Symposium 29
Is Prophethood Divine’s Grace?
Anwar:Salam ‘Alaykom!
Hasan:‘Alaykom As-Salam Wa Rahmatollah Wa Barakatoh!
Anwar:We got to the third point concerning the necessity of sending prophets, namely the Divine’s Grace.
Hasan:To reason out the necessity of Bi’tha, which is sending the Prophets and Messengers, we use the Divine’s Grace Rule. To highlight this rule, we first need to define Grace: it is what makes a person closer to being obedient and avoiding wrongdoings. Grace only brings nearer and closer and so, it does not force anything on anyone.
Anwar:Will you use an example?
Hasan:Yes, promising with good and warning with punishment or the principle of intimidating from doing bad deeds and motivating to do good deeds.
Anwar:Thank you for clarifying the rule. I understand now that sending prophets is a necessity.
Hasan:Thank you! In the Noble Quran, this is expressed as“bringer of glad tidings and warner”. There are other roles for Prophets, of course. They educate people, command them to do good and forbid them from doing bad. This comes as part of ‘resultant grace’.
Anwar:What is this?
Hasan:Grace is divided into two parts:
· Resultant grace
· Close grace
The first one means accomplishing the preparations and the basics with which this purpose can be served, that is, it is a possible grace.
The second means it is bringing close and not possible.
Bi’tha or sending the Prophets comes under the first type of grace, i.e. it is possible to perform but to bringing close.
Anwar:Is this grace part of the perfection and the justice of the Almighty Allah?
Hasan:Yes, exactly. It is essential for His Perfection and Justice.
Anwar:Will you delight our ears with some words from Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and his Ahl Al-Bait (PBUT)?
Hasan:Of course. Amir Al-Mu’menin (PBUH) in this regard says:
“O people! When the Most Exalted Allah created mankind, He wanted them to be of high morals and good manners, He had this knowledge that they could not be so unless He informs them about the dos and don’ts; this only comes through commanding and forbidding, and commanding and forbidding can come only with promising and warning; promising cannot be but through motivating and warning cannot be but through intimidating…”
Anwar:What is this grace with the slaves for?
Hasan:Excellent inquiry. My answer will be what the scholar Al-Hilli – God bless his soul – said:
“Allah knows that people will not be obedient without grace. Even if He commands man using no grace, this would be against His purpose. It is like inviting someone for food and knowing in advance that this person will not accept without a polite request; the inviter has to use such manners with the invitee or it will be in disagreement with the purpose. Thus, the necessity for grace results in fulfilling the purpose”.
Anwar:It is said that sending prophets is for demonstrating the proof to mankind. What do you say?
Hasan:This is self-evident, because we all know that the Glorious Allah does not charge His slaves with anything unless He first provides concrete evidence before them, otherwise this would be injustice, and the Glorious Allah is far above it.
Anwar:You are right. I just remembered that the Glorious Allah says:
(… and We never punish until We have sent a messenger.)17-15.
Hasan:There is another Holy Verse talking about providing proof and evidence to people:
(…in order that mankind might have no argument against Allah after the messengers, and Allah was ever Mighty, Wise.)4;165.
Anwar:So, we know now why sending prophets and messengers is a necessity. We can move forwards to learn about issues related to prophecy.
Hasan:After a break, Inshallah.
Symposium 30
Demonstration of Miracles
Anwar:Salam ‘Alaykom!
Hasan:‘Alaykom As-Salam Wa Rahmatollah Wa Barakatoh!
Anwar:I hope you enjoyed your break.
Hasan:Yes, thanks God. As far as we are still talking about general prophecy, we have got to speak about issues related to general prophecy like miracles and attributions of prophets. We’ll first talk about miracles, but before doing so, I have to point out that there are three ways or approaches to verify that a claimer for prophethood is truthful:
· The miraculous nature
· Attestation of a preceding prophet for the following prophet
· Evidence and proofs to the status of the claimer, his disciples and his ideology
Anwar:Will you explain them one by one?
Hasan:Of course. Let’s begin with miracle. According to religious experts, miracle is of supernatural nature associated with challenge and no opposition.
Anwar:A bit of clarification, please!
Hasan:You do know there are things that are in contrast with the force of reason like coexistence of opposites or an affect without a cause and so on and so forth. These laws will not be violated, but normal laws that do not go against the force of reason will.
Anwar:Can you give an example about supernatural miracles?
Hasan:Yes, the throne of Balqis([5]), for instance, was moved from a long distance in the twinkling of an eye without making use of any form of natural means in a point in time that there was no from any industrial
civilization. This is a miracle.
The Queen of Sheba. ([5])
Anwar:But did that happen with no reason?
Hasan:I did not say without any reasons. I said it took place without any normal means or reasons, that is, there are other reasons that are not normal and that science has not discovered them yet. This explains the first part of the definition (of supernatural nature).
The second part (associated with challenge) proves the prophecy and distinguishes the claimer. This is because without any form of challenge, it will only be a special gift, but not a miracle. As for the third part of the definition (no opposition), it means there should be no one who is able to do the same miracle in an effort to disprove that claim.
Anwar:What if someone was capable of doing so and was also in disagreement with the claimer for prophethood?
Hasan:In this case, we say if the person objecting was also a claimer for prophethood, then one of them should be truthful and the other should be a liar. This is because we cannot have two different claims or allegations and both are right. I also remind you here that a miracle is something that cannot be performed by