Asalamualikum, Ive had this question for sometime now, but Im too afraid to ask someone in person. Prop Muhammed is deemed as the best prophet of all time, and that there were times when rock spoke about him, trees moved for him.Where as it is said that Prop Suleman had great control over all the realms , the Jins, the Animals, The Wind, the Sea etc. Didnt prophet Muhammed have the same power over all the realms, if yes then why did you not use them in the wars he fought. Thanks in Advance.
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None is powerful but Allah all you talk about are gifts and favors of Allah. And we are not in the position to discuss Allah's will. As a Muslim you shouldn't say "it is said that..." as either you believe it as it as quoted in the qur'an or you don't believe what is in the qur'an.– Medi1Saif ♦Commented Nov 3, 2019 at 9:39
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1 Answer
How Prophets are ranked?
In Islam the prophets are not ranked by power. They are ranked by servitude (عبودیه). Same in the real world. Who's your best family member? The richest? The strongest? Or simply put the one who's nicer to everyone — regardless of money and physical power?
Prophet Muhammad is a better prophet because he's a far better servant. Could he have asked Allah for divine aid? Absolutely. But the higher a prophet is, the less demands he makes to Allah. He just acts normal. Then if Allah wants to aid him with angles or help him with animals, Allah will let him know. Otherwise the prophet will try to be normal as possible.
Most of the times the prophets performing miracles were a result of: The angel Gabriel came to the prophet and said: put your staff to the water, and so Prophet Moses did, or throw your staff and we'll do the rest.
It's not like Prophet Moses was specific and said oh Allah open the river. Or if people asked the prophet to do a miracle, then he wouldn't just say, alright let me split the moon. It was more like, let me pray to Allah. He'll help me. How? Idk. He's my lord. It's Allah's job to figure it out. My duty is to pray to him.
Tradition of Allah - Trying his servants
Allah has many traditions. One of them is to have his servants tried (with hardship).
One of the most important things we all get tried with is pride (کبر). Pride and arrogance are the enemy of service and humility. Satan lost his position because of showing pride. Cain became Cain because of his pride1.
Nahj al-Balaqa. Sermon 192 - Taking lessons from the past peoples
Certainly, if Allah were to allow anyone to indulge in pride He would have allowed it to his selected prophets and vicegerents. But Allah, the Sublime, disliked vanity for them and liked humbleness for them. Therefore, they laid their cheeks on the ground, smeared their faces with dust, bent themselves down for the believers and remained humble people. Allah tried them with hunger, afflicted them with difficulty, tested them with fear, and upset them with troubles. Therefore, do not regard wealth and progeny the criterion for Allah's pleasure and displeasure, as you are not aware of the chances of mischief and trials during richness and power as Allah, the Glorified, the Sublime, has said:
What! Think they that what We aid them with of wealth and children, We are hastening unto them the good things? Nay! They (only) perceive not. (Qur'an, 23:55-56)
Certainly, Allah the Glorified, tries His creatures who are vain about themselves through His beloved persons who are humble in their eyes.
So Allah has to try his apostles as well. The greatest prophet will go through harder tests. Many people think if a person is poor then it means Allah is not happy with him or if he's rich, then Allah is happy with him. But Imam Ali is saying that's wrong. It's all a mechanism to test those who have over those who don't have. Certainly if Allah wanted he could have given all his prophets all the gold and all the power in the world but he doesn't do such because:
same sermon
If the prophets possessed authority that could not be assaulted, or honor that could not be damaged or domain towards which the necks of people would turn and the saddles of mounts could be set, it would have been very easy for people to seek lessons and quite difficult to feel vanity.
They would have then accepted belief out of fear felt by them or inclination attracting them, and the intention of them all would have been the same, although their actions would have been different
[Basically things would get a little mixed if the prophet was all powerful. As in you don't know if this person who's here in the mosque and praying is here because of his fear of the prophet or because he seeks power by being close to the prophet , or his here because his sincere faith in Allah?]
Therefore, Allah, the Glorified decided that people should follow His prophets, acknowledge His books, remain humble before His face, obey His command and accept His obedience with sincerity in which there should not be an iota of anything else; and as the trial and tribulation would be stiffer the reward and recompense too should be larger
Examples of prophet's humility
Prophet Mohammad sat (on the floor) while he ate. He ate like slaves [I think it refers to sitting without leaning against the wall or some stiff pillow]. He fixed his shoes himself. Rode the donkey without a saddle while giving a ride to another on his back.
Prophet Moses ate so little that his body went super thin.
Example of prophet's tests:
Prophet Noah was tried with his son. He lost him in the great flood
Prophet Ibrahim was tried with sacrificing his son.
Prophet Yusuf was tried with being shunned from his brothers, getting sold as a servant, test with Zulaika, prison, ec.
Indeed, he who fears Allah and is patient, then indeed, Allah does not allow to be lost the reward of those who do good."
Their lack of power makes them look like us
If a prophet was all power, then some might start to worship him. Moses split the sea. The prophet split the moon. Jesus brought dead back from life...
Conclusion
Prophets are ranked by servitude, not power. Allah wants to give us the heavens. He needs to test us. He really can't succeed in having a meaningful test if his prophets beat the hell out of all opponents. Because there would be no opponents left. A meaningful test would have some level of difficulty.
The mother of all tests is the test with pride. Even Jealousy (حسد) is rooted in pride. We need to be humble to follow a normal looking person who doesn't have wings and can't summon the dead and can't bring tornados unto his enemies, who can be hit and stoned or killed by others.
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