Studying the Prophet’s Life in the Light of his Message

Studying the Prophet’s Life in the Light of his Message The present age is regarded as being fraught with difficulties for Islam. But the actual state of affairs is quite the opposite. In fact, Islam has done for the present age what the annual monsoon rains do for agriculture. But Muslims, because of their lack of awareness, have failed to understand this and as such have not been able to turn Islamic potential to good account. What is called religious ascendancy in the Quran was not of a temporary nature but was rather a proclamation of the eternal domination of Islam. This meant that, in the world of ideology, such a revolution would take place as would lead to Islam remaining in the forefront forever. Such potential is produced by God, but the task of putting it to the proper use falls on the believers. The aim of the revolution brought about by the Prophet and his companions in the 7th century was the dominance of divine religion as enshrined in the following verses of the Quran: They want to extinguish God’s light with their mouths, but God seeks only to perfect His light, no matter how those who deny the truth may abhor it. It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of Truth, so that He may make it prevail [ideologically] over every other religion, however much the polytheists may hate this. (The Quran, 9:32-33) What is meant here by ascendancy (in Arabic, izhar) in the religious context is ideological and not political pre-eminence. It follows that from the doctrinal standpoint; God’s religion will assume such a superior position that ideological veracity will become the sole preserve of Islam. Granting ideological ascendancy to divine religions is no simple matter. It is, in fact, akin to producing an entire new history. As a matter of fact, God’s religion has always enjoyed a superior position, but since ancient times, human sciences and learning had been evolving along superstitious lines. This had cast a veil over its pristine state. Now God ordained that such an ideological revolution should be brought about by the Final Prophet as would transform this unfavourable, man-made situation. After this had taken place, the human sciences themselves would testify to the truth of divine religion. By the accepted academic standard of human beings, the religion of monotheism would be proven authentic. In the above verse, the predominance of religion was to result from a divine plan carried out with the succour of God by the Prophet and his companions. And indeed, this revolution initiated a new process in human history. Its aim was to unravel all superstitious veils in order that all such hidden scientific proofs might be revealed as would highlight the truth of the religion of monotheism. This revolution in modern times has reached its culmination. There were two chief objectives of this predominance of religion. One was to bring the system