ONLY ONE AUTHORITY

A Necessity

THERE is a lengthy saying of the Prophet of Islam in the corpus of Hadith, a portion of which reads as follows: “Were Moses alive, he would have no choice but to follow me.” (Shuab al-Iman, al-Bayhaqi)

The ulema (scholars) have generally taken this Hadith in the sense of superiority of the Prophet Muhammad. But this is not correct. This concept of superiority of one prophet over another contradicts the Quran and Hadith. The Quran (2: 285) says:

We do not differentiate between any of His messengers.

The same thing is said in a Hadith in these words: “Don’t give superiority to any prophet amongst God’s prophets.” (Sahih al-Bukhari) The fact is that in the above-mentioned Hadith there is no mention of personal superiority. It talks about a general principle—which is that authority is always indivisible. Discipline demands that the authority be just one.

Wherever the authority is two or more order will not be maintained. In the time of Prophet Moses, there were two prophets—Moses and Aaron (or Harun). But Moses alone had the position of authority, not Aaron. The task of Aaron was to confirm the veracity of Moses as the Quran says in 28: 34.

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Discipline demands that the authority be just one. Wherever the authority is two or more order will not be maintained.

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The belief about the superiority of prophets is without any doubt alien to the Quran and Hadith. There is certainly one difference among the prophets. This difference is in terms of role, not in terms of superiority. In this sense, all prophets are models for us. Emulating the prophets is in terms of method. As far as religious beliefs and the principles of religion are concerned, the beliefs and principles of religion of all the prophets were the same.

Contentment gives us the
blessing of a mind at peace.