act justly—if you think that I am unjust while believing that I am a prophet. For then you are allowing for the possibility that the Messenger in whom you believe could be unjust, and that is failure and loss, since injustice is incompatible with prophethood and impugns it.

Allah Most High has said:

“No prophet could ever misappropriate spoils. Whoever misappropriates anything will bring what he misappropriated on the Day of Resurrection.”

[Surah Āl Imrān: 161]

There are two readings: yagulla (“to misappropriate”) and yughalla (“to be accused of misappropriation”). Allah, Glorified is He, makes clear that no one may accuse a prophet of misappropriation, just as a prophet may not misappropriate anything himself. This demonstrates that a prophet cannot be guilty of misappropriation.

The proofs establishing this principle are many and compelling. Yet committing an act that counts as a sin in his case—though it might not be a sin in another’s case—does not, when followed by repentance and seeking forgiveness, detract from a man’s being among the foremost who are brought near, or among the righteous. Nor does any threat of punishment in the Hereafter apply to him on its account, much less does it make him one of the wicked.

Allah Most High has said concerning the believers generally:

“To Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth, so that He may recompense those who do evil for what they have done and reward those who do good with the finest reward—those who avoid the major sins and indecent deeds, apart from minor lapses. Your Lord is truly vast in forgiveness.”

[Surah al-Najm: 31–32]

And He said:

“Hasten toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as vast as the heavens and earth, prepared for the God-fearing—those who spend in prosperity and adversity, restrain their anger, and pardon people; and Allah loves those who do good—and those who, upon committing an indecent deed or wronging themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins—and who can forgive sins except Allah?—and do not knowingly persist in what they have done. Their reward is forgiveness from their Lord and Gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they shall abide forever. How excellent is the reward of those who labor!”

[Surah Āl Imrān: 133–136]