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From: fade@midway.uchicago.edu (mohammad h fadel)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: The nature of the Prophet
Message-ID: <1991May3.152317.25249@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 3 May 91 15:23:17 GMT
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The Prophet was sinless (ma'sum).  As a brother correctly pointed out there is
a vast difference between a sin and a mistake in judgement.  A sin requires the
the intention of committing an act contrary to the will of Allah, may we be
saved from believing the Prophet ever did such a thing.  As I said earlier,
when the Prophet (S) made a mistake in judgement, Allah (SWT) corrected him 
through revelation (wahy).  Therefore, any of the Propeht's actions which were
not corrected through revelation are by definition pleasing to Allah (SWT), and
a normative source of behavior for Muslims, i.e. the Sunna.  One final note
concerning the status of the Sunna.  I said it was a normative source for
Muslims, by which I mean that it must interpreted by Muslims so that they
understand their religious duties.  It is not always clear, since the Prophe
(S) did lots of things that were not obligatory upon Muslims, but only commendable.  Therefore, Muslims developed the science of Fiqh to make explicit the
religious obligations of Muslims as derived from the normative sources of the
Shari'a, one of which is the Sunna of the Prophet (S).