Page 36 - The Struggle of the Messengers

34 The Struggle of the Messengers

But there is an interesting aspect to this abuse, which the elite
set about opposing the Messengers but which had actually been
defeated before they even began it: The leaders generally do not
deny Allah's existence and thus reject His ordinances; on the
contrary, they claim that they genuinely believe in Allah but lie in
saying the Messenger is not Allah's envoy. They even utterly

foolishly and immorally slander these holy Messengers of Allah
by saying they are solely interested in their own worldly
advantage. They issue another slander by saying that his
followers are "deceived" and "bewitched," and, in their own
foolish minds, organize themselves to "save society from him."
According to their distorted logic, they think that their own
traditional social organization is right and that "someone with no
wealth or rank" must be trying to sow confusion and ruin the
existing order for his own interests. But it is they who have
strayed into perversion. The only true path is that shown by Allah
and His Messenger. But those people are suffering the pain and
anguish of not living by the moral values revealed by Allah. The
Messenger invites them to true salvation from the disasters

afflicting them. People who heed that call are acting in their own
interests, while those who not are acting against those interests.
The general spiritual condition of the people who set traps for
these superior, intelligent, worthy, and highly moral individuals
is certainly in a state of decay. We can understand from the
Qur'anic accounts that those who set traps for the Messengers are
those who could easily commit murder. For example, in the
Qur'an Allah tells us about the Prophet Joseph's (as) brothers, who
planned to martyr him out of jealousy:

[Joseph's brothers said:] "Kill Joseph or expel him to some land