The Rights of The Prophet (ﷺ) Upon The Ummah

(This article begins with the verse from a Makki Surah, revealed in context to the People of the Book during the initial years of Dawah. For the Makkan pagans, it was something new that a person declaring himself to be a Messenger of Allah and rejecting all their idols which they had been worshipping for centuries. So they would discuss this matter with the People of the Book who were waiting for a prophet to come as per their scriptures. They had a mentioning of many signs in their books and used to ask the pagans to inquire from him to verify if he was that Prophet. When they verified those signs to be true, only a few of them accepted Islam, Allah revealed the above verse in Makkah itself which also has a general rule of sincerity towards His appointed Messenger which they called ‘The Rights of the Messenger upon his people’. This article declares the rules for successful believers regarding the last Messenger.)

“Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel, who enjoins upon them what is right and forbids them what is wrong and makes lawful for them the good things and prohibits for them the evil and relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So they who have believed in him honored him, supported him, and followed the light which was sent down with him – it is those who will be successful.” [Surah Al Araf: 157]

The above verse has two parts: Frist, the duties of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) towards mankind, and second, and the duties of his followers towards him. First Allah mentions the duties of the Messenger, and if we were to study them, we will find them to be huge blessings for the entire mankind.

1. He commands that which is good and forbids that which is evil.
2. He declares halal (permissible) all that is good and haram (impermissible) all that is bad.
3. He relieves them of their burdens and frees them from the shackles which were upon them.

He Commands Good And Forbids Evil The biggest decisive statement about commanding good is Tawhid (monotheism). The first announcement the Prophet of Allah made was, “O Mankind your lord is one Lord and I am His Messenger so follow me.” Tawhid is the fountain of every good. Every good deed is connected to Tawhid. The Prophet said,

“Faith has seventy branches, the highest is to believe in Allah, and modesty is also a branch, as well as removing a harmful object is also a branch.” (Bukhari: 5578, Muslim:100)

That is why every good deed is promised to be rewarded multiple times. Similarly, shirk (polytheism) is the biggest evil declared by Allah and His Messenger and the entire prophetic period was a struggle against shirk.

“Indeed shirk is the biggest wrongdoing.” [Surah Luqman: 13]

He got every idol and false deity demolished in Arabia during his lifetime and that was his mission. All Good is Halal and All Bad is Haram This general statement makes it easy for even an illiterate to identify haram or halal by its virtue, and it would covere all forms of alcohol, gambling, smoking, and immodesty easily. One example should suffice that the followers of Prophet Muhammed present the biggest society of teetotalers, people who do not imbibe alcohol at all. Relief From Burdens and Freedom From Shackles Islam banned the killing of daughters, interest-based transactions, extravagance in spending, and it instead encouraged easy marriages, charity, and other good in order to relieve the society of social and financial burdens to which they were chained for centuries. The Duty of the Followers Towards the Messenger

1. They should believe in him
2. They should honor him
3. They should help him
4. They should follow the light that has been revealed upon him

Belief in the Messengership Every Muslim sect claims to believe in the Messenger of Allah, but not all qualify the benchmark of belief. The Qur’an and Hadith have straightly put up the conditions for belief to be accepted. Allah says,

“So if they believe in the same as you believe in, then they have been [rightly] guided; but if they turn away, they are only in dissension, and Allah will be sufficient for you against them. And He is the Hearing, the Knowing.” [Surah Al Baqarah: 137]

Right from understanding the concept of Tawhid, to the act of prayer, every act is connected to belief. Every Muslim is supposed to keep his faith uncorrupted and upright. Do Not Elevate His Status Higher Than What Allah Has Stated Belief in the Messenger includes not elevating his status higher than what Allah has placed him in. The Messenger declared,

“Beware of those who preceded you and used to take the graves of their Prophets and righteous men as places of worship, but you must not take graves as mosques; I forbid you to do that.” (Sahih Muslim: 532)

Make the Prophet a Decisive Factor in Every Dispute-

“But no, by your Lord, they will never be believers until they accept you (Prophet) as the judge in their disputes, and find no resistance within themselves against your decision and submit wholeheartedly.” [Surah Nisa: 65]

The above verse places two conditions of faith concerning prophethood: First, to refer all disputes to the Messenger (i.e., the Sunnah), and second, to accept the decision without hesitation. Honor The Messenger The post of Prophethood is appointed by Allah, as it is He who chooses His messenger. Therefore, one must honor him the way Allah has commanded His Messenger to be honored, and that is through obedience.

“O you who believe, make not (a decision) in advance before Allah and His Messenger, and have taqwa of Allah. Verily, Allah is Hearing, Knowing. O you who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk as you speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds should be thwarted while you perceive not. Verily, those who lower their voices in the presence of Allah’s Messenger, are the ones whose hearts Allah has tested for Taqwa. For them is forgiveness and a great reward.” [Surah Hujarat: 1-3]

There are multiple usool (principles) of honoring the Messenger (ﷺ) in the above three verses, such as:

1. A Muslim should not overrule the command of Allah and His Messenger (ﷺ).
2. No Muslim is allowed to resist or oppose the command of the Messenger (ﷺ) of Allah.
3. Allah has connected Taqwa to unconditional obedience to Him and His Messenger and has offered huge rewards for the Muslims who uphold these commands.
4. Resisting the command of the Messenger (ﷺ) by putting up the command and understanding of someone else (including scholars) is so grievous that it can cause all the good deeds of a believer to be wiped away.

The context of the revelation of verse is very interesting. Anas bin Malik said, “The Prophet (ﷺ) missed Thabit bin Qays and a man said, ‘O Allah’s Messenger, I will find out about him.’ That man went to Thabit and found him sitting at home with his head lowered and asked him, ‘What is the matter?’ Thabit said, ‘An evil matter!’ And he said that he used to raise his voice above the voice of the Prophet. He feared that his good deeds would be useless, and he would be among the people of the Fire. The man went back to the Prophet (ﷺ) conveyed Thabit’s statement and returned to Thabit with wonderfully good news. ‘Go back and inform him that he is a man of paradise,’’ (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Hujarat: 1-3) The companions of the Prophet were very sensitive about every command regarding the status of the Messenger and they displayed concerns even about minute things. Unfortunately, today we see very less of such regard towards the ethics of obeying the Messenger of Allah. Helping the Messenger Every Prophet of Allah required help from good people who believed in them. When Allah appointed Musa as His Messenger, he asked for a deputy and proposed his brother Harun’s name, which Allah accepted.

“And appoint for me a helper from my family, Harun, my brother.” [Surah Taha: 29-21]

This was a request from Musa concerning something not about himself. That was his request for the assistance of his brother. Ibn `Abbas said, “Harun was made a Prophet at the same moment that Musa was made a Prophet.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Surah Taha: 30) But if the people around him are not good, then it brings about difficultly for the Prophet, such as the case of Musa when his people refused to obey him many times. He said,

“Why do you annoy me even though you know my truth regarding the Message that I brought you.” [Surah Saff: 5]

Even Isa ibn Maryam looked around for help from good people. Allah tells us that he said,

“‘Who will be my helpers in Allah’s Cause?’ The Hawariun (disciples) said, ‘We are the helpers of Allah; we believe in Allah and bear witness that we are Muslims.’” [Surah Al e Imran: 52].

Aiding the Messenger is to help, abide by, and to promote his religion. Allah has appreciated such helpers and promised them His help and consistency.

“O believers, if you help Allah, He will help you and make your foothold firm.” [Surah Muhammed: 7]

Helping Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) is a command with strict mention in the Quran, and Allah declares that if none were to help His Messenger, then He alone is enough.

“Whoever should think that Allah will not support [Prophet Muhammad] in this world and the Hereafter – let him extend a rope to the ceiling, then cut off [his breath], and let him see: will his effort remove that which enrages [him]?” [Surah Hajj: 15]

The Companions of the Prophet went out of their way to aid him during the most severe crisis. An excellent example of aiding the Prophet was displayed during the Battle of Badr. Ibn Mas’ud said, “I was a witness to something that Al-Miqdad bin Al-Aswad did, and I would like more than almost anything else to have been the one who did it. Al-Miqdad came to the Prophet while he was invoking Allah against the idolaters and proclaimed, ‘We will not say as the people of Musa said, “So go you and your Lord and fight you two.” Rather, we will fight to your right, to your left, before you and behind you.’ I saw the Prophet’s face beaming with pleasure because of what Al-Miqdad said to him.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir; Surah Anfal: 9) Follow the Light with Which the Messenger Has Come With The advent of every Prophet required that he be believed, obeyed, and followed. The foundation of the following is Tawhid. Every Prophet was sent to stop his respective people from shirk and instead to solely worship Allah.

“And We certainly sent into every nation a Messenger, [saying], “Worship Allah and avoid false deities.” [Surah Nahl: 16]

The light is the religion of Islam, and it brings one out from darkness of shirk and every evil in society.

“A Book revealed upon you so that you may bring out mankind from the depth of darkness towards light.” [Surah Ibrahim: 2]

It is the test of a person’s belief that he accepts or defies the guidance of Allah.

“Do people think once they say, ‘We believe,’ that they will be left without being put to the test?” [Surah Ankabut:2]

The last part of the verse of Surah al-Araf gives assurance and glad tidings that

“Such are the people who will succeed.” [Surah Al Araf: 157]

The prophet (ﷺ) accomplished his duties towards the Ummah and now the Ummah must fulfil their responsibility towards the Prophet (ﷺ). This is the route of success in this world and the hereafter.