Manifestation of Prophethood in the Present Day and Age

Muhammad. They now sought eternity, not the world. Gone was the permissiveness of yesteryear; what they had discovered now was the joy of an upright moral bearing— the path of justice as opposed to oppression, of kindness as opposed to cruelty. A sense of discovery imbues one with an unquenchable spirit, putting vitality into one’s thoughts and an irresistible dynamism into one’s actions. A sense of loss, on the contrary, dooms all one’s efforts to failure. One plagued by such a feeling becomes incapable of constructive thought or action. A sense of discovery moved the first Muslims. That is why they produced an incomparable example of dynamic action. Modern Muslim movements have sprung from a feeling of loss, giving rise to an unprecedented saga of misconceived policies and ill-fated initiatives. This sense of having lost out in life is a sentiment that their leaders unequivocally voice: We have lost all our forefathers’ legacy. Heaven has thrown us down from the high Pleiades to the earth. Practically all Muslim movements of modern times have arisen out of this feeling of loss and persecution. But, of course, they may differ in how they put their point across. Some use the language of nationalistic politics, while others confine themselves to religious terminology. But, in essence, they are all the same, derived from a feeling of losing their past glory.