Witness to Truth

example, according to which we have to convey the divine message to mankind.” (Ibn Jarir, Vol. 4, p. 227) First and foremost, the aim of sending prophets into the world is to inform people of the message of Truth in public and in private (71:9). This is to enable them to learn about the scheme of creation of the universe and its ultimate end; so that what is unseen they may have foreknowledge of before the present world comes to an end, when the unseen will become the seen. It is our responsibility to make people aware of the life hereafter, and to warn them—they being the creations of the one God—that all of them are bound to appear before Him to give an account of their deeds. Some people believe in presenting Islam to non-Muslims as a better worldly system. But this assumption is based on false premise. For, if Islam were presented fundamentally in the form of a better worldly system, acceptance of Islam would appear to the addressee as simply a way of solving the problems of this world. That is to say, the aim of Islam would appear to be to offer the means to save people from political and financial sufferings, whereas what the prophets actually came to do was to make people aware of God’s Creation Plan for man. “He lets the spirit descend at His behest on those of His servants whom He chooses, that He may warn (them) of the Day of Meeting.” (40:15) The final stage of this Dawah task, from the point of view of the mad‘u (congregation) is his acceptance of the invitation and his moulding of his life accordingly. But from the point of view of the da‘i, the final stage of his task is his delivering the divine message to the people and, his conveying the truth with complete clarity to his listeners so that there should be no excuse left for anyone to plead ignorance. Thus the standard criterion for the fulfilment of Dawah work for the prophets was only this. They were not held responsible for anything further. All those nations who are mentioned in the Quran as having rejected the message of the prophets and as having incurred the punishment of God for their disobedience, were those very nations to whose subjects the