The concept of infallibility of Prophets and Messengers varies among the three main Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
In Judaism, Prophets are not considered infallible. While they are revered as Messengers of God, they are seen as human beings who are susceptible to error and sin. However, their messages are believed to be divinely inspired. The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) portrays many Prophets, such as Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah, with their human weaknesses and struggles.
In Christianity, the belief in the infallibility of Prophets is the same as Judaism, with the exception of Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus, being the Son of God, is inherently infallible and it is impossible for him to sin since he is not born from a man. However, the Catholics believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is also immaculate and sinless.
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-blessed-virgin-mary-is-absolute-pure-and-sinless
And some even say that John the Baptist was born without original sin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ZOL5xHnBU&ab_channel=CatholicAnswers
And although Christians hold that Prophets and the saints were inspired by God, they were still fallible humans.
In Islam, Prophets and Messengers are generally regarded as infallible when it comes to conveying divine messages and guidance. However, the majority of scholars (particularly the Sunnis) believe that the Prophets and Messengers are free from committing major sins and have made some mistakes. And they believe that the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) did make mistakes and that Allah corrected him on his faults.
The Shias however believe that all the Prophets and Messengers of Allah, with no exception, are sinless and infallible, even before they became Prophets and Messengers. For instance, although Prophet Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) was sent as a Messenger at the age of forty, the Shia assert that even in the first forty years of his life, he was sinless and infallible.
Overall, while there are variations in the belief in the infallibility of Prophets among the Abrahamic faiths, the general consensus in Islam is that Prophets and Messengers are infallible when it comes to conveying divine revelation, whereas in Judaism and Christianity, Prophets are viewed as fallible human beings who were chosen by God to deliver His message.
We know that the Prophets and Messengers (PBUT), were sent by God to mankind. They are considered to be infallible. However, historically, through scripture and writing, we see that these great men did make certain mistakes. How can we reconcile that while knowing they were Messengers of God that we consider infallible? Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan and Aba Al-Sadiq (From Them Is Peace) have explained what this means.
Are all Prophets Infallible? Or only the best of them? Or when we talk about infallibility, does it refer only to the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) and the Imams (From Them is Peace)? And what does infallibility actually mean?
Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him Is Peace) stated in the video: Did the Prophets Sin, Doubt, and make Mistakes? The Truth about Infallibility
“The correct understanding of infallibility is the one which Ahmed Al-Hassan (alayhi salam) had come with. And had explained very clearly, and that is that there are two types of infallibility. There's earned infallibility, and there is inherent infallibility.
Earned infallibility means that the individual is born. He is imperfect. He is capable of making mistakes like every other human being. He is ignorant. And through his sincerity, through his good deeds, through his active pursuit of God he reaches a stage of enlightenment and closeness to God that he becomes incapable of making mistakes. And we're gonna explain what types of mistakes are that.
And then you have the person who is inherently infallible. And the person who is inherently infallible means that from the moment that they are born until the moment that they die they have never committed any mistakes. And they are incapable of committing any mistakes.
And that too, we're going to explain what types of mistakes is it referring to?
Ahmed Al-Hassan (alayhi salam) said that out of the 124,000 Prophets and Messengers that have came to the earth there have been none of them that were inherently infallible with the exception of five individuals. And that is the final Prophet, the most perfect of them all, Mohammed (sall Allahu alayhi wa ali), his vicegerent Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (alayhi salam), the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed and wife of Imam Ali Fatimah Al-Zahra (alayha salam), and the two sons of Fatimah Al-Zahra and Ali ibn Abu Talib (alayhum salam) Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein.
This household, the People of the Cloak, they are the only five individuals that have ever been sent to the earth to incarnate in human form, and from the moment that they were born until the moment that they die history has not found a single mistake on them. Okay? All the rest of the Prophets and the Messengers - they were born normal, like any other human being, and through their sincerity, through their dedication God chooses them and makes them, grants them a certain level of infallibility. So all the Prophets and the Messengers would have earned infallibility, and the Vicegerents. And the household of Mohammed (sall Allahu alayhi wa ali), the Ahlul-Kisaa, they were inherently infallible.
So what does it mean though to be infallible? Does it mean for example that a person cannot - whether it's earned or whether it's inherent - Does this infallibility mean that a person cannot commit a mistake?
Well, it depends on what mistake we are talking about. Ahmed Al-Hassan (alayhi salam) clarified that the meaning of being infallible is that you are protected, safeguarded, from taking people out of the truth and taking them into falsehood, leading people astray.An infallible person is incapable of leading the people astray no matter what he does. If you follow the infallible person you will never be misguided. If you follow the infallible person you can never go astray. But the infallible person can still make mistakes. They can still make mistakes in terms of their personal life, personal choices, they can make for themselves that does not affect the nature of religion or the outcome of religion. And they can also make mistakes in terms of their own path with God.
So a common misunderstanding is that the Prophets and the Messengers from Adam, all the way to Mohammed and beyond, the Imams and the Mahdis, that they are somehow not in a test. But the reality is, is that they are in a test. Any human being that is on the planet that had incarnated through birth, and dies at some point in time, they are entered into the same test that everybody else enters into. And a person can pass that test, or they can fail that test. But everybody is tested. And the proof for that fact is the fact that Adam, even though he was chosen by God and appointed by God, even though he had already been sent forward as a Messenger, and it was made a Divine obligation that all of the angels prostrate to him and obey him, and even though he knew the names of all things, and even though he called towards the supremacy of Go, Adam disobeyed God. Adam was not exempt from the retribution of God. Adam was kicked out of the paradise and a public statement was made by God that Adam and Iblis have now been disobedient. Outside of the paradise they must go.
So some people might say “Okay. Well, how do I know then that the Messenger is not going to mislead me if at the same time they're capable of making mistakes, or disobeying God?” They are capable of making mistakes. They are capable of disobeying God. If they weren't capable of disobeying God then they would be forced into faith, forced into belief, and therefore they wouldn't deserve the rank that they are in. It would be unfair that they would be chosen as Prophets and Messengers by God if they didn't have that free choice and that ability to make the same mistakes as you and I, right? So the thing about it is though that God - if the Prophet and Messenger makes that mistake - has to publicly point it out, or has to switch or take away the station, the office, from that Prophet or Messenger, and make it clear to the rest of the people that so-and-so has went astray, “Don't follow that individual,” or trade or switch the Prophet and the Messenger.
And we'll talk about Prophets and Messengers that had failed at a later date, and what does it mean for a Prophet or Messenger to fail or to be switched?But let us go back now to the point of infallibility. So another Prophet that was infallible and that also disobeyed God and received the punishment for that was Jonah. Jonah disobeyed God. Jonah in the Torah and also in the Qur'an tries to run away from God, abandons his mission. And because of that God punishes him by being swallowed by a whale. And Jonah almost doesn't make it anymore… until Jonah repents, and Jonah is sent back to his people.
So there you have another example of a Prophet who had earned infallibility. His nature at birth was not infallible. And that nature showed up later on because he disobeyed God. He had doubt. He ran away. But because his act of running away did not lead other people astray. It was only an act that pertained to him, he only led his own self astray. He did wrong against his own self. He didn't lose his rank of infallibility because to the people he was still infallible.So a Prophet and Messenger can make a mistake if it pertains to them. But they cannot mislead the other people. A person who misleads other people cannot be infallible.
You find that actually in the stories of all of the Prophets and the Messengers you can find that every single one of them had committed a particular mistake, or sin.
You have in the story of Noah… Noah is told by God to get on the ark and to, you know, prepare for take off. And Noah questions God. He stops him. He says “God, but what about my son?” And God chastises Noah. He says to him “Do not ask about that which you have no knowledge, lest you be from the ignorant ones.” So God's upset. He's comparing Noah to the ignorant ones. He's saying, “Don't be like that. What you're doing is ignorance. Don't question me. I'm God.” So Noah's faith at that moment was a little bit weak. He considered that God had promised to him that his family would be saved. And now God's breaking his promise. So he needs to bring it to God's attention. This is a shortcoming. A mistake on Noah's behalf. His faith is not at the level that it should be. But it's not a mistake that caused the other people that were with him, the believers with him in the ark, to fall astray. Nobody abandoned religion, nobody got misguided because Adam ate from the tree. Nobody got misguided because Jonah wanted to run away. Nobody got misguided when Noah questioned God.
You have Moses admitting in the Qur'an that he committed a mistake in terms of killing the Egyptian. He asks for God's forgiveness in this. You have other Prophets and Messengers who have done the same, or admitted the same.
So what does it mean then that a Prophet or a Messenger have doubt?
Is that even possible? Well there's a very interesting verse in the Holy Qur'an. And it says that:
“Until the Messengers lose hope, and think that they are belied”
Until the Messengers lose hope, and think that they were belied, or lied to... Abu Ja'far (alayhi salam) was asked about the meaning of this verse. In which he said, in the hadith from the Ahlul-Bayt (alayhum salam) that the Messengers, that this verse is referring to, had doubt that the shaytans had took the image of angels and deceived them.
Now isn't that incredible? So this verse, and this interpretation by the Imam (alayhi salam) shows to us that the Prophets and the Messengers had a hidden struggle that was not highlighted.
That the Prophets and the Messengers were actually in a more difficult test than the people. The people had to believe in the Prophet or the Messenger, and had to believe that that Prophet and Messenger was truly sent by God.
But behind closed doors that Prophet or Messenger had to first and foremost have faith that he himself was sent by God.
So they themselves were tested too in their faith, before they tested the people in theirs. Isn't that incredible? So they, if you go back and you think about it, will get an inspiration, or an angel would come to them in a cave, in a field, in a dream and would command them to do something. And the angel would identify themselves as, having been you know, being sent by God. And the Messenger would have to accept that. Accept the proof that the angel presented as having been sent by God. And sometimes they would fall into doubt just like normal human beings do, sometimes they would have struggles. Sometimes the promises of the angels or of God would be delayed to them just as it was delayed to the people. And their heart would become tight, their chest would become tight. And so they would wonder “Is this inspiration from the devil or is it from God?”
Another verse in the Qur'an is speaking to Mohammed, and it outright says, “And if you are in doubt concerning what has come down to you, then ask the people who have read the book before you.”
And the interpretations from the scholars concerning this verse is that the verse came down on the Prophet Mohammed (sall Allahu alayhi wa ali) commanding him that if he had doubt that his name was mentioned in the Torah before him, prophesized by Moses that he would come… If he had doubt about that revelation then he can ask one of his companions, who was a Jew who had converted to Islam and who knew the Torah.
To which the Prophet's response in the narrations is, after this verse came down, he said, “No, I'm not going to doubt. And I'm not going to ask.” So there must have been something. A question, a feeling that was brewing in the chest of the Prophet (sall Allahu alayhi wa ali) in order that this verse come down. Or else, why would it come down? It would be pointless to come down if the Prophet wasn't feeling something. And the verse came down for no reason, then that would be nonsense. But the Prophet Mohammed (sall Allahu alayhi wa ali), the difference between him and the rest is that it would stop. It would begin and end at a feeling. As to where maybe one of the other Prophets or Messengers, he would act upon that feeling like Jonah. And he would run away. So that's the difference between Yunus and between Mohammed, between earned infallibility and inherent infallibility.”
However, there is a huge difference between the infallibility between the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus compared to the Prophets and Messengers who came before them.
Aba Al-Sadiq (From His Is Peace) said,
“... the mistakes that are happening with Adam and them are ones that they're doing. It's choices, actions that they're committing. Jesus, his mistake is just a word that is spoken. Okay? Mohammed (sall Allahu alayhi wa ali) it's not an action that's done or it's not a word that's spoken, but rather it's something which is within his own chest.”
And Aba Al-Sadiq mentions in the Goal of the Wise, Door 27:
Prophet Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) did say: “I am the closest of the people to Jesus the son of Mary in this life and in the hereafter.”
- Mizan Al-Hikmah (Scale of Wisdom), Mohammed Al-Reyshahri, Vol. 4, p. 3202
In terms of all the Prophets and Messengers from Adam until Mohammed (PBUT), the best of the Prophets and Messengers were Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) and Jesus the son of Mary (PBUH). Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said to me: “Mary the Mother of Jesus (PBUH) incarnated again as Aminah the Mother of Mohammed (PBUH & His Family).”
”So, in short, we find that Jesus (PBUH) represents the perfect Messenger and represents the actual rise of God, and Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) is a more perfect Messenger and representative of God in Creation. They are purified from the temptations of the devil, whereas previous Prophets and Messengers were affected by them, and their messages were mixed between truth from God and some falsehood from the devil. Jesus and Mohammed (PBUT) were not obedient to the devil and/or confused in that regard. Jesus’ rejection of the temptations of the devil was made abundantly clear in the Gospels and is something which was pointed out for a reason. Three times he is tempted by Satan and three times he refuses to obey Satan. One time he is tempted to turn stone into bread, another time he is asked to worship Satan in exchange for rulership over the Earth and a third time he is asked to jump off a high pinnacle of the temple. In the book of Luke it states:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ” The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”- The Holy Bible, Book of Luke, Chapter 4, Verses 1-13
Contrary to Adam (PBUH) who when tempted by the devil to eat from the tree, he obeys, Jesus declines to obey the devil and only obeys God. That is why he was given so many abilities that only a God would have, because he was the perfect representative and Messenger and was able to reflect all of God’s divine attributes. Jesus (PBUH) was able to distinguish between God and Iblis, and Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) was an even more perfect reflection of God. The vicegerents of Jesus (PBUH) leading up to Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) were also better than all the Prophets before Jesus (PBUH). The vicegerents of Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) were better and more perfect than all the previous Prophets and Messengers and vicegerents before Mohammed (note that Jesus also returns as one of the vicegerents of Mohammed).
Now the question is, did Jesus (PBUH) and Mohammed (PBUH & His Family) make mistakes?
To be any created being you must have at least a dot of darkness because all of creation is light mixed with darkness. Only God is the absolute, pure, and complete light free from even a dot of darkness. That is why Jesus (PBUH) when called good replied: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
- The Holy Bible, Book of Luke, Chapter 18, Verse 19
As long as a person has a bit of darkness they are imperfect, for only God is absolutely perfect. So, Jesus and Mohammed (PBUT) did make mistakes, but their mistakes would not be considered to be mistakes like the rest of the mistakes of the Prophets and Messengers. Their mistakes were minor. While the mistake of Adam was disobedience, the mistake of Noah was questioning God, the mistake of Moses was requesting to see God, the mistake of Jesus was simply asking if destiny could be changed, and Mohammed’s mistake was merely feeling uneasy about a certain matter.
I said, “My Father, did Jesus have a mistake?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, my son.”
I said, “What was his mistake?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “He asked for the Crucifixion to be taken away from him.”
I said, “My Father, why? Was he afraid of death after he raised the dead and performed all thosemiracles and knew that God existed?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, my son. He didn’t want to be killed at the hands ofthose, but don’t emphasize this matter too much.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “There are Prophets whom God wiped their names from the office of Prophethood and there were other Prophets who almost got their names erased from the office of Prophethood, such as Moses (PBUH) and Joseph (PBUH).”
I said, “Glory be to God. Was Joseph almost erased because of what he did with Zulaykha?”The Imam (From Him is Peace) replied, “For several reasons. The first reason is because of what he did with Zulaykha. The second reason is because he asked for help from the rulers before asking for help from God. The third reason is because he became conceited at a certain point because of all the women chasing him and loving him.”
I said, “I seek forgiveness from God, the Most High, the Most Great.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “And as for Moses (PBUH), he was always asking questions, investigating, and he was also impatient. Do you know how many of the Prophets and Messengers were almost erased from the office of Prophethood?”
I said, “313?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Moses was one of them and Joseph, and Jacob andMohammed too.”
I said, “Mohammed (PBUH & His Family)?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, at the end of his life.”
I said, “Because he didn’t want to inform the people about Ali (PBUH)?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes.”
I said, “Why would he not want to tell?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Because he feared the people’s tongues and was embarrassed because Ali was his cousin and married to his daughter.”The event of Ghadir Khumm is referenced in the following verse: “O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people. Indeed, Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.” - The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 5 (Al-Ma’idah), Verse 67
Although these were mistakes, they were not acts of obedience to Iblis or disobedience of God.Jesus and Mohammed (PBUT) did not speak Iblis’ words, obey his commands, nor fall to his temptations. During the lifetime of Jesus and Mohammed (PBUT), their messages were completely safeguarded from the influence of Iblis and all their words were the words of God.
The words and messages of the successors of Mohammed, the Imams and the Mahdis are also safeguarded in the same way from the influence of Iblis and for that reason the Will and its companions are a safety from misguidance.”
- The Goal of the Wise, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him is Peace), Door 27 (The Incomplete Words) pp. 345-348
For more information on the topic of infallibility, please watch the following episodes from Aba Al-Sadiq (From Him Is Peace)
Did the Prophets Sin?
Mistakes of the Major Prophets in the Abrahamic Faiths
The Doubts of the Prophets in Their Own Messages
Did the Prophets Sin, Doubt, and Make Mistakes? The Truth About Infallibility