"O you who believe! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor address him in the manner that you address one another, lest your deeds come to naught, while you are unaware."
Quran 49:2
The backstory from Nasr, "This verse was reportedly revealed in response to an argument between Abu Baku and Umar. Each favored a different individual for the honor of receiving a delegation from an outlying tribe. Their quarreling in the presence of the Prophet was so loud that his voice was drowned out, at which God revealed this verse. Nor address him in the manner that you address one another speaks primarily to new members of the Muslim polity who had taken an attitude of excessive familiarity with the Prophet; they should not call him by name, "Muhammad," but by his title, "Messenger of God" or "Prophet of God". (Study Quran, p. 1258)
This passage is culled from surah 49, often rendered as "The Private Apartments." I chose this one because I think it speaks to the complexity of the life that the Prophet was forced to lead. You think back to that quiet, humble man who retreated to a cave to pray and meditate, and how that same person had to play a remarkably complex balancing act as religious, political, economic and military leader. In a sense this revelation was making official what was already the case: Muhammad was not who he had been. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I suspect that if you had caught the Prophet in quiet, exhausted moment that he would have admitted that this was not what he signed up for. Like all the prophets he was thankful to God, and obviously took the responsibility very seriously, but there's a reason why God chooses prophets and not the other way around. I think sometimes as Muslims we are so laudatory in our praise of the Prophet that we lose sight of the very human drama and pain of the story.
Quran 49:2
The backstory from Nasr, "This verse was reportedly revealed in response to an argument between Abu Baku and Umar. Each favored a different individual for the honor of receiving a delegation from an outlying tribe. Their quarreling in the presence of the Prophet was so loud that his voice was drowned out, at which God revealed this verse. Nor address him in the manner that you address one another speaks primarily to new members of the Muslim polity who had taken an attitude of excessive familiarity with the Prophet; they should not call him by name, "Muhammad," but by his title, "Messenger of God" or "Prophet of God". (Study Quran, p. 1258)
This passage is culled from surah 49, often rendered as "The Private Apartments." I chose this one because I think it speaks to the complexity of the life that the Prophet was forced to lead. You think back to that quiet, humble man who retreated to a cave to pray and meditate, and how that same person had to play a remarkably complex balancing act as religious, political, economic and military leader. In a sense this revelation was making official what was already the case: Muhammad was not who he had been. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I suspect that if you had caught the Prophet in quiet, exhausted moment that he would have admitted that this was not what he signed up for. Like all the prophets he was thankful to God, and obviously took the responsibility very seriously, but there's a reason why God chooses prophets and not the other way around. I think sometimes as Muslims we are so laudatory in our praise of the Prophet that we lose sight of the very human drama and pain of the story.
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