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7) Noor- The blessed light of our Prophet
We, the Ahl as-Sunna wa'l-Jama'a, believe that it is indeed permissable
to call the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) 'Nur'. The
Qur'an has chosen and applied this word itself to the Prophet (may Allah bless him
and grant him peace).The Companions would often call him (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace) 'Nur'.
However, it is often at this point that those who oppose this view believe, from
some erroneous conviction they hold, that we claim the Prophet (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace) was not human! This is indeed strange and a gross
accusation. For those who claim that he was not a human, have clearly ventured out
of the bounds of Islam, and have entered into kufr.The belief of Ahl as-Sunna wa'l-Jamma
is that the Noble Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is
nur and human, as we shall now seek to demonstrate.
Proof from Qur'an
Allah Most High says in the Holy Qur'an:
"Undoubtedly, there has come to you from Allah a light and a Book, luminous
".
[Sura al-'Ma'ida', verse 15]
Imam Tabari and Qadi Shawkani write under this verse that the meaning of 'nur' in
this verse is used for our Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace), as
Zujaag said.
[at-Tabari, Tafsir Tabari; Qadi Shawkani, Tafsir Fathul Qadeer
, under above verse]
From the above evidence we conclude that it is permissible to call Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) 'Nur' and it is not kufr or shirk as some people
consider ir to be.
Proof from the Hadith
Imam at-Tirmidhi wrote that when Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant
him peace) smiled, it seemed as if nur was coming from his teeth.
[ash-Shama'il at-Tirmidhi]
Allama Ibn al-Jawzi writes:
"When Adam (peace be upon him) was being created, the nur of Prophet Muhammad
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was placed on Adam's (peace be upon him)
forehead and Adam saw the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).
Adam (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) asked, 'Who is he?' Allah Most High
replied, 'He is the last Prophet and will be the chief of your children' "
[Ibn al-Jawzi, Al Wafa, chapter on 'Birth of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace)']
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that: 'One night Rasulu'llah
asked me to take Hasan and Husayn to their mother. When I departed with them I witnessed
a light which lit our path and travelled with us until we reached their doorstep'
"
[Ibn Kathir, Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir and Sirat an-Nabi, chapter on
'Mu'jizat']
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"Muhammad ibn Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that 'Once Rasulu'llah
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) made my fingers glow with light.'
[Ibn Kathir, Sirat an-Nabi,, chapter on 'Mu'jizat']
Hafiz Ibn Kathir states that:
"When the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was born,
the King of Abyssinia witnessed the nur of the Messenger (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace)"
[Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir, chapter on 'Milad an-Nabi', vol. 2]
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"One Companion (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that upon the occasion
of Hajjat al-Wada [the Prophet's last sermon on the day of Hajj] he saw that the
blessed face of Rasulu'llah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was shining
like the moon"
[Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir, chapter on 'Mu'jizat', vol. 6]
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"Whilst 'Abd al-Muttalib was walking with his son ''Abdullah, a woman saw a
light on the forehead of 'Abdullah. She approached them and offered one hundred
camels so that 'Abdullah may marry her but they refused her offer. Some time after
his marriage to Amina, 'Abdullah again confronted this woman but this time she made
no offers to marry him and said: 'The nur upon your forehead is no longer present'
"
[Ibn Kathir, Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir, vol. 2., and Sirat an-Nabi; Ibn
Jarir, at-Tabari chapter on 'Milad an-Nabi']
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes
'The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:'I am the prayer
of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) and the prophecy of 'Isa (peace be upon him). When
my mother was pregnant she witnessed so much light from her body that she could
see the palaces of Syria.'
[Ibn Kathir, Sirat an-Nabi, vol.2; Shaykh Najdi, Muktasar Sirat ar-Rasul]
Ibn al-Jawzi narrates that the nur of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant
him peace) would overcome the light of both the sun and the lamp.
[Ibn Jawzi, Al-Wafa, chapter on 'al-Wilada']
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"Ka'ab ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) recited a [na'at] poem in
the presence of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) [part of which
we have translated from Arabic is]:
'We have come to you and you have transformed our darkness into light and have removed
the barriers of ignorance.'
[Ibn Kathir, Ta'rikh, and Sirat an-Nabi chapter on 'Mu'jizat']
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"Hasan ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) said: 'Rasulu'llah (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) is that star from which even the moon of the fourteenth
night obtains it light' "
[Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir, chapter on 'Wilada']
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"From Ibn Hisham who narrates that Hasan ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with
him) said:' When I was eight years old, a Jew was calling to the people; they gathered
around him and asked him what was the commotion. He replied:'The star of Ahmad has
risen, that which is born tonight' "
[Ta'rikh Ibn Kathir, vol. 2; Ibn Hisham, Sirat an-Nabi, chapter
on Milad an-Nabi]
All these references are proof of the light of Rasulu'llah (may Allah bless him
and grant him peace), which was felt by the people and witnessed by those in his
presence.
What was the first thing that Allah created?
There is a difference of opinion amongst the scholars with regards to what was the
first to be created, whether it was water, Arsh (Throne), or the ruh (nur) of Muhammad
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace). We say that the Prophet (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace) was the first creation of Allah Almighty.
Allah Most High says in the Qur'an:
"And O beloved! Remember when We took covenant from the Prophets and from you,
and from Nuh and Ibrahim and Musa and ''Isa son of Maryam; and We took from them
a firm covenant"
[Sura al-Ahzab, verse 7 ]
From the above verse we are shown that Allah took the covenant from His beloved
first and then from the other anbiya, even though they came before. The answer to
this has been written by the following scholars:
Imam Tabari, Hafiz ibn Kathir and Imam al-Qurtubi write:
"Qatada reported that:
"Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said that 'I was
created before every one and I came at the end of all the Prophets' "
[at-Tabari, Tafsir Tabari; al-Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir, all under the verse
of Sura al-Ahzab]
Allah Most High says in the Qur'an:
"Who sees you when you stand and
...your movements among those who offer prayers".
[Sura ash-Shu'ara', verse 219]
In reference to this verse, Hafiz ibn Kathir and Qadi Shawkani write:
"Abdullah ibn Abbas reported that the verse '...your movements among those
who offer prayers' means that the nur moved from one Prophet to the next and this
carried on until it reached Amina's house and then the Prophet (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace) was born"
Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:
"The Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, 'I always
stayed amongst the pure and then at the end I appeared to my mother' "
[Ibn Kathir, Sirat an-Nabi, chapter on 'Wilada']
We shall now present the qasida recited by 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him)
who was the uncle of the Prophet. Scholars such as Ibn 'Abdi'l-Barr, Imam Dhabi
and Hafiz al-'Asqalani, and many others, have unanimously written this so no one
can have the courage to decline this qasida.
Hafiz ibn al-Qayyim, Hafiz ibn Kathir and Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab write:
"'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that on returning from the
expedition of Tabuk, I said to Rasulu'llah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace):'I
wish to recite a qasida about you', to which he replied:'May Allah bless your mouth!'I
then recited this qasida:[We have translated part of it in English from Arabic]
"Before you came into the world, you were under the leaves of Heaven's trees.Prophet
Adam covering his body with the leaves of Heavenly trees [when his heavenly
clothes were taken off him]
Before Adam came into the world ,your (nur) was transferred upon his forehead.
Through Adam you came into the world, but at the time you were not human, nor a
piece of flesh, not even a drop of blood.
But at the time you were only (nur) in your fore-father's back.
And when others were drowning your fore-father, Nuh, boarded the boat.
After coming off the boat your (nur) was transferred from one clean woman to another
Until you came into the back of Prophet Ibrahim. How can the fire burn him while
you were in his back?
Then you travelled into Khindaf, who was also a clean woman.
That is how you kept travelling forward, until the time of your birth came. When
you were born, the Earth and the edge of the sky, all shone as they never did from
your nur. We are still travelling under the same guidance of that nur'"
[Narrated and certified by Ibn 'Abdu'l-Barr, Qadi 'Iyad in ash-Shifa, Ibn
Athir, Tabarani; Ibn Qayyim in Zad-ul-Ma'ad, vol.3, page10; Ibn Kathir
in Ta'rikh, at the end of chapter 'Gazwa-e- Tabuk'; and Muhammad ibn 'Abd
al-Wahhab an-Najdi in Mukhtasar Sirat ar-Rasul. Ibn Kathir, Sirat an-Nabi;
Ibn al-Athir, Us-dul Gabah; al-'Asqalani, al-Asaba; Ibn 'Abd'il-Barr,
al-Isti'ab, biography of'Hoorainm Ibn Oas'; Hafiz adh-Dhahabi, Talkees
Mustadrak; Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Nashrut Teeb]
Qadi 'Iyad, in his book Ash-Shifa, narrated from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas that
Prophet Muhammad's (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) nur was created 2000
years before the creation of the world.
[ash-Shifa, chapter 1, page 48]
Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab an-Najdi writes:
"There is a hadith in which Rasulu'llah(may Allah bless him and grant him peace)
stated:'I was a Prophet even when Adam (peace be upon him) was between clay and
water[i.e. in the process of being created]
[Hadith transmitted by at-Tirmidhi, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Mukhtasar Sirat ar-Rasul;,
al-Bayhaqi, Ahmad, al-Hakim and adh-adh-Dhahabi declare it to be sahih]
Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) stated:'I have always
been amongst the good (group), and my nur was present even before Adam.'
[Qadi 'Iyad,,Tabari ash-Shifa, chapter on 'Milad an-Nabi']
The Companions used to call the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)
'Nur
When Rasulu'llah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had passed away, the
following na'ats were recited:
Imam Ibn Sa'd writes that Hasaan ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) recited:
"Who can compare to the one who was nur, the one from whom light was extracted.
There were blessings in his commands and he was our guide and warner. He was such
a nur that his light shone upon the whole of the creation.The person who has shown
us the path of this blessed (nur) attained success. He was the light, he was the
nur.It is his footsteps that we follow, and after Allah, he was our ears and eyes"
Ka'ab ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) stated:'He was Bashir an-Nazir and
the rays of his nur kept us enlightened. Allah saved us through his blessings of
nur, and through his mercy we obtained salvation from the fire of Hell.'
Arwa bint 'Abd al-Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with her) stated:'If I weep, then
it is for him who was the nur for all the nations; he was the Messenger of Allah
and his name was Ahmad, let me remain in this state of mind.'
Atiqa bint 'Abd al-Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with her) stated 'O my eyes!,
Weep for the one who was the selected nur, who was from the children of Hashim!'
Safiyya bint 'Abd al-Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with her) stated: 'Upon the
one with whom Allah is pleased, the one upon guidance and piety, the one who brought
the light of guidance after darkness.'
Hind bint 'Usasa bin 'Abd al-Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with her) stated: 'He
was the moon of the fourteenth night, such a nur from which light was extracted
and by the Lord he was bestowed with the Book.'
[Tabqaat Ibn Sa'd , chapter on 'Wafat an-Nabi']
Everything contained in this chapter is evidence in support of the fact that the
nur of Rasulu'llah(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was present long before
human creation. For this reason the Ahl as-Sunna believe that although Rasulu'llah(may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) was a human being (bashar), it is also justified
to call him nur.
This was the reality of the creed of nur, which is the belief of the Ahl as-Sunna
wa'l-Jama'a. The final question we ask is that if it is kufr to have such belief,
can all the scholars (whose names and references have been given) also be classified
as kuffar?
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