Correspondence with Maulana Abul Lais Islahi Nadwi

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE who already followed a particular faith. The Prophet Muhammad’s message, however, was universal—addressed to every group, every nation, and every religion. Therefore, Quranic words such as ‘It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of Truth, so that He may make it prevail [ideologically] over every other religion’ (Quran, 9:33) could only be used for him, not for anyone else. Reading these lines, one might think the author is only explaining the use of the word “all” (kull) in the verse. But that was never the real issue. The actual question was this: if the core of every prophet’s mission was Izhar-e-deen (making the religion prevail), then the Quran should have used similar language for each of them. The difference in how broad or narrow a prophet’s audience is does not change the fundamental nature of the mission itself. That difference simply means that, for other prophets, it would be said they were sent to make the religion prevail over a specific nation, while the final messenger was sent to do so over all nations and peoples. The distinction the author makes between the last Prophet and the others is therefore only about scope—how wide or narrow the sphere of address was—whereas,