Divine Planning

This age was brought to an end by monotheism gaining supremacy through the Final Prophet. This was carried out in two stages. The first stage is referred to in the Qur’an in these words: And fight with them until there is no more persecution (fitnah) and religion should be only for God; but if they desist, then surely God sees what they do (8:39) Fitnah in this verse means religious intolerance, which in ancient times had become a form of oppression. Polytheism had become aggressive because it was the bedrock of all governments and as such enjoyed full State patronage. In such a situation, whenever the call to monotheism was raised, it was but natural for the rulers to feel strongly that such a call, in holding their right to rule suspect, posed a challenge to their sovereignty. Therefore they wasted no time in crushing the da‘is of monotheism. This was the actual cause of ideological aggression in ancient times. The Prophet Muhammad and his companions were commanded by God to fight for the extirpation of polytheism to put an end to the da‘is of monotheism being the targets of polytheistic aggression. That is to say, that shirk and politics were separated from one another. The Prophet and his companions launched this campaign with full force and devotion, and it was due to their unceasing efforts that the power of shirk was given a death blow. Subsequently, in most parts of the inhabited world of the time, the polytheistic system was subjugated, thus putting an end to the aggressive status of shirk forever. Now for all time polytheism and political power were thrust into separate arenas. The second stage of the domination of monotheism over shirk is mentioned in this verse of the Qur’an: We will show them our signs in all the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until they clearly see that this is the truth (41:53). The first phase of this mission aimed at putting an end to the practice of deriving political theories from natural phenomena. This goal was fully achieved in the seventh century. The second stage aimed at removing the veil of superstition from the phenomena of nature and casting upon them the light of knowledge. This second stage began with the era of prophethood (of the Prophet Muhammad) and later reached its zenith in the present scientific revolution.