Introduction: The Age of Ignorance and the Mission of the Prophet
تمہید
The State of Humanity Before the Advent of Islam
Dear friends! Before we discuss the principles of Islam, it is necessary to cast a glance at the state of the world before the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was sent. What was the condition of humanity in that era? This is an important question, and understanding it enables us to appreciate the magnitude of the transformation that Islam brought about.
At that time, the world was enveloped in darkness — the darkness of ignorance, polytheism, and moral corruption. The Arab world, which became the first cradle of Islam, was in a particularly grievous state. Tribes were perpetually at war with one another. Daughters were buried alive — a daughter's birth was considered a disgrace. The weak were oppressed by the strong. Slavery was universal. Women had no rights. Superstition reigned. The noble ideals of justice, mercy, and human dignity were unknown.
It was not only Arabia that was thus afflicted. The great empires — Roman and Persian — were also in decline. They fought wars endlessly, subjugating peoples, squandering wealth in luxury and vice. Religion had become the tool of the ruling class. The poor were crushed beneath the feet of kings and priests. The light of spiritual guidance had been extinguished.
Allah Most High, out of His infinite mercy, does not leave humanity in this state of destitution forever. Just as autumn is followed by spring, and after darkness comes the light of dawn, so too the divine practice (sunnat-e-ilahi) is that after the depths of ignorance and waywardness, Allah sends a Prophet to turn the hearts of people toward faith and guidance.
The Importance of Makkah as the Place of Prophethood
It is well known that Makkah al-Mukarramah is the navel of the earth. There is nothing strange in the fact that the Arabs were chosen for this mission, because Arabia, on one side, faces Europe and Africa, and on the other side faces Asia. It was therefore the crossroads of the world — the meeting point of civilizations and the center from which the light of guidance could radiate to every corner of the globe. Moreover, Arabia lay on the main trade routes of the ancient world, linking Europe, Africa, Iran, and India, making the spread of the Prophet's message comparatively easy.
In the city of Makkah, people of every religion and sect were present — Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians (Majus), idol-worshippers, and various sects of polytheists — all engaged in mutual debate and contestation. Furthermore, the Arabs were by nature eloquent, brave, and possessed of a fierce sense of tribal honor, yet no one from any nation or community had ever succeeded in winning their allegiance. Indeed, the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham, peace be upon him) was the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, from whose noble lineage the Final Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was to arise.
Thus it was the divine wisdom that the hills of Faran (Makkah) — and the blessed land of Arabia — became the birthplace of the Final Prophet. From this center, the light of guidance arose like the sun, illumining the entire world, transforming darkness into light, and guiding the bewildered and straying from ignorance and waywardness to knowledge and gnosis.
The Reform and Perfection of Human Character
It is now clear that human beings are of three kinds — the lowly (adna), the middle (ausat), and the noble (a'la). The lowly (1) are those who have no control over themselves and who dwell in the pleasures of the flesh and carnal desires. They are essentially enslaved to their own appetites, and their dominant characteristic is complete subjection to those appetites. Their conduct in general is driven toward the basest ends. The middle class (2) are the common people who follow custom and habit almost blindly, doing what they see being done around them. The noble (3) are those individuals who possess high and excellent qualities in themselves, follow the highest of habits and conduct, and look not only to themselves but are also guides for others in the path of guidance. They complete the theoretical and practical faculties in one another. It appears that the perfection of theoretical faculties consists in knowledge and gnosis of the Truth, and the perfection of practical faculties in obedience to the Truth. Whoever has knowledge and obedience of the Truth in full measure will have the divine grace flow to them in abundance. And whoever completes for others their knowledge of the Truth and their obedience of the Truth will be at the highest station of prophethood.
We have stated above that before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the world was submerged in polytheism, disbelief, idol-worship, and nature-worship, in oppression and vice, in falsehood, immorality, and meaningless lip-service to God — in a word, ignorance and heedlessness in all their forms. After the Prophet's advent, see what happened to the world. You will find the truth plain before you: from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, from unbelief to faith. The world was transformed. Allah through His Blessed Messenger reformed the theoretical and practical faculties of a vast multitude of human beings. Look and you will see that the Prophets — Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), 'Isa (Jesus) — peace be upon them all — each reformed theoretical and practical faculties in a certain measure, but none reformed them as extensively as our Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and from him alone flowed this pure, purifying influence.
The Miracle of the Qur'an — A General Overview
The Companions (Sahaba) attained full knowledge of the prophethood of Hazrat (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), for the standard by which to measure him at any time was available in his own person and teaching. By his perfect disciples, the worship of idols was abandoned, the name of God was established, and every trace of falsehood was swept away — for this is the highest, noblest, and most complete standard: it will be proved in full.
The Importance of the Prophet's Prophethood
History makes it plain that when you (i.e., the Prophet) were still in your mother's womb, your father passed away. A few months after your birth, your mother also departed. And in this way, in your infancy, you were deprived of paternal and maternal love and upbringing. Your grandfather took care of you, and after two years your grandfather also passed away. Then your uncle brought you up. No one gave you formal education and training — indeed, no school of knowledge was available to you. No one taught you to write or read. So it is remarkable that when you journeyed through all of life you had more experience of ignorance than anyone else — yet suddenly, at the age of forty, a tremendous revolution arose, such that the sun of guidance and gnosis arose from your heart and illumined the entire world, and the springs of knowledge and gnosis began to flow from your breast, quenching the thirst of the wanderers in the deserts of ignorance and bewilderment:
"He whom they deemed unlettered — the libraries bent before him; that is to say, he became a universal man of all peoples." (Sa'di)
The Qurʾan is not only for the Arabs but for all of humanity. From the time the Blessed Messenger of Allah ﷺ received prophethood, the miracle of the Qurʾan has been complete — capable of answering every challenge — and it will remain so until the Last Day. Hazrat Bahr-ul-Uloom devoted his life to making this universal message accessible to all peoples.
The Qur'an's Miracle by Virtue of Its Eloquence and Rhetoric
In the time of Musa (peace be upon him) magic was the dominant art. The greatest magicians of the age were summoned, and their staffs and ropes were transformed — so the Almighty gave Musa a miracle in response to magic. In the time of 'Isa (Jesus, peace be upon him) medicine and philosophy flourished — Socrates, Plato, Galen, Hippocrates, and other scholars and philosophers were the luminaries of that age — so the Almighty gave 'Isa the miracle of healing the sick and raising the dead, thus surpassing them all. At the time of the Blessed Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the Arabs excelled in eloquence and rhetoric. They were renowned among all other nations for their eloquence, such that they called themselves — and were called — the "Seven Mu'allaqat" (suspended odes). For this reason, the Almighty gave the Qur'an as a miracle against their eloquence. The Qur'an presented before them a complete exposition — Labid ibn Rabi'ah, the master of the Qa'sida, burned his famous poem, saying there was no more point in poetry when the Qur'an had appeared. Moreover, Hazrat 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) requested Ibn Labid to write a reply to the Qur'an and send it to Hazrat 'Umar's service; Hazrat 'Umar sent it to the Quraysh leader — and he had it read. The Kafirs of Quraysh thought deeply about it, saying: if we say nothing against the Qur'an, people will challenge us — if we say something, it will be a disgrace for us. So they thought deeply, and their best view was: it is not possible to say anything against it; perhaps someone could copy a piece from it — but that would itself become a proof. The decision of the scholars is: one can never produce the like of the Qur'an.
The Qur'an stands beside the capacity of human beings: whoever sits with it and ponders it, the impact of its miracle will be imprinted upon his heart. The more one reflects on it, the more the light of guidance emerges from it, illumining the mind and consciousness. The Christians saw the Qur'an with eyes of enmity and tried to keep away from it — yet they found they could not help turning to it, and were forced to admit its truth, even while reforming their old religion and committing new distortions of their own. The Hindus looked at the Qur'an with the eye of prejudice and saw that each group among them, no matter how bigoted, found the Qur'an leaving a trace in their hearts — and the Qur'an left its mark in their homes. They were compelled to interpret the Qur'an according to their own religious texts, to oppose it, and yet the heart of the Qur'an bore witness to its own authenticity and truth.
The Preservation of the Qur'an
No heavenly book in the world is today in its original state. The Torah and the Gospel have been so much distorted that the people of the book have themselves become convinced that the Torah as we have it is not the divine Word. And even the Bible contains some divine speech, but it also contains other elements, and no mutawatir (mass-transmitted) chain of narration can be established for any of its passages. In contrast, the Qur'an Sharif has a continuous, mutawatir transmission: from the era of the Companions (Sahabah) down to the present day, a chain of huffaz (memorizers) has existed, and the Qur'an has been preserved in their breasts. And this preservation is one of the standing miracles of Islam. Even today, millions upon millions of huffaz are alive in the world. The Qur'an Sharif is present in every city and every village of the world. This is itself a powerful proof of its being the Divine Word, and Hazrat Allah has made its preservation a perpetual miracle:
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ
"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, it is We who are its guardian." (Al-Hijr, 15:9) — that is, the Qur'an is Our word, and We Ourselves are its protectors.
The Miracle of the Qur'an from Every Angle
The great scholars who studied the Qur'an and extracted its wisdom and knowledge and set it forth in their books — Imam Ghazali, Imam Razi, Ibn Rushd, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Jalal al-Din Dawani — all found the Qur'an a key to the solution of the most difficult problems. Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Yusuf, Imam Muhammad, Imam Malik, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal — all extracted from the Qur'an the subtle details of Islamic jurisprudence and the rules of its laws. But they made use of the Qur'an appropriately — Ibn Miskawayh, Ibn Khaldun, Tusi, Dawani in political philosophy — and it remains the great treasure-house of wisdom. And the Qur'an itself commands: ponder over its verses, reflect on its wonderful subjects, extraordinary expressions, boundless truth, wonderful magnificence, every sentence penetrating the heart to the depths, and the reader finding himself moved to tears. Every person of the Qur'an should read it and ponder and write it well.
The Qur'an, according to its own capacity, inscribes its impact upon the hearts of those who sit with it and ponder it — those who reflect on it and persevere in it will find their mind and spirit illumined by its guidance. The enemies of the Qur'an attempted to keep away from it — yet even they were ultimately forced to admit its reality, correcting their old religions and introducing further distortions of their own. The Hindus looked at the Qur'an with the eye of prejudice and each group among them found the Qur'an could not be ignored — so they were compelled to interpret it according to their own religious books and oppose it, yet the truth of the Qur'an shone through, testifying to its authenticity from within their hearts.
Heraclius's Testimony to the Prophet's Prophethood
Now let us consider the conversation between Abu Sufyan and Heraclius, Caesar of Rome. In the Hadith of Bukhari Sharif, there is a narration from Hazrat 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) to the effect that when Abu Sufyan ibn Harb was asked by Heraclius about the character of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) — at a time when Muslims had not yet come to power and the Quraysh were still major chiefs and rulers — the Caesar of Rome summoned the Quraysh delegates who had come along with Abu Sufyan. Heraclius called them to his court in Iliya (Jerusalem) and made them sit before him. He summoned his own interpreter and then said to the group: "O Arabs! Which of you is the closest in kinship to this man who claims prophethood?" Abu Sufyan said: "I am his nearest kinsman among those present." Heraclius said: "Bring him close to me," and he placed Abu Sufyan's companions behind him — so that they were near him. Then the interpreter began to speak. Heraclius said: "I will ask this man (Abu Sufyan) some questions — if he lies, you signal me." Abu Sufyan said: "By God, had I not been ashamed that my companions would call me a liar, I would have told lies about him." He then narrated the following first question: "What is his family like?" I said: "He is of noble lineage." He then said: "Has anyone among your people ever before made such a claim (of prophethood)?" I said: "No." He said: "Has any of his ancestors been a king?" I said: "No." He said: "Does the nobility follow him or the commoners?" I said: "Rather the commoners." He said: "Are they increasing or decreasing?" I said: "Increasing." And he had faith...
Abu Sufyan said: "When Heraclius had finished and said what he said, and had read the letter — he raised a huge clamor around him and the voices became very loud. We were put out. I said to my companions: 'The matter of Ibn Abi Kabsha (meaning: the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has become great — even the king of Byzantium fears him.' From that day onward I became firmly convinced that he would certainly prevail, until Allah caused me to enter Islam. Friends! This too is one of the foundational principles of Islam.