Obedience to the Prophet.
First, we shall, God willing, address the issue of obeying the Prophet in spite of the fact that he has been dead for fourteen centuries and cannot issue any orders and consequently cannot be disobeyed.
God, in the Qur'an, invariably refers to 'God and the Messenger', as shown in the verses previously quoted, but this is clearly done for emphasis. God is telling us in no uncertain terms that the Messenger will never willfully take a position other than that taken by God, that he will never knowingly make a statement contrary to the Qur'an and that he will always support God's position as stated in the Qur'an, hence the phrase 'God and the Messenger'. It implies total support, not that the prophet might, or indeed can, take an independent stance. Chapter 69, Al-Haaqah, verses 44 to 47 state "(44) Had he falsely attributed certain sayings to Us (45) We would have inflicted punishment upon him (46) Then We would have stopped the revelation to him (47) And none of you could have shielded him from Us." These verses also definitively deny the body of 'aHadeeth referred to as 'Qudsi' which would thus fall under the purview of 69 (Al-Haaqah):44 cited above.
What is it that the Messenger is to be obeyed in? His whims? absolutely not! Chapter 10, Yunus, verse 15 states, "When Our revelations are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say 'Bring a Qur'an other than this, or change It!' Say, 'It is not for me to amend It of my own volition. I simply follow what is revealed to me. I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the retribution of an awesome day." From this we learn that the Prophet had no mandate to command us to do anything not sanctioned by God, otherwise the request to 'bring a Qur'an other than this or change it' would not make sense; his orders to us must be restricted to the message just like those issued by his illustrious predecessor messengers such as Nuh, Hud, Luut, Shu'aib and Saleh.
Chapter 7, Al-A'raaf, verses 59 through 93 inform us that they proclaimed to their people, in practically identical words, that they were messengers from God instructed to command them to worship God alone, to follow the guidance sent down by God and to obey them, the messengers, - they ask for no wage - in order to be rightly guided. They also warned their people of the consequences of disobeying them. Note that obedience is always voluntary and always connected with the message they were sent to deliver; the 'messenger' is always identified with his 'message'. From this, one may deduce that obedience was due not the individual, but the messenger, that is the message, as it is the message which will lead to right guidance; the message is meant to be obeyed even after the demise of the Messenger himself. It therefore follows that the messenger's job was to deliver the message and warn the recipients of the consequences of failing to obey the message. Once this is done, the messenger has no further responsibility. Whether they and their descendants obey the 'messenger' or not is entirely up to them. If they do obey it will be for their own good, if they do not it will be to their own detriment.
Had the obedience been due the Messenger himself, God would have told us to obey 'Muhammad', extended his responsibilities and given him powers of enforcement. There are no such provisions, and force is never recommended except within very narrow limits and always in a defensive manner as a reaction to its use by the opposition.
Muhammad's message was no different; obeying him, in the Qur'anic context, means only one thing: obeying God's commandments, and God's commandments are to be found exclusively in the Qur'an. In this case, of course, obeying the Messenger is obligatory for one's salvation since he is telling us, in effect, to "Obey the commandments of God as laid down in the Qur'an." Obeying others or disobeying God will inevitably lead us to perdition.
God tells us, in support of the above argument, at chapter 24, An-Nur, verse 54 " Say, 'Obey God and the Messenger.' If they refuse then he is responsible for his obligations and you are responsible for yours. If you obey him you will be rightly guided. The sole duty of the Messenger is to deliver." and at chapter 6, Al-An'am, verse 19, in part "...and this Qur'an has been inspired to me to warn you with and whomever It reaches..." and again at chapter 18, Al-Kahf, verse 27, we are told "Recite what has been revealed to you from your Lord's Book. None shall abrogate Its words and you shall never find refuge besides It." Note that the subject of the verse is 'Your Lord's Book'; thus 'words', 'abrogate' and 'refuge' apply to the 'Book', not 'Your Lord'. Salvation for us is in our 'Lord's book'.
Finally, and for good measure, we cite here two verses, chapter 5, Al-Ma'idah, verse 67, which commands "O Messenger! deliver what was sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you will not have delivered His messages, and God protects you from the people. God does not guide the disbelievers." and chapter 88, Al-Ghaashiyah, verses 21 and 22 state "(21) You shall remind; you are entrusted to remind, (22) You have no power over them." Only the believers will obey the Messenger; as for the disbelievers, they will not obey and will not be guided, but they will have been given a fair chance to be.
The above verses notwithstanding, the advocates of Hadeeth take the position that the Prophet was empowered to legalize things and prohibit other things and it is in these matters that he is to be obeyed and they go so far as to accept a Hadeeth which brazenly states "I was given the Qur'an and a similar one with it!" Maybe it is that 'similar Qur'an' which empowers the Prophet to legislate; the Qur'an we know certainly does not!
Could this Hadeeth be true in view of 5(Al-Ma'idah):67 quoted immediately above? If it were, God would have informed us in the Qur'an. Muhammad delivered only one Qur'an. Could he have flouted God's direct orders, amply cited above, and failed to deliver the 'similar Qur'an'? and what good is this 'similar Qur'an' to us if he kept it to himself?
Nowhere is it stated, or even implied, that the Messenger was commanded to deliver other than the Qur'an. In fact God, in the above cited verses, tells us clearly that it is only the Qur'an that we are to receive from His prophet and the only thing we are to consider. It is this Qur'an that the Messenger warns us with and it is this Qur'an that he is to deliver. These are perfectly clear verses that need no exegesis or interpretation. God will hold us, as well as the Messenger, responsible for the Qur'an, thus at chapter 43, Az-Zukhruf, verse 44, He says "It is the Reminder for you and for your people and you will surely be held accountable."
Here God imposes the Qur'an on our prophet and on us; He does not mention anything else. God does not err, be He exalted, nor does He forget. The omission of anything else from the above verse is not an oversight, it is deliberate because He decreed nothing else. The Qur'an is not a riddle.
Finally, we present, in support of our contention that the Prophet Muhammad was given nothing but the Qur'an as the instrument of his mission, the following two verses, chapter 50, Qaf, verse 45 "We are fully aware of what they say, and you have no power over them. Therefore, remind with the Qur'an those who would fear My warnings." and chapter 27, An-Naml, at verses 91 and 92 says "(91) I was commanded to worship the Lord of this town; He has made it a safe sanctuary and He possesses all things. I was commanded to be a submitter (92) And to recite the Qur'an. Whoever is guided is guided for his own good and if they go astray, then Say 'I am merely a warner'". The use of the term 'guided' after the word 'Qur'an' can only mean that the instrument for this guidance is the Qur'an.
These verses clearly show that Muhammad's task was to deliver only the Qur'an. He was not commanded to deliver anything else, to recite anything else, to warn with anything else, to strive with anything else, to remind with anything else or to rule with anything else. There are, it is to be reiterated, no contradictions or ambiguities in the Qur'an.
From these and the following verses one can also deduce that Muhammad's task, as the Messenger, did not include expounding the Qur'an. Chapter 33, Al-Ahzaab, verse 45, states "O Prophet, We have sent you as a witness, a bearer of good news and a warner." Also, Chapter 5, Al-Ma'ida, verse 99, states "The sole duty of the Messenger is to deliver the message and God knows what you reveal and what you conceal." Again, at chapter 13, Ar-Ra'd, verse 40, we read "Whether we show you some of what We promise them or earlier terminate your life, it is for you to deliver the message and for Us to call them to account." Also chapter 42, Ash-Shura, verse 48 informs us, in part, that "So if they turn away, We did not send you as their guardian. Your duty is but to convey..." If God is just, as He claims to be, would He call us to account for an unclear and incomplete message that was not manifestly delivered to us? No!
As amply shown above, the Prophet's sole function was to deliver the Qur'an and use It to warn, but also Muhammad's activities as Messenger were circumscribed by the Qur'an thus at chapter 25, Al-Furqan, verse 52 God commands him "Therefore do not obey the disbelievers and strive against them with It, a great striving." Thus all of Muhammad's mission is centered on the Qur'an, including his struggles.
In his temporal functions also, Muhammad is commanded to use the Qur'an. Chapter 5, Al-Ma'ida, verse 48, commands, in part, "...You shall rule among them in accordance with what God has revealed and do not follow their wishes if these differ from what was sent down to you..."
What is it that God sent down to His Messenger? Only the Qur'an! As we have seen, the Prophet himself prohibited the recording of anything from him except the Qur'an. That should tell us something about the importance he himself placed upon Hadeeth. Actions speak louder than words. If there are no contradictions in the Qur'an - and there are none - these verses should be sufficient to convince the most obdurate of proponents of Hadeeth that Muhammad was sent to deliver only the Qur'an and use It to deal with the believer as well as the disbeliever; bring good news to the former and warn the latter, and to use It as his reference in his functions as a temporal leader.
According to the clear verses of the Qur'an, Muhammad was prohibited from explaining the Qur'an. At chapter 75, Al-Qiyamah, verses 16 to 19, Muhammad is commanded "(16) Do not move your tongue to expedite It. (17) It is for Us to collect It and promulgate It. (18) Once We have promulgated It, you shall follow Its promulgation. (19) Thereafter it is for Us to explain It." These verses confirm three things: (a) that it is only the Qur'an that Muhammad was to deliver; the 'It' referred to in these verses is the Qur'an; (b) that not only was Muhammad prohibited from expounding the Qur'an, but (c) he was also commanded to follow It.
We have, by God's leave, presented proof from His Book that the Prophet had no mandate to explain the Qur'an. The Qur'an Itself, if we care to read It carefully, clearly implies that there was never a need for Muhammad to interpret or explain It, simply because God provided him - in the Qur'an - with all the answers he needed to have. Thus we read in the Qur'an the expression "They ask you about..., Say...!" The answer to the question put to the prophet is given, by God, in the detail sufficient to obviate further questions on the issue. Nowhere do we read "They ask you about..., Give them your opinion!" or "...See what you think!" or even "...answer them as you see fit!"
First, we shall, God willing, address the issue of obeying the Prophet in spite of the fact that he has been dead for fourteen centuries and cannot issue any orders and consequently cannot be disobeyed.
God, in the Qur'an, invariably refers to 'God and the Messenger', as shown in the verses previously quoted, but this is clearly done for emphasis. God is telling us in no uncertain terms that the Messenger will never willfully take a position other than that taken by God, that he will never knowingly make a statement contrary to the Qur'an and that he will always support God's position as stated in the Qur'an, hence the phrase 'God and the Messenger'. It implies total support, not that the prophet might, or indeed can, take an independent stance. Chapter 69, Al-Haaqah, verses 44 to 47 state "(44) Had he falsely attributed certain sayings to Us (45) We would have inflicted punishment upon him (46) Then We would have stopped the revelation to him (47) And none of you could have shielded him from Us." These verses also definitively deny the body of 'aHadeeth referred to as 'Qudsi' which would thus fall under the purview of 69 (Al-Haaqah):44 cited above.
What is it that the Messenger is to be obeyed in? His whims? absolutely not! Chapter 10, Yunus, verse 15 states, "When Our revelations are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say 'Bring a Qur'an other than this, or change It!' Say, 'It is not for me to amend It of my own volition. I simply follow what is revealed to me. I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the retribution of an awesome day." From this we learn that the Prophet had no mandate to command us to do anything not sanctioned by God, otherwise the request to 'bring a Qur'an other than this or change it' would not make sense; his orders to us must be restricted to the message just like those issued by his illustrious predecessor messengers such as Nuh, Hud, Luut, Shu'aib and Saleh.
Chapter 7, Al-A'raaf, verses 59 through 93 inform us that they proclaimed to their people, in practically identical words, that they were messengers from God instructed to command them to worship God alone, to follow the guidance sent down by God and to obey them, the messengers, - they ask for no wage - in order to be rightly guided. They also warned their people of the consequences of disobeying them. Note that obedience is always voluntary and always connected with the message they were sent to deliver; the 'messenger' is always identified with his 'message'. From this, one may deduce that obedience was due not the individual, but the messenger, that is the message, as it is the message which will lead to right guidance; the message is meant to be obeyed even after the demise of the Messenger himself. It therefore follows that the messenger's job was to deliver the message and warn the recipients of the consequences of failing to obey the message. Once this is done, the messenger has no further responsibility. Whether they and their descendants obey the 'messenger' or not is entirely up to them. If they do obey it will be for their own good, if they do not it will be to their own detriment.
Had the obedience been due the Messenger himself, God would have told us to obey 'Muhammad', extended his responsibilities and given him powers of enforcement. There are no such provisions, and force is never recommended except within very narrow limits and always in a defensive manner as a reaction to its use by the opposition.
Muhammad's message was no different; obeying him, in the Qur'anic context, means only one thing: obeying God's commandments, and God's commandments are to be found exclusively in the Qur'an. In this case, of course, obeying the Messenger is obligatory for one's salvation since he is telling us, in effect, to "Obey the commandments of God as laid down in the Qur'an." Obeying others or disobeying God will inevitably lead us to perdition.
God tells us, in support of the above argument, at chapter 24, An-Nur, verse 54 " Say, 'Obey God and the Messenger.' If they refuse then he is responsible for his obligations and you are responsible for yours. If you obey him you will be rightly guided. The sole duty of the Messenger is to deliver." and at chapter 6, Al-An'am, verse 19, in part "...and this Qur'an has been inspired to me to warn you with and whomever It reaches..." and again at chapter 18, Al-Kahf, verse 27, we are told "Recite what has been revealed to you from your Lord's Book. None shall abrogate Its words and you shall never find refuge besides It." Note that the subject of the verse is 'Your Lord's Book'; thus 'words', 'abrogate' and 'refuge' apply to the 'Book', not 'Your Lord'. Salvation for us is in our 'Lord's book'.
Finally, and for good measure, we cite here two verses, chapter 5, Al-Ma'idah, verse 67, which commands "O Messenger! deliver what was sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you will not have delivered His messages, and God protects you from the people. God does not guide the disbelievers." and chapter 88, Al-Ghaashiyah, verses 21 and 22 state "(21) You shall remind; you are entrusted to remind, (22) You have no power over them." Only the believers will obey the Messenger; as for the disbelievers, they will not obey and will not be guided, but they will have been given a fair chance to be.
The above verses notwithstanding, the advocates of Hadeeth take the position that the Prophet was empowered to legalize things and prohibit other things and it is in these matters that he is to be obeyed and they go so far as to accept a Hadeeth which brazenly states "I was given the Qur'an and a similar one with it!" Maybe it is that 'similar Qur'an' which empowers the Prophet to legislate; the Qur'an we know certainly does not!
Could this Hadeeth be true in view of 5(Al-Ma'idah):67 quoted immediately above? If it were, God would have informed us in the Qur'an. Muhammad delivered only one Qur'an. Could he have flouted God's direct orders, amply cited above, and failed to deliver the 'similar Qur'an'? and what good is this 'similar Qur'an' to us if he kept it to himself?
Nowhere is it stated, or even implied, that the Messenger was commanded to deliver other than the Qur'an. In fact God, in the above cited verses, tells us clearly that it is only the Qur'an that we are to receive from His prophet and the only thing we are to consider. It is this Qur'an that the Messenger warns us with and it is this Qur'an that he is to deliver. These are perfectly clear verses that need no exegesis or interpretation. God will hold us, as well as the Messenger, responsible for the Qur'an, thus at chapter 43, Az-Zukhruf, verse 44, He says "It is the Reminder for you and for your people and you will surely be held accountable."
Here God imposes the Qur'an on our prophet and on us; He does not mention anything else. God does not err, be He exalted, nor does He forget. The omission of anything else from the above verse is not an oversight, it is deliberate because He decreed nothing else. The Qur'an is not a riddle.
Finally, we present, in support of our contention that the Prophet Muhammad was given nothing but the Qur'an as the instrument of his mission, the following two verses, chapter 50, Qaf, verse 45 "We are fully aware of what they say, and you have no power over them. Therefore, remind with the Qur'an those who would fear My warnings." and chapter 27, An-Naml, at verses 91 and 92 says "(91) I was commanded to worship the Lord of this town; He has made it a safe sanctuary and He possesses all things. I was commanded to be a submitter (92) And to recite the Qur'an. Whoever is guided is guided for his own good and if they go astray, then Say 'I am merely a warner'". The use of the term 'guided' after the word 'Qur'an' can only mean that the instrument for this guidance is the Qur'an.
These verses clearly show that Muhammad's task was to deliver only the Qur'an. He was not commanded to deliver anything else, to recite anything else, to warn with anything else, to strive with anything else, to remind with anything else or to rule with anything else. There are, it is to be reiterated, no contradictions or ambiguities in the Qur'an.
From these and the following verses one can also deduce that Muhammad's task, as the Messenger, did not include expounding the Qur'an. Chapter 33, Al-Ahzaab, verse 45, states "O Prophet, We have sent you as a witness, a bearer of good news and a warner." Also, Chapter 5, Al-Ma'ida, verse 99, states "The sole duty of the Messenger is to deliver the message and God knows what you reveal and what you conceal." Again, at chapter 13, Ar-Ra'd, verse 40, we read "Whether we show you some of what We promise them or earlier terminate your life, it is for you to deliver the message and for Us to call them to account." Also chapter 42, Ash-Shura, verse 48 informs us, in part, that "So if they turn away, We did not send you as their guardian. Your duty is but to convey..." If God is just, as He claims to be, would He call us to account for an unclear and incomplete message that was not manifestly delivered to us? No!
As amply shown above, the Prophet's sole function was to deliver the Qur'an and use It to warn, but also Muhammad's activities as Messenger were circumscribed by the Qur'an thus at chapter 25, Al-Furqan, verse 52 God commands him "Therefore do not obey the disbelievers and strive against them with It, a great striving." Thus all of Muhammad's mission is centered on the Qur'an, including his struggles.
In his temporal functions also, Muhammad is commanded to use the Qur'an. Chapter 5, Al-Ma'ida, verse 48, commands, in part, "...You shall rule among them in accordance with what God has revealed and do not follow their wishes if these differ from what was sent down to you..."
What is it that God sent down to His Messenger? Only the Qur'an! As we have seen, the Prophet himself prohibited the recording of anything from him except the Qur'an. That should tell us something about the importance he himself placed upon Hadeeth. Actions speak louder than words. If there are no contradictions in the Qur'an - and there are none - these verses should be sufficient to convince the most obdurate of proponents of Hadeeth that Muhammad was sent to deliver only the Qur'an and use It to deal with the believer as well as the disbeliever; bring good news to the former and warn the latter, and to use It as his reference in his functions as a temporal leader.
According to the clear verses of the Qur'an, Muhammad was prohibited from explaining the Qur'an. At chapter 75, Al-Qiyamah, verses 16 to 19, Muhammad is commanded "(16) Do not move your tongue to expedite It. (17) It is for Us to collect It and promulgate It. (18) Once We have promulgated It, you shall follow Its promulgation. (19) Thereafter it is for Us to explain It." These verses confirm three things: (a) that it is only the Qur'an that Muhammad was to deliver; the 'It' referred to in these verses is the Qur'an; (b) that not only was Muhammad prohibited from expounding the Qur'an, but (c) he was also commanded to follow It.
We have, by God's leave, presented proof from His Book that the Prophet had no mandate to explain the Qur'an. The Qur'an Itself, if we care to read It carefully, clearly implies that there was never a need for Muhammad to interpret or explain It, simply because God provided him - in the Qur'an - with all the answers he needed to have. Thus we read in the Qur'an the expression "They ask you about..., Say...!" The answer to the question put to the prophet is given, by God, in the detail sufficient to obviate further questions on the issue. Nowhere do we read "They ask you about..., Give them your opinion!" or "...See what you think!" or even "...answer them as you see fit!"
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