Can a person who is not a prophet imitate a prophet?
What would you answer if you were asked, “What is the most valuable thing man has?”
You can say, your spouse, wealth, house, position and many other things. Yes, they are all valuable, but not the most valuable.
The most valuable thing is belief. The grave is enlightened with it. The scales become heavy with it. You can pass the Sirat Bridge with it. The door of Paradise is opened with it. Allah becomes pleased with His slave thanks to it. If a person does not have belief, it is useless and unimportant even if a person is the king of this world. Everything he has remains in the world when he dies.
Although belief is so valuable, the Muslim of today cannot comprehend the value of belief fully and hence does not make enough efforts to maintain his belief. Let alone making efforts, he regards trying to maintain it as insignificant.
The biggest purpose of man must be to maintain his belief and die as a believer but things related to belief are in the last place of the list for many people. It is in the last place to such extent that he watches an ordinary film for hours but he cannot put up with watching a video about belief for 5-10 minutes. He reads so many pages that are unimportant every day but when it comes to reading three or five pages of an issue about belief, he finds it very hard. We mention these things but we do not aim to offend and hurt anybody. We only want to serve your eternal life.
In this work, we will deal with the evidences of a very important reality of belief. We want the value of this work about belief to be understood and to be watched as seriously as it is worth.
In this work, the prophethood of Hz. Muhammad (pbuh) will be proved, with the permission of Allah, with the certainty that two plus two equals four. Our aim in this work is to strengthen the belief of Muslims, to protect them from doubts, to answer the questions in their minds and to be a means of making those who are deprived of belief believers. We do not have any other purposes and aims. Our only aim is to serve belief and to attain the consent of our Lord.
While preparing this work, we used Risale-i Nur Collection written by Badiuzzaman Said Nursi as a resource. Hereby we remember him with mercy. May Allah be pleased with him and make us attain his consent and intercession.
“The eyes that are naturally lined with kohl are not the same as the eyes that are artificially lined with kohl.” That is, what is natural is immediately distinguished from what is not. Something artificial cannot replace the natural one no matter how good it is. The artificialness in it cannot be hidden from careful eyes.
Now, let us apply this rule to Hz. Muhammad (pbuh): If his attributes like belief, worshipping, taqwa and courage had not been natural and if he had assumed them artificially, that is, if his acts had been factitious, his Companions, who observed him very closely and carefully, would have definitely noticed it. They would have felt his artificial and factitious acts and would have left him. Despite observing him very carefully, they never saw any artificial deeds of his and emphasized the naturalness in all of his deeds. This indicates that this deeds were not factitious, showing his prophethood.
It should not be forgotten that those who are close to each other can imitate each other but those who are distant cannot imitate each other. For instance, a colonel can imitate a general and deceive people. However, a shepherd cannot deceive people by acting like a general. He may deceive some careless people but careful people will notice him and it will soon be understood that he is not a general.
It is not possible for a lightning bug to seem as a real star for a thousand years to those who watch him carefully because they are distant from each other.
A small fly cannot imitate an eagle. It cannot make itself seem as an eagle to careful eyes.
Similarly, a person who is not a prophet cannot imitate a prophet because there is a distance between them. If he imitates, he may deceive people for a while. However, his factitious deeds will be noticed by careful people and eventually he will give himself away.
How can a person who is not a prophet imitate the attributes that can exist only in prophets at their zenith like endless strength, taqwa, ascetism, courage, generosity and other attributes? How long can a person who does not have those attributes pretend to have them?
It is not possible for a slanderer, liar and unbeliever to display the attitudes of a very honest, reliable and religious person throughout his life without panicking and making a mistake and to hide these factitious attitudes from the careful eyes of intelligent people.
Yes, it is an insane delusion contrary to the mind and conscience to regard a person who displayed and taught people trustworthiness, belief, reliance, sincerity and seriousness with his attitudes, words and deeds throughout his life as the most unreliable, least sincere and most faithless person.
If his prophethood is not accepted, the following nonsense will have to be accepted: It will be necessary to accept that Hz. Muhammad (pbuh) who is accepted as the brightest star that emits the lights of reality and as the sun of perfection in the sky of the Islamic realm was a lightning bug and those who were very close to him and who observed him could not notice it and thought that lightning bug was a sun; such a claim can be accepted only by insane people.
If Hz. Muhammad (pbuh) had not been a prophet, it would have been understood in a very short time. However, no factitiousness was noticed by the careful looks around him. History, his friends and his enemies never stop speaking highly of him. This shows that he did not assume factitious attitudes; all of his acts were natural. This state can only be explained by the fact that he was a prophet sent by Allah.
