INTRODUCTION of the book

 We have received this question via email and we have answered it in out fatwas section; the comments which have been written (in Arabic) under this fatwa drove our person to write an article to provide more details about the same topic; the first article was followed by a series of articles compiled in this book which you are reading now. This is the reason why the introduction comprises this fatwa; i.e., the question followed by our answer to it, and also the comments written beneath this fatwa within the Arabic section of our Qurnaism website. This fatwa is found in English on this link: (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=20251). Here is the entire fatwa in the lines below.

It Is a Form of Disbelief to Believe in Mortals

Published in January 16, 2020

Question: … Dear Sir,  … So, I should not believe in Muhammad; rather, I should believe in the Messenger which is the Quran right? What is the difference?! … Thank you …    

Answer:

 To believe in mortals is sheer disbelief/polytheism; one is the believe in God only; one believes with the messenger (i.e., Muhammad) in the Messenger (with a capital [M], referring to the Holy Quran itself). To believe in someone means to deify him/her. The Quranic command in the last verses of the Quranic Chapter Two to believe with the messengers (including Muhammad) means to believe in the Celestial Scriptures granted to them by the Lord God; this means one is to believe in the Quran as God's Word granted to Muhammad.

COMMENTS:

(1) Dr. Mustafa Ismail Hammad: I tend to think that it is an Islamic duty in the Quran to believe in, not only with, Muhammad the messenger of the Lord God; in this verse: "O you who believe! Fear God, and believe in His Messenger" (57:28), the (Messenger) here is the Quran itself, no doubt, but what about this verse: "The messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, as did the believers. They all have believed in God, and His angels, and His Books, and His messengers: “We make no distinction between any of His messengers.”..." (2:285)? The (messenger) here is Muhammad, beyond the shadow of doubt, and not the Quran; besides, 2:285 contains the command to believe in (His messengers). The belief in, not merely with, Muhammad (alongside with the belief in the Quran) is indicated here as well: "...Those who believe in him, and respect him, and support him, and follow the light that came down with him - these are the successful." (7:157).

(2) Dr. Othman M. Ali: My dear Dr. Mustafa Ismail Hammad, I've posed this question like you before; Dr. Mansour answered me by telling me that 7:157 refers to the believe in the prophethood of Muhammad and not in him as a deity; there is no belief in persons in Islam; there is no deification of mortals in Islam.

(3) Dr. Mustafa Ismail Hammad: Yet, my dear Dr. Othman M. Ali, 7:157 is very clear to me; we are to believe in Muhammad as a messenger and a prophet and this is not a form of polytheism at all, right?!

(4) Dr. Othman M. Ali: My dear Dr. Mustafa Ismail Hammad, I think you have repeated what I have written in my earlier comment; i.e., to believe in the prophethood of a messenger whose name of Muhammad; this is not to believe in Muhammad as a deity.

(5) Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour: Of course, in the Holy Quran, there is no room for believing in someone or in any person because this is sheer polytheism by deifying mortals; we believe in the prophethood of prophets and messengers, of course. Moses' Pharaoh accused the Egyptian magicians that they believed in or with Moses before his prior permission. To believe in the Messenger (with a capital 'M') means to believe in the Quran itself which is the Divine Messenger or Message of the Lord God which will last until the advent of the Hour. The proper name (Muhammad) is mentioned in the Quran four times only; one of these times is about the belief in what has descended on Muhammad: "While those who believe, and work righteousness, and believe in what was sent down to Muhammad..." (47:2). The names of other prophets/messengers like Noah and Jesus are repeated many times without mentioning the belief in them but in the message they conveyed; namely, (There is no God but Allah).

(6) Mr. Omar Ali: Congratulations, Dr. Mansour, for having performed Hajj and for your safe return (see the book, in English, titled "About our Pilgrimage Journey to Mecca", found on this link:    http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=165). My belated comment is due to the fact that I could not log in within my account on the Quranism website for more than a week; I can't imagine the reason for such a delay. As for Moses' Pharaoh and the Egyptian magicians regarding Moses, we find these two verses: "...Did you believe in him before I have given you permission?..." (7:123); "...Did you believe with him before I have given you permission?..." (20:71). Many Quranic verses containing the verb (to believe in) refer to beings and things invisible to us; we never see God and we never saw all previous Books/Scriptures; none of us saw any of the messengers and prophets and none of us can see the angels. As for Quranic verses containing the verb (to believe with), it means to trust/obey someone and to be assured he is saying the truth. Hence, the Quranic verb (to believe in) means to deify Allah and to believe in His Word: the Holy Quran. As for the Quranic verb (to believe with), it is employed to refer to messengers and prophets of the Lord God, I think.  

(7) Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour: May the Lord God bless you Mr. Omar Ali; thank you for your comment. Some hackers try to sabotage our website; in some cases, we, ourselves, cannot log in within our own account; we receive many emails about this from several Quranists. The fact that Wahabi hackers who hate Quranism do so is a clear indication that they cannot refute our Quranist views which infuriate them very much and painfully remind them of their polytheism which is the sickness of their hearts. Please wait for our article which will provide more details about the topic of this fatwa.

(8) Mr. Mohamed Abdel-Kareem: The Holy Quran is the Last Message from the Lord God; it is His Word and the last warning to humanity; this is why the focus must be on it and not on Muhammad as a person. Only polytheists place much emphasis on Muhammad and they take (too much) pride  in him; this is because they deify him though he is not the center of the Islamic faith; its center is the Quran itself. It is the last message from Allah. This is why Muhammad is the last of all messengers of Allah; the Quran informs us he was a mortal; he died; the Quran tells is about his mistakes and his good traits and those of other prophets/messengers; we are never to make distinction among them; we must shift our focus to the Quranic text itself, as the Lord God's last warning to human beings, and not to the life and traits of Muhammad.

(9) Dr. Mustafa Ismail Hammad: I desire very much that Dr. Mansour would write an article about this topic, as he promised us, very soon; this is better than imitating Al-Khawarij in declaring one other as infidels or disbelievers; may the Lord God guide all of us to His Straight Path.