What Was Prophet's Religion Before Islam? - Our Prophet 2 - Birth To Revelation

Now, finally, let's talk about the faith of the Prophet himself, and also his grandfathers. You know, what was their religion? The Prophet, before God sent him as a Messenger, before He gave him the religion of Islam. What was his religion? Did he have a religion? Was he a Jew? Was he a Christian? Was he on the path of Ibrahim? None of that? What is it? There are three opinions over here amongst the scholars.

The first opinion says: the Prophet was a prophet before he received the message of Islam. Even when he was a boy, even when he was born, he was already a prophet, but he had not announced that to the people. So he would receive revelation from God. God would inspire him with teachings, and he was not instructed by God to go public with it. So during those 40 years, the Prophet was a prophet. He received inspiration and revelation from God, but he was not ordered to convey that message to his people. At the age of 40 Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala tells him, "now, go public with your message."

We have a number of hadiths about this, that the Prophet, before the age of 40, he was a messenger. He did receive revelation from God. So he had his message from Allah. He did not follow any other shari'ah. Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala had revealed to him his teachings, his religion and his shari'ah. And it was Islam. It was the religion of Islam. He would practice the religion of Islam, however, not publicly. And he would not publicly preach about the religion of Islam. This is just like 'Isa alayhi as-salam. The Qur'an says that Jesus, when he was born, he was a prophet. He says, "I am a prophet." When he was a baby and he spoke in that incident, he says, "I am a prophet."

But he was not responsible for going public with his message. So Jesus, when he was just a few months old, was he a prophet or not? Yes, he was. Did he have a shari'ah, a message to convey to the people? No, not yet. Later, Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala told him, "go and preach to your people." So it is the same with the Prophet. He became a messenger at the age of 40, but before that he was a prophet, and he would receive revelation, and he would be inspired by Allah, just as the baby Jesus would be inspired by Allah.

So that is the first person, the first opinion amongst our ulama. Al-Allama' al-Majlisi, a very prominent scholar, who is the author of 'Bihar al-Anwar', which is a 110 volume work on the hadiths. He is of that opinion. He says, "I have examined the hadiths" and he is an expert on hadiths, the hadith of Ahl al-Bayt, "and they seemed to indicate that he was a prophet even before the age of 40." So that was his religion, Islam, he received it from God. However, he was not ordered by God to convey or deliver. Yes. Did you have a question? Okay. That is the first opinion.

What is the second opinion? The second opinion states that he followed the path of the Hanifiya. One of the titles of Ibrahim is 'Hanif, Ibrahim al-Hanif'. 'Ibrahim the right One, the righteous One, the One who is on the right path, the upright One'. Hanifiya means 'the upright religion'. We know that the grandfathers of the Prophet, they followed the Hanifiya, they were on the path of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam. So whatever the religion of Ibrahim was, they followed that religion. So Abd Allah, Abd al-Muttalib, the grandfathers of the Prophet. When we said that they were faithful and they worshipped God, what was their religion? Their religion was the religion of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam, which we called 'the Hanifiya'.

Now, remember, it is not the Hanafiyya. Hanifiya. Hanafiyya are those who follow Abu Hanifa, that is a Sunni school of thought. This is Hanifiya. There is a 'Ya' over there, an extra vowel. And that is the path of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam. Now, one could ask the question: but Ibrahim was not the final messenger before the Prophet? You had Musa and 'Isa alayhi as-salam. Was not Jesus the last universal messenger? So how come they were not Christians? How come they did not follow the path of 'Isa alayhi as-salam? Why did they follow Ibrahim? What was the reason?

Scholars have indicated that while prophets Ibrahim and Jesus and Moses are universal messengers. Prophet Ibrahim was the most universal messenger. His message was universal for the entire world. Jesus and Moses, even though they were universal prophets, but they were sent to Bani Isra'il, not to the entire world. Is there a verse in the Qur'an that proves this or not? Yes. Surat Al-Imran, the third chapter, verse 49, when Jesus is speaking about himself and his prophethood, he says: "wa Rasulan 'ila Bani Isra'il annee qad ji'tukum bi Ayatin min Rabbikum" (3:49). He says "I am a messenger for Bani Isra'il, I have signs and scriptures for you."

So Prophet 'Isa alayhi as-salam, his main message was for the Jewish people, for Bani Isra'il, the Children of Isra'il. So those who were not from the Bani Isra'il, they still could continue on the path of who? Abraham alayhi as-salam. They were not obligated to follow the shari'ah of Musa and 'Isa. If they wanted to, that was fine, that was optional. But they could just stick to the shari'ah of Ibrahim, because Musa and 'Isa were specifically sent for Bani Isra'il. And this is the proof of the Qur'an. Therefore, the grandfathers, the Arabs in Mecca, those who were believers, they were on the path of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam. They had the religion of Ibrahim and the Prophet also was on that religion: the religion of the Hanifiya.

Now what is the religion of the Hanifiya? Al Imam al-Sadiq alayhi as-salam, explains to us in a beautiful hadith: the religion of Prophet Ibraham did not have this very detailed shari'ah that we have, or the Jewish shari'ah. You know, the Jewish code of law is very detailed. The Islamic code of law is very detailed. The religion of Ibrahim did not have this elaborate shari'ah system. The Imam alayhi as-salam, says: "kanat shari'atu Ibrahim", the religion of Ibrahim. Tawhid, 'Believe in one God', "wa al-Ikhlas", 'be sincere, offer your actions only to Allah'. "Do not worship any idols." And this is really the fitrah. The Imam says "that is the fitrah."

He was instructed to pray, not any particular manner, just pray to Allah. Know that you have a Creator. Worship the Almighty God. You do not have to do it in four units, rak'ahs. Just pray to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. Enjoy the good, forbid the evil. There was no laws of inheritance. The laws of inheritance that if you leave a family behind, this amount goes to your son, to your daughter, to your wife. This is something that later shari'ahs has brought forth, and the Qur'an brought forth the Shariah Ibrahim. You did not have the laws of inheritance.

Yes. [So among the other prophets, you still have to believe that they are prophets, because..] You still have to believe their are messengers. Yes, a Muslim is the one who believes in all prophets. But you do not follow their shari'ah. You follow the shari'ah of your own prophet. Now, the core is the same: belief in God, Day of Judgment, justice of God, that stays the same. But some of the details, like how you pray, how you go to Hajj, these could be different. And then you also had - in the shari'ah of Prophet Ibrahim - circumcision. So those believers, who believed in the path of Ibrahim, they would also be circumcised. And you also had the Hajj. That you would do pilgrimage to the Hajj. This is the religion of Ibrahim. So those believing grandfathers of the Prophet, they were on the path of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam. They followed that religion. And this was acceptable to follow. If you were not from Bani Isra'il, you were not obligated to follow the shari'ah of Musa or the shari'ah of 'Isa alayhi as-salam.

Now, there is one problem with this opinion, and this is why you have a third opinion. Some say - some argue - Prophet Muhammad is greater than the Prophet Ibrahim. He is superior to him, he is higher in rank than him. So if he is higher in rank than him, how would God allow him to follow another prophet who is lower in rank from him? Some just have this - you know - this logic that this is not right, because when you follow someone else, that other person - whom you are following - should be greater than you. Why would God ask you to follow someone, if you are greater than that person and you have a higher status than that other prophet?

So some give us a third opinion, and they say that, what the Prophet used to practice is the exact same religion of Ibrahim, but he was not following the religion of Ibrahim. Just as God revealed to Ibrahim, "practice My faith this way", He revealed to Prophet Muhammad, "practice My faith this way." So it is the same as the teachings of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam, but he was not following them, he was receiving them from Allah. But it happened to be that they were exactly the same shari'ah, the same religion. In that regard, we could say he did not actually follow him.

And that is why there is one hadith from the Imam alayhi as-salam. He says "the Prophet once, after mentioning Ibrahim, he says "Deenahu, Deeni"." His religion is my religion and my religion is his religion. "Wa Deeni, Deeno. Wa Sunnatuhu, Sunnati; wa Sunnati, Sunnatuh." My path is his path. His path is my path. In other words, he is saying "I am not following him. We just have the same path. We have the same religion. His religion is my religion. My religion is his religion. We were both inspired by God to go by this path. So I am not really following him, but I have the same religion".

And so some scholars say this is the third opinion he was not following Ibrahim alayhi as-salam had the same religion. And by the way, the Qur'an does say that Ibrahim, what was the name of his religion? Islam. It is Hanifiya. We call it. It is a description. But the name of that religion is Islam. The Qur'an is very clear that Ibrahim was not a Jew, not a Christian, but he was a Hanif Muslim. 'Hanifan Musliman" (3:67).E was an upright Muslim. And the Qur'an says that when he was dying - Ibrahim - he gathered his sons around him. He gave them a will. He told them: "wa la tamutunna illa wa antum Muslimun" (3:102). Do not die, except as Muslims. So we believe that all the religions of God, their name is Islam, 'to submit to God', because that is the meaning of Islam: submission to Allah.

However, some prophets had different shari'ah. The details of how you practice the faith are a little bit different. So we call the shari'ah of Musa 'Judaism'. But his faith, the religion is named what? Islam. So even Musa, his religion was Islam, but his shari'ah is called 'Judaism'. 'Isa alayhi as-salam, His shari'ah is called 'Christianity' or 'Nasraniyah' in Arabic. However, his religion is Islam. So the Prophet's religion was also Islam. Just like any other prophet. 40 years, he did not have any specific shari'ah. It was just the core of the religion. After 40 years, when he receives the Qur'an, then Allah gives him a very specific, detailed shari'ah.

In any case, whether we accept opinion number one, two or three, the Prophet was a believer in God. And unfortunately, you will find some hadiths in some books of other schools of thought, that will tell you the Prophet, sometimes you would seek the blessing of an idol in Mecca - you know - to the point where sometimes you could be seen as if he is worshipping that idol. We unanimously reject these hadiths.

These are false, fabricated hadiths. They wanted to justify for some companions when they were told, "hey you companions, you worship the idols before Islam", whereas - you know - Imam Ali alayhi as-salam, for example, did not, "How are you qualified to represent the Prophet?" So they said, "oh - you know - the Prophet before Islam, he sometimes would touch the idols too." And this was just to justify for their companions. We reject these hadiths, they are not authentic. The ahadith are very, very clear that the Prophet never worshipped an idol. He was on the path of Tawhid on the path of Ibrahim alayhi as-salam.