Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has clearly warned his Companions against deifying him or exaggerating in praising him. He just declared that he is “the slave and Messenger of Allah”.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states,
This tradition has no basis; it is fabricated as judged by the scholars of Hadith, including Ibn Taymiyyah, Adh-Dhahabi, Ash-Shawkani and others.
Therefore, we must never attribute it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as there is no sin more heinous than attributing something falsely to the Prophet.
He said, “Whoever deliberately attributes any lies to me, let him find his abode in hellfire.” (Muslim)
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is the beloved of Allah and the seal of prophets and final Messenger. He is the gift of mercy for the worlds. He is the servant and Messenger of Allah who warned us against deifying him or exaggerating his status.
When someone addressed him saying, “‘O Muhammad, you are our master, the son of our master, the best of us, and the son of the best”, thus he counseled him, ‘Say whatever you wish to say. However, let not Satan let you getting carried away (in praising me); I am Muhammad, son of `Abdullah (the servant of Allah) and His Messenger. I do not wish you to place me on a higher pedestal than the one Allah has placed me.’” (Quoted by Ahmad Shakir in `Umdat At-Tafsir)
In conclusion, if we truly love the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), we ought to shun all forms of deification and excessive veneration in praising the Prophet of mercy: That is the only authentic way of expressing our genuine love for him.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.