Loyalty to the Prophet

Last week the anniversary of the blessed birth of our Prophet, who was sent as a mercy to the worlds, was observed. Various events were held on this occasion. Every year the Presidency of Religious Affairs chooses a theme in order to remember and revive one of our Prophet's qualities, characteristics or Sunnas. This year it has decided to mention and revive the subject of "loyalty" (vefa) as a Sunna of the Prophet.

Loyalty, as a value, as a personality trait, as a mode of behavior, is a subject that stands out at every stage of the Messenger's life. Indeed it would be fitting to say that the essence of religion is loyalty, because at the core of religion is the consciousness of man's debt (deyn) to God and to everything he lives with and comes into contact with.

From the ontological relation between deyn (debt) and din (religion) we can arrive in the shortest and easiest way at the conclusion that religion too is the repayment, the loyalty, of this debt. Religion is a path on which, though we know it can never be repaid, we try to be loyal to our debt to God with our prayer, our obedience and worship, our gratitude and our praise.

The life we live inevitably makes us indebted both to nature and to people. The mother who bore us, the parents and surroundings who raised us, everyone we live together with in village, town and city who provide us, even through the division of labor, the comfort we enjoy in civilized life, are all part of this chain of debt.

They are all relationships that require us to feel gratitude. Thanking people for these relationships does not entail associating partners with God. On the contrary, one who does not know how to thank His servants does not know how to give thanks to God either. Thanks to people, gratitude to God: the repayment of these debts is the essence of religion.

Undoubtedly, besides the infinite blessings God has given us, one of the greatest favors is that He sent us from among ourselves a Prophet who understands us, is compassionate towards us, educates and purifies us, recites and explains to us God's verses in a way we can understand, and teaches us the Book and the Wisdom. Just as He says in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (164): "God did confer a great favor on the believers when He sent among them a Messenger."

Finding the right path on earth is a matter of understanding. It is a great blessing that the person who will explain the Book and the Wisdom to us first understands us, that we understand him, and that he is someone sincerely compassionate towards us. This too is a great favor, a great blessing, whose debt must be repaid with loyalty.

One of the activities held last week on the occasion of the blessed birth was a conference organized, in the name of loyalty to the Prophet, in solidarity against the various attacks our Prophet faces in our age.

The International Commission for the Protection and Support of Our Prophet, whose members are 50 renowned scholars and opinion leaders from many countries of the world, was established in order to react strongly to any attack against our Prophet. This commission announced its founding to the world with a conference in Istanbul.

Undoubtedly the expression "support for the Prophet" is an expression entirely from the window of our human and perishable existence. The cause to which our Prophet, sent as a mercy to the worlds, calls us is a cause that revives us, raises us to the rank of humanity, makes us exist as human beings. When we answer that call we are revived and realize our existence as human beings. Otherwise we go on tumbling in misguidance. Therefore supporting the Prophet is nothing other than holding on to a rope that directly revives us.

We need this more than the Prophet himself does.

To support him in the name of loyalty to the Prophet is, in essence, possible in no way other than holding on to the Book he brought and his Sunna, in which he represented that Book in the best way, in the way we can best understand and apply it.

The relationship between the Prophet and the Book is one in which the exemplariness we need in order to reach the path of truth in this world is realized in the most ideal way. With his language shared with us, his concrete example, his interpretation and, as far as possible, his quality of being one of us, with his wisdom…

Loyalty to the Prophet is possible, first of all, by trying to understand him in the best way and reviving his Sunna. Within that Sunna, besides the loyalty to be shown to him, the highest, subtlest and deepest meanings of loyalty in relations between people are brought to life as a value.

Understanding the Prophet should be a lifelong endeavor that never ends, on every occasion and at every level.