The Revolution of the Prophet

faith of their people’s ancestors. Take the case of Jesus Christ, homeless and sleeping under a tree, while the chief priest of the Jews resided in the lavish splendour of the palace of Haykal.50 How could people accept someone who slept under a tree as the bearer of truth rather than the occupant of the grand palace of Haykal? That is why people poured scorn on their prophets. They held established figures in reverence: why should they forsake them for an insignificant creature without status? True, prophets of the past were also objects of their esteem, but these prophets had become more national heroes than preachers of truth in the eyes of their admirers. Attaching oneself to a message and quite another to an institution is one thing. Nothing is more difficult than service carried out following a message, and nothing is easier than service in an institution’s name. All a message has in support of it is its conceptual truth, while all sorts of material grandeur back up institutions. Those who extend their support to a message when backed up by nothing but simple truth will find honour and rank in the sight of God. When it gains the status of an institution, then its support of it will earn one no credit with God. Commitment to Islam as a message is an act carried out for God. However, commitment to Islam as an institution is all too often entered into for the material benefits that accrue from it.