The claim that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) makes mistakes because he is human
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: It has become widespread in recent times for people to say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) makes mistakes because he is human. I hope you will clarify this for us.
Answer:
It is not permissible to strip the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of his status, nor is it permissible to spread this claim. He says: He avoids [making a ruling] in matters where nothing was revealed to him alone, peace and blessings be upon him. One is not required to make this claim, because this is ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), and there is no need for it. This is merely ijtihad in knowledge. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) sometimes exercises ijtihad in matters where the Messenger is not obligated [to rule], yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: It has become widespread in recent times for people to say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) makes mistakes because he is human. I hope you will clarify this for us.
Answer:
It is not permissible to strip the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of his status, nor is it permissible to spread this claim. He says: He avoids [making a ruling] in matters where nothing was revealed to him alone, peace and blessings be upon him. One is not required to make this claim, because this is ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), and there is no need for it. This is merely ijtihad in knowledge. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) sometimes exercises ijtihad in matters where the Messenger is not obligated [to rule], yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
75-اللقاء الأسبوعي مع الشيخ صالح الفوزان - 22 — archive.org (51:58)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.