Is the verse in accordance WITH the infallibility of the Holy Prophet?

Question: If the Prophet of Islam (a.s.) and other Prophets (a.s.) are free from sins what does the following verse imply when it mentions the forgiveness of their sins?

Verily We have granted you a manifest Victory: That Allah may forgive you your faults of the past and those to follow; fulfill His favor on you; and guide you on the straight Way.” [Surah Fath 48:1-2]

Answer: First of all we must bear in mind that the founders of movement and revolutionaries who take steps .against the prevailing trends and try to reform the society and destroy the evils present in it they start facing oppositions, allegations, baseless accusations and false implications. Allegation is one of the attacks that are employed in the backward societies and its aim is to defame these personalities.

The Holy Prophet (a.s.) was not exempted from this system. He also had to face the opposition and allegations of Quraysh. The person who was regarded truthful and trustworthy yesterday began to be called a magician, a soothsayer and heretic as soon he raised his call for religion. The Almighty Allah has quoted the allegations of the infidels of Quraysh. It is a confirmed fact that if such allegations are not effective on most people it creates some extent doubts in the minds of some simple and ignorant persons regarding the truthfulness and claim of the Holy Prophet (a.s.). And it can be said that a group of people continue to remain in doubts and denial for a period of time.

In those conditions how is it possible that those allegations should be explained and justified so that the truth is unveiled for the people?

The only effective method is that the Ulul Azm and progressive people who are the standard bearers of socialism and the ideal goal, if he succeeds and achieves his aim and people see the benefits of his mission with their own eyes, all the allegations and accusations are falsified before everyone and in place of allegations many good titles take its place and they are the embodiments of greatness, spirituality and power. And if the circumstances are opposed to this the allegations remain in the minds of some people for a long time. And they prove effective on many people.

The same thing is applicable to the Prophet of Islam (a.s.). He began a progressive program and with many brilliant laws he stepped into the field of contest which were beneficial for the common people but were going against the ruling class. He used to inform of his future successes in his program and in the light of divine help and the steadfastness of his companions he surmounted his difficulties. At last the capital of polytheism and the center of false accusations fell into the hands of the Muslims. And Makkah was conquered in the form of a manifest victory.

This success which became the cause that Quraysh with all their power should come under the rule and control of Islam. It also had another great consequence in its fold and it was that when this valiant warrior earned victory in this battle and the people saw the best result of his efforts clearly and he took his spiritual mission to completion, in the light of this success the falsehood mongers and allegation makers were rendered speechless. They could not call him mad and insane or magician and soothsayer in face of his obvious achievements. Because anyone having such spiritual or mental defects could not create such a revolution.

Therefore in the verse mentioned above “Zanb” are those same false allegations which were present in the minds of the simplistic people of Makkah. And this success had false accusations and these allegations were removed from the personality of this savior. Obviously if the same conditions had continued that were before the conquest of Makkah and the Holy Prophet (a.s.) had not been able to achieve success in the contest, the allegations would have remained as they were. This explanation is testified by two things:

1. The verse clearly says that We have created the conquest of Makkah so that your sins may be forgiven due to it.

2. If the forgiveness of sins is the invalidation of false allegations and accusations as we have explained in detail above, that the relation between the conquest of Makkah and the forgiveness of sins is proved valid. Because this conquest had sealed the tongues of people regarding the repetitions of allegations and then no question remained for anyone to accuse the Holy Prophet (a.s.), and if they had implied legal mistakes and disobedience then how can they be forgiven by military conquest and apparent victory, but it is seeking of forgiveness and repenting.

2. The clear meaning of the verse is that this victory has brought into existence causes for the forgiveness of the past and future sins and this sentence could bear these meanings only. That due to this victory all the allegations and accusations that had been heaped were now rendered ineffective. But if you take it in the sense of actual sins you cannot explain how the future sins could be forgiven in advance.

What is the meaning of the words: Everything will be destroyed except His face?

Question: Is the human soul annihilated? If you say that it is incorporeal the verse says that except for Allah everything can be annihilated. How can you explain this?

Answer: We should remember that the word ‘destroy’ in the verse is not in the meaning of getting completely annihilated because not only the human soul, the human body is also not destroyed completely. And after breaking up it remains in the earth in other substances. On the day of judgment he would be raised from there.

Thus whether we consider soul incorporeal or not it is not absolutely destroyable and annihilated. And neither is the human body totally destroyed. Rather the word ‘Halaak’ in the verse denotes the disintegration of the organs and the destruction of the face. Thus this destruction is that the connection between the body and soul is severed. And the previous physical parts are disintegrated. Though soul and body remain separate and exist in some other forms.

Many verses that are revered in connection with the destruction of the past communities prove the above statement. For example the Almighty Allah destroyed the People of Aad and Thamud and did not spare anyone and in the same way He destroyed the People of Nuh.

Obviously in those verses, Aad, Thamud and People of Nuh were destroyed in the sense that they died and the connection between their bodies and their souls was severed. Therefore they verse: “Everything will be destroyed except His face” means that all the living and non-living things disintegrate and their style undergoes a change and it is only the Purified Being of Allah which is beyond every type of change and transformation.

How did Yusuf allow that his brother should be falsely implicated for theft?

Question: When Yusuf (a.s.) wanted to keep his brother in Egypt he had a valuable measure bowl kept in the baggage of his brother. Then a person went into the caravan and shouted: O People of the caravan! You are thieves! Why did Yusuf (a.s.) act in this way that his brothers who had come in the Caravan of Palestine should be implicated for theft? While false allegation and accusation is a sin and it is Haraam?

Answer: In the verse that mentions this part of the incident is as follows:

“So when he furnished them with their provisions, (someone) placed the drinking cup in his brother’s bag. Then a crier cried out: O Caravan! You are most surely thieves.” [Surah Yusuf 12:70]

The apparent words of the verse say that Yusuf (a.s.) had the cup placed in his brother’s bag and then he had them accused of some other theft. This is the point worth nothing.

Now the question remains why Yusuf (a.s.) did this? As obvious from the 76^th verse he had no other solution for retaining his brother. Neither in those days of famine the laws of Egypt allowed that anyone could be retained there for no reason at all. Nor his other brothers were prepared to leave his younger brother in Misr. And as many commentators have written Yusuf (a.s.) had already told his brother. The 69^th verse shows that he already introduced himself to his brother in a confidential meeting and it is possible that he had informed him of this plan also. Therefore, from the point of view of Yusuf (a.s.) there was no difficulty in this matter became his brother had also agreed on this idea.

Another thing is that Yusuf (a.s.) did not blame his brother. He neither lied nor made false accusation. Rather it was the officials who thought that there had been a theft, checked the baggage and accused Yusuf’s brother and detained him. Since Yusuf’s brother had already known the plan he remained quiet. The verse does not speak of anything contrary or that this incident was witnessed by Yusuf (a.s.).