Page 121 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

who repent and mend their ways and make known the truth, I will
certainly accept their repentance. I am the Ever-Relenting, the
Most Merciful.” (2:159-60)
If God’s will is what He has expressed in His Book, the Quran,
it can be concluded without doubt that if Muslims individually do
not reform themselves, and do not ask for forgiveness from God
and fail to communicate God’s religion to non-Muslims—to their
own compatriots as well as to people at the global level—they will
not be able to escape divine retribution, even if they continue to
worship day and night and never miss their additional morning
afternoon prayers. The notion that the way to heaven does not
pass through God’s creatures is highly erroneous. It should be
clearly understood that the gates of heaven cannot be opened to us
unless we have tried our best—even at the risk of undergoing the
most undesirable trials—to close the doors of hell to the millions
of non-believers who live around us.
As we learn from the Quran regarding the prophets and their
followers:
Do you think that you will enter Paradise without having
suffered like those who passed away before you? Affliction and
hardship befell them and so shaken were they that the Messenger
and the believers would exclaim, ‘When will God’s help come?’
(2:214)
The following has been stated in the Quran in the words of the
Prophet: ‘This Quran has been revealed to me so that through it I
may warn you and whoever it reaches.’ (6:19)
Those who shall warn the people of the Day of Judgement in
this world, will stand as God’s witnesses against them ‘on that Day’
(40:51). Now the question arises as to who today stands witness to
the peoples of the world, so that he may, as a follower of the Final
Prophet, bear witness in the Divine Court that he had warned the
people of the reality of life. Is there any group in the whole Islamic
world which can be said to be performing the task of warning the
nations of the world? If this is not the case, then does it mean that
God has dispensed with the sending of His witnesses to the nations
120