Page 53 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

every circumstance, God accorded to him a position that in His
Omniscience He had pre-ordained:
“When Abraham was tried by His Lord with certain commands,
which he fulfilled, He said: ‘I will make thee an Imam (leader in
religion) to the people’” (2:124).
The conferring of this imamat upon Abraham was not to invest
in him political power but rather to place him in a position which
would enable him to continue to pass on the message of God to the
people. At one place, referring to Abraham, Lot, Isaac, and Jacob
(peace be upon them), the Quran says:
We ordained them leaders to guide at Our behest, and We
inspired in them the doing of good deeds (21:73).
This religious leadership, that is, prophethood, was
thenceforward continued through Abraham’s descendants. In the
beginning, the prophets came from among the offspring of Isaac to
inform people of God’s will. The last prophet of this line was Jesus.
After that Muhammad (570-632), from the family of Ismael, son of
Abraham, was ordained Prophet. This chain of prophethood ended
with him, and the faith, in a fully preserved form, was entrusted to
the followers of Muhammad. Thus the Ummah of Muhammad was
made responsible for continuing to inform people of God’s will till
the Last Day (22:78).
The gist of the divine scriptures given to Abraham was that no
soul shall bear another’s burden and that each man shall be judged
by his own labours; that his labours shall be scrutinized and that
he shall be justly requited for them; that all things shall in the end
return to Allah (53:38-42).
In the eyes of God this is the greatest concern of mankind. All
the prophets were, therefore, obliged to take a pledge that they
would inform man of this Truth at all costs:
“And remember We made a covenant with you as We did with
the other prophets; with Noah and Abraham, with Moses and
Jesus, the son of Mary. A solemn covenant We made with them,
so that Allah might question the truthful about their truthfulness.

52