Reconciling: “We make no distinction between any of His messengers” and the preference of some messengers over others
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: How do you reconcile His saying[Al-Baqarah 2:285] with His saying, Exalted is He, [Al-Baqarah 2:253]
The Shaykh:
What is meant by[Al-Baqarah 2:285] in terms of faith is that we believe in some of them and do not believe in the others; this is the act of making distinctions. As for Allah preferring some of the messengers over others, that is a reality about which Allah informed us, [Al-Baqarah 2:253] meaning, and he is Musa (peace be upon him), [Al-Baqarah 2:253]. [Al-Baqarah 2:87] They have virtues, they share in some of them, and some are distinguished by others. Yes.
The presenter:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
It is obligatory to believe in all of them; it is obligatory to believe in all the messengers. We make no distinction between any of the messengers. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: How do you reconcile His saying
We make no distinction between any of His messengers
لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِThose messengers - some of them We caused to exceed others.
تِلْكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍThe Shaykh:
What is meant by
make no distinction between any of His messengers
نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِThose messengers - some of them We caused to exceed others. Among them were those to whom Allah spoke
تِلْكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ مِّنْهُم مَّن كَلَّمَ اللَّهُand He raised some of them in degree
وَرَفَعَ بَعْضَهُمْ دَرَجَاتٍAnd We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proofs and supported him with the Pure Spirit.
وَآتَيْنَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَأَيَّدْنَاهُ بِرُوحِ الْقُدُسِThe presenter:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
It is obligatory to believe in all of them; it is obligatory to believe in all the messengers. We make no distinction between any of the messengers. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، تتمة فصل في الفرق بين زيارة الموحدين للقبور وزيارة المشركين — islamhouse.com (1:08:24)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.