As a Shia, I find it terribly disturbing that those who share my beliefs are accused of 'downgrading' the Prophet Muhammad by people who themselves hold him to be an ordinary human being.

So I have compiled , in random order, some of my thoughts on the Shia perception of Muhammad (saw) to the best I can do as a layperson. I have attempted to highlight our beliefs about the Prophet and have therefore left out discussion of the holy Ahlul Bayt. I will fill in hadith references later.

We believe that Prophet Muhammad was the Seal of Prophets even before humanity itself was established.

When asked how long he has been a nabi, the Prophet replied "I was a Nabi before Adam was between clay and water". This, to us, suggests that the Prophethood was indeed part of a greater Divine plan, established first and foremost. The Prophet, to us is not an ordinary man who happened to have recieved a message. He is Allah's beloved to the extent that the entire humanity would be born in vain, were it not for this essential piece of the Divine plan. This is in contradiction with those brethren who feel that Naboowat started with the first declaration to a handful of kuffar. We say that Divine intentions are well planned. Such is the nature of our vision of the exalted Prophet.

There is a hadith which states that during the Prophet's childhood, a Christian in a passing caravan noticed the Divine glow on the Prophet's face. This is but one testimony to Muhammad (saw)'s Naboowat before his declaration.

The Prophet is made of a Noor.

How esteemed is a being that is made of Noor? While we ordinary and sinful mortals are moulded of clay, Allah's beloved Prophet whom he calls "Habeeb" has been made by a Divine light. This denotes his status as well above other Messengers and Prophets. The Prophet was bestowed with Divine leadership, and therefore he has leadership over other deliverers of messages. Moreover, he has gaurdianship over the complete message, which heightens his status further. Yes, they recieved messages from Allah, but they are nowhere near the status of Rasoolallah, since he was made of a glorious Noor.

Also, man is Allah greatest creation and Prophet Muhammad was Allah's greatest man.


The Prophet knew of his status from his first moment of conciousness.

We reject the notion that Prophet was unaware of his esteemed position, since he declares his Naboowat to have started before the completion of making Adam. Had he said he merely existed before the final fashioning of Adam, it could be argued that his status was unknown to him. But he has declared his Naboowat over mankind, and naboowat requires consciousness. We reject the notion that the Prophet was taken by surprise with his first known encounter with Gibrael. It does not make sense that the Allahs most superior Prophet would be unaware of his natural state, and that supposedly his wife's kaafir uncle would be more knowledgeable of the Prophethood than he himself! We humans should not believe that our timing of gaining knowledge runs concurrently with that of the Prophet.

Now, if the Prophet for all practical purposes was always a Prophet, then it must be believed that he was practicing Islam perfectly even before he declared his Naboowat and therefore was always adhering to the laws of halal and haram. Now, for a child to adhere to such Divine laws requires a caretaker who accepts these laws, but that I will leave to a later discussion.

The Prophet is absolutely infalliable.

Allah is most perfect. Whatever He declares to us must be in the most impeccable manner. Therefore, His most perfect message must be declared by a most perfect person. And a most perfect person is infalliable. If the executer of Allah's message is subject to moral flaw, then the message strays from perfection. The message is downgraded from "Divine" to "deviant".

A person being presented to humanity as the God ordained moral example must be Divinely protected from flaws. Therefore, we reject the notion that the Prophet could have commited mistakes, or made oversights, or would require advice and council from falliable human beings, who themselves were Kaafir until the Prophet bestowed the status of "Muslim" on them.


The Prophet has Higher Knowledge not revealed to mere humans.

We do not suscribe to the school of thought that the Prophet was an ordinary human being who gained his knowledge from life experiences in the same lowly way that we ordinary humans do. This does not do justice to the Holy Prophet. We do not assume that the Prophet's passing of ilm onto the ummah is analagous to rate at which he recieved it. We do not believe that his knowledge of the world was subject to the commonly held knowledge of his era. He carried weighty knowledge that is beyond that of ordinary humans and was kept hidden from ordinary people until disclosed at his discretion. Therefore, it must be accepted that he was always free from ignorance. Therefore, excluding the Prophet, the Quran on its own is not enough encompass all knowledge and guidance i.e. Allah's message of Islam does not stand in the Quran alone. This is also relevant to the concept that Quranic interpretation must also be made with divine guidance and not left up to common human intellect.

The Prophet was kept in a perpetual state of taharat.

Since Allah is tahir, we believe that he has garunteed his Nabi to be free of impurities. We reject the notion that Prophet was ever in a state of uncleanliness, whether it be physical, mental, or spiritual. Therefore we reject hadiths which cite incidents of the Prophet being caught at the mercy of that mundane state of uncleanliness which ordinary humans experience on a daily basis.

The Prophet did not live his life at the mercy of ordinary circumstances

Being the bearer of Divine knowledge, he most certainly was free from the mundane burdens of the world. Therefore the fact that he lived a life of simplicity and was subject to mortality is testiment to a greater Divine plan.

The Prophet was a Perfect human

The Prophet is far superior to all humans. Every word, action, reaction of the Prophet is exactly Divine will and the chance of human error is completely eliminated. Therefore, any designations made by the Prophet Muhammad (saw) are taken as Divine.

We find it necessary to offer Salaam to the Prophet

We recite "Allahumma Salle Ala Muhammadin Wa Aale Muhammad" as it is has been ordained by Allah.



*This is just a bit of background information on the Shia perception of Prophet Muhammad that I could come up with. Please let me know what I faltered on or left out.
I hope some of you can pick up the irony in the situation.