Islamic exegisists have always maintained
that the confession of faith, the "shahada", which is the first cornerstone
of Islam is twofold and reads
:
"I bear witness that there is no God
but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and
messenger."
These exegisists are misleading those
who claim to be Muslims, and those who claim to be Muslims are, by following
these exegisists, buying hell for salvation. Hell, they should
remember, is
forever.
These exegisists refuse to accept the
clear injunctions of the Quran and insist on reiterating their corrupted
confession of faith and associating the name of Muhammad with that of
God.
In fact, based exclusively on the Quran,
the confession of faith as expounded by the exegisists leads to perdition,
if only they knew. Ibliss has so adorned their idolatry
in their eyes that they are absolutely convinced of the rightness of their
ways in spite of the
Quran.
In the first place, God Himself lays
down the confession of faith that is acceptable to Him. In Chapter
3, 'Ali-I'mran, at verse 18, God, in His infinite mercy, gives us the right
confession of
faith.
"God bears witness that there is no
god but Him and so do the angels and those possessed of knowledge. In justice,
there is no god but Him, He is the exalted, the wise."
This is the confession that God Himself
bears witness to. It makes no mention of any human being Muhammad
included. It must therefore stand as the confession which God sanctions
for His servants and they have absolutely no right to deviate from
it.
As for
"...and
Muhammad is His servant and His messenger." this is a statement of absolute
fact. Anyone refusing to accept Muhammad as a messenger of God
and the seal of His prophets falls outside the pale of Islam.
The correct answer to the question 'is Muhammad a messenger of God and the
last of the prophets?' is 'with certitude he is!'. It is not
part of the confession of faith as dictated by God, but merely a statement
of
fact.
Secondly, in Chapter 2, Al-Baqara, at
verse 285 God defines the
believer:
"The messenger has believed in what was
revealed to him from his Lord and so have the believers; each has believed
in God, His angels, His scriptures and His messengers. 'We do not
differentiate among His messengers' and they said 'we heard and we obeyed;
we seek your forgiveness, Our Lord, and unto You is our
destiny'."
Thus the believers have five
attributes:
(1) they believe in God,
(2) they believe in His angels,
(3) they believe in His books,
(4) they believe in His messengers and, finally,
(5) they do not differentiate among the messengers whom they claim to
believe in. Anyone who differentiates among the messengers is, ipso
facto, not a
believer.
These are the very words of God, uttered
through the lips of His messenger Muhammad, and, moreover, they are a direct
order from our creator to
us.
Those who still insist that the confession
of faith contains the words
'and Muhammad is
His messenger' should go back to the Quran and
read carefully 2:285, and more importantly they should examine their souls
and seek God's guidance and His
mercy.
Undoubtedly, these exegisists are motivated
by their love of Muhammad and are sincere, but their sincerity is
misguided. They should reflect with great care on their love of Muhammad;
the Christians love Jesus at least as much as the Muslims love Muhammad,
but where did this love lead? Jesus, like Muhammad, will, on
the Day of Judgment, disown those who purported to love him, those whose
love for him caused them to place him beside God and, unwittingly worship
him.
Their love for Muhammad, if it were
subordinated to the love of God, would not have caused them to lose sight
of Muhammad's Lord and His words. Their love should be foremost for
the message and then for the messenger. They would then have
things in their correct perspective and would be rightly
guided.
They argue that
'..and Muhammad is His servant and His
messenger' does not constitute
differentiation. But it does! When did any of them ever
aver in the confession of faith that '.. Saleh is His servant and
messenger'? Never. In fact, any intrepid soul who
would stand in public - anywhere in the so called Islamic World - and avow
'La Ilaha Illallah, Musa rasulullah' (there
is no god but God and Moses is His messenger!)
would at best be accused of insanity, but would more likely spend the night
in hospital if not in his grave. Every day Muhammad is
referred to as 'Sayidul
mursaleen' (the master of those
who
were sent by God to guide mankind), how
many of these so called believers object? This is blatant
differentiation and anyone denying that should be honest with himself and
truthful, in view of the gravity of the consequences. Hell is
forever.
Some exegisists will go so far as to
argue that because Muhammad is our prophet we are justified incorporating
his name in the confession of faith, this positively identifies us as his
followers as distinct from the followers of any other prophet, moreover,
they add, God Himself prefers Muhammad over all His
creatures.
This argument does not stand. The order not to discriminate is directed at the believers and was delivered
through the mouth of Muhammad no less, as was the confession of faith sanctioned
by God. God, at chapter 3, Ali-I'mran, verse
84, directly commands us
:
"Say 'we believe in God and what was
sent down to us and what was revealed to Ibraheem and Isma'eel and Iss-haq
and Ya'qub and the patriarchs and what was given to Musa and I'ssa and what
was given to the prophets by their Lord, we do not differentiate among any
of them and we are submitters unto
Him'".
As for God preferring Muhammad over all
else, there is simply no basis for that in the Quran. It
does not necessarily follow that being the last prophet has more significance
than being the first prophet or the 'father of the prophets'. True,
God does prefer certain messengers to others but He does not anywhere state
that Muhammad is favoured above others. In fact, in those verses referring
to God's preference, He speaks of Moses and of Jesus symbolically and mentions
David by name. From this one might infer that God favours David over
all the others, but then again God is not answerable to us. We
were commanded not to differentiate and we are required to obey without
question.
Even if God did prefer Muhammad over
the other messengers, His order to us is clear and unequivocally prohibits
us from differentiating among the messengers. Willful failure
to obey an order of God bears terrible and irreversible consequences. Read the Quran, it makes that abundantly
clear.
The exegisists have several more stock
arguments, all based on the same two premises, firstly that Muhammad brought
us the Quran, which is our scripture, he therefore holds a special place
with us, and secondly God favours Muhammad over
all His
creation.
Neither of these premises justify
discrimination in favour of Muhammad since that is specifically prohibited,
and certainly cannot support the great calumny indulged in by all Muslims
which is the changing of the confession of faith, as sanctioned by God, to
include
Muhammad.
God's words are neither incomplete or
inaccurate, nor are they haphazard. Had He, in His infinite wisdom,
wanted a confession of faith to include Muhammad, Moses, Jesus or anyone
else He would have enunciated one just as clearly as that stated at chapter
3, Ali-I'mran, verse
18.
The absence of any names other than God's
in the confession of faith is deliberate and not open to argument. God did not forget to include Muhammad or anyone else for that matter, nor,
be He exalted, did He err. That confession of faith is perfect since it conforms with God's will as
revealed in the Quran.
The stock argument that the confession
of faith at 3:18 applies to God but not to us is, to say the least,
disingenuous. God states that He as well as the angels and those possessed
of knowledge, bear witness that there is no god but Him. Those
possessed of knowledge are human, so where do the proponents of this argument
wish to place us? Moreover, we would adduce our previously stated
counter-argument that God's words are complete and accurate nor does He
err. He does not anywhere state that it does not
apply to us nor does He give us another confession of faith. The confession of faith that God Himself accepts is absolutely binding upon
us and is ipso facto perfect. Only the disbeliever would find
it not acceptable as is or would want to alter it in any
way.
Another argument that is put forth is
that discrimination as stated in 2:285 and 3:84 means failing to admit that
all are messengers of God. This argument is demonstrably false
since the verse speaks to the believers and defines them as believing in
all the messengers. It is these same believers who
already admit all the messengers who are commanded
not to discriminate among
them.
Finally, the strangest argument of all:
"we are not discrimina-ting in favour of Muhammad, we are simply expressing
our special relationship with him, he, after all, brought us the Quran without
which we would be
idolaters".
A special relationship with Muhammad
is tantamount to preference particularly in this context. It
is not possible to express preference without first expressing difference. When two things are the same one
cannot say that one is better than the
other since both are the same, that is, there is no difference between
them. If, on the other hand, they are not the same, that is,
there is a difference between them, then and only then may one say that one
is better than the other. Thus differentiation must precede
preference. It is therefore a nonsense to talk of a special
relationship with Muhammad and at the same time deny differentiating in his favour.
We have presented evidence, based exclusively
on the Quran, beyond reasonable doubt, that those who insist upon including
Muhammad's name in the confession of faith are, in fact, discriminating in
his favour and are therefore not
believers.
What, then, are they? Again the Quran tells us.
Chapter 63, Al-Munafiqoon, verse
1
states:
"When the hypocrites come to you they
say 'We bear witness that you are the messenger of God' God knows that you
are His messenger, and God bears witness that the hypocrites are
liars."
It is significant that God uses the term
knows that Muhammad is His messenger. He does not use the phrase
bears witness. This further reinforces the concept that it is a fact that
Muhammad is God's messenger but not the confession of faith. Had it
been the confession of faith God would have said "God bears witness that
you are His messenger." He does not; it is the Hypocrites who
bear witness that Muhammad is God's messenger whereas God knows that Muhammad
is His messenger and bears witness that the Hypocrites are
liars.
Some misguided people claim that the
two parts of the confession of faith are in the Quran with the second part,
'Muhammad is His messenger', is stated at chapter 63, Al-Munafiqoon, verse
1.
They should read it more
carefully. They will find that the phrase 'bear(s) witness' is
used, in connection with Muhammad, only by the hypocrites, not by God as
explained above. God does bears witness that they are liars
though.
Thus if they insist on this verse to
support their claim, they are in fact using the confession of faith of the
hypocrites who are, by God's testimony,
liars.
Only the hypocrites insist on adding
a second testimony '........
and Muhammad is His messenger' to the Quranic testimony.
God further describes them at 63:3 as
follows:
"This is because they believed, then
disbelieved. Thus their minds were blocked so they do not
understand." The hypocrites are believers whose
faith is tainted with disbelief. They have thus willfully destroyed
their capacity to
reason.
At chapter 4, An-Nissa', verse 140 God
says
"...God will gather the hypocrites and
the disbelievers together in
Hell"
All the other verses referring to the
hypocrites promise them Hell for
ever.
God has spoken. He has issued His commands;
they are clear and they are just. Do not discriminate among His messengers,
your relationship with them notwithstanding. If you do, you are not just
disobeying God's commands but you are, by definition, not a
believer.
God nowhere in the Quran commands us
to bear witness that Muhammad is His messenger but He does, however, command
us to accept him as the messenger and to believe him and encourage and support
him and follow the light that was sent down to us with
him.
Finally, consider carefully the words
of chapter 6, Al-An'am, verse
19
"Say, 'What testimony is of greatest
import?' Say 'God's. He is witness between me and you and this Quran was
inspired to me to serve as a warning to you and anyone it may reach that
you bear witness that there are other gods beside God.' Say 'I do not bear
witness', Say 'He is the One God and I disown those whom you
associate.'"
This verse confirms that God's witness
is the most weighty and God's witness, as regards the confession of faith,
is clearly stated at 3:18
"God bears
witness...!" Do they still insist
upon changing the confession of faith that God Himself bears witness to?
and do they still insist on associating others with
Him?
Only the intelligent will take
heed.
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