Exposing Their Fabrications against the Prophets and Showing that Prophethood Is Not as They Portray It
What the prophets have conveyed flatly contradicts the claim made by some who say of them: “What they saw of the angels was nothing but an image produced within themselves, and what they heard was merely a voice perceived in their own souls.”
If the proponent of this view means that the prophets themselves intended such a meaning in their reports, then this is a blatant falsehood foisted upon them, pure and simple. Should he instead be accusing the prophets of lying—asserting that they saw nothing at all, or that they erred in what they reported—then his stance is hardly that of one who seeks to interpret their words and clarify their intent, as these self-styled philosophers allege when they discuss prophethood under the guise of “explanation.” Our purpose here, therefore, is to expose their lies about the prophets and to demonstrate that prophethood is not what they claim.
As for accusing the prophets themselves of falsehood, that is a separate matter altogether; yet it remains one of the most ignorant and most unbelieving positions on earth. The prophets are numerous, and, by the unanimous judgment of sound reason, they embody the highest degrees of perfection in intellect, knowledge, justice, truthfulness, and noble character. None of them met or heard from the others—especially Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, for in his day there was absolutely no one in Mecca who possessed any knowledge of the earlier prophetic scriptures. Nevertheless, each prophet reported what he saw and heard, and the accounts of one corroborate those of another.
If the infallibility and veracity of the prophets were not firmly established, and such reports had come from an unknown source, the very multitude of reporters would still necessitate mutawātir (mass-transmitted) affirmation of the kinds of things they witnessed. Just as, when a large number of people independently declare that they have seen black Africans, the existence of black Africans becomes certain to those who have never beheld them, so too, when many individuals afflicted by seizures testify to their condition, the reality of such seizures is accepted in general. No one dismisses what these sufferers describe of their own experiences; indeed, most rational people recognize that they have seen the jinn—living, speaking beings. This is known to the majority of reasonable minds with self-evident certainty that admits no dispute.
Allah’s Management of the Heavens and the Earth through the Angels
Moreover, rational proofs indicate that it is through the angels that Allah directs the affairs of the heavens and the earth, as has been explained at length elsewhere. There it was shown that motion falls into three categories: natural…