The Hand of
the Prophet
صلى
الله عليه وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم
by Dr. Mostafa al-Badawi
The
impulse for writing this article came from a conversation with a colleague who
told me that while sitting with other colleagues, he had heard one of them
repeat the statement that the Prophet, may
Allah's blessings and peace be upon him, was an ordinary human being like the
rest of us, except that Allah had given him the Qur'ân.
My
friend knew very well that this kind of statement had been deliberately
circulated among Muslims to detach them from their Prophet, thus cutting them
off from the mercy of Allah that descends upon them through their love for him
and close adherence to his teachings.
This
is part of an overall plan to destroy Islam from within, a plan that, we regret to say, is carried out by ignorant Muslims, misled by crude suggestions of
the Devil that to
love the Prophet and revere him is to
worship him beside Allah.
My friend told me he became quite angry and
challenged our colleagues to take anything of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وعلى آله
وصحبه وسلم) at random and compare it with themselves.
He
found himself saying,
"Take his hand for instance!"
Then he started discoursing about the
special distinctions of the Prophet's hand, talking for about twenty
minutes, all the time aware that he had never spoken like that before. His
colleagues listened silently, then when he was finished, begged him to carry on. These were educated people
who already had much of this knowledge in their minds, but who had been too
busy with worldly things to assemble and envisage their knowledge from that
angle before, or to make the necessary effort in understanding how and why they
had previously been misinformed.
It
is for people like these, people whose hearts contain much love for Allah and His
Prophet
(صلى الله عليه وعلى آله
وصحبه وسلم) and who are honest enough to recognize the truth when they see it,
that this article is written.
My
hope is that it will encourage them to find out more about their leader,
teacher, good example, and intercessor. It is certainly not written for the narrow minded followers of the believers in a limited
God, a God which they situate in space, located exclusively above the Throne.
For such people, the absolute difference between Creator and created is
blurred, for they mentally impose limits upon that which is beyond limits. This
puts them in the false position of having to belittle the Best of Creation in
order to keep Allah in His place as God.
We,
the vast majority of Muslims, the Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jamâ'a, know that it is
impossible for a Muslim to confuse the Creator with the created, however great
the latter may be. We are therefore quite comfortable in our love for the
Prophet (صلى الله عليه وعلى آله
وصحبه وسلم) and our extreme respect and veneration for him.
The
Prophet (صلى الله عليه وعلى آله
وصحبه وسلم) himself has repeatedly said that those who
do not love him more than their fathers, mothers, children, wealth, and their
own selves, their faith is defective and their works in danger of being
rejected by Allah.[1]
Continue
reading: Here
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(Edited by ADHM)