THE
PROPHETS CALLED PEOPLE
WISELY AND WITH KINDNESS
Another attribute of the
Prophets is calling people to the way of God with wisdom and fair exhortation.
The Prophets never
resorted to demagogy and dialectics. They always acted wisely and always spoke
with wisdom. God ordered His Last and Greatest Messenger:
Call to the way of
your Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the
best way. (al-Nahl, 16:125)
Man is not a being that
consists of a mind or heart only. He has a complex structure, composed of many
faculties, including the mind, intellect, heart, soul and other innermost
faculties. Each of these requires satisfaction, and the Prophets addressed all
of them.
Those who were taught by
the Prophets acquired certainty, and their view of things differed from those
with limited external sight, devoid of insight and spiritual vision. Their
conviction of religious truths was unshakeable, and they were continually fed
with Divine Revelation. They did not merely speak without action nor act without
contemplation. They combined speech with action, knowledge with practice and
action with contemplation. Some among them, like ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, would
say, ‘If the veil of the Unseen were lifted up, my certainty would not
increase.’1 Their
conviction was so strong that supposing they were to see with their eyes what
they believed of the Unseen, their certainty would not increase. There was no
further degree of certainty left for them to attain.
The education given by
the Prophets to their disciples, or the function of the Prophets, is described
in a precise way in the Qur’anic verse:
We have sent among
you, of yourselves, a Messenger, to recite Our signs to you and to purify
you, and to teach you the Book and Wisdom, and to teach you what you know
not. (al-Baqara, 2.151)
1. ‘Ali al-Qari, al-Asrar
al-Ma’rufa, 286.
