NUBUWWAH (PROPHETHOOD) - Islamic Teachings in Brief [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

NUBUWWAH
(PROPHETHOOD)

While independent in every respect, the Almighty
Allah, with His immense power, has created the world of existence and its
various creatures, allowing them to enjoy His countless blessings.

From the first day of creation till the last day of
existence, man and other creatures are fostered by Allah. They are each
led toward a known and determined goal with a particular order and system.
They proceed towards their ends while being exposed to His noteworthy
blessings.

If we study and deliberate upon our lifetime, namely the
period of infancy, childhood, youth, and old age, our conscience will
testify Allah's complete favours to us. When we become more aware of this
matter, our wisdom will undoubtedly judge that the Creator of the world is
more compassionate to His creatures than anyone else is. Due to this
compassion and favour, Allah always considers their interests and never
consents to the corruption and defect of their affairs without wisdom and
expediency. Mankind is one of the creatures of Allah. We know that man's
interest and prosperity depend upon his being realistic and benevolent;
that is to say, he must possess true beliefs, praiseworthy ethics, and
good deeds.

One may say that with his Allah-granted wisdom, man can
distinguish between good and bad and can recognize a well from a path.

It should be known, however, that wisdom alone cannot
resolve this difficulty and lead man to realism and benevolence. All these
indecent characteristics and unjust actions witnessed in the human society
are committed by those who possess wisdom and discernment, however, as a
result of selfishness, profit-seeking, and voluptuousness, their wisdom
has been overcome by their sentiments and they have succumbed to their
carnal desires, leading them astray. Therefore, the Almighty Allah must
lead and invite us to prosperity through some other ways and through means
which can never be overcome by carnal desires and which never make
blunders or mistakes in their guidance. This path is nothing but the path
of Nubuwwah.

THE LOGIC IN
NUBUWWAH

From what. we have discussed about monotheism, it
becomes evident that since Allah creates everything, its fostering also
depends upon Him. In other words, the Almighty Allah is the organizer and
leader of the movement of any worldly creature or phenomenon that from the
very beginning of existence endeavours for its survival, strives to remove
its imperfections, eliminates its needs and shortcomings one after
another, makes itself independent and self-sufficient as much as possible,
and moves in an orderly manner in its path of survival and existence.

A definite conclusion can be drawn from this concept.
That is to say, any one of the various kinds of phenomena of the world has
a specific evolutionary process for its survival which is done by its
special endeavours. In other words, in the path of their survival, worldly
creatures of each particular group have a series of specific functions
assigned to them by Allah. As the Holy Qur'an, with reference to this
fact, states:

"...Our Lord is He Who gave to everything its
creation, then guided it (to its goal) (20:50)."

This order applies to all components of creation without
any exception. It includes the stars, the earth, their components,
compositions that generate primary phenomena, plants, and animals.

Man's condition is the same as others, in this universal
guidance, but there is a difference between him and others.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAND OTHER CREATURES

The earth has supposedly been created millions of
years ago. It employs all its hidden forces and endeavours in the
environment of its existence to the extent permitted by opposing forces.
It displays the signs of its entity in the field of its rotation and
transitional movement, thus maintaining its survival. Unless faced with a
stronger opposing force, it will continue this activity and will not fall
short of carrying out any of its functions.

For example, from the time an almond tree takes root from
a seed until it becomes a fully grown tree, it assumes duties, such as
nourishing, developing, etc (in other words, it performs these duties to
pursue the course of its existence.) It will never refrain from carrying
them out unless it is precluded by a stronger opposing force. This process
also applies to any other phenomenon. But mankind performs his particular
activities voluntarily and his actions originate from his thoughts and
determination. Many a time, man refrains from a task which is entirely to
his interests and which is not hindered by any opposing force and
undertakes a task which is entirely disadvantageous to him knowingly and
intentionally. Sometimes, he abstains from drinking antidote and sometimes
he drinks a cup of poison and kills himself.

It is certainly clear that the divine universal guidance
will not be compulsory for a creature born with free will. That is to say,
the prophets conveyed the message of the Almighty Allah on good and bad
and prosperity and wretchedness to the people and warned believers of
Allah's chastisement, but the believers have always been free to adopt any
one of them. It is true that, in general, man perceives his good and bad
and advantage and disadvantage through his wisdom, but that very wisdom
often loses its keenness, follows carnal desires, and makes error.
Therefore, in addition to the medium of wisdom, divine guidance should
positively be achieved through a different medium, which is entirely
inviolable to sin and error. In other words, in addition to the medium of
wisdom, the Almighty Allah confirms His orders by another medium.

This medium is the same medium of prophethood by which
the Almighty Allah reveals His orders to one of His servants through
wahy leading mankind to prosperity. Allah appoints him to
communicate His orders to the people and to oblige them to follow the
orders through hope, despair, encouragement, and threat.

The Almighty Allah states:

"Surely We have revealed to you as We revealed to Nuh
(Noah), and the prophets after him...(4:163)." "(We sent) messengers as
the bearers of good news and as warners, so that people should not have a
plea against Allah after the (coming of) messengers...(4:165)."

ATTRIBUTES OF
PROPHET

From what was discussed, it becomes clear that the
Almighty Allah, with His divine teachings, must have provided some of His
servants with intuitive knowledge and laws that guarantee man's prosperity
and must have sent them to lead the people.

A person who possesses divine messages is called a
"nabi (prophet)" and messenger of Allah and the entire set of
messages from Allah which he has brought to the people are called
"religion".

It has also become clear that a prophet:

(1) Must be free and immuned from error. In order to
communicate what has been revealed to him to the people without error and
mistake, he should be immuned from forgetfulness and other mental
weaknesses; otherwise, divine guidance will not attain its goal and the
general guidance rule will forfeit its applicability and lose its power to
influence people.

(2) Must be inviolable to error and sin both in deeds and
speech, because sinfulness has no effect in propagation. People do not
esteem the speech of a person whose manner and speech are at odds. They
even take his deeds for his mendacity and imposture by saying if he meant
what he said, he would act accordingly.

By bringing these two aspects together in one phrase, we
can say that a prophet must be inviolable to errors and sins to render
preaching and propagation effective. In His words, the Almighty Allah,
too, refers to this point and states:

"The Knower of the unseen! so He does not reveal His
secrets to any, except to him whom He chooses as a messenger. for surely
He makes a guard to march before him and after him, so that He may know
that they have truly delivered the messages of their
Lord...(72:26-28)."

(3) Must possess moral virtues such as chastity, courage,
justice, etc, for these are considered as praiseworthy qualities. Anyone
who is immune to any sins and follows religion in a perfect manner will
never be blemished by moral vices.

PROPHETS AMONG PEOPLE

History indicates that there were prophets among
people who responded to the call of Allah; however, the details of their
life is not so clear. Only the details of life of Prophet Muhammad (SA) is
devoid of ambiguity. The Holy Qur'an, which is the divine book given to
Prophet (SA), contains sublime religious aims, has clarified the call of
the prophets in the past and has described their goals and objectives.

The Holy Qur'an stipulates that many prophets have been,
assigned by Allah to lead the people, all of whom consistently invited the
people to monotheism and the true religion. As Allah states:

"And We did not send before you any messenger but We
revealed to him that there is no god but Me, therefore worship Me
(21:25)."