السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Jazakallah khair for the answer brother. I have already read this answer before but the question still remains: how can the prophet SAW die from poison when he said that Allah SWT would never let it harm him?
In response to the Jewish lady who said that she had wanted to kill him, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said,
'Allah will never give you the power to do it.' Another translation reads,
'But Allah would not enable you against me.' The key point here is that Allah سبحانه وتعالى guaranteed the protection of His Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from the harms which lead to death so that he could convey the message, or until he departed this world. This is evident from the fact that the poison did not affect him at that time and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did not die until he had conveyed the message in the most complete manner. He صلى الله عليه وسلم led the armies after this incident, negotiated with the enemies, triumphed in many battles and led a normal life for four years. His enemies wanted to kill him in order to stop him from continuing to preach Islam and keep doing what Allah ordered him to do, but despite all of their attempts they did not come between him and what he was obliged to do of conveying the message. As for the effect of the poison at the end of his life, scholars have explained it was in order to increase his degree and status and in order to gain the status of the martyrs.
Ibn Mas’ood (may Allaah be pleased with him) said:
“If I were to swear by Allaah nine times that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was killed, that is more beloved to me than swearing once, because Allaah made him a Prophet and made him a martyr.” Narrated by Ahmad, 3617. The editors said, its isnaad is saheeh according to the conditions of Muslim.
The following fatawa shed more light on this:
Because of the tense animosity of the disbelievers towards the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, their large number, power and keenness to kill him by any means; he assigned guards, at the beginning, to protect him since it is the custom and normal reaction of human beings. When Allaah The Almighty Revealed the verse (which means): {And Allaah Will Protect you from people.} [Quran 5:67], he no longer took guards. No enemy could kill, take him captive or subjugate him. There are many examples that support this fact; such as, the attempts which were done by ‘Umayr ibn Wahb, Safwaan ibn Umayyah, ‘Aamir ibn At-Tufayl, Arbad ibn Qays, the Banu Qaynuqaa' and the Jewish woman’s attempt which is also cited in the books of the Sunnah and to which our questioner refers. However, Allaah Protected him from these and other murder attempts. Some people become confused before the fact that the Jews practiced sorcery against him, poisoned him and the disbelievers of the Quraysh struck his head and broke one of his front teeth. These incidents do not contradict the Protection of Allaah that he was granted. All the harms and pain that afflicted him were in order to raise his rank and reward, and to be an example for the callers to Allaah and the reforming scholars after him. Allaah Guaranteed for him safety from murder, captivity, madness and total damage, so that he could convey his message and complete the religion. However, accidental harms do not eradicate the total protection that he was granted. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, did not care about these harms, but he was afraid that he would be killed before conveying the Message of his Lord. After Allaah Had Perfected His religion, Completed His Favor by the completion of His Sharee‘ah and after the followers of Islam, whom the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, brought up had become able to convey the religion; Allaah Caused His Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, to die and that is His Law in His Creation. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your [full] compensation on the Day of Resurrection.} [Quran 3:185] When the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, felt that he had accomplished his task, conveyed the message, advised his Ummah and strived sincerely for the Sake of Allaah, he alluded to this fact in the Farewell Hajj before large gatherings. He pointed out the Islamic Sharee‘ah and advised them as if he was leaving them, as he said: "I may not meet you again in such a place after this year." So, his demise was not all of a sudden, because of killing or assassination, but it was a natural event because of fever and headache that resulted from many reasons, one of which was the poisoned meal that he had eaten at Khaybar. Such a meal did not affect him at that time because, after that, he led the armies, engaged in great wars, obtained victory, negotiated with the enemies, met the delegations and lived his normal life until he died naturally. As for the effect of the poison at the end of his life, it was in order to increase his degree and status and in order to gain the status of the martyrs. Therefore, there is no contradiction between the harms that afflicted the Prophet and the Protection of Allaah that he was granted.
Allaah Knows best.
https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/54814/
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
With regard to what befell the Messengers of different kinds of harm, the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was not protected from that; rather some such things did happen to him. He was wounded on the day of Uhud, his helmet was broken on his head, some of the links of chainmail were embedded in his cheek and he fell into one of the holes that were dug there. They also put great pressure on him in Makkah where he encountered some of that which had befallen previous Messengers, that Allah had decreed for him, and Allah raised him thereby in status and multiplied his rewards. But Allah protected him against them and they were not able to kill him or to stop him conveying the message; they did not come between him and what he was obliged to do of conveying the message. He conveyed the message and fulfilled the trust, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him.
Fataawa ash-Shaykh Ibn Baaz, 8/p. 150
From the fatwa in the previous post, similar points were made:
Ibn Muflih wrote, “The meaning of the verse that reads (what means): {…And Allaah will protect you from the people…} [Quran 5:67] is that Allaah protected the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, from being subject to people’s oppression, control, or power; this never happened. The intended meaning is that Allaah protected the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, from that which none other than him was protected...
This Jewish woman did not kill him the way she wanted as she did with those who died immediately after eating the poisoned food. Allaah honored His Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, as usual and did not cause him to die from the effect of that poison immediately. Instead, he died of its effect after years so as to attain the refined status of martyrdom.
...the Hadeeth means that this Jewish woman did not accomplish her objective of killing the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, immediately with that poison and that Allaah caused this poison to remain in the body of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, for years until he, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, died from its effect years after that incident so as to honor him with martyrdom.
What also shows the divine protection from Allah سبحانه وتعالى of His Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is the following:
It was narrated that Abu Salamah had said,
The Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, would accept gifts but not charity. In Khaybar a Jewish woman gave him a roasted sheep which she had poisoned. The Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, ate some of it and so did the people. He then said:“Do not touch it, for it has informed me that it is poisoned.”Bishr ibn Al-Baraa' ibn Ma‘roor Al-Ansaari then died [from eating it], so the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, sent for the Jewish woman and asked her:“What motivated you to do what you have done?”She replied: “If you are a prophet, it would not harm you, but if you are a king, I would rid the people of you.”The Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, then ordered that she be killed. He then said about the pain due to which he died:“I continued to feel pain from the morsel which I ate at Khaybar. At that time my aorta was cut." [Abu Daawood, Al-Albaani - Hasan (see
here also)]
It is one of the miracles of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that the meat of the roasted sheep told him that it was poisoned. This shows how the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was protected from being killed before the message had been conveyed, as he was protected from the poison that killed others, and Allah سبحانه وتعالى informed him that it was poisoned.
Note how, in the following hadith, the Jewish lady herself says if he is a true Prophet then Allah would tell him:
Ahmad (2784) narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas that a Jewish woman sent a gift to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) of a poisoned roasted sheep. He sent for her and asked her, “What made you do what you did?” She said, “I wanted to see if you were a Prophet, then Allaah would tell you about it, and if you were not a Prophet the people would be rid of you.” Whenever the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) felt ill as a result of that he would have himself treated by cupping. On one occasion he traveled and when he entered ihraam he felt ill as a result of that and he had himself treated by cupping. [The editor of al-Musnad classed it as saheeh]
The way in which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was protected during the attempted poisoning is further discussed in the following fatwa from IslamQA, which brings together some of the above points:
With regard to what the questioner mentioned about there being an apparent contradiction between the words of Allah, may He be exalted, “Allah will protect you from mankind” and the words of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), “and this time I feel that my aorta is being cut” and the fact that he died from the poison that the Jews put in his food – there is no contradiction between them, because the protection of which the verse speaks is protection from fitnah and misguidance, and from being killed before having conveyed the message, and all of that was fulfilled for him (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). His Lord, may He be exalted, protected him from all of that and he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) did not die until after he had conveyed the message of his Lord. Allah, may He be exalted, said (interpretation of the meaning):
“This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion”
[al-Maa’idah 5:3].
Some of the scholars mentioned a subtle meaning here, which is that Allah, may He be exalted, insisted that for our Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), Prophethood and martyrdom should be combined.
Allah, may He be exalted, protected His Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) from the kuffaar of Quraysh when they wanted to kill him in Makkah, and his Lord protected him from being killed in Madinah in the campaigns in which he was present. And even when the Jews attempted to kill him with poison, Allah protected him from that, and the mutton told him that it was poisoned. The Sahaabi who was with him and ate some of it – namely Bishr ibn al-Bara’ ibn Ma‘roor – died but the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) did not die. But this does not contradict the fact that that there was some effect from that poison or his belief that he would die because of it. What he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said does not mean that the poison was the cause of his death; rather the report indicates that he was feeling it and that that might coincide with the end of his life.
Whatever the case, protection from being killed came before he finished conveying the message of his Lord, and he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) did not die until he had conveyed it in the most complete manner. The context of the verse indicates that, as his Lord, may He be exalted, instructed him to convey the message and told him that He would protect him from the people.
This idea is also supported by what the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said to the Jewish woman: “Allaah would not have given you the power to do that.” That was after she told him that she had wanted to kill him. This is either a statement that refers to his being protected against being killed by poison until he departed this world, or it is a statement indicating that that would not happen before the message was conveyed.
To sum up: it may either be said that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was protected from being killed by the poison – as we shall see below in the words of Ibn Katheer, an-Nawawi and others – and that Allah revealed to him that there was poison in the meat and this was part of His protection of him, or it may be said that the protection was during his conveying of the message of Islam, which does not mean that he could not be killed after the message had been conveyed – as we shall see below in the words of al-Qurtubi, Ibn Hajar and al-‘Uthaymeen – and that through this killing, Allah granted our Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) both Prophethood and martyrdom, and made that a reminder to us of the ongoing enmity of the Jews towards us and our religion.
There follow some of the comments of the scholars on what we have mentioned above, which will explain what we mean, in sha Allah...
...an-Nawawi said, in his commentary on the hadeeth about the poisoned mutton:
This shows how he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was protected from all the people, as Allah said (interpretation of the meaning): “Allah will protect you from mankind” [al-Maa’idah 5:67]. This is a miracle of the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), as he was protected from the poison that killed others, and Allah, may He be exalted, informed him that it was poisoned, and the leg of mutton itself spoke to him. Elsewhere than in Muslim it is narrated that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The leg (of mutton) is informing me that it is poisoned.”
Sharh Muslim, 14/p. 179...
https://islamqa.info/en/answers/104...phet-blessings-and-peace-of-allah-be-upon-him
The article addresses this issue by saying that “never allow it” means that the poison did not immediately harm the prophet SAW nor did the poison work as intended ie. straight away. But where did the person who wrote this answer get that interpretation from because this was not implied in the Hadith?
The fatwa explains that Allaah protected the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from being subject to people’s oppression, control, or power. Therefore, the Jewish woman did not kill him the way she wanted as she did with those who died immediately after eating the poisoned food. There is no contradiction between the harms that afflicted the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and the Protection of Allah that he was granted, as explained above.
As regards the intent behind the poison to cause immediate harm, this is clear from the context. In other narrations of this incident such as the one quoted ealier, there was a Companion called Bishr ibn Al-Baraa' ibn Ma‘roor who died after eating the meat. This shows the poison was meant to have an immediate effect, to kill the person on the spot, not to have a long term effect on the person.
The fatwa also points out that the immediate effect of poison is normally death. Al-Haafith
Ibn Hajar wrote,
“The Jewish woman said, ‘If you were a true prophet, then the poison would not harm you,’ means that the poison would not harm him like it normally does …” [Fath Al-Baari]
Moreover, the Jews acknowledged the truthfulness of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم when he told them about the real name of their ancestor and they could see that he was still alive after the attempted poisoning. It was only out of stubbornness that they denied his Prophethood.
Narrated Abu Huraira:
When Khaibar was conquered, Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) was presented with a poisoned (roasted) sheep. Allah's Apostle said, "Collect for me all the Jews present in this area." (When they were gathered) Allah's Apostle said to them, "I am going to ask you about something; will you tell me the truth?" They replied, "Yes, O Abal-Qasim!" Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said to them, "Who is your father?" They said, "Our father is so-and-so." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "You have told a lie. for your father is so-and-so," They said, "No doubt, you have said the truth and done the correct thing." He again said to them, "If I ask you about something; will you tell me the truth?" They replied, "Yes, O Abal-Qasim! And if we should tell a lie you will know it as you have known it regarding our father," Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) then asked, "Who are the people of the (Hell) Fire?" They replied, "We will remain in the (Hell) Fire for a while and then you (Muslims) will replace us in it" Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said to them. ''You will abide in it with ignominy. By Allah, we shall never replace you in it at all." Then he asked them again, "If I ask you something, will you tell me the truth?" They replied, "Yes." He asked. "Have you put the poison in this roasted sheep?" They replied, "Yes," He asked, "What made you do that?" They replied, "We intended to learn if you were a liar in which case we would be relieved from you, and if you were a prophet then it would not harm you." [Al-Bukhari, 5777]
They recognised his truthfulness to the extent that it has even been said that the Jewish woman became a Muslim, although Allah knows best:
When the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, conquered Khaybar, a poisoned roasted sheep was served to him as a gift from a Jewish woman who had asked which part of the sheep the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, liked the most. People told her that it was the fore shank. The woman put a lot of poison in it, so when the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, took a bite, he felt that it tasted strange. Bishr ibn Al-Baraa', may Allah be pleased with him, ate another part and he relished it, but it killed him. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, ordered his Companions to stop eating it, because it was poisoned. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, asked the woman: “What made you do this?” She said, “I wanted to verify whether you were a prophet, so that Allah would inform you of the poison, or if you were a liar, so I would rid people of you.”
The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, remained alive for three years after eating some of this poisoned, roasted sheep in Khaybar, then he fell ill and passed away. The Jewish woman who gave him the poisoned sheep was said to have embraced Islam that day, after she had asked the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, who had informed him about the poison. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, replied that the sheep had informed him. Therefore, she embraced Islam and the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, initially pardoned her and then had her killed in retaliation for Bishr ibn Al-Baraa' after he died.
https://www.islamweb.net/womane/printarticle.php?id=157245&lang=E
When you look at the various ahadith and understand things in their context, it becomes clear that the truthfulness of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم could never be doubted. No enemy had the power to kill, take him captive or subjugate him. There are narrations that show his enemies themselves acknowledged his truthfulness. Yet, Orientalists are homing in on a few words (and even those appear misquoted), and drawing incorrect conclusions. Their arguments have no credibility whatsoever. Therefore, I advise you not to waste your time watching these kinds of videos, especially when they can cause doubt and confusion. Focus on learning about Islam from the correct sources.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى Knows best.
