Doubt of prophets, criticising Lot, preferring Yousuf to Muhammad in patience

The two sheikhs mentioned that Abu Hurayra had said: "The prophet Muhammad (s) said: We are worthier of doubt than Abraham when he said (as in the holy Qur'an): (And when Ibrahim said: My Lord! Show me how Thou givest life to the dead, He said: What! And do you not believe? He said: Yes, but that my heart may be at ease) 2:260 (Quran). May Allah have mercy upon Lot; he recoursed to a strong support. If I stayed in prison as long as Yousuf (Joseph) had stayed, I would respond to the inviter." 1

This tradition was impossible for some reasons:

First: This tradition proved that Abraham was in doubt but Allah said: (And certainly We gave to Ibrahim his rectitude before) 21:51(Quran), and: (And thus did We show Ibrahim the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and that he might be of those who are sure) 6:75 (Quran). Sureness is the best degree of knowledge. He, who is sure of a thing, cannot be in doubt about it. Reason, itself, denies that the prophets, all of them, were in doubt about things. It is too obvious.

As to the saying of Allah: (And when Ibrahim said: My Lord! show me how Thou givest life to the dead) 2:260 (Quran), it might mean that Abraham asked his god about how to give life to the dead and not about giving life, itself. This wouldn't be, unless the giving of life to the dead was certain for him.

That is to say: using how in a question means to ask about the state of something existed and known for the asker and the asked one. For example: How is Zeid? means that is he all right or sick? And how did Zeid do? means that did he do well or bad? And so his saying (My Lord! show me how Thou givest life to the dead) was but a request to be shown how what he was certain of-giving life to the dead-would be done.

But because that someone, who didn't know the high status of Abraham, might think that this request of Abraham came out from his doubt in the power of Allah to give life to the dead, Allah wanted to remove

this illusion so He said to him: (What! and do you not believe? He said: Yes). Abraham said: "yes" to mean: "I believe in the power of giving life, but I requested that in order to ease my heart when I would see how the dead could be alive again after the separation of its parts in the graves, in the caves, inside the stomachs of the beasts and in the sites of dying in the deserts or in the seas." As 

1. Refer to al-Bukhari's Sahih, vol. 2, p.p. Muslim's Sahih, vol. 1, p.p. 71 and Ahmed's Musnad, vol. 2.

if he was eager to see how that would happen so he said (to ease my heart), which meant to cool his burning thirst by seeing such.

This was the meaning of the verse. Whoever ascribed doubt in the power of Allah to Abraham, would definitely go astray.

Second: It was clear from his saying: "We are worthier than Abraham in doubt." that the prophet Muhammad and all of the other prophets were in doubt and worthier than Abraham in that.

Suppose that he didn't mean all the prophets, but definitely he meant himself. The text was so clear to show that the prophet Muhammad was worthier than Abraham in doubt. Glory to Allah! This was a great slander! The consensus and the mental and traditional criteria certified the nullity of this tradition.

We don't know, I swear by Allah, why the prophet Muhammad was worthier than Abraham in doubt, in spite of that Allah had granted him what He hadn't granted Abraham and all the other prophets or the angels!

The Prophet Muhammad's guardian, Imam Ali, who was the gate of the Prophet's town of knowledge and was to him as was Aaron to Moses, but there was no prophet after him, said: "If the blind between Allah and me was removed, I wouldn't be more sure (than I am sure of Allah)."1 That was to say that his faith in Allah was at the highest degree and it would not increase because he, really, knew Allah very well and he was so sure about Him and his power. Thus was Imam Ali, so how about the master of the prophets and the last of them all (peace be upon them)!

Third: in his saying: " May Allah have mercy upon Lot, he resorted to a strong support" he criticised Lot and accused him of being not so confident in Allah, where, in fact, Lot wanted to provoke his tribe and relatives and to overcome by his assistants for the sake of Allah to order the people to do good deeds and forbid

1. This saying of Imam Ali was famous. Al-Bouseiry, the poet, referred to it in his poem: The vizier of his cousin in great deeds,

them to do bad deeds. The prophet Muhammad (s) would never blame Lot or disprove his saying. The prophet Muhammad (s) would never think of Lot else than what he deserved

Would be happy if the vizier was a relative, Removing of the blind added to his sureness nothing, It was the sun without a cover.

as great glorious prophet, but he had warned that there would be many liars fabricating traditions!

Fourth: in his saying: "If I stayed in prison as long as Yousuf (Joseph) stayed, I would respond to the inviter" he preferred, clearly, Yousuf to the prophet Muhammad. This contradicted the consensus, the books of Hadith and what was proved to be a necessity among the Muslims.

If you said that the prophet Muhammad was humble to admire Yousuf's prudence, patience and wisdom in proving his innocence until the truth appeared and he was set free from prison, we would say that it was not possible for the Prophet to say such even in humility, because if he was tried by the same problem of Yousuf, he would be more prudent and patient to clear the truth. How impossible it was for the Prophet to respond to the inviter by just inviting him to get out of prison and lose the wisdom, which Yousuf preferred when he said to the messenger of the king when set him free from prison as Allah says: (Go back to your lord and ask him, what is the case of the women who cut their hands; surely my Lord knows their guile. He said: How was your affair when you sought Yusuf to yield himself (to you)? They said: Remote is Allah (from imperfection), we knew of no evil on his part. The chiefs wife said: Now has the truth become established: I sought him to yield himself (to me), and he is most surely of the truthful ones) 12:50-51 (Quran).

He didn't get out of prison until his innocence shone like the sun without clouds.

So Yousuf was prudent and patient that he didn't try to get out of prison so soon until he got what he wanted. More than that the prophet Muhammad (s) was prudent, patient, lenient, firm, determined, wise and infallible in all doings and sayings. It was he, who if they put the sun in his right hand and the moon in his left hand in order to give up his mission, would never do.

It would be better for Abu Hurayra to say: if the Prophet Muhammad(P) stayed in prison many times as long as Yousuf stayed, he would never beseech anybody to get him out of prison as Yousuf did when (he said to him whom he knew would be delivered of the two: Remember me with your lord) 12:42 (Quran). That was to say: describe my morals and manners to the king and tell him about my story that he may have mercy on me and rid me of this trouble (but the Shaitan caused him to forget mentioning (it) to his lord) 12:42 (Quran), that the Satan made the man forget to mention Yousuf to the king (so he remained in the prison a few years) 12:42 (Quran). The forgetfulness of the man and the stay of Yousuf in prison for some years were a warning for him because he did the unworthier thing. He didn't have to beseech but the mercy of Allah. It was mentioned by the prophet Muhammad as such.

Prophet Muhammad (s) suffered from what was greater than the trouble of Yousufs prison and much worse than all what the family of the prophet Jacob (s) suffered. He never became weak or gave in. He didn't beseech but Allah. He and all his tribe (the Hashimites) were blockaded in the defile for years. They were in an absolute distress. He, his tribe and the believers all were offended too much that no any prophet before him suffered like him. They (the polytheists) clamoured him and his tribe as possible as they could. Here are some of the sayings of Allah: (And when those who disbelieved devised plans against you that they might confine you or slay you or drive you away) 8:30 (Quran), and (If you will not aid him, Allah certainly aided him when those who disbelieved expelled him, he being the second of the two, when they were both in the cave, when he said to his companion: Grieve not, surely Allah is with us. So Allah sent down His tranquillity upon him and strengthened him with hosts which you did not see) 9:40 (Quran), and (And Allah did certainly assist you at Badr when you were few) 3:123 and (When you ran off precipitately and did not wait for any one, and the Apostle was calling you from your rear, so He gave you another sorrow instead of (your) sorrow) 3:153 (Quran) and (When they came upon you from above you and from below you, and when the eyes turned dull, and the hearts rose up to the throats, and you began to think diverse thoughts of Allah. There the believers were tried and they were shaken with severe shaking) 33:10-11 (Quran) and (and on the day of Hunain, when your great numbers made you vain, but they availed you nothing and the earth became strait to you notwithstanding its spaciousness, then you turned back retreating. Then Allah sent down His tranquillity upon His Apostle and upon the believers) 9:25-26, in addition to his other generous situations, in which he met many gravities, but in all of them he was firmer than the mountains. He met the difficulties with a great heart and a steady soul, so they faded in front of his wide mind and gentle character. He didn't beseech save Allah to get him out from distress into easiness. He carried out his affairs by patience and depending upon Allah. So where were his determination, patience, prudence and wisdom relative to those of Joseph, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham and the rest of the prophets (peace be upon them, all)?

People resort to the prophets hoping their intercession

The two sheikhs mentioned a long tradition of Abu Hurayra's saying that: "The Prophet (s) said: In the Day of Resurrection Allah gathers all peoples, the first and the last of them, in one place. The caller can see them all and they all can hear him. The sun comes nearer. People cannot tolerate the grief and worry. They say to each other: "Don't you see what grief you are in? Don't you find someone to intercede for you with your god?" They go to Adam (s) and say to him: "You are the father of the human beings. Allah created you with His hands and blew in you some of His mercy. He ordered the angels to prostrate in front of you and they did. Please intercede for us with your god. Don't you see what we are in?" Adam says: "My god became so angry today to a degree that He hadn't become so angry before nor He will be so angry after that. He forbade me to eat from the tree but I disobeyed Him. Myself, myself, myself! Go to another than me. Go to Noah." They go to Noah and say to him: "O Noah, you were the first prophet to the people of the earth. Allah called you a grateful slave. Please intercede for us with your god. Don't you see what we are in?" Noah says: "My god became so angry today that He hadn't become so angry like that before, nor He will be so angry like that after today because I had, once, cursed my people. I shall keep to myself, myself, myself! Go to another than me. Go to Abraham." They go to Abraham (s) and say to him: "O Abraham, you are the prophet of Allah and His true friend among all the people of the earth, please intercede for us with your god. Don't you say what we are in?" He says: "My god became so angry today that He hadn't become so angry like that before, nor he will be so angry like that after today.

had told lies three times. I will keep to myself, myself, myself! Go to another than me. Go to Moses." They go to Moses and say to him: "O Moses, you are the prophet of Allah. He preferred you with His mission and talked with you alone among all the people; please intercede for us with your god. Don't you see what we are in?" He says: "My god became so angry today that He hadn't become so angry like that before nor He will be so angry like that after today. I had killed someone, whom I was not ordered to kill. I will keep to myself, myself! Myself! Go to another than me. Go to Jesus." They go to Jesus (s) and say to him: "O Jesus, you are the prophet of Allah and His word, which He communicated to Miriam (the Virgin Mary) and a spirit from Him. You spoke to people when you were in the cradle; please intercede to us with your god. Don't you see what we are in?" Jesus (s) says: "My god became so angry today that He hadn't become so angry like that before, nor He will be so angry like that after today. (Abu Hurayra did not mention guilt) I will keep to myself, myself! Myself! Go to Muhammad." They go to Muhammad (s) and say to him: "O Muhammad, you are the prophet of Allah and the last of the prophets. Allah forgave you all your guilts. Please intercede for us with your god. Don't you see what we are in?" Then I (Muhammad) go to be under the Empyrean and prostrate in front of my god. Allah grants me to praise and thank Him in a way that no one was granted with before me. Then it is said: "O Muhammad, raise your head and ask whatever you like, you will be granted that and intercede, your intercession will be accepted." I say: "O my god, my umma! O my god, my umma!" It is said: "O Muhammad, enter among your umma those, who won't be punished, from the right gate and they will participate the other gates with people." 1

Abu Hurayra, in this tradition, did dare audaciously to defame and disgrace the prophets, whom Allah had chosen to spread His missions among His people, in a way that the divine Sharia and Sunna denied it completely. The Sunna had a way of glorifying the prophets that made the hearts full of sacred regard and respect and the fronts submit to them. It was the Sunna of the prophet Muhammad (s) and his holy Qur'an that spread the glories of these prophets (s) allover the universe, on the land, in the sea and filled the ears of the age with praising them. All what the nations knew about these prophets of glory, which made the eyes submit in front of, and greatness, which made the ambitions cringe and lower their wings meanly before, was by virtue of the Qur'an and Muhammad's Sunna. Without the infallible Sunna of the prophet Muhammad (s) and the holy Qur'an, no one of the later generations would know any thing about these prophets (s) where there was no certain evidence or a true news or a reasonable narration about them. So the prophet Muhammad (s) preserved the history of the prophets and the nations and completed, by the Sunna and the Qur'an, the noble characters and the best of morals and manners. He spread the divine laws and the wise systems that were revealed to him from Allah, which would insure the happiness of the worldly life and the afterlife. They both, the Qur'an and the Sunna, included science, wisdom, politics, the dignity of the life and the hereafter and preserved the Arabic language until the Day of Resurrection.

This tradition of Abu Hurayra, with its prattle and nonsense, was strange and different from the speech of the prophet Muhammad (s) and too far contrary to the Sunna. It was too far from our Prophet to ascribe what this tasteless trivial tradition included. Adam was far above disobedience by committing a fault made Allah be so angry with him. Allah forbade him to go near the tree to exalt and guide him. Glory be to Noah. He would not curse any people except the enemies of Allah in order to be nearer to his god. Abraham was too much honest than to lie! He never did a thing made Allah be so angry with him. Moses did not kill anyone, whom Allah would be so angry for, but he killed someone that had no sanctity or value. Allah, the most exalted, would not treat His prophets but with benevolence as He said: (Is the reward of goodness but goodness) 55:60. The prophets were greater than to think of their god that He became so angry with them that He would never be angry like that neither before nor after. Also the prophet Muhammad would never tell about them but praise and glorification.

How can people deliberate and intercommunicate in the Day of Resurrection? They are as Allah says: (every woman giving suck shall quit in confusion what she suckled, and every pregnant woman shall lay down her burden, and you shall see men intoxicated, and they shall not be intoxicated but the chastisement of Allah will be severe) 22:2 (Quran), and (The day on which a man shall fly from his brother, And his mother and his father and his spouse and his son. Every man of them shall on that day have an affair, which will occupy him) 80:34-37 (Quran).

How can they, in that difficult situation, go to the prophets, who are, then, on the A'araf (the partition between Paradise and Hell)? What prevents them to go to the prophet Muhammad from the first time? Is he not of the glorious status, the high rank and the acceptable intercession? No one, then, ignore him. Why doesn't Adam or Noah or Abraham or Moses advise them to go to Muhammad directly? Can't any one of the prophets comfort those poor people at the first they ask for intercession? Do the prophets not know the glorious status of the prophet Muhammad at that day or do they prefer to increase the suffering of those poor believers asking for help?

 

We may ask Abu Hurayra about those poor people: are they from the nation of Muhammad or from another nation? If they are from the nation of Muhammad, what will prevent them to go to him from the first time they ask for intercession? And if they are from another nation, of course he won't abort their efforts and disappoint them with all his mercy that Allah has granted him and has made him the means to intercede between Him and His people. Certainly he will not disappoint them since he is the hope for the desirous and the peace for the scared. He answers the needy with his liberality and sates the thirsty asker before his echo comes back.

1. This text is according to al-Bukhari in his Sahih, vol. 3, p.p. 100. It was mentioned by Muslim in his Sahih, vol.1, p.p. 97 and Ahmed in his Musnad, vol. 2.

Allah descends to the lower heaven every night

The two sheikhs mentioned a tradition narrated by Ibn Shihab from Abu Abdullah al-Agharr and Abu Salama bin Abdur-Rahman that Abu Hurayra had said: "Our god descends to the lower heaven at the last third of every night and says: Let any one ask me to grant him what he asks for." 1   1. Sahih of al-Bukhari,vol. 4, p.p.68 and vol. 1, p.p. 136. Sahih of Muslim, vol. 1, p.p. 283.Musnad of Ahmed bin Hanbal, vol.2,p.p.258. Was He exalted and far above ascending and descending, coming and going, moving about and any other happening. This tradition and the three before were the source of embodiment in Islam as it appeared in the time of the intellectual complication. Many heresies and aberrations came out by the Hanbalis, especially Ibn Taymiya, who ascended the minbar of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus on one Friday preaching. He said through his heresies: "Allah descends to the lower heaven every night like my descending now." He descended one step of the minbar to show them how Allah descends in a real motion from up to down. A Maliki jurisprudent called Ibn az-Zahra' contradicted him and denied what he had said. The people in the mosque rushed to the Maliki jurisprudent and beat him with hands and shoes severely until his turban fell down on the ground. They carried him to the judge of Hanbalis in Damascus, who was called Izzuddeen bin Muslim. He ordered to put him in prison and he punished him after that.etc.1 1.   The explorer Ibn Battouta atternded thi incident and mentioned what he had seen in his book Rihla(travel), vol.1, p.p.57.

A rock runs away with Moses' cloths!!!

The two sheikhs mentioned that Abu Hurayra had said: "The prophet Muhammad (s) said: "The Israelites bathed nakedly. They looked at each other's private parts. Moses bathed alone. They said: "By Allah, nothing prevented Moses to bathe with us, unless he had a hernia." Once Moses went to bathe, He put his cloths on a rock. The rock ran away with Moses' cloths. Moses followed the rock crying: "O rock, my cloths! O rock, my cloths!" The Israelites looked at Moses private parts and said that Moses was all right.

After that the rock stopped. Moses took his cloths and began to beat the rock. I swear by Allah that the rock had six or seven scars." 1
 

Al-Bukhari and Muslim mentioned in their Sahihs that Abu Hurayra had said that it was this event, which Allah had referred to in His saying: (O you who believe! be not like those who spoke evil things of Musa, but Allah cleared him of what they said, and he was worthy of regard with Allah) 33:69 (Quran).

You see what impossibility there was in this tradition. It was not possible to defame the prophet Moses, who had the honour of talking with Allah, by unveiling his private parts in front of his people, because that would disgrace him and diminish his dignity, especially when they saw him running after a rock, which didn't see or hear, and crying:
"O rock, my cloths! O rock, my cloths!" Then to stop at the rock in front of people nakedly and beat it while the people were looking at his private parts as if he was mad!

If that thing were true, Allah would have done it. Then why would Moses be angry to punish the rock, which was obliged to do so because it had no mind or option? What was the use of beating a rock, which had no any feeling?

Reference:

1. We mentioned the tradition according to Muslim in his book Sahih, vol. 2, p.p. 308. Al-Bukhari mentioned it in his Sahih, vol. 1, p.p. 42, and vol. 2, p.p. 162. It was mentioned by Ahmed in his Musnad in many ways from Abu Hurayra, vol. 2, p.p. 315.

The running away of the rock with Moses cloths wouldn't give him any excuse to disgrace himself by unveiling his private parts in front of people. He could stay in his place until someone brought him his cloths or any thing else to veil himself like any sane man would do if something like that happened to him.
 

The running away of the rock was a miracle and an extraordinary thing. It would not happen unless there was a cause for challenge or to prove a very great thing like the moving of the tree for the prophet Muhammad (s) in Mecca, when the polytheists suggested to the Prophet (s) to make it move. Allah made the tree move from its place to another to prove Muhammad's prophecy and to certify his mission. It was clear that the case of Moses bathing in the sea didn't required miracles or any challenge, especially when it would cause a scandal for the prophet in front of his people in a way that any one saw or heard about it would scorn him and make fun of him. As to prove that he had no hernia was not so important that it required disgracing the prophet or diminishing his dignity nor it was one of the necessities, which required miracles. It could be known easily by his wives, who might, then, tell the truth.

Let suppose that he had a hernia, what was the wrong of that? The prophet Shu'ayb (Jethro) became blind and the prophet Ayyoub (Job) was sick for forty years. All of the prophets became sick and died. It was not a defect that they had some sicknesses, especially when they were unknown by people like hernia. It was not possible for them to have something affecting their minds or their generosity or something that would lead people to keep away from them or make fun of them. Certainly the hernia was not of that kind.
 

It was not narrated by anyone that the Israelites thought Moses had a hernia except by Abu Hurayra!
 

But the event that Allah referred to in the holy Qur'an by saying: (O you who believe! be not like those who spoke evil things of Musa, but Allah cleared him of what they said) 33:69 (Quran), was, as narrated by Imam Ali and Ibn Abbas, about the case that the Israelites accused him of killing Aaron. It was also said that it was about the case of the prostitute, whom Qaroun (Croesus) had seduced to accuse Moses of having a corrupted relationship with her but Allah acquitted him from this accusation where she, herself, said the truth.

And it was said that they hurt him by ascribing to him magic, lying and madness after they saw the miracles.

I wonder at al-Bukhari and Muslim that they added these traditions to the virtues of Moses! 

Was beating the angel and gouging his eye a virtue? Was running in front of people nakedly honour? What was the meaning of this nonsense? The prophet Moses was far above that. It was enough for him what the holy Qur'an had declared about his virtues and honourable position.