How do you Obey the Messenger ?
'Obey Allah and obey the messenger' is usually the first argument presented by the proponents of hadeeth and sunnah when being told that hadeeth and sunnah are not part of Islamic law. The verses quotes usually are :
O ye who believe! Obey God, and obey the MESSENGER, and those charged with authority among you. If ye differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to God and His Apostle, if ye do believe in God and the Last Day: That is best, and most suitable for final determination. (Quran : 4.59)
'Obey Allah and obey the messenger' is explained as 'obey the Quran and obey hadeeth and sunnah'
So does the phrase 'obey the messenger' here refer to obey 'hadeeth and sunnah' ? The Quran is not a book which gives a command and then leaves the Muslim guessing as to what the command means. Please see the following verse :
He who obeys the Apostle, obeys God: But if any turn away, We have not sent thee to watch over their evil deeds (Quran : 4.80)
So obedience to the messenger means obedience to Allah. Hadeeth and sunnah proponents take this to mean that obedience to hadeeth and sunnah is equivalent to obeying Allah. Lets see what the Quran says further :
O ye who believe! Obey God and His Apostle, and turn not away from HIM (laa tawallaw anHU) when ye hear (Quran : 8.20)
If there were TWO seperate obediences, it would have been 'turn away from THEM', however, it's 'turn away from HIM'. Why is this so ? And another verse :
And an announcement from God and His Messenger, to the people (assembled) on the day of the Great Pilgrimage,- that God and His Apostle dissolve (treaty) obligations with the Pagans (Quran : (9.3)
One more time we see 'Allah and his Messenger' issuing AN ANNOUNCEMENT and no mention of a separate source given. Certainly, Allah did not come down as a man to dissolve the treaty as the verse says, rather the messenger acted as a representation of Allah.
Consider the following :
O ye who believe! when ye prepare for prayer, wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows; Rub your heads (with water); and (wash) your feet to the ankles....(Quran : 5.6)
This is a command to the believers (o ye who BELIEVE is at the starting of this verse). Whom did the first Muslims hear this verse from ? Definitely not from Allah Himself ! Rather, it was the messenger who RECITED this to the believers. This is part of his duty as ordained by Allah :
God did confer a great favour on the believers when He sent among them an apostle from among themselves, RECITING unto them the verses of God,... (Quran : 3.164)
The messenger was also commanded to 'say' to the Muslims certain commands, such as :
Say: "Shall we indeed call on others besides God,- things that can do us neither good nor harm,- and turn on our heels after receiving guidance from God? - like one whom the evil ones have made into a fool, wandering bewildered through the earth, his friends calling, come to us', (vainly) guiding him to the path." Say: "God's guidance is the (only) guidance, and we have been directed to submit ourselves to the Lord of the worlds;- (Quran 6.71)
This is part of his communication to us (as Allah commanded him to 'say') and also part of the Quran (as now that the messenger is gone, Allah is commanding us to SAY).
No verse however, stands out as clearly as the following, outlining the obedience to the messenger with respect to the Quran :
That THESE ARE verily the words of an HONOURED MESSENGER;
It is not the word of a poet: little it is ye believe! .Nor is it the word of a soothsayer: little admonition it is ye receive.
A Message sent down from the Lord of the Worlds.
And if the apostle were to invent any sayings in Our name,
We should certainly seize him by his right hand,
And We should certainly then cut off the artery of his heart:
(Quran : 69.40-48)
With all these evidences, it's very clear to us that saying 'obey Allah and obey the messenger' is NOT the same as 'obey the Quran and obey hadeeth and sunnah'. The Quran explains what 'obey the messenger' means very clearly through its own verses.
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