بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين
وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين
Ministry of Prophecy in Islam
(الوزارة النبوية)
One of the
offices to which a believing Muslim may be elevated to is the office of Wazir
(minister), meaning a minister of a prophet. The word ‘Wazir’ occurs twice in the Holy Quran, in both instances regarding
the Prophet Aaron (peace be upon him):
وَاجْعَل لِّي وَزِيرًا مِّنْ أَهْلِي ﴿٢٩﴾ هَارُونَ أَخِي
﴿٣٠﴾
“And make for me a Minister from
my family – Aaron my brother”
(Sura 20: 29-30)
وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا
مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَجَعَلْنَا مَعَهُ أَخَاهُ هَارُونَ وَزِيرًا
And We gave Moses the Book and We
made along with him his brother Aaron a Minister
(Sura 25: 35)
Although
AaronAS was a Prophet in his own right, he was made to serve as his
younger brother’s, Prophet Moses, Minister.
The
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
mentioned that his own brother in faith, his paternal cousin and son-in-law,
Ali b. Abi TalibRA, enjoyed the same status of Aaron with one
important caveat:
أَلاَ تَرْضَى أَنْ تَكُونَ مِنِّي
بِمَنْزِلَةِ هَارُونَ مِنْ مُوسَى إِلاَّ أَنَّهُ لَيْسَ نَبِيٌّ بَعْدِي
“Are you
not pleased that you are to me in the position that Aaron is to Moses, except
that there is no Prophet after me.” (Hadith al-Manzila)
In other
words, though Ali b. Abi TalibRA was not a Prophet, he was
nonetheless the Minister of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), identical
to how Prophet AaronAS was Prophet Moses’sAS Minister.
After
the death of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the office of Minister
of the Prophet has not necessarily ceased. Any believing Muslim who acts as the
Prophet’s Vizier, representing him and carrying on his mission of preaching
Tawhid and the Quraan, should be considered as having been made by Allah as a
Minister of the ProphetSA in the latter’s absence. A Mujaddid
(revivalist) for example is essentially a Minister of the ProphetSA. In fact, a
Mujaddid is such an office that Allah Himself designates and raises him up,
similar to how a Prophet is directly chosen by Allah, based on the Hadith:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْعَثُ لِهَذِهِ
الأُمَّةِ عَلَى رَأْسِ كُلِّ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ مَنْ يُجَدِّدُ لَهَا دِينَهَا
“Verily,
Allah will raise for this Umma at the head of every century one who shall renew
for it its Religion” (Sunan Abi Dawud)
The
office of Mujaddid is the highest office in the Muslim Umma, higher even than
that of a Khalifa, Imam, ruler, judge, scholar, etc., because the Mujaddid is
directly raised up by Allah like a Prophet is.
*Interestingly, the relationship of Aaron to Moses is described thus in the Book of Exodus:
ReplyDeleteוַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה רְאֵ֛ה נְתַתִּ֥יךָ אֱלֹהִ֖ים לְפַרְעֹ֑ה וְאַהֲרֹ֥ן אָחִ֖יךָ יִהְיֶ֥ה נְבִיאֶֽךָ
And said Yahweh unto Moses: "See I have made you a god to Pharoah and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet." (Exodus 7:1)
*Note: The comparison between Aaron and Ali is highly significant in the sense that Aaron is the progenitor of the Aaronide priesthood and it is in the progeny of Ali that Allah Most High placed a kind of esoteric Imamate, which at times became temporal also. In other words, the closest thing to a religious leadership within the Muslim community were the Imams of Ali's progeny. Of course, the Shiites eventually took this idea too far to the point where they emphasized Imamate over and above Prophethood itself, resulting in a disregard for the very essence of Finality of Prophethood, one of the core doctrines of Islam.
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