In this article, I have pointed out some of the worst misconceptions prevalent among us, the Muslim community, today regarding the status of the Prophet (PBUH) and the nature of our relationship with him. Obviously, if the only way to attain divine recognition is through the Prophet (PBUH), then in the presence of these forms of ignorance, neither can we establish the right relationship with him nor can we get from him what he is the only means of attaining it. For this reason, it is mandatory for us to make clear the foundations on which the Qur’an has instructed us to establish our relationship with the Prophet (PBUH) so that anyone who wants to reach God can establish his precise association with the only means of reaching God.
In my opinion, the Qur’an establishes our relationship with the Prophet (PBUH) on the following four grounds: faith, obedience, sincerity, and adherence to his teachings.
Faith
Faith is the first foundation of our relationship with the Prophet (PBUH). Faith does not only mean believing that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is the last Messenger of Allah, but the true spirit of this faith is true and firm faith in him. It demands complete trust in that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is truthful and honest. It also demands the belief that there is deep wisdom in every word and every action of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), even if we do not understand that wisdom. Moreover, it requires belief in the fact that the path shown by the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is the true path to salvation and well-being, no matter how many dangers it appears to carry. The belief that the principles of life taught by the Prophet (PBUH) are not temporary and short-lived, but they are eternal is also mandatory. Mankind will never be able to get rid of them, and above all, there is no other way to know God than the way that the Prophet (PBUH) has taught and told US
Unless a person has this confidence, the confirmation that the Prophet (PBUH) is the Messenger of Allah does not make one aware of the true pleasure of faith, nor does this faith work from the point of view of the knowledge that is the true source of this faith. For this reason, it is said in the hadith:
This is the trust that the Prophet (PBUH) taught Umar bin Khaṭṭāb (RTA) bin Khaṭṭāb (RTA) (may Allah be pleased with him) on one occasion. It is narrated that ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) once came to the Prophet (PBUH) and said, “O Messenger of Allah! We sometimes hear things from Jews that seem very good. Do you allow us to take note of some of these things?”
The Prophet (PBUH) said:
“Just as the Jews and ians were amazed about their religion, so you also want to be surprised. If Moses were alive today, he would have no choice but to follow me. The same is stated in another tradition in a slightly different way, which shows that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) also expressed some displeasure over the above question of Umar bin Khaṭṭāb (RTA). When Umar bin Khaṭṭāb (RTA) realized the displeasure of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), he immediately cried out.
The taste of faith was tasted by him who was satisfied with
Allah being his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad as his Messenger. (Saḥīḥ of Muslim)
I am fully satisfied with
Allah being my Lord, Islam as my religion, and
Muhammad as my
Prophet.
It is clear from these hadith reports that the Prophet (PBUH) has done this work in the best possible way as far as showing the way to the recognition of Allah and clarifying the straight path of Allah is concerned. Even a great prophet like Moses would have followed the same path if he had lived during the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Obviously, from the point of view of guiding to the truth, when after the Prophet (PBUH) and his Shariah, there was no significance of Moses and his Shariah, then what would be the value of other people and their knowledge, thoughts, ideas and experiences? Other forms of knowledge and ideas, if something significant, can only be in so far as they are consistent with the Book and the Sunnah. If a person gives priority to any thought, philosophy, intuition, method, or experience over the knowledge and practice of the Prophet, or accepts it without following the same criterion or at the same time claims to believe in the Prophet (PBUH), then his claim is only a self-deception. It is because his faith is completely devoid of the trust that is the true spirit of this faith.
Obedience
Obedience is the second condition of our relationship with the Prophet (PBUH). No prophet or messenger of the world has been sent so that people can consider him a prophet and messenger to the extent of accepting him, but the real thing that has been intended by his sending is to obey him and to obey the commands and instructions he gives in the affairs of life. This fact is explained by the Qur’an in these words: “We have not sent a messenger except to obey him by the command of Allah” (Q 4:64).
At another occasion, the Quran asserts that the acceptance of a man’s good deeds depends on obeying the Messenger of Allah. If he does not obey, all his deeds go in vain: “O you who believe, obey Allah and Obey His Messenger, and do not waste your deeds (Q 47:33).”
The reason for demanding obedience to the Prophet (PBUH) is that the only way to show obedience to God is to obey His Messenger. Allah does not deal directly with His servants, but through His Messenger. It is the Messenger who informs people of God’s instructions and His commandments. Therefore, whoever wants to obey Allah must obey the Messenger. This Obedience to the Messenger (PBUH) is actually obedience to Allah. “Whoever obeys the Messenger obeys Allah.”
The hand of the Messenger is the equivalent of Allah’s hand for the people. Those who pledge allegiance to the hand of the Messenger actually pledge allegiance to Allah indirectly. “Those who pledge allegiance to you are actually pledging allegiance to Allah, and Allah’s hand is above their hands” (Al-Fath 48:10).
It has also been made clear in the hadiths that the way to obey Allah is to obey Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Such as: “Whoever obeys Muhammad, he obeys Allah, and whoever disobeys Muhammad disobeys Allah, Muhammad is the distinguishing sign between those who believe in Allah and those who do not” (Bukhari).
It has also been made clear in the Qur’an that this obedience is not verbal and formal, but it is necessary that a person should completely submit himself to the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet. The decisions should be accepted with full satisfaction of the heart and full consent of the mind, there should be no misunderstanding or complaint against them in the heart. “But no, [O Messenger!] By your Lord! These people shall never be true believers until they accept you as the arbitrator in their disputes.
Then whatever decision you give, they do not feel any uneasiness in their hearts and whole-heartedly submit to it” (Al-Nisa 4:65).
No one should be deceived by the apparent words of these verses and hadiths so as to believe that they are related only to the life of the Prophet (PBUH) and that after the departure of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), his obedience is no more necessary. After the Prophet’s departure, the Book of Allah and his Sunnah stand as his successors whose obedience is equivalent to the obedience of the Holy Prophet.
The Prophet (PBUH) had already issued his verdict before his death: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I have left two things with you. As long as you stand firm on both of them, you will not go astray.”
In addition, the rulers and officials of an Islamic government who are the enforcers of the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) in the earth are also included in the same order. The Prophet (PBUH) has explained it very clearly in the following hadith report: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ” “Whoever obeys me, obeys Allah, and whoever disobeys me, disobeys Allah. Whoever obeys the ruler, obeys me, and whoever disobeys the ruler, disobeys me (Bukhari).”
The above details explain the fact evidently that considering the Prophet (PBUH) as a Messenger requires that we should follow the Book and Sunnah through which he has informed us of the will of Allah and His commandments. Believing in the Prophet (PBUH) mere verbally, showing obedience to one’s personal desires or the opponents of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), it cannot be considered a belief that can open doors to the divine recognition. Rather, such a belief increases a person’s misery and misfortune.
Followership (Ittibā’)
The third basis of our relationship with the Prophet (PBUH) is followership (Ittibā’). The scope of followership (Ittibā’) is wider than obedience. Obedience only involves issues of obligations, commandments, and rules. Followership (Ittibā’), on the other hand, also involves desirable (mustaḥabbāts) & additional /optional (nawāfils) acts of piety. Moreover, obedience can be apparent and formal in some circumstances.
For example, a person obeys a person, but there is no sense of sincerity and love involved in obeying him. For followership, it is also necessary to have a feeling of devotion and respect for the person being followed.
The Companions (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon them) not only obeyed the Prophet (PBUH) but also followed him. They did not only obey the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) when he ordered something, stopped them from doing something. Instead, they would observe every movement of the Prophet, remember every step he took, and followed him in everything.
They would observe how the Prophet (PBUH) got up, how he sat, how he slept, woke up, walked, talked, ate, washed his hands, made ablution, and prayed. Thus, they keenly observed all the movements of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). They followed the Prophet’s actions not because of any external pressure but from a sincere desire to make all aspects of their lives compatible with that
The reason for this interest of the Companions in the Prophet’s (PBUH) life was that the status of a lover and beloved of God is not only derived from obedience to the Messenger (PBUH). Instead, it comes through a combination of obedience and Ittibā‘ of the Prophet (PBUH). A divine messenger is a practical manifestation of the recognition of God. Every action he performs is a sign of divine recognition. For those reasons, the people who love God also love each and every act of the Messenger of Allah. They see in the Messenger the knowledge that leads to the recognition of God. They see the actions that arise from God’s recognition, the habits that God likes, the qualities that God loves, and the beauty on which the beauty of God is. Therefore, they trace and follow every step of the Prophet (PBUH). Since they do all this in the love of God, they get the reward by earning the status of the beloved of Allah. This fact is stated in the following verse of the Qur’an:
“Say, If you love Allah, follow me; Allah will love you” (Q 3:31).
In fact, the main purpose of the Messenger’s life is that the reflection of the recognition of God that should fall on the life of man should be seen in the day-to-day life of the Messenger. The life of the Prophet is the perfect example of the light that should be visible in every visible object if the light of the divine recognition shines in the inner self of an individual.
For this reason, every action in the Messenger’s life carries the status of a perfect example (uswahal-ḥasanah) for his followers. Following this example, the more agility a person shows, the closer he gets to winning the love and intimacy of God. “This is the best example for you in the life of the Messenger of Allah” (Al-Ahzab 33:21).
Love
The fourth condition of our relationship with the Prophet (PBUH) is our love for him. Faith in religion or obedience that is not based on love is not reliable. Obedience that does not have the spirit of love at its core is, in some cases, mere hypocrisy.
Moreover, the required love is not just formal and outward. Instead, it should be the one that overpowers all other forms of love. It should be so intense that it should outweigh the most loved relationships. It should be the love for which everything in the world can be left. It should never be compromised for any alternative. The standard of this love is stated in the Qur’an as follows: “Tell them [O Prophet]: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your family, the wealth you have earned, the trade whose loss you fear, and the homes you like – all these are dearer to you than God, His Messenger and jihād for His cause, then wait until God delivers His Judgment” (Q 9:24).
The Prophet (PBUH) has explained this fact in hadiths in different ways. For example, it is said in a hadith that a person’s faith in the Messenger cannot be established unless he loves me more than his father, son, and all other relatives. The Prophet (PBUH) said: “None of you can be a believer unless I am dearer to him than his father, his son, and all others.” It is said in a hadith that only after such love with the Prophet (PBUH) can one become acquainted with the true pleasure of faith. “He who has three things will taste faith because of them. A person to whom Allah and His Messenger are dearer than anything else (Muttafaqun Alayhi).”
But it should be remembered here that the love mentioned here with the Prophet (PBUH) is not only the emotional love that a man naturally has with his wife and children or his other loved ones, but it is also the rational and principled love that a person has with some principle and creed. Because of which he puts the same principle and the same sect first everywhere in his life, over this principle and creed, he sacrifices everything and every principle, every creed and every desire and every command, but he himself does not sacrifice it for anything in the world. For the supremacy of this principle and sect, he degrades all things but does not want to see this principle and sect as inferior under any circumstances. If his own self is resistant to this sect, then he also fights it, if others are resistant to it, he also confronts them, even the demands of his wife, children, and relatives, if the demands of his own sect clash with the demands of this sect at any stage, then he supports his principle and creed. And fearlessly rejects the wishes of his wife and children and the demands of his family and nation. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) himself has made it clear in a hadith that this love is principled and rational. You say:
Whoever loves my Sunnah loves me, and whoever loves
Obedience without love and love without Ittibā‘
While it is clear from the above description that our faith relationship with the Prophet (PBUH) cannot be established unless this faith is based on obedience, Ittibā‘, and love, various indications also suggest that obedience is hypocrisy without love and love without Ittibā‘ is innovation (bid‘ah). It is very clearly established by the Qur’an itself from the fact that many neighbors of Arabs of Madinah started obeying Islamic rulings and laws after the political power of Islam increased. However, they did so because of their political interests rather than the result of their love for Allah and the Prophet (PBUH) and the faith that requires sincerity and trust. Therefore, when they claimed their faith on certain occasions as if they had done a great favor to the Prophet (PBUH) and to Islam, the Qur’an instructed the Prophet (PBUH) to inform the believers that a person cannot become a true believer by mere apparent obedience to Islamic rulings and laws. A true believer must be sincere in his love for Allah and His Messenger. It is the prerequisite for faith but the Arabs lacked it. For this reason, those who claim faith without meeting these conditions are wrong. The Almighty says: “And these Arabs say, ‘We have believed,’ say to them, ‘You have not believed.’ However, say, ‘We have obeyed, faith has not yet entered your hearts.”
As for love without obedience and Ittibā‘, it has been proven an innovation (bid‘ah) in the above verses and hadith narratives. Just as the Qur’an in the verse 24 of Surah 3 has explained the way to love Allah by obeying the Holy Prophet, it has also described all other innovative methods of showing love as innovation (bid‘ah) and ignorance. Similarly, the Prophet has clarified in his hadith “man aḥabbasunnati fa qadaḥabbanī (a person who loves my Sunnah loves me)” that the only way to love him is to love and follow his Sunnah. In some other hadiths, the Prophet has forbidden his followers from indulging in fanaticism (ghuluv) as practiced by ians in their love for Jesus . That command and the prohibition of the Prophet (PBUH) offer conclusive proof that those who claim to love the Prophet (PBUH) without following his Sunnah, first of all, their claim is unreal, and even if it contains the truth, their love is absolutely meaningless. Even if they have invented new ways of showing love to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) which are totally against the Sunnah, they fall in the category of innovation (bid‘ah), similar to the innovations adopted by ians who in their so-called love for Jesus by raising his status from a prophet to God.
The love of the Companions for the Prophet (PBUH) was not only rational and principled but also emotional. However, these feelings never exceeded the limits of the Book and the Sunnah. On one side, the Companions would suffer the greatest pain on themselves, but never wanted a thorn to touch the soles of the Prophet (PBUH). Their own bodies were riddled with arrows in the protection of the Prophet (PBUH), but they did not want anyone to touch the hair of the Prophet in their presence. Such was the state of emotions of men and women that they wished for the safety of the Prophet (PBUH) even after sacrificing their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers. On the other hand, such was the level of their following the Sunnah that they never indulged in anything that was not to speak of forbidden by disliked by the Prophet (PBUH). See the statement of Hazrat Anas (may Allah be pleased with him): “Hazrat Anas narrates that the Companions did not love anyone more than the Prophet (PBUH). However, they did not stand up when the Prophet arrived because they knew that the Prophet disliked it (Mishkāt with reference to Tirmidhī).”
However, if we look at the Muslims of the present era, the vast majority of them are those who claim to believe in the Prophet (PBUH) without showing obedience, or claim to be deeply in love with the Prophet without caring to follow his Sunnah. Instead of both obedience and Ittibā‘, they have invented some actions from their own. They organize birthday (mīlād) events, cook and distribute dishes, take out a half procession, and raise slogans. Their faith and love for the Prophet are based on such petty actions. You will see plenty of people who have missed their obligatory prayers for years but hold several gatherings of mīlād and qawwali multiple times every month. They never pay zakāh despite being wealthy but spend thousands of rupees every year on their innovations in the name of the Prophet (PBUH).
They never care to study the Book of Allah and the sayings of the Messenger to correct their actions in the light of the life of the Prophet but act as if they are madly in love with the Prophet (PBUH). Reading and hearing verses of the eulogy praising the Holy Prophet is enough to make them feel moved.
This is not the condition of any one class of us, but most of our classes claim the same kind of love for the Messenger, and even if some people claim to follow the Sunnah, they believe that the entire Sunnah is restricted to some ethical and moral issues. Their belief is restricted to those specific issues only, as if the Prophet (PBUH) was sent only for the education about those issues.