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The Doctrine of Prophethood
Ayatullah Shaykh Muhammad Reza al-Muzaffar
Our Doctrines Concerning:
• Prophethood
• Prophethood being Part of Divine Grace
• Miracles of The Prophets
• Infallibility of The Prophets
• Attributes of The Prophets
• The Prophets (s) and Their Books
• Islam
• The Lawgiver of Islam
• The Holy Qur'an
• Proving the Divine Status of Islam the Past Religious LawsProving the Divine Status of Islam the Past Religious Laws
Prophethood
We believe that prophethood is a duty commissioned by Almighty Allah and a mission decided by Him. He appoints persons that He prefers and selects from among His righteous servants and His humanly perfect saints for this mission. He then sends them to guide the people towards prosperity in this world as well as the next. These messengers purify them from immorality and crooked habits, teach them wisdom and knowledge and show them the ways of pleasure and welfare, so that they might attain appropriate perfection and raise themselves to elevated ranks in the abodes of both this world and the Hereafter.
We believe that the Rule of Grace, which will be explained later on, necessitates that the Creator, Who is gracious to His servants, sends His messengers to guide people to the right path, undertake the reformative mission, and act as the Lord’s representatives and vicegerents.
We also believe that Almighty Allah has not authorized people to appoint, elect, or choose the Prophets. “They have no choice in the matter.” In fact, the whole matter is Almighty Allah’s, because: Allah knows best with whom to place His message. (6/124)
Likewise, people have nothing to do with those whom Almighty Allah sends as guides to bear good tidings for those who believe in them and warn those who disbelieve against the Lord’s chastisement. They also have nothing to do with the laws, regulations, and rules that are conveyed by these messengers.
Prophethood being part of Divine Grace
Man is an eccentric creature and a complex structure in his form, nature, psychology, and intelligence. Moreover, each individual human personality has its own complex nature, in which inclinations to evil are existent and incentives to goodness and righteousness are also existent.
On the one hand, man has been fashioned on emotions and instincts, such as egoism, fancy, selfishness and submission to personal whims. He also possesses an inclination towards supremacy, dominance, prevalence over others, and a desire for the pleasures, vanities, and chattels of this world.
Describing man, Almighty Allah has said in the Holy Qur'an: Lo! Man is surely the loser. (103/2)
Nay! Man is most surely inordinate, because he sees himself free from want. (96/6-7)
Surely, the soul of man incites to evil. (12/53)
The Holy Qur'an contains many other verses clearly indicating the emotions and whims on which human beings have been fashioned.
On the other hand, Almighty Allah has created in man a guiding intellect, which leads him to prosperity and loci of goodness, and a deterrent conscience that prevents him from committing evil and wrong and blames him for doing any hideous and censured act.
Internal conflict between desires and intellect is always there inside human souls; hence, he whose intellect overcomes his desires will find himself a high-ranking place among the ones advanced in humanity and perfect in spirituality. However, those who are overcome by their whimsical desires will be with the losers and degenerate to the rank of beasts.(1)
Unfortunately, the stronger of these two contending powers is desire. This is why we find most people plunging into deviation and detaching themselves from true guidance by acceding to their desires and responding to the calls of their passions. Referring to this fact, the Holy Qur'an reads: And though you try much, most men will not believe. (12/103)
In consequence of his imperfection and ignorance of all the facts and secrets of things that surround him and stem from his own self, man is not competent to recognize all that which harms or benefits him or brings him happiness or misery respecting his own self and his species, society, and surroundings. Furthermore, man is always ignorant of himself; and the more man advances in knowledge of natural things and material beings the more he realizes his self-ignorance.
In order to attain the highest ranks of happiness, man is consequently in the most urgent need for individuals who can show him the straight path and the clearest course that drives him into orthodoxy and true guidance. By means of such, the defence of the intellect will be strengthened and man will be able to overcome his vehement enemy when he readies himself to storm through the battlefield that decides between acting upon the intellect or following the desires.
Such need of someone to guide man to the path of prosperity and uprightness becomes imperative when man’s whims make what he does seem fair to him and make his deviant acts seem alluring to him. These whims show him evil as good and good as evil and confuse the path to prosperity, uprightness, and bliss, especially when man lacks knowledge through which he can discriminate between what is good and beneficial and what is evil and harmful. Each one of us is the victim of such conflict consciously or unconsciously, except these whom Almighty Allah protects against it.
It is difficult even for an enlightened civilized man, to attain the path of prosperity and uprightness through personal competence and discriminate between what benefits him and what harms him in this world as well as the next. Concerning his own self and his species, society and surroundings, no matter how much he collaborates with his associates and reveals his ideas before them, or how many conferences, councils, and assemblies he holds he still needs spiritual guidance.
It has been thus necessary for Almighty Allah, out of His kindness and mercy to human beings, to “send a messenger from among them who recites to them His communications and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and the Wisdom.” He warns them against whatever causes them corruption and guides them towards whatever brings about prosperity and happiness to them.
Clarifying this fact, Almighty Allah says in the Holy Qur'an: He it is who sent among the unlettered ones a messenger of their own, to recite unto them His signs, and to purify them and to teach them the Book and Wisdom; although they were before certainly in clear error. (62/2)
This gracious act of Almighty Allah is necessary because His grace to His servants is part of His absolute perfection. Verily, Almighty Allah is All-gracious, All-magnanimous, and All-generous.
Therefore, when an object is worthy of and ready to receive His magnanimity and grace, then it is necessary for Him to shower His magnanimity on it since His mercy is free from miserliness and His magnanimity and generosity are seamless.
“Necessity” in this course does not mean that it is incumbent upon Almighty Allah to obey the command of someone, since He is too Exalted to receive any command from any being; rather, “necessity” in this respect bears the same sense of necessity in our saying, “the Necessity Existent”, which means coexistence and inseparability.
Miracles of the Prophets
We believe that when Almighty Allah inducts a person into the position of guiding His creatures to the right path and appoints him as a messenger, He introduces him to the creatures and guides them to him in person. The one and only way of such introduction is that Almighty Allah presents a proof and evidence(2) on the truth of His messengers’ claims so that His grace to His creatures is perfect and His mercy to them complete.
It is also necessary that such evidence be of a special kind that no one can produce save the Creator of all beings and the Fashioner of all things. That is to say, such evidence must be supernatural and beyond the capabilities of human beings. Hence, as Almighty Allah grants His guiding messengers the power to manage such supernatural phenomena, these miracles act as introducers of and indicators of the messengers. Such paranormal phenomena are called ‘miracles’ because human beings are unable to manage or do the like of them.
Since it is necessary that each prophet come with a miracle through which he can prove being a prophet before the people to substantiate the Lord’s argument against them, his miracle must be inimitably manifest so that men of knowledge and experts of that age, aside from ordinary people, cannot bring the like of it. Associated with such a miracle, a prophet must declare himself as the messenger of the Lord so that his miracle would act as evidence on his claim and as proof of the truth of his declaration.
Hence, when distinguished individuals will not be able to bring the like of the miracle, everybody will know that the miracle is beyond the scope of human power and is extraordinary. This would definitely prove that the owner of the miracle, namely the prophet, is an extraordinary person, because he has a special spiritual contact with the Maker of all beings. These two factors—manifestation of the miracle and claim of prophethood—would make people believe and consequently have faith in his mission, submit to his instructions, and acknowledge his deeds. After that, some would believe in him as prophet and others would disbelieve.
In view of that, we notice that the miracle of each prophet was in accordance with the arts and sciences that were prevalent during his age. For instance, the miracle of Prophet Moses (`a) was the rod that devoured the falsities of the enchanters of that time, since the art of enchantment was the most widespread art at that time. Therefore, when the rod of Prophet Moses (`a) came, the very art of enchantment was proven false and the enchanters knew for sure that the rod could do things beyond their competence and over all their art, since the art produced by that rod was paranormal and beyond man’s ability.(3)
Similarly, the miracle of Prophet Jesus (`a), which was the healing of the blind and the leprous and bringing the dead to life, took this form because medication was the most widespread art of that time in which physicians and healers enjoyed the highest rank in society. Hence, when Prophet Jesus (`a) came with an extraordinary medicine, the sciences of these physicians and healers could not compete with him.(4)
As for our Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him and his Household, his immortal miracle is the Holy Qur'an that came with miraculous eloquence and articulacy in an age when rhetoric was the most widespread art and orators were in the fore of everyone else due to their excellent diction and lofty purity of language. Like a thunderbolt, the Holy Qur'an came to humiliate and astound these eloquent people and to convey to them the message whose eloquence they would never be able to resist; they therefore cringed before it as they were convinced that they would never have the power to challenge it.(5)
The occasion for their inability is that the Holy Qur’an challenged them to produce ten comparable chapters (surah), but they could not;(6) it then challenged them to produce one such surah, but they could not.(7)
Because they were unable to compete with this challenge, they used their swords rather than their words. Thus we understand that the Holy Qur’an is a miracle with which the Holy Prophet, Muhammad (s), came as evidence of his claim to prophethood and bearer of the Lord’s message.
We have thus realized that he—peace be upon him and his Household—is truly the messenger of Almighty Allah and he came with the truth and verified it.
Infallibility of the Prophets
We believe that the prophets, all without exception, are infallible.(8) So are the Holy Imams (`a), the successors to the Holy Prophet (s); pure blessings be upon them all. However, some Muslim sects have disagreed with us on this doctrine, as they do not deem necessary the infallibility of the prophets (`a), let alone the Holy Imams (`a).
Infallibility (`ismah) means to avoid committing sins and acts of disobedience to Almighty Allah, be they major or trivial. It also includes refraining from committing errors and expressing unawareness, even if such things are rationally not impossible for the prophets. Nevertheless, a Prophet is required to be far above even slight defects that may injure his personality, such as eating like ordinary people and laughing loudly, as well as every act that is crude.
It is necessary to prove the infallibility of the prophets (`a),(9) because if a prophet commits a sin, an act of disobedience to Almighty Allah, an error, or any similar act, then the matter will be restricted to one of the following probabilities:
(1) it is still obligatory to follow him in such an act, or
(2) it is not obligatory.
As for the first probability, if it is obligatory to follow him in such acts, this will definitely mean that it is permissible, and even obligatory, to commit acts of disobedience to Almighty Allah by His permission; and this is absolutely invalid on account of religious and reason-based necessities.
If we decide that it is not obligatory to follow the prophet, this will definitely be in violation of the essential principle of belief in Prophethood. Obedience to the Prophets is an obligation once they have been recognised.(10) Such being the case, each and every act of a prophet would be exposed to the probability that it was an act of disobedience to Almighty Allah or a mistake; hence, we would have the pretext not to follow the prophets in any of their words and deeds. The inevitable result would be the loss of the benefit of sending messengers and prophets by Almighty Allah. Moreover, a prophet would no longer be an extraordinary person and his words, deeds, and knowledge would no longer have such precious value that is always reliable; and it would no longer be imperative to obey or trust the instructions and words of the prophets.
This very proof is applicable to the infallibility of the Holy Imams, because we believe that Almighty Allah selects an Imam for this position to guide human beings and represent prophets.
Attributes of the Prophets
We believe that a prophet, just as he must be infallible, must be characterized by the most excellent and most favorable attributes of morality and rationality, such as courage, patience, shrewdness, intelligence plus administrative and managerial capabilities, so that no other human being can match him in these attributes. Without such high moral and rational standards a prophet would not be worthy of holding the position of general headship over all human beings and general authority over the whole world.
Furthermore, a prophet must be of legitimate birth, honest, trustworthy, and far above all vices before appointed as prophet, so that hearts feel inclined towards him and souls have confidence in him and, over and above, he should deserve such a great Divine position.Furthermore, a prophet must be of legitimate birth, honest, trustworthy, and far above all vices before appointed as prophet, so that hearts feel inclined towards him and souls have confidence in him and, over and above, he should deserve such a great Divine position.
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