The Significance of Calling People to Tread the Path of God

let alone the Prophet’s followers, not even the Prophet’s wives and children are exempted from it. What does ‘action’ imply? It implies the fulfilment of God’s demands on us in two capacities in this world: firstly, as the servants of God and, secondly, as the followers of the last Prophet. In the first capacity, every Muslim, individually, is expected to be a ‘righteous man,’ thus testifying to his bond with God, while as one of the believers in the last Prophet, he must feel inspired by the necessity of acting as the Prophet’s representative, i.e. he must convey his message to the people. God said: “I have imposed the same duties on the followers of Muhammad as I imposed upon My messengers and prophets.” (Wahab ibn Munabbeh) The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was ordained Messenger of God for the whole world, and his followers were similarly ordained on his behalf for the communities into which they were born. The ordainment of the Prophet was to be kept alive after his death by his people. Mas’ud bin Makhrama relates that the Prophet came to his companions and said: “Verily, God has sent me as a blessing for all peoples. Convey this on my behalf to other people.” (Tahzeeb Seerat ibn Hisham, Vol. II, p. 141). When Rustam asked Rabi bin Aamir why they had come to his country, the latter said: “God has sent us here so that we may, to whom He wills, show the path leading away from the worship of man, and towards the worship of God, from the insufficiencies of this world to divine abundance, and from the tyranny of religions to the justice of Islam.” (Tabari, Vol. III, p. 33). The conveying of this message is so important that all other interests can and should be sacrificed to it. For example, in the sixth year of the Hijra (628 a.d.), when the tr eaty of Hudaybiyyah was concluded, one of the conditions laid down by the Makkans in this treaty was that when they had to pass through Madinah to carry on their trade with Egypt, Syria and Iraq, their safety would be guaranteed (Bukhari and Muslim). That is to say that the Prophet thus allowed the enemies of Islam full freedom to carry out their trading activities within Islamic territory. This,