The Cat wrote:, we're left with the Koran, whom
depicts Muhammad as imperfect (40.55; 47.19; 48.2; 53.19-21, etc), sometimes with the blessing of Allah (33.50)!
48.1-2: Lo! We have given thee (O Muhammad) a signal victory, ---That Allah may forgive thee of thy sin (dhanaba) that which is past
and that which is to come, and may perfect His favour unto thee, and may guide thee on a right path....
In chronology this is the 111th sura and still Allah had to 'perfect His favour' unto Muhammad!
fyi
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا {1}
[Shakir 48:1] Surely We have given to you a clear victory
[Yusufali 48:1] Verily We have granted thee a manifest Victory:
[Pickthal 48:1] Lo! We have given thee (O Muhammad) a signal victory,
[Pooya/Ali Commentary 48:1]
In the sixth year of Hijra, the Holy Prophet had a dream that with his followers he made circuits round the Ka-bah, and performed all the ceremonies of hajj.
Six years had passed since the Holy Prophet had left Makka. Islam had grown during these six years. The pagans had tried to attack the Holy Prophet at various times, but had been defeated. The Holy Prophet desired to perform the umrah in the month of Dhiqada, unarmed, but accompanied with his followers. A large following joined him, to the number of fifteen hundred. Early in the month, the Holy Prophet led his followers to Dhul Hulayfa on the road to Makka. They carried no arms but sheathed sword of a traveller. When they drew near to Makka, they were warned that Quraysh had gathered their allies against them, and that their cavalry under Khalid bin Walid was on the road before them, and with him was Ikrima bin Abu Jahl. As the Holy Prophet did not come to fight, he turned towards the right. At Hudaybiya his camel, Qaswa, stopped and knelt down. The Holy Prophet took it as a divine command and encamped there. There was no water there as the wells were choked up with sand. The Holy Prophet planted an arrow in one of the wells and the water immediately surfaced. The Quraysh sent three emissaries, one after the other, to enquire about his intentions. Urwa, a chief from Taif, said to the Holy Prophet that the Makkans were desperate and that they had resolved to die rather than allow him to enter. He also emphatically told him that as soon as the Makkans would fall upon his followers, they would run and desert him. At this Abu Bakr protested and resented the remark. The emissaries expressed their conviction in the sincerity of the Holy Prophet's intentions but the heathens did not listen to them. Kharrash bin Ummayya and Uthman were sent to the Quraysh but they could not convince them. They only agreed to allow Uthman, if he wished, to perform the rites of umrah.
In view of a possible confrontation, the Holy Prophet summoned all those with him and standing under a tree, took oath from each, of resolute adherence to him, never to flee from the battle field and to fight to the end. Refer to the verse 18 of this surah. This pledge is called "The pledge under the tree".
Mindful of the rout at the day of Khandaq at the hands of Ali the Makkans sent Suhayl bin Amr
with some other representatives to conclude a treaty of peace with the Holy Prophet as soon as they heard of the pledge under the tree. When the terms of the treaty were settled the Holy Prophet asked Ali, his vicegerent, to write down the terms of the treaty. Ali began with "bismillahir rahmanir rahim" but Suhayl said that it should begin as the Makkans used to do: Bismika Allahumma. The Holy Prophet agreed. Again when Ali wrote that "This is the treaty made between Muhammad Rasullullah (the messenger of Allah) and Suhayl bin Amr", Suhayl said that had they accepted Muhammad as the messenger of Allah they would not have taken arms against him, therefore "Muhammad bin Abdullah" should be written. Ali hesitated, then the Holy Prophet himself erased the word rasulullah and wrote bin Abdullah after his name, and told Ali that he would likewise face a similar situation in future. This prophecy came true when a treaty was concluded between Ali and Mu-awiyah after thirty years.
The following terms were put down in the treaty.
(i) There shall be no aggression on the part of any of the two parties for the next ten years, neither shall attack the other or their allies.
(ii) Whosoever wishes to join Muhammad and enter into a league with him shall have the liberty to do so. Likewise whoso wishes to join the Quraysh shall have the liberty to do so.
(iii) If any one goes over to Muhammad and is claimed back by his guardian he shall be sent back; but if any one from the followers of Muhammad returns to the Quraysh, he shall not be sent back.
(iv) Muhammad and his followers shall go back this year without entering the holy precincts.
(v) Next year Muhammad and his followers may visit Makka for three days, when the Quraysh shall retire therefrom. They will not enter it with any arms, save with a traveller's sword.
The text was written by Ali and was witnessed by some of the most prominent companions.
It is mentioned in Sahih Bukhari, Tazkirat al Karim and Rawdat al Ahbab that Umar bin Khattab expressed himself plainly that he had never before suspected so strongly the truth of Muhammad being the messenger of Allah (it means he had doubted many times before); and said: "Are you not a true messenger of Allah? Why should we then put a blot upon our faith and bear the brunt of humiliation if we are in the right and our adversaries in the wrong?" The Holy Prophet replied: "I am but a messenger of Allah and can do nothing against His will. He will help me."
The treaty of Hudaybiya, which though at the time seemed a set-back to the Muslims, proved in fact the greatest victory for Islam, moral and social, as well as political, and its lessons are expounded in this surah-victory comes from cool courage, devotion, faith and patience.
By virtue of this treaty every individual, each family, clan or tribe was given freedom of choice to join the Holy Prophet in his mission, to profess Islam and convince others to come into the fold of the religion of Allah without any risk of persecution from the disbelievers. Islam was making steady progress throughout the land.
لِيَغْفِرَ لَكَ اللَّهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِن ذَنبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرَ وَيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكَ وَيَهْدِيَكَ صِرَاطًا مُّسْتَقِيمًا {2}
[Shakir 48:2] That Allah may forgive your community their past faults and those to follow and complete His favor to you and keep you on a right way,
[Yusufali 48:2] That Allah may forgive thee thy faults of the past and those to follow; fulfil His favour to thee; and guide thee on the Straight Way;
[Pickthal 48:2] That Allah may forgive thee of thy sin that which is past and that which is to come, and may perfect His favour unto thee, and may guide thee on a right path,
[Pooya/Ali Commentary 48:2]
If even a fleeting thought crosses the mind at the mention of "sinning and being forgiven" to connect it with the conduct of the Holy Prophet, it must be condemned as the worst form of blasphemy.
In the light of what has been written in the commentary of several verses so far studied, the sublime, superior-most and infallible nature of the Holy Prophet's being rules out any possibility, however far-fetched, of laying a sinful act on his doorstep.
In addition to other verses call to memory particularly the commentary of the following verses:
Fatihah: 6 and 7.
Baqarah: 2, 30 to 39, 40, 78, 89, 124, 253, 285,
Ali Imran: 48, 81.
Bara-at: 105,
BaniIsrail: 1,55.
Ahzab: 21, 33.
Mumin: 55.
Muhammad: 15 and 19.
In the commentary of Mumin: 55 the issue of sinning and forgiveness has been thoroughly discussed and there is nothing to add here to reject the preposterous idea of attributing sinning to the Holy Prophet.
Verses 2 to 9 of Najm alone are enough to establish the fact that if any one dares to slander the Holy Prophet with the outlandish conjecture that "as, after all, he was a human being it was natural for him to make mistakes", he is accusing Allah of making those mistakes.
In reality there are two schools of thought among his followers.
One school of thought follows the philosophy of the companions, among whom the shaykhayn (the first and the second caliph), Abu Sufyan and his son Mu-awiyah were very active in giving currency to the theory of "Muhammd was a man like unto us", which created so much confusion about the personality of the Holy Prophet that a large number of Muslims, in all ages, meekly surrender to whatever they have said about him. It was deliberately planned to bring the status of the Holy Prophet to the level of ordinary men so that the run of the mill rulers, whom they wanted to present as heroes of Islam, could be respected and honoured by the common people. To belittle the highest position of the Ahl ul Bayt, established by the sayings and doings of the Holy Prophet which have been mentioned by almost all the authors of traditions, history and tafsir, they found it imperative to spread the mist of incredibility around the infallible messenger of Allah, even by distorting and ignoring the clear and decisive verses of the Quran.
The point of view of the followers of "Muhammad and ali (Ahl ul Bayt) of Muhammad" has been clearly mentioned in the interpretation of all the relevant verses of the Quran. Verse 9 of Najm describes the nearness in perfection of the Holy Prophet to the absolute perfection of Allah as "at a distance of two bows, or still nearer." What the "still nearer" implies is yet unknowable to man. It may have no frontiers. There is no limit to his nearness to Allah's perfection.
As has been mentioned in the commentary of Mumin: 55 and Muhammad: 15 and 19, Allah has granted protection to the followers of the Holy Prophet against their adversaries by the treaty of Hudaybiya. Two years later when the Holy Prophet entered Makka, after the unconditional surrender of the pagans, he had ten thousand men with him. A great victory it was indeed, surpassing all others in its far-reaching effects.
The interpretation of ghafir and zanb have been given in the commentary of Mumin: 55.
The sins of those who opposed the Holy Prophet but afterwards embraced Islam, and the sins of those who would, in future, oppose the religion of Allah but might become Muslims, would be forgiven, as also mentioned in Zumar: 35.
For the completion of Allah's favour refer to the commentary of Ma-idah: 3 and 67.
Guiding the Holy Prophet to the right path after seventeen years of preaching the divine message is meaningless. The people are addressed here through the Holy Prophet, because the welfare of the people is the responsibility of the messenger of Allah. It refers to the guidance provided by Allah in the person of Ali, after the Holy Prophet, at Ghadir Khum, in order to secure the religion of Allah for ever from distortion and corruption.
Aqa Mahdi Puya says:
About the messengers and prophets of Allah the Quran says:
(i) They have been freed from any possibility of sinning.
(ii) Shaytan has no authority over them.
(iii) They follow nothing but revelation revealed to them by Allah.
(iv) They are always on the right path. So every man prays to Allah to keep him on the path of His chosen representatives (Fatihah: 7).
(v) Najm: 2 to 5 say:
"Your companion is not led astray, nor does he err, nor does he speak of his own inclination, it is naught but revelation revealed, taught him the mighty in power,"
Though the above verses refer to the Holy Prophet in particular, but they also cover all the prophets of Allah in general. Now if any sin is connected with them, the Quran would become an unreliable book.
The word zanb should be interpreted as the shortcomings necessitated by the nature of creation in all created beings, because Allah, the creator, is alone above and free of all inherent or intrinsic shortcomings. This is the fact towards which the Quran points out when it is said therein that Allah has freed His prophets from shortcomings and that the holy Ahl ul Bayt have been thoroughly purified, which is the result of ghafar (protection) He grants to His chosen servants.
Ghafir in this verse refers to the redress made available by His grace, otherwise victory in any sense cannot be the cause of forgiveness of any misdeed done under the influence of evil.
Zanb here refers to the state of mind of the Holy Prophet in view of the opposition of the disbelievers and the hypocrites to retard the progress of Islam, which came to an end by the decisive victory mentioned in verse one, political as well as spiritual. It is these kind of shortcomings which can be removed by the victory, or it can prevent its recurrence in future-the completion of Allah's favour on the Holy Prophet.
According to the Ahl ul Bayt zanb, in this verse, means the sin of the people, not of the Holy Prophet.
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