Peace on the Messenger

"But Allah would not punish them while you, [O Muhammad], are among them, and Allah would not punish them while they seek forgiveness." (8/33)

Although this verse initially addresses the disbelievers of the time, it puts forward a timeless rule. To stay safe from punishments both in this world and in the hereafter, we need to keep the messenger of God among ourselves and we need to repent for our sins. In this blog, I would like to ponder on the first half of this rule, i.e. keeping the messenger among ourselves.

Yes, it doesn't make sense to physically keep the messenger with us. But the verse must have a message that goes beyond the life time of the prophet. What could that be?

In a previous blog, I had discussed the meaning of reciting peace on the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings upon him). A take-home message from that discussion was that rather than a robotic reiteration of prayers for the messenger of God, deeds that are going to make him happy are closer to the spirit of salawat. This stance is similar to what I am looking for as an answer to my question above: rather than a material presence, a spirit that gives life to our deeds and fuels our thoughts...

The divine rule for sending a messenger to any creation is to choose someone from among them. So, prophet Muhammad was a human being like us. During his life time, he was physically among people, and his status as a human was well recognized. For this point, you can read two earlier blogs: Chosen From Among Us Humans and To Praise or Not To Praise the Messenger. But after his death, he was not only taken away physically but also pushed above!

Yes, he was taken by God, and was buried in Medina. His memories stayed with his companions for long. The early scholars who collected and published the hadith knew well to see that spirit, and were able make interpretations according to their times, just like their holy teacher did when not guided by revelation. In this regard, although the prophet was missing physically, he was present spiritually.

But at some point, rather than living the spirit he represented, blind imitation of his actions and literal implementation of his words started to dominate the minds. With that, Muhammad's all words pbuh became timeless, and praising him to a super or beyond human level became standard. With that standard, the questioning, understanding and re-interpreting his words as necessary became impossible. Consequently, understanding and interpreting the Quran became crippled. That is when the entire Muslim world started seeing failures and losses globally, which took place during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Today, we are still suffering from the dehumanization of the prophet Muhammad. Rather than a human being, who is in touch with the divine at times and who is using his human capacity to his best, we see a character who is timeless and above all thought processes, negating any attempts for critical thinking. This image does not reflect the reality. That means prophet Muhammad pbuh is not among us spiritually, either.

This is a sign of danger!

However, there is another border of danger related to the way we treat the messenger. If over praising and pushing out of the human boundary is the upper limit, the lower limit would be treating him like anyone:

"Do not make [your] calling of the Messenger among yourselves as the call of one of you to another. Already Allah knows those of you who slip away, concealed by others. So let those beware who dissent from the Prophet's order, lest fitnah strike them or a painful punishment." (24/63)

"O you who have believed, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet or be loud to him in speech like the loudness of some of you to others, lest your deeds become worthless while you perceive not." (49/2)

"And know that among you is the Messenger of Allah . If he were to obey you in much of the matter, you would be in difficulty, but Allah has endeared to you the faith and has made it pleasing in your hearts and has made hateful to you disbelief, defiance and disobedience. Those are the [rightly] guided." (49/7)

So, instead of robotically calling peace on him hundreds of times, we could try to emulate his attitudes towards his family and other people. Instead of mechanically performing certain actions of his in worship, we could embrace his critical thinking and wisdom in seeking God's pleasure.

In short, let's be companions of his with whom he would feel pleased.