The Personality of the Prophet of Islam

The Prophetic Mission What was the goal or mission of the Prophet of Islam? This is indeed a very important question. To determine it academically requires a thorough study of the Quran and Sunnah, the sources of Islam. First of all, the basic guiding principles must be laid down for such a study. The first principle is that the correct answer to this question could only be one which is derived directly from the holy scriptures, that is, the Quran. No argument of an inferential nature would be at all useful. An inferential, or indirect argument is useful only in matters of a partial or relative nature. But so far as the determining of the mission or goal is concerned (relating to basic issues), inferential argument cannot be employed. For instance, if one argued that the mission of the Prophet of Islam was to establish an Islamic state and in support of this, he quoted the following verse of the Quran, he would be making a serious error: We sent Our messengers with evidence and, with them, We sent down the Book and the Scales of Justice, so that men might act in all fairness. We sent down iron with its great inherent strength and its many benefits for mankind, so that God might know who would stand up for God, though unseen, and His messengers. God is powerful, and almighty. (The Quran, 57:25) Suppose someone were to pick out the words ‘scales of justice’ (or ‘balance’ as it would be expressed in Arabic) and link it with ‘iron’ to support his argument that the Islamic mission was to establish justice by using the power of iron (i.e. weaponry), he would not be right in his contention. This argument is not valid from the academic point of view, for the word ‘balance’ in the first part of the verse is used to enjoin people to mould their lives to the standard of justice, to be just in their dealings, and to adopt the ways of justice in their own lives; it is not asking them to impose their concept of justice on others. Thus, if someone, by citing this verse, put forward an argument for coercing others, his argument would be academically untenable, because it would be totally illogical. The second principle is that any concept of the Prophet’s mission should be determined on the basis of the fundamental teachings of the Prophet, rather than of later Islamic history. For basic teachings are eternal in their nature, whereas history shapes itself around social or human circumstances. For instance, there are certain people who hold that the order of the prophetic action is – dawah, hijrat, jihad, then the establishment of the state. This amounts to deriving the mission from history. For, at no point, do the Quran and Hadith mention that the eternal order of the Prophetic mission would be to first perform dawah, then undertake migration, then perform jihad in the sense of doing battle, and then in the fourth stage establish the Islamic state. This order has been