All the Prophets, may Allah bestow peace on them, in general, and Prophet Muhammad, may Allah grant and bless him peace, in particular, were free from blemishes. As far as their words and actions relating to their prophethood are concerned, there were no errors, ambiguity, intentional or unintentional deviations, forgetfulness, or any slackness in their performance. This is true in the case of their lives, both during the course of their prophethoods or before that. However, in their areas that do not fall under the acts of prophethood, they may have erred, as human beings, to an extent, and that too is blemish-free. In the case of Prophet Muhammad, may Allah grant and bless him peace, we know the story that he suggested a particular method of date farming to the Ansars, the inhabitants of Madinah, who were conversant in date farming, which was not fruitful. He said thereon that this was an affair of the world that they knew better. Obviously, Allah had not sent him to teach a method of farming. It was beyond the scope of the message from Allah that he was assigned to perform.
This is a delicate matter. The scholars have deliberated in detail various verses of the Qur’an, prophetic traditions, and incidents in the life of the Prophet ﷺ to delineate the limits and principles involved in this area. Scholars do differ on some aspects of the debates, as the available texts and details of information provide ample scope for such different opinions. QāḍīʻIyāḍ has discussed in detail the standpoints of many scholars in all these cases. However, we are restricting our discussions to his conclusions, without going into the finer academic deliberations.
There is a scholarly debate about the adherence of the Prophets, may Allah bestow peace on them, to the Shari’ah, the rules and laws enshrined by Allah, before their prophethood. Any deviation from the Shari’ah is unworthy of any Prophet. Allah enshrined the Shariah through the Prophets, that is, after they were assigned as such. Therefore, this yardstick for their lives before their respective prophethood periods makes little sense in general. However, this standard is relevant in the case of the Prophets who were sent by Allah without a new Shari’ah, and where the Shari’ah of an earlier Prophet was in vogue. All the Prophets were role models for the people for whom they were sent. They were all embodiments of high characters, free from all blemishes. However, they were human beings subject to errors like forgetfulness, fatigue, etc. Interestingly, Allah made them do some of these ‘errors’ and utilised these as educational tools for conveying particular aspects of the Shari’ah, as we discuss in the following.
We will take up the cases of reported ‘slackness’ in the case of the obligatory prayers. There are three authentic reported cases where the Prophet ﷺ erred. First is the case of giving salam after two rakats in an obligatory prayer comprising four rakats. That is, he closed the prayer earlier than due. The second is the report of his standing up, instead of sitting, after two rakats. And the third is that of praying five rakats instead of closing it at four rakats. There is an obvious wisdom in all these errors. All these cases were, obviously, not intentional; rather, he forgot, and the omissions occurred. The beauty of these events is that the relevant sunnat (tradition) of the Prophet got established thereby. Traditions conveyed through actions are more effective than those conveyed by words. The purposefulness of these traditions is that a believer who errs may not feel guilty and should appreciate that such things do happen. So, the Shari’ah of Allah has provided remedies through the actions of the Prophet ﷺ himself. The Prophet said, “Truly I forget or am made to forget to create a sunnah.”
There is also a similar case when the Prophet ﷺ, along with his companions, slept in a valley and assigned the task of waking them up for the Fajr prayer to Bilal, may Allah be pleased with him. But Bilal too slept, and the caravan could wake up only after the sun had risen. The Prophet said, If Allah wished, we would have woken up. But He wanted it to be an example for those after you.” Thus, this incident too created a tradition of what to do if one slept over the Fajr prayer time.
The Prophet said, “I am a man. I forget as you forget. When I forget, remind me.”
Once, a companion corrected him while he was reciting the Qur’an in the prayer. He conveyed his gratitude to and made supplication for the person, saying, “May Allah show mercy to so-and-so who reminded me of such-and-such verse I was omitting.”
At this stage, mention may be made of what the Prophet ﷺ said in another context, “It is very bad for anyone to say, ‘I forgot such and such verse,’ Rather he was made to forget.” The context is to remind the believers regarding their carelessness in the case of the Qur’an. If anyone has remembered the verses of the Qur’an, he/she should be careful about the treasure so amassed. Forgetting as a result of negligence should be guarded against. Such negligence had no room in the case of the Prophet ﷺ.