Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
^one who cannot act upon, have so many excuses, like none can be sadiq ameen like loving nabi muhammad sallal laho alehe wasallam but yes one can at least try to be like it, none can forgive him like he forgave at the time fatah e makkah, but whenever one feel difficult to forgive someone at least remember how he did that, as a follower we have to do what he did, at least try rather than making such lame excuses
very well said
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
It is amazing how people quickly jump to exceptions and skip the acts/ways of acting that we should follow
Peace kchughtai
Which people are you referring to?
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
There are two things here ...
Our understanding regarding our status and inability to reach Sayyiduna Muhammad (SAW), but also our model to strive to be like him, (When we know we cannot) ...
Those who think they can be like him (SAW) have a corrupt belief, those who think they can never be good and do not even try through despair have also given in to the Shaytan ... The middle path is to continue striving to better ourselves, continue to excel and if we fall brush ourselves down and get back on track again. No one is advocating that RasoolAllah (SAW) should not or cannot be followed ... however like everything there is a valid context to that statement.
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
There are two things here ...
Our understanding regarding our status and inability to reach Sayyiduna Muhammad (SAW), but also our model to strive to be like him, (When we know we cannot) ...
Those who think they can be like him (SAW) have a corrupt belief, those who think they can never be good and do not even try through despair have also given in to the Shaytan ... The middle path is to continue striving to better ourselves, continue to excel and if we fall brush ourselves down and get back on track again. No one is advocating that RasoolAllah (SAW) should not or cannot be followed ... however like everything there is a valid context to that statement.
Well said.
Most of times, these statements 'that we can't act like Prophet' are used on the context that we can't be like him, which means there is no need even for trying to follow his philosophy.
Its just not limited to when you talk about control over your emotions, which arise frequently due to attacks on Islamic beliefs and Prophet's personal life from time to time. It is used in dealing with our daily routines while dealing with our relatives (circumstances where we need to forgive someone's mistakes), performing wedding and death rituals (show off is justified by saying wo zamane aur the and wo baRe log the.. hum kahan unki barabri kar sakte hain... We can't face zamana).
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
No one is either saying or implying that following him could mean one can be "like" the prophet. Whenever following prophet (pbuh) is mentioned, it is mostly wrt following his dealings with others, as an employee, as ruler, as a general, as a husband, as a father etc. basically his high morals. dealings with POWs, slaves, foes, friends. His honesty and truthfulness. These ideals are often deliberately clouded behind issues that no one is discussing or pointing at. Am I right muqawee sahib wrt your OP?
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
Yeh, in certain cases, common people can not act like Prophet (PBUH). For example, Prophet (PBUH) never killed anyone in any war even in self defense.. Remember, in Uhad, Prophet's (PBUH) teeths were martyred and his followers were fighting around him to save him from Kafirs but he never used his sword to kill those kafirs to save himself. While his companions like Hazrat Umer and Hazrat ALI (R.A) not only took part In wars but also killed many Kafirs. That tells u the story, that in certain circumstances, common people can not act like Prophet (PBUH).
Based on that premise, your response is reasonable. But that premise is a fallacy.
**And the Prophet was the most complete in regards to this bravery that is appropriate for the commanders in war, and he did not kill with his hand anyone except Ubayy bin Khalaf. He killed him on the day of Uhud, and did not kill anyone else with his hand before or after this."
'Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah'; 8/78]**
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
No one is either saying or implying that following him could mean one can be "like" the prophet. Whenever following prophet (pbuh) is mentioned, it is mostly wrt following his dealings with others, as an employee, as ruler, as a general, as a husband, as a father etc. basically his high morals. dealings with POWs, slaves, foes, friends. His honesty and truthfulness. These ideals are often deliberately clouded behind issues that no one is discussing or pointing at. Am I right muqawee sahib wrt your OP?
yes, this was my question. Thanks for rephrasing it.
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
No one is either saying or implying that following him could mean one can be "like" the prophet. Whenever following prophet (pbuh) is mentioned, it is mostly wrt following his dealings with others, as an employee, as ruler, as a general, as a husband, as a father etc. basically his high morals. dealings with POWs, slaves, foes, friends. His honesty and truthfulness. These ideals are often deliberately clouded behind issues that no one is discussing or pointing at. Am I right muqawee sahib wrt your OP?
Peace kchughtai
I sense a tone of frustration or annoyance and an undertone of an accusation in a subject area that seemed to me to be more about an academic understanding on the position of "being a follower". To me it seemed the OP was purely about the legitimacy of the claim ... and all I did initially was to provide the context of where it could be true, without of course giving the places where it is not true, because that was the default position anyway. Secondly, your own words call the Sunnah - "ideals" ... Of course in reality not being able to follow the Sunnah can happen at many levels ... If our sincerity is high then it is my faith that we will get rewarded with the hasana of a Sunnah if we try to the best of our ability to maintain any of them, even if we pail in comparison or make blunders and have to start over again ...
We don't need to follow prophet's life. We need to follow sahabas life. Prophet is the role model, sahabas are the example of how to follow a role model.
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
We don't need to follow prophet's life. We need to follow sahabas life. Prophet is the role model, sahabas are the example of how to follow a role model.
I hope you understand that this statement is in itself a cane of worms, considering Islam's political history just after the death of Prophet (SAW)
Prophet did not compile any autobiography. His whole life was passed to us through Sahaba's narrations. If those narratives never opened a can of worms then why should the narrators?
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
Prophet did not compile any autobiography. His whole life was passed to us through Sahaba's narrations. If those narratives never opened a can of worms then why should the narrators?
Because there are different attitudes that were depicted by different sahaba in dealing with the people. Some sahabas were executed by other sahabas. Read about Hazrat Abu Zar Ghaffari (RA), he was punished just because he raised voice against wealth accumulation and that too in period of Khulfa e Rashideen. While we can compile Prophet's biography with the help of Quran and his acts can't be against the Quran, we can't guarantee same for all sahabas. There were some political mistakes by sahabas, which we don't need to discuss here.
We can see the practice of Prophet's teachings in sahabas life to a maximum level, but we can't claim that everyone from Sahaba followed him to that level which makes us follow sahaba only and not base our actions considering the original source (Quran and prophet's own life).
[quote=“muqawwee123:10184347”]
But that is exactly the point. We are humans, just like sahaba were.
And to sahabas credit, they must have done something good to have Islam survived, and flourished. If you look at today’s Islamic world, 80 percent of the Muslim nations became Islamic state during sahabas time, through their efforts.
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
But that is exactly the point. We are humans, just like sahaba were.
And to sahabas credit, they must have done something good to have Islam survived, and flourished. If you look at today's Islamic world, 80 percent of the Muslim nations became Islamic state during sahabas time, through their efforts.
Agree, when can see practice of prophet's teaching in sahabas and they were definitely great people who directly received guidance from the prophet. But when it comes to following, Quran itself ask to follow the Prophet. To follow God's message (Quran ) and Prophet (which are two inseparable things) are absolute, while when it comes to following others including Ulil-amr, we have to see whether their actions are in accordance with Quarn and Sunnah. So, again the original reference point is not sahaba, but the Prophet (SAW) himself.
But there were lot of rulings that are in Quran, that later got nullified through a hadees or sunnat, and then lots of hadees nullified a previous ruling imposed through a hadees through another hadees. For you to find the latest and the greatest ruling on something, you have to look at the life of sahabas, especially those who never left Madina, at least not before the death of prophet.
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
But there were lot of rulings that are in Quran, that later got nullified through a hadees or sunnat, and then lots of hadees nullified a previous ruling imposed through a hadees through another hadees. For you to find the latest and the greatest ruling on something, you have to look at the life of sahabas, especially those who never left Madina, at least not before the death of prophet.
I think ahadees you are referring came in picture for minute details, but as far public dealings (your attitude with relatives, enemies, etc) is concerned, Quran contain enough guidance. Like Islamic version of ten commandment in Surah e Bani Israel cover most of the basic things every religion teaches to its followers. Makki Quran tells you how to deal with people when you are in minority / powerless. It also tells you to avoid show off and accumulation of wealth.
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
By this new discussion that brother TLK has started ... which I also agree with we can then say ... we cannot follow even the Sahabah, because we cannot interact with them. Rather we follow the ulema and guided people of today, whose teachers, teachers, teachers, x times over followed the taba tabi'een, who followed the tab'een who followed the Sahabah, who followed RasoolAllah (SAW).
It is the belief of Muslims that the first 3 generations are the best as they have been catered for by RasoolAllah (SAW) himself ... Among the taba tabi'een we can say that a person later than them could have been better, yet not the first three generation, but surely we are not even comparable with the Sahabah ...
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet’s life
There is a hadith which means less or more that in later time there will be people of my ummah who never seen me, will follow my teachings.. and I call them my brother… 
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
Peace kchughtai
I sense a tone of frustration or annoyance and an undertone of an accusation in a subject area that seemed to me to be more about an academic understanding on the position of "being a follower". To me it seemed the OP was purely about the legitimacy of the claim ... and all I did initially was to provide the context of where it could be true, without of course giving the places where it is not true, because that was the default position anyway. Secondly, your own words call the Sunnah - "ideals" ... Of course in reality not being able to follow the Sunnah can happen at many levels ... If our sincerity is high then it is my faith that we will get rewarded with the hasana of a Sunnah if we try to the best of our ability to maintain any of them, even if we pail in comparison or make blunders and have to start over again ...
Muqawee has already stated about his OP. no further input is needed. Yes, Sunnah set ideals for us. What does following these ideals mean? Suppose we have to follow "how to do waduu or offer namaz". In this case, we will be ditto copying the prophet, the way he taught, the way he practiced himself of course barring exceptions that are mentioned. but morals are not ditto copied. we are talking about life not a discrete mathematical problem. We ought to get inspiration from the high morals that the prophet (pbuh) had and practiced throughout his life. We need adapt and infuse those high standards in our life if we want to see the "magical" effect that used to turn hearts. Why I am saying this is because there is so much wrong being done in the name of Islam these days and literally when one points out that this is not the way of the prophet whom you claim to be a follower of then we get response, well, he was a prophet ... The ideals should not be a "bhari pathar jisey choom key rakh diya jaye" Now I hope you have understood what my "frustration" is all about.
Re: Muslims can not follow Prophet's life
Muqawee has already stated about his OP. no further input is needed. Yes, Sunnah set ideals for us. What does following these ideals mean? Suppose we have to follow "how to do waduu or offer namaz". In this case, we will be ditto copying the prophet, the way he taught, the way he practiced himself of course barring exceptions that are mentioned. but morals are not ditto copied. we are talking about life not a discrete mathematical problem. We ought to get inspiration from the high morals that the prophet (pbuh) had and practiced throughout his life. We need adapt and infuse those high standards in our life if we want to see the "magical" effect that used to turn hearts. Why I am saying this is because there is so much wrong being done in the name of Islam these days and literally when one points out that this is not the way of the prophet whom you claim to be a follower of then we get response, well, he was a prophet ... The ideals should not be a "bhari pathar jisey choom key rakh diya jaye" Now I hope you have understood what my "frustration" is all about.
I understand you and I agree ...
Basically my academic response seemed to miss the intent that there remains a moral obligation on us to perform in excellence, especially in times such as these ... We do not have enough awliya and we need our children to study the religion and revive the traditions. We need to battle with the side-effects of modernity ... This problem of character deficiencies is what led me down the path of spirituality about 8 years ago. We have the solutions in my humble opinion - we just need to take them on board.
The greatest folly of the modern times is exactly this subject.
Thinking that RasoolAllah (SAW) can't be followed - so we resign with deficient characters
Or Thinking that RasoolAllah (SAW) is like one of us - so we see it fit to select alternatives and hence also do not follow him.
We cannot not follow RasoolAllah (SAW) if we want to be successful. We need to restore our faith in his way and at the same time we need to start doing and talking less ...