CHAPTER SEVEN — Final Word

of affairs makes the matter of life extremely grave. Despite this extraordinary gravity, all realities remain hidden from human eyes. God, the angels, paradise, hell—nothing is visible. As such, it was expected from man that when these realities were revealed, he would say, “God, I did not know that this was going to be the end of life. Why did You not tell us before?” In view of the delicacy of this situation, God made an arrangement whereby, with the very creation of the first man, He began sending prophets to the world. In fact the very first man was also the first prophet. The prophets were sent revelations so that they could convey the divine message to mankind. This series of prophets continued from Adam to Jesus Christ. Finally God decided to send the Final Prophet to whom He would send him the last divine book which would be preserved for all time. This event in the seventh century ushered in a new age in human history, subsequent to which the Book of God was to remain in preserved state and no further prophets were to be sent by God. Then the question arises as to what arrangement was made by God for conveying the Creation Plan of the Creator for all the human beings who are born after the cessation of prophethood. The community of the followers of the Prophet Muhammad, the final prophet of God had the onus of conveying in full the divine message to the people. Subsequently these people were charged with conveying the divine message to every generation till Doomsday, so that when the case of these people was presented before God on the Day of Judgement, the followers of the Prophet might stand up and say that they had conveyed the divine message to the people, and that in spite of this, they had not accepted it, and were therefore themselves responsible for their actions. This is the task that has been referred to in the Quran as ‘calling people to God.’ It is an obligation devolving upon the followers of the Prophet. They can in no way be exempted from performing this task. No amount of individual worship will save them from God’s chastisement. If the followers of the Prophet do not perform this