hom only one would
be worthy of Paradise. The Companions inquired which sect would be so
highly favoured. The Prophet replied:--'The one which remains firm in my
way and in that of my friends.' It is certain that this must refer to the
Ahl-i-Sunnat wa Jama'at." (Sunnis.)[17]

It is laid down as a preliminary religious duty that obedience should be
rendered to the Sunnat of the Prophet. Thus in the fourth Sura of the Quran
it is written: "O true believers! obey God and obey the apostle." "We have
not sent any apostle but that he might be obeyed by the permission of God."
From these and similar passages the following doctrine is deduced: "It is
plain that the Prophet (on whom and on whose descendants be the mercy and
peace of God!) is free from sin in what he ordered to be done, and in what
he prohibited, in all his words and acts; for were it otherwise how could
obedience rendered to him be accounted as obedience paid to God?"[18]
Believers are exhorted to render obedience to God by witnessing to His
divinity, and to the Prophet by bearing witness to his prophetship; this is
a sign of love, and love is the cause of nearness to God. The Prophet
himself is reported to have {13} said, "Obey me that God may regard you as
friends." From this statement the conclusion is drawn that "the love of God
(to man) is conditional on obedience to the Prophet." Belief in and
obedience to the Prophet are essential elements of the true faith, and he
who possesses not both of these is in error.[19]

In order to show the necessity of this obedience, God is said to have
appointed Muhammad as the Mediator between Himself and man. In a lower
sense, believers are to follow the "Sunnat" of the four Khalifs, Abu Bakr,
Omar, Osman, and 'Ali, who are true guides to men.

To the Muslim all that the Prophet did was perfectly in accord with the
will of God. Moral laws have a different application when applied to him.
His jealousy, his cruelty to the Jewish tribes, his indulgence in
licentiousness, his bold assertion of equality with God as regards his
commands, his every act and word, are sinless, and a guide to men as long
as the world shall last. It is easy for an apologist for Muhammad to say
that this is an accretion, something which engrafted itself on to a simpler
system. It is no such thing. It is rather one of the essential parts of the
system. Let Muhammad be his own witness:--"He who loves not my Sunnat is
not my follower." "He who revives m