"Muhammad is naught but a messenger; messengers have passed before him. So if he dies or is slain, will you turn back on your heels?"
Quran 3:144
Here is a passage from the third surah, obviously one of the longest, Al Imran, here rendered as "The House of Imran." The backstory here is that the Prophet was seriously injured at the battle of Uhud, and rumors initially spread that he was dead, causing the expected panic. To some followers it raised the almost existential fear or what would happen if the Prophet died, and would there even be a movement if he died. Some proposed that since Muhammad was a prophet he couldn't die, which doesn't really make much sense because all the previous prophets had lived and died, but it's also a reflection of the love and respect that the Prophet had earned during his lifetime. This verse is a reminder from God that Muhammad was "naught but a messenger," but it's also a reminder that the Prophet was only a man and a man who would die. I think in the rush that we as Muslims are sometimes guilty of in making the prophets, and the Prophet, infallible and almost more than human, we lose many things and one of them is the beauty of the story and the enormity of the struggle. The prophets, and the Prophet, all lived complicated lives, not only in regards to their struggles with faith itself, but also just the act of living. This passage is also a reminder that in the end it was never about the prophets, but rather their role in expressing something far greater.
Quran 3:144
Here is a passage from the third surah, obviously one of the longest, Al Imran, here rendered as "The House of Imran." The backstory here is that the Prophet was seriously injured at the battle of Uhud, and rumors initially spread that he was dead, causing the expected panic. To some followers it raised the almost existential fear or what would happen if the Prophet died, and would there even be a movement if he died. Some proposed that since Muhammad was a prophet he couldn't die, which doesn't really make much sense because all the previous prophets had lived and died, but it's also a reflection of the love and respect that the Prophet had earned during his lifetime. This verse is a reminder from God that Muhammad was "naught but a messenger," but it's also a reminder that the Prophet was only a man and a man who would die. I think in the rush that we as Muslims are sometimes guilty of in making the prophets, and the Prophet, infallible and almost more than human, we lose many things and one of them is the beauty of the story and the enormity of the struggle. The prophets, and the Prophet, all lived complicated lives, not only in regards to their struggles with faith itself, but also just the act of living. This passage is also a reminder that in the end it was never about the prophets, but rather their role in expressing something far greater.
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