Why are the Prophets Free of Sin and Error?

By: Ayatullah al-Uzma Shaykh Nasir Makarim Shirazi
Without doubt, more important than anything else, a prophet must attract the trust of the general public in such a way that his words contain no possibility of being lies or erroneous, otherwise, his position of leadership will be a shaky one.
If they are not immaculate, using the excuse that the prophets have erred, people who seek the truth from what they say will begin to doubt their invitation. It will not be accepted, or, at least, their words will not be accepted with all of their hearts.
This reason which can be called ‘trustworthiness’ is one of the most important reasons for their being immaculate.
In other words, how is it possible that God give His Commands for His people to follow a person who is not truthful for if this person were to err or sin, people would not follow him. If they do, they have erred and if they do not, they have weakened his position of leadership, in particular, since the position of the leadership of the prophets completely differs with the leadership of others for people receive their entire program of life from the prophets.
Because of this, we see that the great commentators speak about the verse, “Obey God and obey the Prophet and those charged with authority among you.” (4:59)
saying that the command for Absolute obedience is because the Prophet is immaculate as well as ‘being charged with authority’. The pure leaders like the Holy Prophet are referred to as ‘being charged with authority’. If not, God would never give the command to unconditional obedience to them.
Another way of proving the immaculateness of the Holy Prophet in relation to any sin is that any factor of sin is condemned to defeat within the very being of the Holy Prophet.
The explanation of this is: when we turn to ourselves, we see that we, too, are immaculate in relation to some sins or evil or unacceptable deeds.
Note the following examples: Can you find an intelligent person who thinks about eating fire or trash or filth?
Can you find an intelligent person who will walk naked through the streets and bazaars?
Clearly not! If we saw such deeds from someone, we will be assured of the fact that he is no longer normal and has become insane because an intelligent person would never do these things.
When we analyze such behavior, we see that the ugliness of such deeds is so clear that an intelligent person would never even consider them.
It is here that we can imagine what this short phrase means and say that every intelligent and healthy person is ‘free of’ unacceptable deeds.
From this stage, we take a step further. We see some people who are free from unacceptable deeds.
For instance, an aware physician and expert who knows the various kinds of microbes well is never prepared to drink the polluted water of the dirty clothes of a person who has one of the most dangerous contagious diseases whereas an illiterate person , perhaps, would be indifferent to such a thing.
With another simple example, we reach the point that however much the level of a person rises in the area of awareness, they are less likely to do evil or ugly deeds.
Taking into consideration that if a person’s faith and awareness were to rise and have so much faith in God and His court of justice, so that everything that he sees is present before his eyes, such a person will be free of all sin and every ugly deed in relation to him, like walking naked through the streets, will be in our eyes only.
For such a person, the property of something forbid den is just like the flames of fire, and just like we do not put fire in our mouths, he does not put something which is forbidden into his mouth.
We can then conclude that the prophets, because of the extraordinary knowledge, awareness and faith which they have, tame the motives of sin and the most exciting factors causing sin will not prevail upon his intellect and faith. This is why we say that the prophets are immaculate; they are insured against sin.

How can the Station of Purity be a Honor?
Some people who do not understand the meaning of purity and the factors of immaculateness and being free from sin are not aware of the fact that if God prevents one from sin and destroys the factors which cause sin, this will not be an honor for that person!
This is coercive purity and therefore is not considered to be a virtue.
But with the discussion which he had above, this issue is very clear: The freedom of the prophets from sin in no sense is a coercive one. Rather, it is born from their strong faith and absolute certainty, their awareness and extraordinary knowledge and this is the greatest honor for them.
If an aware physician takes care of and treats a person with the worst of diseases is this a sign of his being forced to do so?
If such a person were to follow the rules of health, would this be Considered to be a virtue?
If a person, a lawyer, were to take the disgraceful considerations into effect of a dreadful crime and try to prevent it, is this a virtue?
Thus, we reach this conclusion that the fact that the prophets are free from sin is both one of their own choice and great honor for them.

Think and Answer
1. How many branches are there to being immaculate?
2. If prophets were not free from sin, what would happen?
3. What is the truth of the station of immaculateness?
4. Other than the examples given here, can you point out another example of someone who is immaculate in relation to another group?
5. Is the immaculateness of the prophets coercive or a result of free will? Why?

The Best Way to come to Know the Prophets
Without doubt, accepting the claims of every pretender to prophethood is unintelligent and illogical.
It was possible that the claims to prophethood and the mission on behalf of God were true but the possibility also existed that an opportunist and a cheat was introducing himself as a prophet. Because of this, it is necessary that certain criteria be established for evaluating the claims of the prophets and their relationship with God.
In order to reach such a determination, various ways exist, the most important of which are two:
1. To study the content of the invitation of the prophets and to collect the laws and signs.
2. Miracles and deeds which exceed normal human ones.
Let us be allowed to first speak about miracles.
There are some people who are surprised by the word ‘miracle’ or consider miracles to be equivalent to fairy tales and myths whereas if we look carefully at the meaning of the word ‘miracle’, we would not get such an incorrect picture of it.
A miracle is not an act which is not possible and without reason or cause. Rather a miracle is something as simple as an interpretation of an extraordinary deed, the performance of which is beyond the means of normal people and can only be undertaken with the help from something beyond nature.
Thus, a miracle has the following conditions:
1. Something which is possible and accepted.
2. Normal people and even geniuses, by relying on the strong power of humanity cannot do the deed.
3. The miracle-maker must be so certain of what he is doing that he can challenge others to try.
4. No one else was able to offer these miracles and everyone was impotent before them.
Miracles must be connected with the claims of prophethood or imamate (thus any work which is extraordinary and comes from someone other than a prophet or pure Imam is not called a miracle, but a blessing).

Several Clear Examples
Many people are familiar with the miracles of the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, who was able to raise the dead to life and heal the incurably sick.
Is there any clear and intelligent reason why a human being, after death, is not able to return to life?
Is there any scientific or intelligent reason why a person with an incurable disease cannot be cured?
Doubtlessly, however, the power which a human being has, under the present conditions, is not sufficient to be able to raise the dead and give them life or to treat some diseases, even if all the doctors of the world were to Work together and give each other of their experience and knowledge.
But what is to prevent a person with a divine power and with particular awareness which has come from God’s endless ocean of knowledge, to be able to give life to the body of a dead person or to cure one who has an incurable disease?
Science says, “I do not know and I do not have the ability,” but it would never say that it is impossible or unintelligent.
And other examples: It is not possible for any human being to journey to the moon without making use of a space ship but at the same time that there is nothing to prevent a superior force and a horse which is stronger than horses which we know to be placed at the disposal of a person and without using a space ship, that person go to the moon or planets above it.
If a person can do such an extraordinary feat, and along with that, claim prophet hood, and ask others to try and challenge everyone and everyone prove to be impotent in relation to him, we will find certainty that it is from God because it is not possible that God give such a strength to a human being who lies and would cause His creatures to be misled. (Note this with care).

Miracles Should Not be Confused with Superstitions
Extremism, of the right or the left, has always been the source of corruption and darkening of the truth.
As to miracles, this very statement is true. Whereas some pseudo intellectuals speedily and directly deny miracles, another group tries to extend miracles and take the weak traditions and fairy-tale superstitions which were most often done with the help of the enemies and mix them with miracles and the scientific visage of miracles of the prophets and cover them with fairy tale like stories and unclarities so that the real miracles of these kinds of stories not be known.
It is because of this that our great scholars were always very careful to avoid such mistakes in Islamic Traditions relating to miracles.
Also, it is because of this that the ‘Science of Biography’ came into being so that the methods of Traditions be known and that the correct and the weak traditions be separated from one another, and that the useless not mixed with the truth.
The policies of the colonialists and the extremists today have been busy trying to mix the pure with the impure and in this way give an unscientific image to all of them. We must be very aware of these conspiracies of the enemies.

What is the Difference Between Miracles and Extraordinary Deeds?
We have often heard that a group of ascetics have undertaken extraordinary feats. People who have seen these deeds are not few. This is a reality, not a fairy tale.
It is here that this question arises as to what difference is there between this extraordinary work and the miracles of the prophets? And what criteria should we use to separate them?
Here the question arises as to what the difference is between these extraordinary feats and the miracle of the prophets and what criteria we use to distinguish them.
This question has several responses, the two clearest of which are:
1. An ascetic always does work which is limited In other words, no ascetic is ready to do what you ask him to do. He undertakes an extraordinary feat which he himself wants to do, that is, something which he has practiced a great deal, learned how to do well and at which is an expert.
The reason for this is clear because the power or force of every human being is limited and in one or several things only can he attain skill.
But the extraordinary deeds of the prophets had no limits, no conditions to be able to perform them. They can, whenever they want, perform a miracle which is suggested to them because they receive help from the endless power of the Creator and we know that God’s power is not limited, whereas the power of the human being is very limited.
2. The work done by an ascetic, another ascetic does the same thing in the same way, that is, it is not beyond the power of the human being. Because of this, an ascetic who does extraordinary feats never invites others to try and to do what he has done and he does not challenge him because he knows that in his town or in the surrounding areas, there are other individuals such as himself who can do the same thing.
But the prophets, with complete assurance and certainty, challenge others and they say, “Even if you were to bring together all of humanity, they could not do what we are doing or can do.”
This difference is also true in relation to magic. These refer to the two differences which we have mentioned and they divide a miracle from magic. (Note this with care).

Think and Answer
1. Why do we call a miracle, a miracle?
2. Is a miracle an exception to the law of causes?
3. How many differences can you name between the work of the prophets and that of the ascetic and magician?
4. What is the main condition for a miracle?
5. Have you ever seen something which is similar to a miracle?