Answer
Short Answer: First we have to emphasize your role in helping your friend to offer the regular prayer. Prayer is the second pillar of Islam and it is what qualifies who is a believer and who is not. Give him some of your time. Try always to remind him of prayer before its time. Show him the good impact that prayer has on your life. Explain to him how prayer will give him inner peace and will get him closer to Allah. Tell him that when he offers the Prayer, he is in a private conversation with his Lord. Try to introduce him to a good company of Muslims who will take him to the mosque to offer the prayer in congregation. As for the claim of Prophet Muhammed’s Divinity, the Quran explains that the Prophet was a human being like all other Prophets who came before him. A very clear evidence of the Prophet’s human nature is his death like all humans. His life came to an end and he was buried in a place where all humans are buried.
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Salam Dear Sister,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
We highly appreciate your concern about your friend and your keenness on correcting his misconceptions.
First we have to emphasize your role in helping your friend to offer the regular prayer. Prayer is the second pillar of Islam and it is what qualifies who is a believer and who is not.
Give him some of your time. Try always to remind him of prayer before its time. Show him the good impact that prayer has on your life. Explain to him how prayer will give him inner peace and will get him closer to Allah. Tell him that when he offers the Prayer, he is in a private conversation with his Lord.
Try to introduce him to a good company of Muslims who will take him to the mosque to offer the prayer in congregation.
As for his understanding that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was not human because he was taken in the Night Journey to heaven, I will state some facts about this issue.
Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad was a historical person who preached the message he received from Allah. This belief is supported by scientific grounds.
The Quran forms the basis of the biography of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Also the extensive data found in the Prophetic Hadiths is another source of his biography. This is in addition to the accounts and anecdotes reported from his contemporaries.
All these sources speak of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a human being like all other human beings.
Allah created all human beings from clay and He created the Angels from light. We read in the Quran what means:
{…who gave everything its perfect form. He first created man from clay, then made his descendants from an extract of underrated fluid…} (As-Sajdah 32:7-8)
We also read in the Quran what means:
{Say, ‘I am only a human being, like you, to whom it has been revealed that your God is One.} (Al-Kahf 18:110)
This verse explains that the Prophet was a human being like all other Prophets who came before him.
What is unique about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is his being human. He had a father and a mother like all humans.
He was human like all the people who met and preached. He was like them and felt emotions. He endured hardships. He was put to many tests like other people. He ate and drank. He felt happy and felt sad. He felt sick and was treated like humans. During some battles he was injured and his teeth were broken.
He lived his normal life. He married and got children. He struggled against temptations. He chose to submit to Allah’s commands.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), like all other prophets, was chosen by Allah to deliver the divine message to all people. This is what gives Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) a status above other people. But still he is a human being.
People should not exaggerate his position and go beyond the limits and raise him to the position of Angels who were created from light. The Prophet himself warned the people against all kinds of exaggeration. The Prophet (peace be upon him) is reported to have said:
“Do not exaggerate about me as was exaggerated about `Isa (Jesus) son of Maryam. Say: the slave of Allah and His Messenger.” (Al-Bukhari)
In order to deliver the divine message, the Prophet (peace be upon him) addressed peoples’ hearts before their minds. He cared for their well being and stability. He found his way to his people easily because he was one of them.
In the Quran, Allah condemns those wondered about the human nature of the Prophet. We read what gives the meaning of:
{They also say, ‘What sort of messenger is this? He eats food and walks about in the marketplaces!…} (Al-Furqan 25:7)
A very clear evidence of the Prophet’s human nature is his death like all humans. His life came to an end and he was buried in a place where all humans are buried. The Quran says what means:
{You [Prophet] will certainly die, and so will they.} (Az-Zumar 39:30)
{We have not granted everlasting life to any other human being before you either [Muhammad] – if you die, will [the disbelievers] live forever?.} (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:34)
As for the issue of travelling to the seventh sky as your friend put it, this is one of the miracles of the Prophet. The Prophet’s ascension to heaven occurred during the incident of the Isra’ and Mi`raj. The Isra’ (Night Journey) was the journey to Jerusalem when the Prophet traveled with Angel Gabriel on the Buraq which moved swiftly through the night sky.
After the Isra’ came the Mi`raj (Ascension to Heaven) in which the Prophet ascended to the heavens. This journey was a miraculous one and it gave opportunities for Islam to spread. The details of the journey are to be found here.
There is nothing to suggest that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is not human because he ascended to heaven during the night journey. The whole event was to support the Prophet in preaching the divine message which he received from Allah.
Being supported by some extraordinary miracles does not give your friend the right to assume that the Prophet was not human. Please try to explain to him the details I have given here and be patient with him.
Argue with him with what is good and do not be tough with him. Be sure that after explaining the truth about the human nature of the Prophet (peace be upon him), Allah will open his mind and heart for accepting the truth.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Salam and please keep in touch.
(From Ask About Islam archives)
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