Website: www.aaiil.uk

Holy Prophet Muhammad’s teaching that all prophets were mortals, and Eid Milād-un-Nabī

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 19 September 2025

“Their messengers said: Is there doubt about Allah, the Maker of the heavens and the earth? He invites you to forgive you your faults and to give you respite till an appointed term. They said: You are nothing but mortals like us; you wish to turn us away from what our fathers used to worship, so bring us clear authority. Their messengers said to them: We are nothing but mortals like yourselves, but Allah bestows (His) favours on whom He pleases of His servants. And it is not for us to bring you an authority, except by Allah’s permission. And on Allah let the believers rely.”  — ch. 14, Ibrāhīm, v. 10–11

قَالَتۡ رُسُلُہُمۡ اَفِی اللّٰہِ شَکٌّ فَاطِرِ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَ الۡاَرۡضِ ؕ یَدۡعُوۡکُمۡ لِیَغۡفِرَ لَکُمۡ مِّنۡ ذُنُوۡبِکُمۡ وَ یُؤَخِّرَکُمۡ اِلٰۤی اَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّی ؕ قَالُوۡۤا اِنۡ اَنۡتُمۡ اِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثۡلُنَا ؕ تُرِیۡدُوۡنَ اَنۡ تَصُدُّوۡنَا عَمَّا کَانَ یَعۡبُدُ اٰبَآؤُنَا فَاۡتُوۡنَا بِسُلۡطٰنٍ مُّبِیۡنٍ ﴿۱۰﴾  قَالَتۡ لَہُمۡ رُسُلُہُمۡ اِنۡ نَّحۡنُ اِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثۡلُکُمۡ وَ لٰکِنَّ اللّٰہَ یَمُنُّ عَلٰی مَنۡ یَّشَآءُ مِنۡ عِبَادِہٖ ؕ وَ مَا کَانَ لَنَاۤ اَنۡ نَّاۡتِیَکُمۡ بِسُلۡطٰنٍ اِلَّا بِاِذۡنِ اللّٰہِ ؕ وَ عَلَی اللّٰہِ فَلۡیَتَوَکَّلِ الۡمُؤۡمِنُوۡنَ ﴿۱۱﴾

Only a few days ago Muslims in many parts of the world held meetings to mark what is known as Eid Milād-un-nabī, the birthday of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. I have recited these verses to point out one of his greatest contributions to the whole field of religion and religious history — the teaching that all prophets, including he himself, were mortal humans like the rest of humanity. It might sound strange at first to say that one of his greatest contributions was to declare to the world that he and all other messengers were like any other human being. But this disclosure uplifts humanity, showing that humanity is so valued by God that He sends some among them to be His messengers. At the same time, it rescues and delivers large sections of humanity from worshipping, venerating and bowing down to mortal humans who were just like themselves.

The verses I have recited refer to all messengers. They all opened their missions with the message that God invites people to His guidance in order to forgive them their wrongdoings. God and His messengers wish that people are forgiven, not that they are punished for their sins. Granting them “respite till an appointed term” means that they will be granted relief from punishment till their death if they continue to follow God’s message. The response of the people to their messen­gers was: “You are nothing but mortals like us”. They fail to see how a human being like themselves could be receiving a message from God. This reply, given to all messengers by their people, is also mentioned in other places in the Quran, such as:

“they said: Shall mortals guide us?” (64:6)

As stated in the verses that I recited, the messengers replied and confirmed to their people that “We are nothing but mortals like your­selves”. They went on to tell them that the revelation they received from God is a favour on which­ever person He pleases to send it. They then tell their people that a messenger only acts with God’s permission. If people demand some miracle or sign from him, he cannot show it by his own power, at his own will. Then they say: “And on Allah let the believers rely”. A messenger puts his followers in contact with God. For their delivery from sins and advancement in good, they must rely on God alone. The messenger cannot grant their prayers or decide their future; only God can.

In one place the Quran says:

“And they do not honour Allah with the honour due to Him, when they say: Allah has not revealed anything to a mortal” (6:91).

The word translated here as “honour” can also mean: “recognising the status”. So the meaning may be that “they do not recognise Allah’s status correctly, as it ought to be recog­nised”, when they say that He does not send revelation to a mortal. They are devaluing God by saying this. The God worth having is the one Who sends revelation to mortals on earth, Who treats mortals as capable of delivering guidance from Him to the people, instead of sending messengers from above who come with superhuman powers.

Those who rejected the mortal messengers asked why wasn’t an angel sent accompanying them or instead of them, meaning a supernatural being from heaven. One of the replies given by the Quran is that if the world had been populated by angels, then an angel would have been sent as a messenger (17:95). Another reply is that an angel would also have to be sent in human form, looking like a human, so they would still be raising the same objection that why is a human sent? (6:9). If we take the example of Jesus, even though his followers believe him to be the son of God, yet to those who saw him he looked just like a human being, and had the same bodily needs as any other human. Even though the Gospels say that he performed various miracles which no human could do, yet the people of his time overwhelmingly denied and rejected him.

One important reason why every messenger had to be a mortal human being is simply so that other people could relate to him, as having the same feelings and needs as they did. He should have the same life experiences, the same joys, cares and sorrows in life that everyone else does. For example, the Holy Prophet Muhammad was deprived of both his parents very early on, and later he saw the death of all his own children in his lifetime except for Fatima. He coped with all those great losses, from which we can learn lessons. Now if he had been a supernatural being, people would think it’s easy for him because he doesn’t have the feelings of loss and grief like other humans, or that he has special super­human powers to cope with his problems and we don’t. We wouldn’t be able to relate to him. But in a well-known verse the Quran says:

“Certainly you have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar for him who hopes in Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much” (33:21).

He sets an example for his followers. Only a human, having the same life experiences as other humans, can be an example for them.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad emphasised to people, in several different ways, that he was a mortal. His rejectors said they would only believe in him if they could see him bringing prosperity to himself and his followers, such as springs of water (very valuable in a desert), gardens of fruit with water flowing in them, a house of gold, etc., or if he could bring punishment upon his rejectors by making the sky crash on them, or make them face Allah and the angels for punishment, or if he could rise up to heaven and bring down a book for them. Allah told him to give them a short reply of five words:

hal kun-tu illā bashar-an rasūla — “Am I anything but a mortal messenger?” (17:93).

And the Quran goes on to say immediately after this:

“And nothing prevents people from believing, when the guidance comes to them, except that they say: Has Allah raised up a mortal to be a messenger?” (17:94).

In another place he is instructed by Allah to declare:

“I do not say to you, I have with me the treasures of Allah, nor do I know the unseen, nor do I say to you that I am an angel; I follow only what is revealed to me” (6:50).

In two other places the essential teachings of Islam are conveyed with beautiful simplicity and brevity:

“Say: I am only a mortal like you — it is revealed to me that your God is one God. So whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and make no one a partner (with God) in the service of his Lord” (18:110),

and: “Say: I am only a mortal like you. It is revealed to me that your God is one God, so keep in the straight path to Him, and ask His protection” (41:6).

His rejectors also raised this objection, as stated in the Quran: “What a Messenger is this? He eats food and goes about in the markets”, and they asked: why isn’t an angel with him to help him, or any treasure in his possession, or any land given to him growing food? (25:7). The answer is given a few verses later:

“And We did not send before you any messengers but they surely ate food and went about in the markets” (25:20).

Of course, eating and going about in markets is meant not only literally but also include all activities that are necessary in the worldly life of humans. All messengers performed such tasks.

It is because of people’s desire that messengers of God should be supernatural beings, who are not born like other humans, who don’t live normal human lives, and who don’t die like mortals, that the later followers of these messengers conceive of them as God appearing on earth in human form, or sending His son into the world. The Holy Prophet has done a great service to humanity and to religion by emphasising that all the revered figures of various religions, whether it be Jesus or the gods of the Hindus, were only mortals delivering the message of God and showing people how to act on it by their own example.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad never asked his followers to commemorate an event relating to his own person, such as his birthday. For the first six hundred years of the history of Islam there was no Eid Milād-un-Nabī. Then some Muslims in the Middle East, seeing Christians celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas, starting marking the birth of the Holy Prophet. This practice was later brought to the Indian subcontinent at the beginning of the 1900s, i.e. in the last century. These celebrations have grown bigger and bigger, and now involve illuminations of buildings, fireworks, processions etc. in many Muslim countries and societies. There is, of course, nothing wrong with holding an occasion of remembering the Holy Prophet by reminding people of his character, qualities and life. But indulging in lavish festivities, wasting money and national resources on them, is against Islam and the example of the Holy Prophet.

In the speeches delivered on this occasion, most often people are regaled with baseless stories and incredible tales which do not depict the human or moral side of the Holy Prophet’s life, but present it in terms of miracles and supernatural occurrences. The most important task in the present day is to refute and answer the false allegations made against the Holy Prophet Muhammad. This was the mission of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad which has been continued by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement. May Allah grant us success in presenting the character of the Holy Prophet in its true form — Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk