Surah An-Nisaa (4) — Ayah 41

41. 1. In every nation, its prophet will bear witness before Allah that, "O Allah! We conveyed Your message to our people, now if they did not accept, what is our fault?" Then, over all of them, the Noble Prophet ﷺ will bear witness, "O Allah, they are truthful." You ﷺ will give this testimony because of this Quran which was revealed to you ﷺ and in which, as needed, the stories of previous prophets and their nations have also been mentioned. This will be a very severe moment, and just imagining it is enough to make one tremble. It is mentioned in a hadith that once the Noble Prophet ﷺ expressed the desire to hear the Quran from Abdullah bin Mas'ud ؓ. When he was reciting and reached this verse, you ﷺ said, "That's enough now." Abdullah bin Mas'ud says that when I looked, tears were flowing from both eyes of the Prophet ﷺ. Some people say that only the one who has seen everything with his own eyes can bear witness. Therefore, they interpret the meaning of 'shaheed' (witness) as 'present and seeing' and thus consider the Noble Prophet ﷺ as 'present and seeing.' But to consider the Noble Prophet ﷺ as present and seeing is to associate you ﷺ with the attribute of Allah, which is shirk, because being present and seeing is only an attribute of Allah Almighty. Their argument from the word 'shaheed' holds no strength in itself. This is because testimony can also be based on certain knowledge, and whose knowledge can be more certain than the facts and events stated in the Quran? On the basis of this certain knowledge, the Quran itself has called the Ummah of Muhammad (shuhada 'ala al-nas) (witnesses over all mankind). If being present and seeing is necessary for testimony, then every individual of the Ummah of Muhammad would have to be considered present and seeing. In any case, this belief about the Prophet ﷺ is polytheistic and baseless. May Allah protect us from it.