TOWARDS GLOBAL PEACE

to study and learn and they will benefit from other activities even if they are not directly involved in them. According to the Quran, granting of political power is a matter of putting man to the test, just as wealth is a means of testing a person. Wealth and riches are tests for human beings, which is why wealth keeps changing hands, because God has to test every human being. If wealth is permanently given to a single individual or group, then other people cannot be tested. Putting wealth in someone’s possession permanently is contrary to God’s creation plan. Same is true of political power. Political power is also a test paper. Political power is given to someone to see how he behaves after gaining power. Precisely for this reason, political power does not rest in the hands of one individual or a group, but rather it keeps circulating among different people. This principle is explained in these words in the Quran: ‘We bring these days to men by turns.’ (3: 140) The study of the Quran shows that the real purpose of the Prophet’s mission was to prepare people of such lofty and noble character who would be considered worthy of being settled in the eternal Paradise of the Hereafter. The purpose of the teaching of the prophets was not to create a world for people in this world, where they could have a ‘paradise’ to live in before the Hereafter and the Day of Accounting. This political dominance, according to the Quran, is granted only by God. He bestows it upon whoever He wishes, and withholds it from whoever He wishes. The Quran says: Say, ‘Lord, sovereign of all sovereignty. You bestow sovereignty on whom You will and take it away from whom You please; You exalt whoever You will and abase whoever You will. All that is good lies in Your hands. You have the power to will anything.’(3: 26) The Mission of the Prophet of Islam It is narrated in the books of Hadith (sayings and deeds of the Prophet) that one day, while the angel Gabriel was sitting next to the Prophet of God, another angel presented himself before the Prophet. He informed the Prophet that he had come at the behest of God. God had sent him to ask the Prophet a question. The question was whether the Prophet The Prophet’s life abounds with such examples that unequivocally show what his mission was. The Prophet would go to any length in order to make people hear God’s message.