Hadith on Prophets
Question:
Salam,
I have read one Hadees in which I came to know that Prophet Adam (PBUH) asked for forgiveness by asking God for the sake of prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Secondly in the same Hadees I came to know that Allah told Prophet Adam (PBUH) that if Muhammad (PBUH) wouldn't be planned to come to the world you wouldn't have existed either.
I have already asked you about Dua like this and you told me that we should avoid it because doing that leads to shirk. And about the second part of the hadith I always thought that this concept is not true since I thought that the world is being made so we human beings would be given some free hand and be told that what is right and wrong and we would be tested on what we do. Messengers and Prophets were send so that we could know what is wrong and right.
However after this Hadees I am a little bit confused.
Please explain.
Thank You
Answer:
My dear brother,
There are many hadiths out there and not all of them are reliable. If you consider the whole corpus of hadith that is available to us, only a small portion of it can be considered reliable.
The hadith that you mentioned is not a reliable hadith. Not only it has problems with regard to its chain of narrators, but also its implication is against the information that the Qur'an gives us.
The Qur'an has clearly advised us that what the words of Adam (pbuh) was when he repented:
قالا رَبَّنا ظَلَمْنا أَنْفُسَنا وَ إِنْ لَمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنا وَ تَرْحَمْنا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخاسِرين
They said: Our Lord! We have been unjust to ourselves, and if do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we shall certainly be of the losers. (7:23)
About the second part of the hadith that you referred to, where it says that if it was not because of prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Adam (pbuh) was not created either:
While I again emphasize that the hadith is not reliable and the concept it refers to is not a valid concept, there is a point there that I would like to share with you:
God says in the Qur'an that he created human being to be His servant and worship Him (51:56). This means those who did best in being God's servants and worshipping Him have successfully fulfilled the purpose of creation. These are the same people that God shows to Adam (pbuh). These are the same people that God refers to when He answers to the angels' concerns about creation of human being (2:30-33). These are prophets and their best followers. One may say that it was for these people that God created everything, meaning that these people where those who fulfilled the purpose of creation and that God's creation really aimed for these people.
This is like a teacher who proudly says to his best student that this class was made for you. What he means is not that the class was literally organised only for him. What he means is that people like him are taking the most out of this class and therefore fulfil the objectives of this class.
Also note that the whole story of Adam and Eve's creation and them being in a garden before starting their normal life seems to be among the ambuougous (mutishabihat) verses of the Qur'an, whereby a message is intended but not everything said is meant literally.
I hope this is clear.
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February 2014
Salam,
I have read one Hadees in which I came to know that Prophet Adam (PBUH) asked for forgiveness by asking God for the sake of prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Secondly in the same Hadees I came to know that Allah told Prophet Adam (PBUH) that if Muhammad (PBUH) wouldn't be planned to come to the world you wouldn't have existed either.
I have already asked you about Dua like this and you told me that we should avoid it because doing that leads to shirk. And about the second part of the hadith I always thought that this concept is not true since I thought that the world is being made so we human beings would be given some free hand and be told that what is right and wrong and we would be tested on what we do. Messengers and Prophets were send so that we could know what is wrong and right.
However after this Hadees I am a little bit confused.
Please explain.
Thank You
Answer:
My dear brother,
There are many hadiths out there and not all of them are reliable. If you consider the whole corpus of hadith that is available to us, only a small portion of it can be considered reliable.
The hadith that you mentioned is not a reliable hadith. Not only it has problems with regard to its chain of narrators, but also its implication is against the information that the Qur'an gives us.
The Qur'an has clearly advised us that what the words of Adam (pbuh) was when he repented:
قالا رَبَّنا ظَلَمْنا أَنْفُسَنا وَ إِنْ لَمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنا وَ تَرْحَمْنا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخاسِرين
They said: Our Lord! We have been unjust to ourselves, and if do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we shall certainly be of the losers. (7:23)
About the second part of the hadith that you referred to, where it says that if it was not because of prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Adam (pbuh) was not created either:
While I again emphasize that the hadith is not reliable and the concept it refers to is not a valid concept, there is a point there that I would like to share with you:
God says in the Qur'an that he created human being to be His servant and worship Him (51:56). This means those who did best in being God's servants and worshipping Him have successfully fulfilled the purpose of creation. These are the same people that God shows to Adam (pbuh). These are the same people that God refers to when He answers to the angels' concerns about creation of human being (2:30-33). These are prophets and their best followers. One may say that it was for these people that God created everything, meaning that these people where those who fulfilled the purpose of creation and that God's creation really aimed for these people.
This is like a teacher who proudly says to his best student that this class was made for you. What he means is not that the class was literally organised only for him. What he means is that people like him are taking the most out of this class and therefore fulfil the objectives of this class.
Also note that the whole story of Adam and Eve's creation and them being in a garden before starting their normal life seems to be among the ambuougous (mutishabihat) verses of the Qur'an, whereby a message is intended but not everything said is meant literally.
I hope this is clear.
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February 2014