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INFALLIBILITY
Infallibility is one of the necessary
attributes of the Prophets. The Arabic word translated ‘infallibility’ is isma,
meaning protecting or saving and defending. The word is used in the Qur’an in
a variety of derived forms. For example, during the Flood, when the Prophet Noah
invited his son to board his ship, the latter replied: I will betake myself
to some mountain; it will save me from the water. Noah responded to his son
using the active participle of the word: Today there is not a ‘saving one’
from the command of God (Hud, 11.43).'
The wife of the ‘Aziz
of Egypt, whose name is mentioned as Potiphar in the Bible, uses the same word
in, I did seek to seduce him but he firmly ‘saved himself’ guiltless (Yusuf,
12.32). The Qur’an calls believers to hold fast to the ‘rope of God’, that
is, the Qur’an and the religion of Islam, using the same word in a different
form: Hold fast all together to, and ‘protect’ (against being divided)
by, the rope of God (Al ‘Imran, 3.103). Again, we see the same word
in the verse, God will ‘defend (protect)’ you from people (al-Ma’ida,
5.67).
The
Prophets are infallible
The
infallibility of the Prophets is an established fact based on reason and
tradition.
Reason
requires the infallibility of the Prophets,
upon them all be peace, because:
As already explained, the
Prophets came to convey to people the Message of God. If we liken this Message
or the Divine Revelation to light or pure water, as the Qur’an itself does (al-Ra’d,
13. 17; al-Nur, 24.35), it is absolutely necessary and indispensable to
the nature of the Revelation that both the Archangel Gabriel who brought the
Revelation, and the Prophet himself who conveyed it to people, should be
absolutely pure. Otherwise, that Divine light, the Revelation, would have been
extinguished or dimmed, or that ‘pure water’ polluted. Every falling off is
an impurity, a dark spot, in the heart. Like Gabriel, the heart or soul of the
Prophet is like a ‘polished mirror’ through which the Divine Revelation is
reflected to people, or a ‘cup’ from which people quench their thirst for
that pure ‘Divine water’. Any black spot on the mirror would absorb a ray of
that light; a single drop of mud would be enough to make the water unclear. This
would mean that the Prophets did not - God forbid such a thought! - convey the
whole of God’s Message. Whereas, in truth, they performed their duty perfectly
and left nothing of the Message unconveyed. This is clear from the following
verses of the Qur’an:
O Messenger! Convey
what has been sent to you from your Lord. If you did not, you would not
have fulfilled His mission. And God will defend you from people.
Certainly, God guides not the unbelieving people. (al-Ma’ida,
5.67)
Today I have
perfected your religion for you, and I have completed My favour upon you,
and I have chosen and approved for you Islam as religion. (al-Ma’ida,
5.3)
Secondly, people learn
from the Prophets all the commandments and principles concerning belief and
conduct. In order that people should learn these commandments in their pristine
purity and truth and as perfectly as possible to secure their happiness and
prosperity in both worlds, the Prophets must, first, represent, and, then,
present them without any faults or defects, for they are guides and good
examples for people to follow, as explicitly stated in the Qur’an:
You have indeed in
the Messenger of God a beautiful pattern, an excellent example, for anyone
who aspires after God and the Last Day, and who engages much in the
remembrance of God. (al-Ahzab, 33.21)
There is for you an
excellent example in Abraham and those with him - there was indeed in them
an excellent example for you - for those who aspire after God and the Last
Day. (al-Mumtahana, 60. 4,6)
Despite his utmost care
not to do anything contrary to Islam and not even to say a single word which is
not sanctioned by God, if a Prophet were to utter an untrue word, he would
repent for a lifetime, or even longer. It is narrated that the Prophet Abraham,
upon him be peace, will direct to Moses those who will appeal to him to
intercede for them on the Day of Judgment saying he cannot as he spoke
allusively three times in his life.1
Although it is not a sin to make an ‘indirect’ reference to the truth when
it is more appropriate rather than being direct, Abraham’s repentance of his
three allusions will continue in the Hereafter.
Thirdly, the Qur’an
commands believers to obey all the orders or prohibitions of the Prophet without
exception, and emphasizes that it is not fitting for a believer, man or woman,
when a matter has been decided by God and His Messenger, to have any option
about their decision (al-Ahzab, 33.36). It also warns believers that what
falls to them when God and His Messenger have given a judgment is only to say,
‘We have heard and obeyed’ (al-Nur, 24.51). Absolute obedience to a
Prophet means that the Prophet is right in all his commands and prohibitions.
Prophethood is so great a
favor that all the Prophets bore unbearable pains in fulfilling the duty of
thanksgiving and were always worried about not having worshipped God
sufficiently. The Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, often
implored God using the following words:
Glory be to You, we
have not been able to know You as Your knowledge requires, O Known One.
Glory be to You, we
have not been able to worship You as Your worship requires, O Worshipped
One.
The Qur’anic verses
which are sometimes mistakenly understood to reprimand certain Prophets for some
faults of theirs, or to mean the Prophets seek God’s forgiveness for some sin
of theirs, should be considered from this point of view. Besides, God’s
forgiveness does not always mean that a sin has been committed. The Qur’anic
words of ‘afw - ‘pardon’, and maghfirah - ‘forgiveness’,
also mean ‘special favor and kindness and Divine dispensation in respect to
the lightening or the overlooking of a religious duty’, as in the following
verses:
If any is forced
(to eat of them) by hunger, with no inclination towards transgression, God
is indeed Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (al-Ma’ida, 5.3)
If... you find no
water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith
your faces and hands. For God is All-Pardoning and Oft-Forgiving. (al-Nisa’,
4.43)
Fifthly, sins and pardon
have different degrees:
· Sins committed
by not obeying the religious commandments, and the forgiveness thereof;
· Sins committed
by disobeying God’s laws of creation and life, and the forgiveness
thereof;
· Sins in respect of
behaving against the rules of good manners or courtesy (adab), and the
forgiveness thereof.
A fourth type which is
not a sin, is doing something good but not the best, a failure in doing
perfectly what is required by the love of, and nearness to, God. This is what
some of the Prophets may have done, so it is not a sin in our normal usage of
the word for something deserving of Divine punishment.
Tradition also proves the
Prophets’ infallibility.
God says in the Qur’an
concerning the Prophet Moses:
I cast love over
you from Me (and made you comely and loveable) in order that you might be
brought up under My eye. (Ta Ha, 20.39)
The Prophet Moses, upon
him be peace, was brought up by God Himself and prepared for the mission of
Messengership. Therefore, it is inconceivable that he may have committed a sin
at any time in his life.
The same is true of all
the other Prophets. For example, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings, says of Jesus: Satan could not touch Jesus and his mother at his
birth. Jesus was protected from birth until his elevation to the Presence of
God, as we also read in the Qur’an:
(Mary) pointed to
him [the babe}. They said: ‘How can we talk to one who is an infant in
the cradle?’ He (Jesus) said: ‘I am indeed a servant of God: He has
given me the Scripture and made me a Prophet. And He has made me blessed
wheresoever I be, and enjoined on me prayer and charity as long as I live.
He has made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or a wretched rebel.
So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that
I will be raised up to life again.’ (Maryam, 19.29-33)
Jesus, like all the other
Prophets, was protected from all kinds of sin from his birth. God’s Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings, intended in his childhood to attend two wedding
ceremonies at different times but, on each occasion, he was overpowered by sleep
which prevented him from attending.2 Likewise, in his youth he helped his uncles
with the restoration of the Ka’ba by carrying stones. Since the stones hurt
his shoulders, his uncle, ‘Abbas, advised him to hoist the garment covering
the lower part of his body, onto his shoulder to carry the stones on. He just
did what he was advised to do, leaving some of the upper part of his legs
uncovered, when he fell on his back with his eyes staring fixedly. An angel
appeared and warned him that what he had done was improper, saying: ‘This is
not befitting for you.’3 For the day was to come when he would order people to
be well-mannered and observe Divinely ordained standards of conduct, including
covering the thighs.
God’s Messenger says
that all the children of Adam make faults and err, and the best of those who
make faults and err are the repentant.4 This implies that man is fallible by
nature, but it does not mean that all of mankind are ‘condemned’ to erring
howsoever. Whether by God’s Will and special protection or, as will be
explained below, by His showing the way to be free from errors or sins, even the
greatest of saints who continue the Prophetic mission of guiding people may be
infallible to some degree.
God promises to protect
the believers who fear Him, and to endow them with sound judgment to enable them
to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and between right and wrong:
O you who believe!
If you fear God, He will establish in you a Criterion (to judge between
right and wrong), purify you of all your evils, and forgive you. God is of
grace unbounded. (al-Anfal, 8.29)
God made a covenant with
the believers that if they obey Him, assist His cause and strive to exalt His
Word, by proclaiming His religion, He will help them and make their feet firm in
the religion, protecting them against all kinds of deviation (Muhammad,
47.7). God’s protection of believers from their enemies and against committing
sins has been made dependent on their support of Islam and struggle to spread it
all over the world so that only God is worshipped and no partners are associated
with Him either in belief or worship or the creation and rule of the universe.
If believers fulfill their covenant with God, God will fulfill His covenant with
them (al-Baqara, 2.40). If, by contrast, they break their promise, God
will not make them successful (al-Isra’,17.8).
God protects His servants
against sins in different ways. He may put some obstacles in their way to sins
so they do not sin, or He may establish a ‘warner’ in their hearts, or, if
all the other means prove of no use, He may cause, for example, their legs to be
broken or their hands unable to hold or grasp. Or He may warn one by putting a
verse in his mouth, as He did with a young man during the Caliphate of ‘Umar,
may God be pleased with him.
The young man was so
strict and attentive in his worship that he performed all his prayers in the
mosque. A woman lived on his way to the mosque and tried her hardest for several
days to seduce him into making love with her. Although the young man resisted
her alluring gestures, the moment came when he took a few steps towards the
woman’s house. Just at this point, he felt he was reciting this verse:
Those who fear God,
when a thought of evil from Satan assaults them, bring God to remembrance,
and lo! they see (aright). (al-A’raf, 7.201)
In the face of this
Divine warning, the young man was so ashamed before God of what he was about to
do, and felt so overwhelmed by his Compassionate Lord’s preventing him from
committing a sin, that he died. When ‘Umar was informed of the incident a few
days later, he went to his grave and shouted: ‘O young man. For him who fears
the time when he will stand before his Lord, there will be two gardens!’ (al-Rahman,
55.46). A voice from the grave, whether belonging to the young man himself or an
angel on his behalf, replied: ‘O Commander of the Believers: God has granted
me the double of what you say!’5
This is God’s
protection of His sincere servants. He says in one of His Revelations outside
the Qur’an:
My servant cannot
draw near to me through something else more lovable to Me than the
obligations I have enjoined upon him. Apart from those obligations, he
continues to draw near to Me through supererogatory acts of worship, until
I love him. When I love him, I will be his ears with which he hears, his
eyes with which he sees, his hands with which he grasps, and his feet on
which he walks. If he asks Me something, I will immediately give it to
him; if he seeks refuge in Me from something, I will protect him from it.6
God guides His true
servant to good and protects him from all kinds of evil. The servant wills and
does what is good and refrains from wickedness. He asks God what is good and
whatever he asks is provided for him; he seeks refuge in God from what is bad,
and whatever he seeks refuge in God from, he is protected against it.
All the Prophets were
infallible. They never committed a sin, minor or major, and their lives were
spent doing virtuous deeds. Although God sent numerous Prophets to mankind, the
Qur’an specifically mentions only twenty-eight of them. I think it will be
proper here to count them in the words of Ibrahim Haqqi, an eighteenth-century
Turkish saint and religious scholar, who was also an expert in anatomy and
astronomy:
Some have regarded
it a religious injunction to learn the names of the Prophets.
God informed us of
twenty-eight of them in the Qur’an:
Adam, Enoch, Noah,
Hud and Salih;
Abraham, Isaac and
Ishmael, who is a sacrifice for God.
Jacob, Joseph, Shu’ayb,
Lot and John the Baptist;
Zachariah and
Aaron, who is the brother of Moses, who spoke to God.
David, Solomon,
Elijah and Job;
Elisha, a kin of
Jesus, who was a spirit from God.
Dhul-Kifl and
Jonah, who is certainly a Prophet.
The seal of them is
the Beloved of God - Muhammad, Messenger of God.
They disagree on
the Prophethood of Ezra, Luqman and Dhul-Qarnayn.
Some regard them as
Prophets, while others as saints of God.
1. Muslim, “Iman,”
326.
2. Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya,
2.350-1.
3. Bukhari, “Hajj,”
42; Ibn Kathir, “al-Bidaya,” 2.350.
4. Tirmidhi, “Qiyama,”
49; Ibn Maja, “Zuhd,” 30.
5. Ibn Kathir, “Tafsir
” 3.539.
6. Bukhari, “Riqaq,” 38; Ibn Hanbal,
6.256.
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