Holding the Prophet ﷺ to Be Hadir wa Nazir

Question

Is the Noble Prophet ﷺ hadir wa nazir (present and watching) or not? The one who claims this says: “In the tashahhud too there is the form [of address to one] present. This is unclear: is the Prophet ﷺ present during the prayer? If not, why is there not the form [of speaking of one] absent?” I said that this is a memorial of the Night of Mi‘raj; in this [phrase], moreover, the vocative particle “ya” is elided: it was “ya ayyuha al-nabi” (يا أيها النبي)

Answer

In the Holy Qur’an there are many things that are recited by way of transmission [of another’s words], for example: [ar]وَأَنَا۠ أَوَّلُ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ[/ar] “…and I am the first of the Muslims” (Surah al-An‘am, 6:163). Nobody recites this understanding that he himself is the very first Muslim; rather, in the Holy Qur’an this word is recited just as it has come [there].

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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