WHAT AUTHORITY ARE ALLAH MESSANGERS GIVEN?

 WHAT AUTHORITY ARE ALLAH MESSANGERS GIVEN❓

The messengers of God are sent to deliver various messages from God, while the messengers who are also prophets are assigned the task of delivering God's Scriptures to mankind. It is important for believers to understand the role of the messengers and also the authority that God gives them. It is of equal importance to understand what lies outside the authority of the messengers of God. We find that the majority of the cases of idolizing a messenger of God can be traced to the fact that the followers of a messenger ascribe to him greater authority than what God has given him.

WHAT A MESSANGER IS❓

1️⃣ DELIVERER OF GOD'S MESSAGE

A messenger of God is entrusted with the task of delivering a message from God to the people. The message entrusted to a messenger can be any one or combination of the following:👇

1- Delivering a new Book/Scripture to a people.

2- Delivering specific messages to a people.

3- Unveiling information that has been kept hidden inside a Scripture.

4- Confirming an existing Scripture and calling the people to return to the path of God after they have deviated.

Delivering God's message is therefore the focal point and duty of any messenger. God sees to it that His messengers accomplish this duty to its completion.

O you messenger, convey what was brought down to you from your Lord. If you do not, then you have not delivered His message. 5:67

2️⃣ WARNER DELIVERER OF NEWS, TEACHER AND PURIFIER

When God sends a messenger to a people, this messenger does not deliver the message and leaves in the way a postman does after delivering a letter, rather, the messenger spends his whole life as a preacher to his people. Numerous Quranic verses tell us that messengers are sent as warners, deliverers of news, teachers and purifiers. We have many examples in the Quran of messengers who spent many years attempting to guide their people and purify them from their sins. The despairing words of Noah to God in Sura 71 provide such example

He said, "My ALLAH, I have invited my people night and day, but my invitation increased them in nothing other than evasion!*

Whenever I invited them, that You may forgive them, they placed their fingers in their ears, covered themselves with their clothes, persisted, and acted with great arrogance.

Then I invited them aloud.

Then I announced to them openly and also confided with them privately 71:5-9

Messengers are sent to their people as teachers and purifiers (by inviting them to the straight path of ALLAH)

We also sent you a messenger from amongst you to recite Our revelations to you and to purify you, and to teach you the Scripture and wisdom, and to teach you what you knew not. 2:151

Messengers are also sent as warners and deliverers of news

We have sent you with the truth as a bearer of news and a warner. 2:119

3️⃣ WITNESS ON JUDGEMENT DAY

We have sent to you a messenger serving as a witness over you. 73:15

There was none from among the People of the Book who was not required to believe in him before his death. And on the Day of Resurrection he (Jesus) will be a witness against them. 4:159

How will it be when We bring a witness from every nation and bring you as a witness over these? 4:41

What a messenger is not

As presented above, the Quranic words are clear in establishing what authority is given to God's messengers. Equally, God makes it very clear as to what authority is not given to His messengers.

1- Warner but not enforcer

We read a clear message in the Quran related to the role of the messenger as a deliverer of God's message without being an enforcer of the message:

So remind, for you are but a reminder. You are not a controller over them. 88:21-22

Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord, there is no god except Him, and keep away from the mushrikeen.

Had God willed, they would not have committed shirk. We did not appoint you a guardian over them, nor are you a trustee over them. 6:106-107

Allah asserts that the messenger is only to deliver the message and warn. A messenger is not appointed as a guardian, nor an enforcer.

Say, "O people, the truth has come to you from your Lord. Whoever is guided is guided for himself, and whoever goes astray does so to his own detriment. I am not a trustee over you." 10:108

If they turn away, then your sole duty is the delivery (of the message), and God is Seer of the servants. 3:220

Say, "The truth is from your Lord, so whoever wills shall believe and whoever wills shall disbelieve. 18:29

Once again, the emphasis on the fact that the messenger has no power to enforce the message on anyone is strongly stated.