|
THE
PROPHETS WERE SENT
TO
ILLUMINATE THE WAY OF MANKIND
Today,
the greatest problem of mankind is that they do not recognize
the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, and
that they neglect and, in some parts of the world, even
refuse, to follow his way. God sent Muhammad, as He had sent
all the previous Prophets, to illuminate the way of mankind.
He said:
God
was gracious to the believers when He raised up among them
a Messenger from themselves who recites to them the verses
(of His Book) and shows them His signs [in their selves
and in the universe], purifies them [of their sins and
their deviations of thought and belief], and instructs
them in the Book and the Wisdom. They were evidently in
manifest misguidance before. (Al ‘Imran, 3:164)
God
sent Messengers to mankind throughout the ages so that mankind
might be guided to the truth and be purified of sins. Those
who were enlightened by the Messengers of God, found the way
to the Divine Presence and attained the highest rank of
humanity. In the words of Ibrahim Haqqi, ‘God declared that
He could not be contained by heavens and earth; He can be
known and reached through hearts only.’ It is for this
reason that the Messengers led mankind to the knowledge of
God. Through them, He was deeply felt by the ‘innermost
senses’ of people. The ‘innermost sense’ of man, whether
we call it heart or soul, or ‘conscience’, is so great
that through it man can ‘grasp’ God with all His greatness
and other attributes. God cannot be contained by the heavens
and earth. Minds cannot comprehend Him. Philosophical thoughts
are by no means sufficient to reach Him. It is only through
his soul or heart that a man can rise to the holy Presence of
God. Therefore, it was the Prophets who purified the souls so
that they could be the mirrors in which God might manifest
Himself. The Prophet Muhammad is the last and greatest of
these Prophets, and he left us the Qur’an and Sunna so that
we can, by following them, live in accordance with the purpose
for which all the Prophets were sent.
Before
further elaboration on the Divine purpose for sending the
Prophets, I would like to emphasize three points.
Prophets
were chosen men through whom God manifested Himself
Firstly,
the Prophets were far from being as some lacking in manners
and sound reflection have described them. They were not, as
some think, ordinary men like us. They were chosen men through
whom God manifested Himself. God chose them from among people
and paid great attention to their upbringing, so that during
their life they would always seek to gain His approval. Like
his predecessors, the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and
blessings, always pursued God’s good pleasure and his last
words were: ‘To Rafiq al-A’la (the Highest Abode)’. ‘A’isha,
Mother of Believers, gives the following account of his last
moments:
I
was with him during his last moments. Whenever he became
ill, he used to ask me to pray for him and, expecting my
prayer to be accepted through the blessing of his
auspicious hand, I held his hand and prayed. During his
last illness, I wanted to do the same and pray, when he
suddenly withdrew his hand and said, ‘to Rafiq al-A’la!’1
Secondly,
the world has never been devoid of the successors to the
mission of Prophethood, who devote their lives to the
dissemination of truths. They should seek what the Prophets
sought, they should preach what the Prophets preached, and
they should strictly follow the Prophets in performing their
duties - in enjoining good and forbidding evil. By
explaining the Divine purpose for sending the Prophets, I
hope I will be able to shed some light on the way of those
who try to lead the people along the path of the Prophets.
Thirdly,
death is not total annihilation. It is only a changing of
the worlds, but without completely breaking away from this
one. In addition, the death of the Prophets is different
from that of ordinary people. God declares about martyrs,
whose spiritual degrees are lower than that of the Prophets,
Say not of those slain in God’s way, ‘They are dead’,
but they are alive but you understand not’ (al-Baqara,
2.154). So we should not say of the Prophets, ‘they are
dead’. For this reason, the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be
peace and blessings, did not taste death in the manner we
know; he only changed places and passed on into another
dimension or degree of life. Those who can penetrate with
their inner faculties into the dimensions other than the
ones in which we live, can experience different dimensions
of time and space. They can see different creatures and look
into things and events from different viewpoints. We
consider things and events according to the stream in which
we are, but if we can rise high enough to see this stream
with all its dimensions, and the scope of our sight is
enlarged as we rise, then we will be able to obtain a more
comprehensive capacity and standard in our judgment of
everything. Thus, those who have been able to gain this
capacity, while sitting among us, might also be sitting in
the presence of God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings, and God’s Messenger himself may now be stroking
the heads of some among us. While performing prayer here
with us, he may also be leading the same prayer in the
Hereafter before the angels. There is a particular class of
saints called abdal - substitutes - for when one of
them dies, he is immediately substituted with a new one, who
can see the Prophet whenever they wish. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti,
a sixteenth-century scholar, once said: ‘I have seen God’s
Messenger twenty-eight times while awake.’
After
these introductory points, we shall explain the Divine
purposes for sending the Prophets.
1. Bukhari,
Maghazi, 78; Muslim, Salam, 50,51; Abu Dawud, Tib, 19.
|
|
