Love for the Prophet is a Condition of Faith

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Let the Muslims therefore have not the slightest hesitation in declaring the Prophet Muhammad to be the greatest of all prophets and thus the noblest of men and the crown and pride of the whole of God's creation.[/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]Some Muslims try to dampen love and admiration for the Prophet in other Muslims and in themselves on two other grounds. First, they fear that "too much" expression of love and admiration for the Prophet can lead to his deification and therefore to shirk. Second, they fear that expressing love and admiration for the Prophet somehow means ignoring his message and commandments of God.The second fear is without any basis. For one thing expressing love and admiration for the Prophet is itself a commandment of God, as God says:"Love, glorify and bless him and salute him with all due respect."For another, love and admiration for the Prophet and their expression cannot by themselves lead to disobedience. Indeed, as we have seen earlier, they are necessary for iman, which in turn is necessary for true obedience.The first fear does have some basis. In fact, the Prophet himself cautioned us against following the footsteps of the adherents of other religions who exaggerated in praise of their prophets, raising them to the level of God and thus falling into shirk, the most deadly sin of all. But it would be a mistake to fight shirk by putting cold water on the fire of our love and admiration for the Prophet. For that would be like destroying shirk by destroyingiman, which is clearly a very unwise strategy.On 'id milad an-nabi (birthdate of the Prophet) and other occasions let us therefore wholeheartedly and generously and without any bukhl (misery, what miser people do) express all the love and admiration for the Prophet that can be expressed for someone other than God.
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First published in Al-Ummah, Montreal, Canada in 1986. CopyrightãDr. Ahmad Shafaat. The article may be reproduced for Da'wah purpose with proper references.

This passage explains why Muslims love Islam's prophet Muhammad, and the view they have of prophets. Muslims treat Muhammad the way Christians treat Jesus with one exception; they don't consider him the son of Allah.

It is hard to pin down how Islam would have Muslims glorify Muhammad in their lives. So Muslims are mixed some have so much love for him to where they love him more than family, friends and their own lives as the crown of creation, but they are careful not to let it lead to deification, but this is impossible, IMO. It is like a person making erotic love to someone else's spouse saying "I must be careful that in my lust for this person it doesn't lead to adultery." That is spiritual insanity. The point is adultery is already happening; what is worse, the person doesn't know it.

The reason Christians glorify Jesus and God does as well is because he is not just a prophet. All other prophets were just ordinary men they are dead, but Jesus still lives. It is not God's will to love and glorify the dead. Even men that were just prophets that didn't die like Elijah and Enoch shouldn't be glorified by man. That is idolatry. God will no stand for this. We respect and love their message because it comes from God but that is where the man and message should part in our glorifications. We should glorify the message and not the messenger. Jesus unlike Islam's prophet was NOT a messenger; He was the Message! God's people have no cause to glorify messengers it is sin In Christianity or what Muslims would call shirk.

Blessings

[فداء الرسول]

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This passage explains why Muslims love Islam's prophet Muhammad, and the view they have of prophets. Muslims treat Muhammad the way Christians treat Jesus with one exception; they don't consider him the son of Allah.

It is hard to pin down how Islam would have Muslims glorify Muhammad in their lives. So Muslims are mixed some have so much love for him to where they love him more than family, friends and their own lives as the crown of creation, but they are careful not to let it lead to deification, but this is impossible, IMO. It is like a person making erotic love to someone else's spouse saying "I must be careful that in my lust for this person it doesn't lead to adultery." That is spiritual insanity. The point is adultery is already happening; what is worse, the person doesn't know it.

The reason Christians glorify Jesus and God does as well is because he is not just a prophet. All other prophets were just ordinary men they are dead, but Jesus still lives. It is not God's will to love and glorify the dead. Even men that were just prophets that didn't die like Elijah and Enoch shouldn't be glorified by man. That is idolatry. God will no stand for this. We respect and love their message because it comes from God but that is where the man and message should part in our glorifications. We should glorify the message and not the messenger. Jesus unlike Islam's prophet was NOT a messenger; He was the Message! God's people have no cause to glorify messengers it is sin In Christianity or what Muslims would call shirk.

Blessings

And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.


But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.