Page 42 - The Importance of Following the Good Word

is in yourselves. Is it not just that you have been re-
minded? No, you are an unbridled people!" (Surah
Yasin, 18-19)
The above verses tell of the reaction of the inhabitants of a
city to which Allah sent messengers, with the mission of
warning them against a painful punishment. As this example
reveals, disbelievers openly threatened those believers who
summoned them to the true religion through the good word.
Ironically, the only reason behind their offering of this threat
was the believers' invitation to Allah and His religion. Their
call led them into great hatred and rage. Indeed, this rage and
hatred become discernable in their eyes. In the Qur'an, Allah
relates this fact as follows:
Those who disbelieve all but strike you down with
their evil looks when they hear the Reminder and say,
"He is quite mad." But it is nothing less than a
Reminder to all the worlds. (Surat al-Qalam, 51-52)
As the above verses call our attention to, disbelievers feel
such animosity towards Allah's messengers only because
they call them to what is just, and remind them of the Day of
Judgment and the Hereafter. However, theirs and similar re-
actions are signs of their desperation in the face of the reli-
gion of truth. Without any valid refutation against the true
religion, they strive instead to silence the believers through
these methods, and feign ignorance of the truth. However,
the believers are not inhibited by such actions; they continue
to communicate Allah's message with the same persistence.
In the Qur'an, the call made by Prophet Ibrahim (as) to his
father, and his father's reaction to his message, reveals the op-
position typical of these two camps:

40 THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOWING THE GOOD WORD