Question
I am a student of the Qur’an and have few questions for you. But at this time, I would like to have your thought and guidance only on the following questions.
1. Nowhere in the Qur’an I found the First Kalima. Do you think Allah (God forbid) forgot to mention it or it is we who ignored the real Kalima from the Qur’an and invented something for ourselves? The first Kalima is called Kalima Tauheed. But with all honestly, I do not think that the first Kalima is a Kalima Tauheed because it includes two entities (Creator and one of his creatures, i.e. Allah SWT and Muhammad (sws). It is also a violation of the Qur’anic teaching when God says “do not make distinction among my messengers”, and yet we pick one Prophet and include in our daily prayers. It seems the Islamic world has abandoned and forgotten God’s true message and started worshipping the messenger.
2. Hadiths have contradictions and included a lot of non-sense. I believe it can’t be a source of Islamic laws and has very little, if any, to do with the Prophet (sws). Then why we put so much emphasis on it when we talk about Islam? Is Qur’an not clear, complete and fully detailed book?
3. Almost all Islamic duties (Ibadat) came through Prophet Ibrahim (sws) and at the time of Ibrahim A.S, Prophet Muhammed (sws) did not exist. Then why we say Durood-e-Ibrahimi in our prayers? Our Ibadat/Namaaz must be fully devoted to Allah ONLY. None of His creatures should be part of our Ibadat/Namaaz.
4. We conclude that al Prophets were pious people and guaranteed Jannah. Then instead of worrying about our own neck, why we say Durood-O-Salaam to the prophet, day and night? It is shirk (polytheism) and against the teachings of the Prophet. Is it not? I expect a comprehensive and logical answer.
Answer
1. There are ten verses in the Qur’an where “obey the Prophet (sws)” is mentioned immediately after “obey God”. Does this violate the concept of Tohid? Was it not enough to say only “obey God”?
In verse 5:111 we read:
“And when I revealed to the disciples to believe in me (God) and my prophet (Jesus), they said we believe and be witness that we are Muslims”
Why God is referring to Himself and His prophet one after the other? Why should God order disciples to believe in both Him and His prophet? Why not just believing in Him?
What we learn from the above verses is that believe in the Prophet (sws) is in fact complementary to belief in God. In fact, no one can claim that he fully believes in God unless he also believes in the last prophet of God as well, once he comes to know him and is convinced about him to be a prophet.
We learn from the Qur’an verse 63:1 that people used to come to the Prophet (sws) and declare to him that they were witnesses that he is the prophet of God. If this was not the common practice, then the hypocrites mentioned in the verse would never do that to deceive others.
It is obvious that when we believe in the last prophet of God that means we also believe in all the prophets before him. We are therefore not making any discrimination between the prophets. Also it is the book that given to us through the last prophet that we are considering as the ultimate criteria for truth and falsehood. Therefore stating our belief to the last prophet is also a declaration of being submissive to the last divine book which is our book of guidance.
2. The Qur’an and the established Sunnah of the Prophet (sws) are the primary and necessary sources of understanding Islam. Hadith is a valuable source that can be used after analysis of reliability to study the history of Islam as well and the Sira (way of life) of the Prophet (sws) and detailed explanation of some of the Islamic beliefs and directives. I do agree with you that Hadith is not and cannot be the primary source of understanding Islam.
3. Verse 33:56 of the Qur’an instructs us explicitly to send greetings to the Prophet (sws) and the greeting is in the form of a Dua (supplication) to God. We can say any supplications in our prayers. If you know of a reason that proves we cannot say some supplication in our prayers then please let me know.
4. I think I have answered this one already by answering question 3. I do not see any conflict between sending greetings to the Prophet (sws) and worrying about our own neck. I cannot see how the first can stop the second. If in any particular society it does stop the second then I think it is that particular feature of the practices of that society that needs attention not following the Qur’an in sending greetings to the prophet.
Answered by: Farhad Shafti
Date: 2015-01-29
