The Revolution of the Prophet

him Yahya (John the Baptist). Why did Abraham’s similar prayer take so long to be answered? This was because John the Baptist had a primary mission to carry out. He was to expose the religious pretence of the Jews by being martyred at their hands so that they would no longer be fit to be bearers of the divine scriptures; another nation would have to come to replace them. The Prophet Muhammad, on the other hand, had to reestablish the dominance of monotheism over polytheism. But, naturally, this could not be effected without the necessary antecedents: conditions conducive to this had to be created in the world; a nation upright enough to aid the Prophet in accomplishing this task had to come into existence. All this took two and a half thousand years to come about so that the event could take place within the bounds of cause and effect, as is the way of God. In accordance with this scheme, Abraham was commanded to leave the civilized territory of Iraq for the dry, barren reaches of Arabia, where he was to settle along with his wife Hagar and son Ishmael.56 This was an uncultivable area, cut off from the rest of the world. Far from the trappings of civilization, in the lap of nature, a community could be raised where all the natural abilities were fully preserved. Abraham had prayed for the emergence of a people submissive to God, and this was a land ideally suited for the development of such a people: Lord, make us submissive to You; make of our descendants a nation that will submit to You.57