The Last Messenger

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

35. Wa-in kana kabura AAalayka iAAraduhum fa-ini istataAAta an tabtaghiya nafaqan fee al-ardi aw sullaman fee alssama-i fata/tiyahum bi-ayatin walaw shaa Allahu lajamaAAahum AAala alhuda fala takoonanna mina aljahileena

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6:35. And if their aversion is hard on you, then, if you can, seek an opening deep into the earth or a ladder [link] up into the heavens, and then bring them a sign. And if Allah had so willed, He would certainly have gathered them all on guidance. Be not then of those who are ignorant.⁶

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6. This is an obvious reprimand from Allah to His Messenger. HE has put this on record here to let mankind know that His Messengers too are His creatures, and not His partners in Creation. The Messengers too, being human, were prone to errors. What this Verse reveals to us is that the Prophet (peace be upon him) ardently desired Allah to give him a sign to show to his people to convince them of his being His accredited Messenger. But Allah had other plans. HE did not want His last Messenger to mankind to be recognised based on any obvious sign like those given to his predecessors, Jesus and Moses. Those signs, in any case, had yielded little results. HE, in His Wisdom, knew that His last Messenger was being sent at the threshold of an era of proliferation of knowledge. Allah now wanted His last Messenger to be recognised based on the intellect He had granted mankind. HE wanted the people to use this intellect, and the knowledge they are now getting, to scrutinise the character of the person sent as the last Messenger and to scrutinise the Message he was conveying to them. Allah here reminds His Messenger that He knows what to do to guide His creatures. Nothing – not even the ardent personal desire of His Messenger – can come in the way of His plans.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 8^th of March 2019.

An Excellent Example

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

An Excellent Example

Extract from Chapter 33 of QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

21. Laqad kana lakum fee rasooli Allahi oswatun hasanatun liman kana yarjoo Allaha waalyawma al-akhira wathakara Allaha katheeran

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21. Certainly you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent example for anyone who turns to Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much. ⁴

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4. Divine qualification thus of Prophet Muhammad (peace on him) has been sorely misconstrued by a great number of Muslims today. Such Muslims go to the ridiculous extent of doing exactly as the Prophet allegedly did in his personal life in mundane matters like how he ate, wore his clothes, slept, or even answered calls of nature. I know of people now who would like to take their meals squatting on the floor because the Prophet had done so. The Imams would not use mikes while leading prayers in masjids because the Prophet had not used them. To learn what the Prophet did in his day-to-day life, they resort not to the Qur’aan, but to the man-influenced and error-prone ahaadeeth. Had they followed the Qur’aan sincerely, they would have realized that what Allah Ta’ala meant by this Verse is that the Prophet meticulously followed what the Qur’aan stipulated, and that the believers should try to emulate him in this regard and not in regard to what he otherwise did in his personal life. Chapter 103 of the Qur’aan stipulates that a human being ought to believe, do righteous deeds, exhort others to live by the truth, and exhort others with patience. This is exactly what our beloved Prophet did in his illustrious life. Allah Ta’ala urges the believers in the Verse above to emulate him in this.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 20^th of October 2017.