Is THEM Guilty of Shirk? - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

things, whoever says any of which, he is lying about Allah in the most hateful manner." I asked:
"Which things?" She said: "[First], whoever tells you that Muhammad saw his Lord, he is lying
about Allah in the most hateful manner." I was sitting back so I sat up and said: "O Mother of
the Faithful! Give me a moment and do not rush me. Did not Allah Almighty say, 'Surely he
beheld him on the clear horizon (81:23)?" She replied: "I was the first in the entire community
to have asked Allah's Messenger about this, and he said: "It is but Jibril, I did not see him in the
actual form in which he was created other than these two times. I saw him alighting from
heaven, covering it all. The magnitude of his frame spans what lies between the heaven and the
earth." Then she said: "Did you not hear Allah say: "Vision comprehends Him not, but He
comprehends all vision. He is the Subtle, the Aware(6:103)?" Did you not hear Allah say: "And
it is not (vouchsafed) to any mortal that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from
behind a veilt, or that He sends a messenger to reveal what He will, by His leave. Lo! He is
Exalted, Wise (42:51)?" She continued: [Second], whoever claims that Allah's messenger
concealed any part of Allah's book, he is lying about Allah in the most hateful manner when
Allah is saying:"O Messenger, make known that which has been revealed unto you from your
Lord, for if you do it not, you will not have conveyed His Message (5:67)." She continued:
[Third], whoever claims that he can tell what shall happen tomorrow, he is lying about Allah in
the most hateful manner, since Allah is saying: "Say: None in the heavens and the earth
knoweth the Unseen save Allah" [and they know not when they will be raised again] (27:65)
It is reported that Ibn Mas'ud, the 6th convert to Islam, reported:
"He indeed saw him at another descent, by the Lote-tree of the boundary (53:13-14):" The
prophet said: "I saw Jibril by the lote-tree of the boundary with six hundred wings on him
shaking off a plume of ornamental flourishes, pearls, and corundum."
I hope you found these Hadeeth interesting and Dr. Wesley points us to more Hadeeth along these lines
with some of the companions seeming to contradict themselves.
My point here is that these disputes are not taking place hundreds of years later between the prophet's
black Arab companions and foreign white converts flocking to the religion. This debate is between what
he calls the black sheep. For me, this indicates that the debate over whether prophet Muhammad literally
saw G-d or not is not a debate between the views of original black, Semitic Arabs and "Johnny comelately"
white, non-Semitic, non-Arabs.
Perhaps, it indicates that there was a struggle to keep the concept of G-d free from the idolatrous
tendencies of a people just coming out of paganism that continued after the prophet's passing. Look at us
today, 1400+ years after the prophet, still struggling to keep our culture and customs from being
propagated as the Deen. Intelligent people still worship all kinds of idols or forms of creation. It wouldn't
surprise me if this tendency existed in the Muslims of old.
Dr. Wesley blames the non-anthropomorphic concept of G-d on Al-Ghazzali and other non-Arabs being
influenced by Greek Hellenism (Greek way of life, including religion and philosophy), and by their sheer
numbers (coming to the religion in crowds) foisting this concept upon the black Arabs and drowning out
the original anthropomorphic Semitic concept of G-d held by the prophet.
There is no doubt that Imam Al-Ghazzali was a believing Muslim as well as a philosopher and mystic and
he was and is very influential in the Muslim world because of his deep and detailed explanations of so
many ideas in Islam.
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