FAITH AND GUIDANCE

FAITH AND GUIDANCE Man’s Permanent Need A verse from the Quran, chapter Victory, Al-Fath (48: 28) says: He is the One who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the true religion, so that He may have it prevail over all [other] religions. God suffices as a witness! T HE style of this verse indicates that the event referred to here is not some human affair, rather it is an outcome of a definite and certain decision of God. God has determined that it should be so. This divine decision is related to the ending of prophethood with the Prophet Muhammad. Because the message of the Final Prophet will remain valid till the Day of Judgement, this decision’s purpose and function too must necessarily remain till the end of time. The verse does not talk about the mission of the Prophet or of the Muslim community; it is about a decision of God that is sure to transpire in human history. The second aspect of this verse refers to God’s guidance―guidance sent by God through revelation. It is God’s decision that His revealed guidance should remain fully preserved in every way—in its Arabic text, its language, its style of writing, its accent, and so on. The Quran was revealed in the seventh century CE. History testifies that the Quran has remained fully intact, in every sense, right till today. With the invention of the printing press and modern means of information storage and communications, the preservation of the Quran in its pristine form is now forever assured. The ‘prevailing of religion’ indicated in the above verse refers to the triumph of the faith, and not of anything else. It does not refer to political power or the establishment of a social system. It means that the message of Islam as presented in the original sources will always retain its ideological dominance. This dominance will be based on account of the evidence that testifies to its veracity and not as any political or social system. To retain the ideological dominance of Islam is an extremely difficult and historic plan. This is because it must be achieved in such a way that human freedom remains whilst the ideological dominance of the religion of Islam continues to prevail. This sort of intricate plan is not possible with human effort. The fulfillment of the plan must be done whilst managing history in such a way that human freedom remains unscathed.