The Emergence and Legacy of the Prophet Muhammad

THE EMERGENCE AND LEGACY OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD wealth and power—were meanwhile reduced to ignominy and disgrace. Every prophet who comes from God provides a criterion of divine justice. Through him, God announces to humanity the decisions He Himself will announce in the next world. But the Prophet of Islam gave such a display of divine justice that it became a world experience and an accepted historical reality. We could see with our own eyes how God honoured His faithful servants and degraded those who rebelled against Him. Of course, heaven and hell were realities that would be made manifest in the next world. But we had been given a preliminary glimpse of them in this world so that we might take heed. What really emerged with the prophethood of Muhammad was the divinity of God Himself. That is why the New Testament foretells his prophethood as the “Kingdom of God.” Undoubtedly, the Prophet’s revolution had tremendous political and strategic implications. But its primary importance is as an earthly manifestation of God’s glory, a revelation of divine justice. The revolution of the Prophet Muhammad showed us in advance the realities that would come upon us in the stark and absolute form in the hereafter.