adhere to it, fol­low its com­mand­ments and abstain from its pro­hi­bi­tions, God will aid them and make them vic­to­ri­ous. But if they do not, He will not till they return back.

If a doc­tor pre­scribes a cer­tain med­ica­tion for a cer­tain dis­ease, then the patient does not fol­low the pre­scrip­tion and his ill­ness does not improve, no one can blame the doc­tor in this case, nor claim that he is not a real doctor.

This is the case with our nation, if they do not fol­low the com­mand­ments and teach­ings of Islam, Allah does not aid or help them, as the Caliph ​‘Umar said : ​“Allah has hon­oured us with Islam. So if we are to seek hon­our in oth­er than Islam, Allah will dis­hon­our us.”

In brief, it is the habit of Allah to aid and sup­port His true apos­tle to the degree that no one can ever oppose this apos­tle. It is well known that He incred­i­bly aid­ed Muham­mad (peace be upon him) like no oth­er apos­tle, it is also well known that none false­ly alleged prophet­hood but Allah exposed him, humil­i­at­ed him and cut him off, and all those aid­ed by Allah were true prophets like Noah, Ibrahim, Moses, Jesus, David and Sulaiman, for it is the habit of Allah to aid His Mes­sen­gers and their followers.

In addi­tion, teach­ings of all prophets of God are the same, for all of them com­mand with wor­ship of God alone with no part­ner, belief in the Here­after and the Judge­ment Day, and with praise of Allah, chasti­ty, hon­esty, truth­ful­ness in speech and deeds, and they for­bid idol wor­ship, lewd­ness, lying, cheat­ing, dis­hon­esty, etc So, if some­one claims prophet­hood and preach­es the same teach­ings of all pre­vi­ous prophets for the sake of guid­ing peo­ple, we know he is one of them, i.e., a true prophet, the same way we rec­og­nize the doc­tor if he pre­scribes the same med­ica­tions pre­scribed by all oth­er doc­tors and his treat­ment leads to cure of diseases.

This is evi­dent in the speech of Ja’­far ibn Abi Tal­ib to the king of Abyssinia :

“O king ! We were plunged into the depths of igno­rance, and we were idol­aters. We used to eat corpses, to com­mit abom­i­na­tions, to severe blood ties, to neglect our duties of hos­pi­tal­i­ty and neigh­bourli­ness, and to use only the law of the strong. That was our life until Allah raised among us a man, whose lin­eage, truth­ful­ness, hon­esty, and puri­ty we knew. He called us to the One­ness of Allah and taught us not to asso­ciate any­thing with Him. He for­bade us the wor­ship of idols and enjoined us to speak the truth, to be faith­ful to our trusts, to be mer­ci­ful and to regard the rights of the neigh­bours as well as kith and kin, and to refrain from crimes and blood­shed. He pro­hib­it­ed us from com­mit­ting abom­i­na­tions, speak­ing lies, devour­ing the prop­er­ty of orphans, and vil­i­fy­ing chaste women. He com­mand­ed us to offer prayers, to ren­der alms, and to observe fasts. We have allowed what he has allowed, and have pro­hib­it­ed what he has pro­hib­it­ed. For this rea­son, our peo­ple attacked us and per­se­cut­ed us in order to force us to aban­don the wor­ship of Allah and return to the wor­ship of idols and to regard as law­ful the evil deeds we once com­mit­ted. When they had tor­tured and encir­cled our lives, until find­ing no safe­ty among them, we have come to your coun­try, and hope you will pro­tect us from oppres­sion while we are with you, O king!“Sir­at Ibn Hisham, Biog­ra­phy of the Prophet, abridged by Abdus-Salam M. Harun. Trans­lat­ed and Pub­lished by Al-Falah Foun­da­tion, page 58

This speech sum­ma­rizes the teach­ings of Islam and shows that they agree with the teach­ings of all pre­vi­ous prophets and mes­sen­gers of God. This is a very impor­tant issue, for it is inad­e­quate to mere­ly know that Allah sent prophets and mes­sen­gers to peo­ple, it is more impor­tant to know why Allah sent these prophets and mes­sen­gers. In oth­er words, what did prophets and mes­sen­gers of Allah preach and teach ? It is non­sense to believe that Allah sent mes­sen­gers with­out know­ing the rea­son why they were raised among their peo­ples in the first place, and under­stand­ing the pur­pose of their prophet­hood. So, belief in prophets and mes­sen­gers of God requires know­ing the pur­pose of prophet­hood and Messengership.

We see that all prophets of God com­mand­ed their peo­ple with all that is good, and for­bade all that is evil. When we com­pare Muham­mad^(P) with oth­er prophets who pre­ced­ed him, we notice that he preached the same they preached and for­bade the same they forbade.

• He^(P) ordered to glo­ri­fy God, exalt Him above hav­ing part­ners or rivals, estab­lish His author­i­ty and worth of wor­ship, attribute to Him all qual­i­ties of per­fec­tion and negate all qual­i­ties of imper­fec­tion from Him.
• He^(P) denounced the notion that angels are daugh­ters of God and explained their real deeds and mis­sions in both earth and heavens.
• He^(P) com­mand­ed with belief in all pre­vi­ous divine scrip­tures revealed on pre­vi­ous prophets and showed that they con­tained guid­ance as long as they preach monothe­ism and puri­ty of faith, but once they got cor­rupt­ed, they are no longer suit­able for guidance.
• He^(P) brought evi­dent and deci­sive proofs of com­ing of the Last Day and Resurrection.
• He^(P) com­mand­ed with pleas­ing God with best acts like offer­ing prayers, giv­ing alms, fast­ing and pilgrimage.
• He^(P) preached good deeds and man­ners like truth­ful­ness, hon­esty, ful­fill­ment of trust, kind­ness to rela­tions, help­ing the poor and the needy, etc.
• He^(P) warned of asso­ci­a­tion of part­ners with Allah, idol wor­ship and disbelief.
• He^(P) pro­hib­it­ed blood shed­ding, adul­tery, alco­hol drink­ing and usury.

Are these not the teach­ings of all pre­vi­ous prophets which were decreed by Allah since the Prophet Noah (peace be upon him)?

All this indi­cates that he^(P) walked in the foot­steps of pre­vi­ous prophets of Allah. Actu­al­ly, his Mes­sage pre­served and guard­ed pre­vi­ous mes­sages that had been cor­rupt­ed and altered, Allah says :

Thus have We made of you an Ummah just­ly bal­anced, that ye might be wit­ness­es over the nations, and the Mes­sen­ger a wit­ness over your­selves.Sura Al-Baqarah, verse 143

This is due to the fact that all prophets came to preach the same religion.

Send­ing Muham­mad^(P) after the cor­rup­tion of the reli­gion of the pre­vi­ous prophets is a mer­cy from Allah to mankind, for indeed He says :

We sent thee not, but as a Mer­cy for all crea­tures.Sura Al-Anbiyaa, verse 107

The teach­ings which the prophets preached com­mand­ed all that is good and for­bade all that is evil. Muham­mad (peace be upon him) came as a pre­serv­er, a guardian and a wit­ness to these teach­ings. The Holy Qur’an says :

Thy Lord hath decreed that ye wor­ship none but him, and that ye be kind to par­ents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not to them a word of con­tempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour.

And, out of kind­ness, low­er to them the wing of humil­i­ty, and say : my Lord bestow on them thy mer­cy even as they cher­ished me in childhood.

Your Lord knoweth best what is in your hearts : if ye do deeds of right­eous­ness, ver­i­ly he is most for­giv­ing to those who turn to him again and again (in true penitence).

And ren­der to the kin­dred their due rights, as (also) to those in want, and to the way­far­er : but squan­der not (your wealth) in the man­ner of a spendthrift.

Ver­i­ly spend­thrifts are broth­ers of the evil ones ; and the evil one is to his Lord (him­self) ungrateful.

And even if thou hast to turn away from them pur­suit of the mer­cy from thy Lord which thou dost expect, yet speak to them a word of easy kindness.

Make not thy hand tied (like a nig­gard’s) to thy neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach, so that thou become blame­wor­thy and destitute.

Ver­i­ly thy Lord doth pro­vide sus­te­nance in abun­dance for whom he pleaseth, and he provideth in a just mea­sure. For he doth know and regard all his servants.

Kill not your chil­dren for fear of want : we shall pro­vide sus­te­nance for them as well as for you. Ver­i­ly the killing of them is a great sin.

Nor come nigh to adul­tery : for it is a shame­ful (deed) and an evil, open­ing the road (to oth­er evils).

Nor take life which Allah has made sacred except for just cause. And if any­one is slain wrong­ful­ly, we have giv­en his heir author­i­ty (to demand Visas or to for­give): but let him not exceed bounds in the mat­ter of tak­ing life ; for he is helped (by the Law).

Come not nigh to the orphan’s prop­er­ty except to improve it, until he attains the age of full strength ; and ful­fil (every) engage­ment, for (every) engage­ment, will be enquired into (on the day of reckoning).

Give full mea­sure when ye mea­sure and weigh with a bal­ance that is straight : that is the most fit­ting and the most advan­ta­geous in the final determination.
And pur­sue not that of which thou hast no knowl­edge ; for every act of hear­ing, or of see­ing or of (feel­ing in) the heart will be enquired into (on the day of reckoning).

Nor walk on the earth with inso­lence : for thou canas­ta not rend the earth asun­der, nor reach the moun­tains in height.

Of all such things, the evil is hate­ful in the sight of thy Lord.

There are among the (pre­cepts of) wis­dom, which thy Lord has revealed to thee. Take not with Allah anoth­er object of wor­ship. Lest thou shouldst be thrown into Hell, blame­wor­thy and reject­ed.Sura Al-Israa, vers­es 23 – 39

And says :

Say : come, I will rehearse what Allah hath (real­ly) pro­hib­it­ed you from : join not any­thing as equal with him ; be good to your par­ents ; kill not your chil­dren on a plea of want ; we pro­vide sus­te­nance for you and for them ; come not nigh to shame­ful deeds, whether open or secret ; take not life, which Allah hath made sacred, except by way of jus­tice and law : thus doth He com­mand you, that ye may learn wisdom.

And come not nigh to the orphan’s prop­er­ty, except to improve it, until he attains the age of full strength ; give mea­sure and weight with (full) jus­tice ; no bur­den do we place on any soul, but that which it can bear ; when­ev­er ye speak, speak just­ly, even if a near rel­a­tive is con­cerned ; and ful­fill the Covenant of Allah : thus doth He com­mand you, that ye may remember.

Ver­i­ly, this is my way, lead­ing straight : fol­low it : fol­low not (oth­er) paths : they will scat­ter you about from his (great) path : thus doth He com­mand you, that ye may be right­eous.Sura Al-An’am, vers­es 151 – 153

And says :

Say : ​“My Lord hath com­mand­ed Jus­tice ; and that ye set your whole selves (to Him) at every time and place of prayer, and call upon Him, mak­ing your devo­tion sin­cere as in His sight : Such as He cre­at­ed you in the begin­ning, so shall ye return.”

Some He hath guid­ed : oth­ers have (by their choice) deserved the loss of their way ; in that they took the Evil once, in pref­er­ence to Allah, for their friends and pro­tec­tors, and think that they receive guidance.

O Chil­dren of Adam Wear your beau­ti­ful appar­el at every time and place of prayer : eat and drink : but wast not be excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters.

Say : who hath for­bid­den the beau­ti­ful (gifts) of Allah, which He hath pro­duced for his ser­vants, and the things, clean and pure, (which He hath pro­vid­ed) for sus­te­nance ? Say they are, in the life of this world, for those who believe, (and) pure­ly for them on the day of judg­ment thus do we explain the Signs in detail for those who under­stand.Sura Al-A’raf, vers­es 29 – 32

These great teach­ings were preached by all the Prophets, and Muham­mad^(P) affirmed and dis­played them in the best way. It is ade­quate when hear­ing these great teach­ings to believe in Muham­mad^(P) and know that he came to mankind with guid­ance and favour, com­mand­ing with good and for­bid­ding evil, whether it is in words or deeds.

And Allah knows best.