Questioner: I would like to ask, since no messenger can be a superhuman, because of the arguments put forth.
Huzoor (rh): Since?
Questioner: No messenger of Allah.
Huzoor (rh): Can not be superhuman, Correct.
Questioner: Because that would not be a good example, but surely in a way they are superhuman, because Allah has decreed that they can do no wrong, possibly.
Huzoor (rh): No, no. This is not so.
Questioner: No?
Huzoor (rh): It’s not because of a decree from Allah that they should not do any wrong, that they can’t. It is because it is possible for every human being to submit to the will of Allah completely. Had it not been possible for human beings to submit completely to the will of Allah, the prophets could not become models for their people. It’s so interconnected, the concept of their being innocent is a very important concept and it is to be seen in this light. If they are innocent, as such they are models. But if other people could not be innocent, how could they be models for them?
Questioner: No, but I was thinking that since Allah needed…
Huzoor (rh): No, no. I have understood your question, but you are not trying to understand what I am telling you.
Questioner: I am totally confused at this point
Huzoor (rh): Yes, I will further explain. If you claim that the prophets are innocent because Allah had so decreed for them to be innocent and they were made like this, that would create many problems for our ideology, this concept. And it’s not acceptable. Logically, it will break down, because we believe that all the prophets are models for their people. And a model is only such a being who can be followed. If a being cannot be followed, that cannot be a model. This is one of the objections we have against the Christian philosophy of Christ being a model, because he is a super being, superhuman, and even in his perfect capacity as a man, he has certain qualities of manhood which lack the sin part which is inherited in that philosophy by the rest of the human beings. So even as such, even if you conceive him to be a perfect human being from one point of view and a perfect God from the other point of view, still he cannot be a model, because a model is set beyond our reach. He could do things which we could not do, because we have inherited different capabilities. So there is an internal contradiction in the concept that there is a perfect model which is of course created for others to follow, but others cannot follow it. So a prophet, or all the prophets we should say, although they were innocent, it was not because of a special decree of Allah that those as individuals should be innocent. It is because it was possible for everyone to become and to be innocent by total submission to the will of God, and they were those who did, and became innocent. So as they reached that height, so Allah, out of his mercy, chose them to be model for the rest. This is how it happened.
