The Revolution of the Prophet

many men astray. He that follows me shall surely belong to me, but if anyone turns against me, You are surely Forgiving, Merciful. Lord, I have settled some of my offspring in a barren valley near Your Sacred House, so that they may observe the prayer...” 61 Polytheism had reached its zenith in Abraham’s time. Wherever one turned, great monuments glorifying idols were to be found. It appeared impossible for the human intellect to rid itself of the shackles of polytheistic thought. At this time, Abraham was commanded to settle in Makkah and start a new line of descent. God’s purpose was to raise a people in a land without polytheistic influence so that a nation with minds elevated enough to shun externals and think in terms of profound realities could develop. The Quran characterizes the final product of this human progeny in the following words: God had endeared the Faith to you and beautified it in your hearts, making unbelief, wrongdoing and disobedience abhorrent to you. Such are rightly guided.62 We can only understand this verse if we consider the situation that prevailed one and a half thousand years ago when the Companions adopted the Faith. It was surrounded by a host of visible “gods” that took an invisible God as their own; from many worldly greats, they recognized and believed in a prophet who commanded no worldly stature. Islam at that time was a religion strange to the world, but it was this outlandish religion that the Companions grew to