The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 120
PREFACE ESSENCE OF ISLAM 119 swear by the Being in Whose hand is my life that everything that emanates from me, whether it be a statement or an action, is from God Almighty. ' AUTHOR'S MARGIN NOTE Even the ijtihad-based errors of the Holy Prophetsas also bore the character of revela- tion-the special decree of God Almighty overpowered the Holy Prophets as at such times Should it be said that, 'These very traditions also state that, in cer- tain matters, the Holy Prophet, peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him, made errors in interpretation, yet if all the words and deeds of the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, were based on waḥy, then why were those mistakes made, even though the Holy Prophet was never allowed to persist in any such error?' To this, the response is that even that ijtihādī [interpretive] error was not devoid of the light of waḥy. The Holy Prophet, peace and the blessings of Allah be upon him, never separated from God Almighty's control even for a moment. Thus, the examples of his mistakes are like the few occasions of forgetfulness of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, during Prayer, which resulted in the raising and clarifying of certain religious matters. Similarly, he was sometimes led to make errors of interpretation so that the law may be completed by means of some utterly fine points being raised as a result. Furthermore, the human forgetfulness [of the Holy Prophet sas] was not like that experi- enced by all others. Rather, it truly bore the character of waḥy. It was, in fact, a very special will of God Almighty that took hold of the entirety of the Prophet's being and inclined him to do something in which there were many points of wisdom from God Almighty. Therefore, I do not regard even such errors of interpretation as being separate from waḥy because it was not an ordinary matter; for, on such occasions, God Almighty took complete possession of the faculties of His Prophet and, for the benefit of the people, manifested a light in the form of a mistake or of a wrong judgement. A stream of waḥy gushed forth simultaneously, just as the current of water in a canal may be deliberately blocked for some purpose and then released. No