Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

7. If Hadhrath Umar was correct when he denied the dying request of the Holy Prophet (saaws) on the premise that the 'Qur'an is sufficient for us' (Sahih al Bukhari Vol 7 hadithnumber 573) what will be the reward for accusing the Holy Prophet (saaws) of speaking nonsense?

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Umar refused pen and paper

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

When this incident happened, the Messenger of Allah (saws) was indeed sick, but the believers did not know that he (saws) was going to die. There were a lot of his noble companions around him at that time, and some, including Hadrat Umar, were of the opinion that the Messenger of Allah (saws) should be allowed to rest and recover completely, rather than be burdened with the running of the state. It is not conceivable to imagine, that the noble companions, who would lay down their lives and their possessions at one command of the Prophet (saws), would refuse to obey any command of the Messenger (saws).

The Messenger of Allah (saws) stayed alive at least 3-4 days after this incident, and his health improved considerably. If he (saws) did want something written, he could have easily done so during this time. Neither his chaste wives, nor any of his noble companions, including Hadrat Ali (r.a.), ever claimed after the death of the Messenger of Allah (saws), that he told them something which was not already revealed in the Quran or established in his Sunnah as the deen!

Another thing to remember here is that the Messenger of Allah (saws) did not know how to write himself! Thus all he had to do was to say what he wanted to say, and ordered someone to write down the instructions. And in the 3-4 days that he lived after that, the Messenger of Allah (saws) did no such thing.

Some misguided people have used this incident to lay their claims by ‘reading the mind of the Prophet (saws)’ and say that the Messenger of Allah (saws) asked for the pen and paper so that he could make his final will by announcing Hadrat Ali (r.a.) as his successor! Allah and the Messenger alone knew what the Messenger of Allah (saws) wanted to document; and unless the people, who laid these claims hundreds of years after this incident, had the ‘knowledge of the unseen’ whereby they could read the mind of the Prophet (saws), they simply fabricated this whole notion that the Messenger of Allah (saws) wanted to name his successor at that time! If that was the case, the Messenger (saws), who himself did not know how to read and write, could have named his successor in the 3-4 days he lived after that, and told the scribes to write it down as his final will!

The guidance of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah is such that every minute detail of guidance is mentioned in it. If the appointment of the Prophet’s successor was so important, and the pivot of the deen as some sects maintain, Allah would have declared that in the Quran and no one could have ever challenged that succession! The truth is brother, the Prophet (saws) had given such a thorough training to his noble companions and the believers, that even when two of them went on a travel, he (saws) trained them to choose an Ameer amongst them! We must remember that the mission of the Prophet (saws) was not to establish a kingdom in this world for his descendants, but rather to proclaim the Divine Message of the Holy Quran and Islam to all of mankind!

The deen of Islam was completed, the Quran revealed, and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws) was established at the time of the death of the Prophet (saws). Whatever happened after the death of the Prophet (saws) is the History of the Muslims, and this is in the knowledge of Allah Alone. Allah will not hold us accountable for the deeds of these people, nor ask us about them on the Day of Judgment. We will be asked about our deeds and what did we do for the cause of Islam.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 134: They were a people who passed away. They shall receive the reward of what they earned, and you shall have the reward of what you will earn. And you will not be questioned as to what they did.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother in Islam,

Burhan