Summary of Aqida - 2. The infallibility of the prophets and messengers

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2. The infallibility of the prophets and messengers

2.1. Infallibility in conveying the message of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted,
The prophets and messengers (peace be upon them) are protected from error in conveying the message of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, so they did not make any mistakes when conveying the message; they did not forget anything or betray the trust or conceal anything. This is something that is proven according to the Qur’an, Sunnah and scholarly consensus. Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, enjoined that upon Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), as He said (interpretation of the meaning), "O Messenger, convey all that has been sent down to you from your Lord. If you do not do that, you will not have conveyed it at all." (al-Ma’idah 5:67)

Allah affirmed that His Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was infallible in what he conveyed from his Lord Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, as He said (interpretation of the meaning), "Your companion has neither strayed nor erred, nor does he speak of his own accord; It is but divine inspiration." (al-Najm 53:2-4)

It was narrated that Talhah ibn ‘Ubaydillah said, "The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said, 'If I narrate something to you from Allah, then adhere to it, for I will never tell lies about Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him).'" (Muslim)

The nation unanimously agreed that the prophets and messengers (peace be upon them) are infallible in conveying the message. ‘Iyad said: “The ummah is unanimously agreed that with regard to what the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) conveyed from his Lord, he was infallible and protected from telling the people anything other than what it was, whether deliberately, intentionally, by mistake or in error.”

Al-Dhahabi said, “The scholars are agreed that the prophets and messengers were infallible in what they conveyed, because this was the purpose of sending the message to them.”

2.2. Protection from committing major and minor sins
The scholars unanimously agreed that the prophets were protected from committing major sins, but they differed as to whether they could commit minor sins.

‘Iyad said, “There is no difference of scholarly opinion regarding the fact that the prophets were protected against committing major sins.”

Al-Qurtubi said, “The scholars differed as to whether or not the prophets (peace be upon them) could commit minor sins for which they could be held accountable and be rebuked, although they were unanimously agreed that they were protected from committing major sins and any immoral actions that could be regarded as shameful and a defect in character.”

Ibn Taymiyah said, “The majority of scholars who say that it is possible for them to commit minor sins said that they are protected from persisting therein.”

The majority of scholars quoted a number of things as evidence that it is possible for the prophets (peace be upon them) to commit minor sins, including the following:
i. The fact that Adam (peace be upon him) committed the sin of eating from the tree from which Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, forbade him to eat. Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning), "So they both ate from the tree, then their private parts became visible to them, so they began to put together leaves from the garden to cover themselves. Thus Adam disobeyed his Lord, and fell into error." (Ta-Ha 20:116-121)
ii. Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, rebuked his Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) for several things, including the following:

Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, rebuked him for frowning at Ibn Umm Maktum (may Allah be pleased with him) because he was busy calling the evil leaders of the disbelievers to Allah. Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning), "He frowned and turned away, when the blind man came to him. How do you know? Perhaps he may be purified, or he may pay heed and benefit from the reminder." (‘Abasa 80:1-4)

A number of things should be noted in this context:
a. Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, alerted His messengers and prophets (peace be upon them) to whatever infractions they committed and prompted them to hasten to repent from them, without delay.
b. Sins that do not undermine perfection do not represent a shortcoming if the person repents from them; rather in many cases after repenting from a sin the individual will be better than he was before he committed the sin. One of the early generations said: “If repentance was not the most beloved of things to Allah, He could not have tested the dearest of creation to Him with sin.”
c. No prophet ever committed a sin but he hastened to repent and seek forgiveness for it.

Whenever the Holy Qur’an mentions a sin committed by a prophet, it is always followed by repentance and prayers for forgiveness:
Ibn Taymiyah said: “The blame and punishment that befall those who commit sins do not affect the one who repents from sin at all.” These minor sins that the prophets committed should not be taken as a reason to criticize them, for they are minor sins that are few in number, and Allah has already forgiven them. The prophets (peace be upon them) are deserving of love, honor and respect, and the Muslim should learn a lesson from that, for if Allah rebuked the noble messengers whom He chose for actions such as these, then the ordinary Muslim should be very careful and fear falling into sin, and he should follow the example of the messengers and prophets in hastening to repent to Allah and praying a great deal for His forgiveness.

2.3. Matters that do not contradict infallibility and perfection
Matters that do not contradict infallibility and perfection include innate human weakness and vulnerabilities. Ibn Taymiyah said, “The prophets could fall sick, become hungry, forget things and so on, according to scholarly consensus, and it cannot be said that this is a sign of imperfection in them.” The fact that the prophets were human and subject to the same vulnerabilities as other humans, only raises their status, because despite these weaknesses, they attained true servitude (‘ubudiyyah) to Allah.

Examples of that include the following:
i. Adam’s forgetfulness and denial: It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “When Allah created Adam, He wiped his back and there fell from his back every soul whom Allah was going to create of his progeny until the Day of Resurrection. He put a flash of light between the eyes of each of them, then He presented them to Adam, who said: ‘O Lord, who are these?’ He said: ‘These are your progeny.’ He saw one man among them and liked the flash between his eyes, so he said: ‘O Lord, who is this?’ He said: ‘This is a man from the last of the nations among your progeny; he is called Dawud.’ He said: ‘O Lord, how long have You decreed his lifespan should be?’ He said: ‘Sixty years.’ He said: ‘O Lord, add to it forty years from my lifespan.’ Then when Adam’s life came to an end and the Angel of Death came to him, he said: ‘Aren’t there still forty years left of my life?’ He said: ‘Did you not give them to your son Dawud?’ And Adam denied it, so his progeny are prone to denying; Adam forgot, so his progeny are prone to forgetting; Adam made a mistake, so his progeny are prone to making mistakes.” (al-Tirmidhi, al-Bazzar, al-Hakim)

ii. Musa (peace be upon him) got angry when his people worshipped the calf, so he grabbed hold of his brother’s head and pulled him towards him, and he threw down the Tablets in which was guidance

Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning), "When Musa returned to his people, angry and grieved, he said: What an evil thing you have done in my absence! Could you not patiently wait for the promise of your Lord? He threw down the Tablets, seized his brother by his hair and pulled him towards him. Harun said: O son of my mother, the people overpowered me and almost killed me. Do not give my enemies cause to rejoice in my misfortune or count me among the people who are given to wrongdoing." (al-A‘raf 7:150)

It was narrated from ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said, “Hearing about something is not the same as seeing it with one’s own eyes. Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, told Musa what his people had done of worshipping the calf, and he did not throw down the Tablets, but when he saw what they had done, he threw down the Tablets and they broke.” (Ahmad, Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim)

‘Ali al-Qari said, “He did that out of anger for the sake of Allah, for he became angry with his people who went against His religion… Moreover, his throwing down the Tablets was a gesture indicating that they would only benefit people of faith. As they had chosen disbelief and transgression for themselves, there was no benefit in keeping the tablets.”

iii. The prophets and messengers strove to reach the right verdict when judging, but sometimes they made mistakes and did not reach the right verdict. One example of that is:

It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he heard the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) say, “There were two women who had their sons with them. The wolf came and took away the son of one of them, and she said to her companion: ‘The wolf has taken your son.’ The other said: ‘No, it has taken your son.’ They referred for judgement to Dawud, and he ruled in favor of the older woman. They went out to Sulayman, the son of Dawud, and told him about that, and he said: ‘Bring me a knife and I will cut him in half and divide him between you.’ The younger woman said: ‘Do not do that, may Allah have mercy on you! He is her son.’ So he ruled in favor of the younger woman.” (al-Bukhari, Muslim)

Ibn Battal said, noting what may be learned from this hadith, “This indicates that it is permissible for a scholar to differ with other scholars, even if they are older and better than him, if he realizes that the correct view is different from theirs.”