Page 145 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

of affairs makes the matter of life extremely grave. Despite this
extraordinary gravity, all realities remain hidden from human eyes.
God, the angels, paradise, hell—nothing is visible. As such, it was
expected from man that when these realities were revealed, he
would say, “God, I did not know that this was going to be the end
of life. Why did You not tell us before?”
In view of the delicacy of this situation, God made an
arrangement whereby, with the very creation of the first man, He
began sending prophets to the world. In fact the very first man
was also the first prophet. The prophets were sent revelations
so that they could convey the divine message to mankind. This
series of prophets continued from Adam to Jesus Christ. Finally
God decided to send the Final Prophet to whom He would send
him the last divine book which would be preserved for all time.
This event in the seventh century ushered in a new age in human
history, subsequent to which the Book of God was to remain in
preserved state and no further prophets were to be sent by God.
Then the question arises as to what arrangement was made by
God for conveying the Creation Plan of the Creator for all the
human beings who are born after the cessation of prophethood.
The community of the followers of the Prophet Muhammad,
the final prophet of God had the onus of conveying in full the
divine message to the people. Subsequently these people were
charged with conveying the divine message to every generation till
Doomsday, so that when the case of these people was presented
before God on the Day of Judgement, the followers of the Prophet
might stand up and say that they had conveyed the divine message
to the people, and that in spite of this, they had not accepted it,
and were therefore themselves responsible for their actions.
This is the task that has been referred to in the Quran as ‘calling
people to God.’ It is an obligation devolving upon the followers of
the Prophet. They can in no way be exempted from performing
this task.
No amount of individual worship will save them from God’s
chastisement. If the followers of the Prophet do not perform this
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