Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 18
18 islam’s response to contemporary issues lodged a complaint against the Muslim involved in this debate. Addressing the community in general, the Prophet sa issued the following words of instruction: Do not declare me to be superior over Jonah (Yunus), son of Mattah. 13 Some Muslim commentators of Traditions are perplexed by this Tradition as it seemingly stands counter to the Quranic claim that Muhammad sa is superior not only to Jonah as but all Prophets as. But they seem to miss the point that what he said was not that he was inferior to Jonah as , (nor superior to Jonah as ), but simply that his followers should not declare him to be superior in a manner liable to hurt the feelings of others. In the context of what had passed, the only inference one can draw is that the Prophet sa was teaching Muslims a lesson in decency. He was instructing them not to become involved in bragging. They should take care to avoid discussing his status in a manner that could cause offence. Such an attitude would indeed be detrimental to the cause of Islam because instead of winning hearts and minds to the Message of Islam, quite the opposite would be achieved. 2) This attitude of the Holy Prophet sa , is corroborated further by another Tradition in which a Muslim was involved in a similar argument with a Jew. Both claimed and counter-claimed the relative superiority of their spiritual leaders. Again, it was the non-Muslim contender who thought it fit to lodge a complaint against the behaviour of his Muslim adversary. The Holy Prophet sa , responded