Why was the Holy Prophet (pboh) shadowless

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

Today insha Allah, we will deal with an unusual topic which is why Prophet Muhammad (pboh) was shadowless. 

Firstly we need to understand that Prophet Muhammad (pboh) was a human being.  Allah says;

Say (O Muhammad): "I am only a human being like you.  It is inspired in me that Your God is one God.  (41:6)

One of the possible reasons why Allah gave us this info in the Holy Qur’an is because of the birth of Prophet Jesus (as).  Jesus (as) was the second-to-last Messenger and he came into this world in a very miraculous way.  His ruh was placed in his mother and then the physical aspect of his personality was formed.  After the coming of Jesus (as) came Prophet Muhammad (pboh) and Allah is telling us that this Messenger is normal human just like everyone else.  The difference lies in the fact that he is the recipient of Divine revelations.

The next thing important point of reference is that although Prophet Muhammad (pboh) was a normal human being he was indeed special.  His soul existed long before Hazrat Adam (as) was created.  Allah says in Surah Maa-idah;

There hath come to you from Allah a (new) light and a perspicuous Book.  (5:15)

A lot of scholars opine that a (new) light is a reference to Prophet Muhammad (pboh).  He contained a special light that was radiating from his personality.  And there are a lot of narrations from his Companions that stated that his countenance was physically brighter than the full moon.  For example when he was 3½ years old and was in the care of Halima he went missing one day and when Halima and her family went looking for him they saw from a far a bright light perched on a tree.  Upon closer observations they found that the light they saw was in fact Muhammad (pboh) sitting on one of the branches.

Allah says in Ayat an-Nur light upon light.  In other words Prophet Muhammad (pboh) was a reflection of pure and refined light.  Thus emanating from his personality was only light.

Now with all this in mind to answer the initial question, i.e. why was Prophet Muhammad (pboh) shadowless we need to understand that a weaker source of light cannot cast a shadow on a brighter and more refined source of light.  For example you cannot see the shadow of the stars because of the brightness of the sun.

This was the case with Prophet Muhammad (pboh).  The light emanated from his personality was so refined and bright that the sun or other sources of light could not have cast a shadow from his blessed personality.  There are other matters pertaining to his status and relationship with his Lord such as a cloud shaded him whenever he was in the open.  But that is as a result of his exalted status. 

What is the implication of this?  There must been a reason and lesson in all of this for us.  After all, he is our model.  Prophet Muhammad (pboh) came to remove darkness from the earth.  And what is a shadow?  Something dark.  So Allah has caused it to be that not even a dark shadow came from him.  All that came from him was light.  His personality was so bright and beautiful that whenever Hazrat Aisha (ra) wanted to mend a piece of clothing late in the afternoon she never lit a lamp but instead sat next to the beloved Messenger (pboh) and was able to use the light that emanated from him to see.

Can you imagine this blessed personality?  He is so special and because of this we should acquaint ourselves with these nice and remarkable things about him.  And if we can connect ourselves to him we can also benefit and share in his light. 

May Allah enable us to connect to this magnificent source of light and through our effort may it be a means of eradicating the darkness and blemishes from our personality.