• Developing a list of the issues that are important in the jurisdiction (School Boards, Municipal, Provincial or Federal) for which elections are being held;
• Identifying the best stance on each of those issues from the perspective of promoting goodness, discouraging evil, and maintaining balance, justice and peace in the society;
• Interviewing each candidate, reviewing his or her recent statements, past record, and voting history on that or similar issues.
• Rating the candidates on each issue as per the evaluation form below and calculating the total score.

The following evaluation form will help you in conducting this analysis with the candidate achieving the highest score being considered the best candidate.

Canadian Evaluation Form

Some Muslims vote haphazardly according to whatever and whoever is promoted in the media. Some vote on the basis of who comes to attend their functions or their Masjid, while the same person may actually be opposed to everything our community stands for.  There are very few who vote for “the best candidate” – a candidate identified to be the best on the basis of issue-based evaluation of all candidates, conducted from the perspective of promoting goodness, discouraging evil, and maintaining balance, justice, and peace. 

Islam requires that people vote for the candidate whose stance on the contemporary issues of his/her jurisdiction is best aligned with the principles of promoting goodness, discouraging evil, and maintaining balance, justice, and peace in the society. This opinion is based on the following Islamic injunctions:

• Allaah’s commands us, as mentioned in part 1, to practise justice and to stand up as witnesses for justice. This requires that we support the best candidate, otherwise we will be acting unjustly
• Voting is also an expression of our opinion as to who is the best. In other words, it is witness from the voter to the candidate and others that he or she is the best of the contestants. A Muslim must be a witness for justice, for Allaah’s sake (65:2) and must not conceal it (2:283).
• We are also commanded to give trusts to those to whom they belong (4:58). Vote is a trust that belongs to the best candidate.
• The verse 4:58 also commands us to judge among people with justice. Selecting the best candidate is an exercise of judgement, and justice demands that we select the best of the candidates.
  

It is possible that the best candidate may not be a winning candidate. Does that justify voting for the second best? Whether the best candidate is going to win or not, it is our duty to vote only for the best. Voting for anyone else for any pragmatic or tactical reason will be doing injustice, giving trust to the wrong person and bearing false witness. Evaluation may indicate that none of the candidates is good enough according to our standard. Can that be a good reason for not voting? Absolutely not! We have to pick the better among all those who are running. If even the best of them is below an acceptable standard, a Muslim should encourage an appropriate person to run or himself/herself become a candidate.

By staying home and not voting, for any reason whatsoever, a Muslim violates the following principles of Islam:

• He indirectly votes for the worst candidate by depriving the better one of support.
• He does not give the trust to whom it belonged;
  
• He does not judge among people with justice, because he treats the worse and the better in the same way;
  
• He hides the witness that should have been given through the vote.

Many people think that the candidates of their favourite party are the best candidates to vote for. This is not true. Every major political party has good and bad candidates with good and bad ideas. Voting purely on the basis of party means one could be voting even for the worst candidates against the teachings of Islam.

Muslims who belong to a political party need to be mindful of their responsibility in a situation where another party’s candidate happens to be a better candidate than his/her own party’s candidate. They should not work for their party’s candidate in that riding. Rather, they should work for their party in a different riding where their party’s candidate happens to be the best.

Identifying the best candidate needs to be done on a riding-by-riding basis, without regard for which party the candidates belong to. Some people think that riding-by-riding evaluation of individual candidates does not fit well with a parliamentary system. In fact, it does so well. The riding by riding approach will help the party that has the highest number of good candidates and helps to weed out their bad candidates. Over the long run, this approach will enhance the quality of the candidates running for office and the quality of Canadian Government.

Some people may think that this emphasis on selecting the best candidates regardless of their party affiliation is misguided because all elected candidates will be bound by the party polices and party discipline. But it should be remembered that party caucuses still have considerable influence on party policy on issues of importance.  If the best people have been elected, the party stance will also lean towards the best stance.

Selecting candidates according to the issue-based evaluation of all candidates on a riding-by-riding basis offers the following benefits:

• The candidates and parties become more focused on important issues;
• Candidates and parties will realize that they will have to deliver on these issues to count on Muslims’ support; just appearing as a special guest or for photo-op at Muslim gatherings will not cut it anymore;
• Participants in these evaluating exercises develop their political judgement – the ability to discriminate between the good, the bad, and the ugly.
• The overall constitution and performance of elected assemblies is improved.

Relevance of Transitional Commands

As for the relevance of the transitional Qur’aanic commands, there are two extremist views about them. One extremist view is that because these commands are still mentioned in the Qur’aan, depending upon one’s circumstances, they can be acted upon. Taking this approach carte blanche is extremely dangerous. This is an approach that has potential to destroy the religion altogether. It leaves people to decide which command they should follow rather than following the decision of Allaah who already has given the final command.

The other extreme is the view that transitional commands are invalid altogether. They are not applicable in any circumstances. This approach also causes serious problems. Our Ummah is currently far away from many very essential basic commands. Reconstructing the Ummah and bringing it back on track will require some interim or transitional phases, however brief they might be. Their approach in fact deprives the Ummah of any chance of getting back on track from the current deplorable condition. The reason is that no matter what, the whole Ummah cannot become organized like the community of Ŝaĥaabah over night. Re-establishing the Islamic institutions, state, Khilaafah, and Islamic economic, political and social system will need going through transitional stage(s). Otherwise it will never happen.

The balanced approach in this respect is twofold:

• Individually, every existing practising Muslim must follow the final commands. There is no excuse or reason for them not to do so. Nothing else will be acceptable from them. However, a person converting to Islam or a strayed person coming back to Islam may have to be taken through some brief transition period. The lifestyle of a person cannot be changed overnight. The person needs to be handheld and brought to the desired level of performance over a planned course of action and timetable. This is in the spirit of the directions that the Prophet gave to Mu‘aadz ibn Jabal while sending him to Yemen:

• Collectively, establishment of Jamaa‘ah, unity, state, Khilaafah, Hudood, justice system, economic system, foreign policy, etc., in a Muslim majority country, all will have to be done through an evolutionary process with a pre-determined plan and strategy so that it can be achieved at an accelerated pace within the shortest period of time, according to the wisdom learned from the methodology used by the Prophet during his original movement. Otherwise, if we keep fighting over Naasikh and Mansookh or demand full implementation on day one, as some people expect it to be done, we will remain in our current condition, never being able to come out.

Examples of Transitional Commands

1. Inheritance: In the first wave of social reforms implemented in Madeenah, the Qur’aan urged Muslims to leave explicit instructions (will or testament) about who should inherit what after their death:

This allowed the concept of distributing inheritance complying with some recognized norms to be accepted and adopted in the society. Then, about two years later, in the second wave of social reforms, Allaah SWT Himself fixed the shares of inheritance for parents, spouses, children and in some cases, of siblings, in An-Nisaa 4:11-12 and 176.

Obviously, once Allaah SWT has designated the shares of inheritance, no Muslim would ever overrule them or amend them according to one’s own views. So, after Allaah’s commands in An-Nisaa, it is usually thought that that 2:180 is abrogated and it is no longer obligatory on anyone to make a will before his death. This is true for cases where there are no special situations to be looked after, but there may be situations where formal bequest is still needed. Therefore, the new commands did recognize the need on bequest and provided for its enforcement by saying, “after the payment of any bequest one may have made or a debt”. There may be situations where the deceased may want to contribute to an important charitable cause or to help some relatives not covered by the laws of inheritance such as the orphaned grandchildren or others whose shares are not designated by that law. In those cases, it is still incumbent on Muslims to leave an explicit will for up to 1/3 of the inheritance, so that the remaining is distributed according to the law of inheritance. When people do not fulfill this responsibility of addressing special situation through a bequest, much injustice happens especially to the orphaned children who deserve the most support but are deprived of inheritance altogether. The bequest may also be needed for one’s pledges, as emphasized in 4:33:

Another situation where a written will must be made in all cases is that of Muslims living in the non-Muslims societies. If they do not leave a will there, their inheritance will be distributed according to the law of the land, not according to the Islamic law of inheritance.

2. Fasting for the Missed Fasts: When the fasting was obligated in the month of Ramadhaan, those sick or travelling were allowed to feed the poor in lieu of fasting, for the number of days missed for those reasons, through the following verse of Al-Baqarah:

Later on, when Muslims became accustomed to this obligation, they were told that they must make up the number of the missed days, once the illness or travel is over, through the following verse:

However, the first allowance is still applicable when someone is incapable of fasting for health reasons and there is no chance of recovery. They should feed the poor in lieu of each fast missed for that reason.

3. Performance of Tahajjud: In the earlier part of his mission in Makkah, the Prophet was obligated to wake up in the later part of the night and stand up in Ŝalaah, reciting the Qur’aan, as told in Al-Muzzammil:

This was called Tahajjud Ŝalaah. In following the footsteps of the Prophet, many Muslims used to perform Tahajjud as well. Then, in the last phase of his mission in Madeenah, the requirement was relaxed so that the length of the time spent in Tahajjud was reduced to whatever people could easily manage, considering their daily duties and routines:

Naasikh and Mansookh

Usually, people use the terms “Naasikh” and “Mansookh” to describe this evolutionary characteristic of the commands in the Qur’aan, where Naasikh (repealer) means the final command that repealed the interim commands called Mansookh (repealed). It is done because of the use of the word Naskh (repeal) in Al-Baqarah 2:106. However, it should be remembered that the Qur’aan has used this terminology only to describe the evolution of the teachings of Sharee‘ah from messengers to messengers – especially the role that Islam, as revealed to our Prophet ŜA‘WS, had played in relation to existing beliefs and practices of the Jews and Christians (the Believers of the earlier Book).

Just as there has been an evolution of Islamic lifestyle within the mission of the Prophet, there has been a natural progression and evolution in the commands of Allaah as they were given to the followers of various prophets and messengers in the past. As the human society was evolving, Allaah SWT was adjusting His commands according to the needs of the people at their specific stage in the evolutionary process of maturity. Our Prophet was sent as the last prophet of Allaah because humanity had matured to a level that the final guidance could be given without any need for future changes or updates. On top of that, the followers of the previous prophets had invented their own Bid‘aat (heresies and innovative deviations), changed the teachings of the prophets, lost some of the teachings or their meaning, etc. Now it was the job of our Prophet ŜA‘WS to present Islam in its pure and final form. Consequently, Islam changed some of the commands that were given to the Believers of the Book in the past because they were transitional for their stage of the evolution and now the stage was set for the final version. It rejected all the Bid‘aat or wrong practices introduced and invented by the Believers of the Book and it restored some of the teachings that were ignored, forgotten or thrown away. When Allaah SWT started sending down the teachings about the societal reforms in Madeenah, and the Prophet ŜA‘WS started implementing those changes from the previous practices of the people of the Book, the Jews would create a lot of noise, raise objections and rant: if Muslims believe that Moosa (Moses) ‘AS was the messenger of Allaah and that Tawraah (Torah) was revealed by Allaah, then why is Islam changing the established teachings of Jewish religion, instead of following them? How can Allaah command differently at different times? Allaah SWT responded to their propaganda and attacks in Al-Baqarah:

This gave a categoric answer to the Jewish objections that the repeal, replacement and disregard of the existing teachings of the Torah is by Allaah’s design to provide humanity with the final and the most suitable teachings that will be useful for them for all times until the Last Day. 

The context of the Qur’aan determines very clearly that this comment is not a general statement to be applicable to everything. Rather, it is specifically applicable to the replacement, reformation and purification of the teachings of the previous religions by the Qur’aan; and this comment was made in response to the Jewish attacks. It came in the context of the responses to Jewish propaganda and appropriate advice to the Muslims in relation to that propaganda. Therefore, using this verse to describe the successive evolutionary teachings of Islam is unjustified. In fact, the verse cannot even be stretched to apply to the evolutionary commands of the Qur’aan because at the time of the revelation of this verse, the first wave of Islamic reforms was being introduced. By that time, none of the commands of the Qur’aan had so far been superseded by subsequent revelations.

If the meaning and the context of the verse is clearly understood, and only the term is used to describe the superseded commands by the subsequent commands, such use can be considered innocuous. However, some people cross the limits, and use the concept of naasikh and mansookh to base their baseless speculation that some verses used to be revealed and recited by the Prophet and Muslims, and then they were removed from the text of the Qur’aan and/or replaced with new revelations. They support this view of Naasikh and Mansookh with verse 101 of An-Nahl, which was revealed in Makkah towards the later period of the Prophet’s mission there.

Verse 101 An-Nahl

To understand the background of this verse, keep in mind that the revelation of the Qur’aan was to provide guidance to the Islamic movement undertaken by the Prophet. Naturally, this required that guidance be provided dynamically on a continuous basis as the movement progressed from phase to phase and from stage to stage until it succeeded in fully attaining its objectives. Thus, the Qur’aan was revealed gradually according to the guidance needs of the movement, every step of the way.

The purpose of the movement was to reform a corrupt society and transform it into a righteous society. When a society is being reformed, reformation happens one step at a time. Sometimes, reformation of a certain area of human activity is done in stages. When one stage is reached, the standards are raised to the next level until the desired level is achieved. That is how Allaah’s commands were given gradually at the right time of their implementation.

Lasting reformation is not possible without changing the views, outlook and paradigms of the society, which is an extremely difficult task. It happens only gradually and over a long period of time. Each point needs to be explained multiple times in a variety of ways from a variety of perspectives to a variety of people. This requires presenting the same point again and again in different styles until it is fully understood and internalized by different audiences. It also requires repeating this process over and over at different stages of the development of the views and the shift in paradigms until they are fully evolved the way Allaah wants them to be. That is what the revelation of the Qur’aan was precisely designed to do as the Book of reformation and change; and that was one of the reasons it was revealed gradually according to the human psychology of change. However, those who are unwilling to understand or change try to justify their attitude by raising objections for objections’ sake, regardless of how absurd they are. Thus, objections against the gradual revelation of the Qur’aan were persistently made by the disbelievers at different times.

As explained in the introduction to this book (1), the Qur’aan has not been compiled in the order of its revelation. Rather, every revelation was inserted at a designated place commanded by Allaah SWT. Sometimes verses were inserted in between previously revealed verses which ended up changing their original context. The Qur’aan was compiled like assembling the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which was being completed by every new revelation. With the arrival of the final revelation, the whole Qur’aan was in the order as it exists today. At the time of revelation of this verse, Soorah Al-An‘aam and this Soorah An-Naĥl were both being revealed. Some verses were inserted in one Soorah, others in the other. That is why we find references in both Soorahs to each other’s verses. Although it was perfectly according to the plan of Allaah SWT, to uninitiated or ignorant people it appeared as if someone did not know what he was doing and as if he was trying to make up his mind as he moved along. That is why the opponents thought the Prophet must be forging the Qur’aan in pieces and then trying to fit the pieces here and there.

1  For full discussion on the topic of the compilation of the Qur’aan, refer to the articles in “About the Qur’aan” section.

Verses 101-102 of An-Nahl were revealed in respect of both types of the abovementioned objections:

1  For a detailed discussion on this translation vis-à-vis other translations, refer to the appendix to this soorah.

2  This is the title of archangel Jibreel (Gabriel) who has no divine attributes, but unfortunately, the Trinitarians have deified him. The “holy spirit” has not been capitalized intentionally, to avoid confusion with the Christian term for the third member of their Trinity.

Scholars mostly agree that verse 101 responds to the Makkan objection against the gradual revelation of the Qur’aan, but there is some difference of opinion as to which aspect of the gradual revelation is being focused on in this response.

Obviously, this verse cannot be about the evolutionary introduction of the Qur’aanic commands, because not many commands had been revealed by the time of its revelation. Amin Ahsan Islahi thinks that the focus is on the rules about lawful and unlawful foods because these commands were being given in both Soorah Al-An‘aam and this Soorah, which were at variance with the idolatrous traditions of the Arabs in some respects and with the Jewish traditions in some other respects. The Jews strongly objected to the difference. They claimed: had the Prophet been Allaah’s messenger, he would have brought the same law as they followed. This objection was regurgitated by the Makkans at the behest of the Jews. Therefore, Islahi translates verse 101 as “We replace one verse with another” whereby verse refers to Allaah’s law whether it was revealed to Moosa or the Prophet; so the verse according to him means, “We replace Jewish law (verses of the Torah) with Islamic law (verses of the Qur’aan)”. However, although the situation he has reported is valid, this meaning does not fit with the objective “to bring firmness to those who believe” in verse 102, because firmness is the product of timely and gradual revelations about the fundamentals of faith, not of the sporadic commands.

Syed Maududi asserts that “replacing one verse with another verse” means: repeating the same subject matter in different styles at different occasions, using different examples at different places to explain the same point, citing different aspects of the same story of previous messengers in different words at different places and different times, mentioning a point briefly at one place and elaborating it at the other, etc. These are all valid examples and valid reasons that explain the gradual revelation of the Qur’aan and their benefit “to bring firmness to those who believe and as a guidance and good news for Muslims”. However, none of these examples can be taken to mean “replacing one verse with another” in actuality. In fact, no verse of the Qur’aan has ever been replaced with another. Every word of the Qur’aan has been preserved as it was once revealed. Thus, although Maududi’s examples and points are all valid in themselves, they do not address the “replacing” aspect mentioned in verse 101.

T.B. Irving (4) has translated this verse as “Whenever We shift a verse from its context in favour of another verse…”, whereby the phrase “Makaana Aayatin” i.e., “the place of the verse” refers its location in the context of other verses. We agree with his understanding of the verse and thus have translated it as “When We insert a verse shifting the context (place) of an earlier verse …”.

4  The Noble Qur’an, 1992, Amana Books

Accordingly, verse 101 refers to the contextual placement of the verses revealed and reminds people that Allaah very well knows what He is revealing, when it should be revealed and where it should fit in the context; and it is they who do not know the facts. Verse 102 explains the wisdom in and benefits of revealing the Qur’aan gradually in small chunks. The “holy spirit” mentioned in this verse, is the title of Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) who was bringing the revelation to the Prophet. He has been mentioned to impress the point that he is pure of any weakness that would impact the quality or reliability of the message with which he is sent by Allaah SWT. The benefits of the gradual revelation mentioned in this verse are: it brings firmness to believers by frequent reminders in different styles and by helping them build on their earlier achievements; it provides guidance to the Muslims, revealed at the most appropriate time of their need; and it continues to give them the good news of their success in this world and in the Hereafter, thus keeping their spirits high despite the challenges they face. When it says, “guidance for Muslims”, it includes all Muslims who join the movement later on as well as the subsequent generations of Muslims. It is for their guidance needs and benefit that the verses were being ordered and contextualized differently than the order of their revelation.

Those who translate verse 101 as “When We replace a verse with another” and connect it to Naskh verse 2:106 implying that some portions or verses of the Qur’aan were revealed and then cancelled and replaced by different verses overlook not only the context of the verses but some other facts as well. For example, this verse (101) under discussion was revealed in Makkah, while the Naskh verse 2:106 was revealed in Madeenah. If their view is accepted, it suggests the following scenario:

• Allaah SWT sends down the verses of the Qur’aan and continues to revise them as the time passes, replacing the old revelations with new verses.
• Observing such frequent revisions, the Makkans conclude that it cannot be from Allaah, the Prophet is only fabricating them on his own and revising them as the time passes.
• In response, Allaah SWT tells them, “We know what We send down; We do it that way to bring firmness to those who believe…”.
• Then years later, in Madeenah, when Makkans are not there, He tells, “We do so because We replace the cancelled verses with similar or better ones”.

Does that sound like the scenario of the sublime and amazing Qur’aan that is Allaah’s eternal word?

The fact is that Allaah SWT is the knower of everything known and unknown in the past, present and future. Every revelation He sent down to the Prophet was based on His perfect knowledge and thus, never needed a revision. It is human weakness that people come up with ideas and then they have to revise them when they discover some more pertinent information or gain more experience. Allaah SWT and His words are infinitely above such weaknesses. Every word He revealed to His Messenger was eternal and never needed to be revised, changed or edited. Were the words of the Qur’aan or its verses being changed in any manner after their revelation, the objection of the Makkans would have been very valid and Allaah’s response “and Allaah knows best what He sends down” would have been meaningless. This response would be valid only if, being based on Allaah’s own eternal knowledge, the revelation would be true and valid until the Day of Judgment. Moreover, if the previous revelations were being replaced by new ones, they would not bring firmness to those who believed, but would have rather caused doubts and confusion.

In reality, once the words were revealed to the Prophet, they became a permanent part of the Qur’aan and were never edited, redacted, replaced or changed in any manner whatsoever. That is why even the personal instructions of temporary nature that were meant only for the Prophet but were included in the revelations became integral verses of the Qur’aan and remain so. Had there been any deletions or replacements, they would have been the first to go. Just two evident examples are the following:

      1. In the initial days of revelations, the Prophet was taught the proper way of receiving the revelations and was told in Al-Qiyaamah:

These instructions were given interrupting the flow of the message. After these instructions, the Prophet adhered to them so well that he never had to be reminded again. If the replacement was ever done, they would have been the glaring candidates to be replaced.

2. Similarly, in the heat of the opposition from his enemies, the revelations from Allaah were the major sources of solace and strength for the Prophet. Therefore, he used to wait anxiously for Jibreel to show up and desired him to come more often with revelations; but was told in Maryam

5  Here, the revelation quotes Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) to convey his and his fellow angels’ feelings.

Once again, there was no need to make them a part of the Qur’aan but the rule was whatever came down was to remain a part of the Qur’aan forever.

3. When the Islamic mission was spreading at a fast pace in Madeenah and a large number of people were accepting Islam, many of them would come to visit the Prophet and want to confer with him privately for minor, usual things that could easily be discussed in public. It was creating much hardship for the Prophet and wasting his time unnecessarily. To eliminate such superfluous requests, Allaah made a rule that whoever wanted to talk to the Prophet privately should first pay some charity. People got the message; therefore, shortly after, the rule was repealed. Both verses, as given below, are in Soorah Mujaadalah:

6  Remain attached and organized as an Islamic polity through congregational system of Ŝalaah.

7  Finance the activities and projects of the Islamic polity through the payment of Zakaah.

Were the Qur’aan ever edited or had any verses ever been deleted, these verses of a very temporary nature would not be where they are.

Summary

Other Invalid Views about Naasikh and Mansookh

Unfortunately, those who took the above two verses out of their context and concluded that the Qur’aan has been revised and edited in the sense of verses being deleted and replaced have done serious injustice to Allaah SWT and to His Word, the glorious and sublime Qur’aan.

What happens is that once a person steps on a slippery slope, he cannot help but going lower and lower. Consequently, some of those people came up with the following kind of ideas:

• There were verses that were a part of the Qur’aan but were abrogated; but the commands they contained is still applicable.
• Hadeeth can abrogate the Qur’aan.

Such views are utterly misguided and invalid. The word of our Lord and Master is eternal, not needing any revision, nor any abrogation, nor can it be overridden by any human word, even if it is the word of our Prophet Ŝ‘AWS.

I have been explaining repeatedly in my Tafseer that oaths are used in the Qur-aan to present the evidence for the statement that follows the oaths. In these verses, Allaah SWT has presented the Qur-aan as evidence that the Prophet is neither insane nor possessed. 

These verses revealed in the early Makkan period indicate that the revelations were scribed as they were revealed. The details are as follows:

When the Prophet ŜA‘WS told the Makkans about the Hereafter and invited them to believe in it, they rejected the idea as an impossibility. When he persisted, they ridiculed him for promoting such an unbelievable idea. Because of his perseverance, they thought he had become insane or an evil-spirit had possessed him. Soorah Al-Qalam (68) was revealed in that early period of his mission when the Makkan chiefs had started calling him insane or a possessed-man. The first few verses of the soorah falsify this characterization, using “pen” and “what was being written” as evidence against it. The following is the translation and excerpts from my Tafseer for those verses: (1)

1  http://www.teachingsofthequraan.com/soorah/68

Exegetes have interpreted “pen” and “what they write” in different ways, but the interpretation that is most sensible and most fitting with the context of the soorah and the verses that follow the oath is the one given by a famous exegete, Mujahid, who says that the “pen” refers to any pen that was used by the scribes to write the revelations of the Qur-aan, and “what they write” refers to the text of the Qur-aan. Tabari has quoted him as follows:

حدثني محمد بن عمرو، قال: ثنا أبو عاصم، قال: ثنا عيسى، عن ابن أبي نجيح، عن مجاهد، في قوله: { ن وَالقَلَمِ } قال: الذي كُتِبَ به الذكر.حدثني الحارث، قال: ثنا الحسن، قال: ثنا ورقاء، عن ابن أبي نجيح، أخبره عن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر، عن مجاهد، في قوله: { ن والقَلَمِ } قال: الذي كتب به الذكر.وقوله: { ومَا يَسْطُرُون } يقول:۔۔۔ وهو أن يكون معناه: وسطرهم ما يسطرون، فتكون «ما» بمعنى المصدر. وإذا وُجه التأويل إلى هذا الوجه، كان القسم بالكتاب، كأنه قيل: ن والقلم والكتاب. 

For his statement about “Noon; by the pen”, Mujahid said: By which the Reminder (the Qur-aan) is written. And about “wa maa yasturoon” … its meaning will be “by their writing of what they write”… So, when we interpret it in this manner, then it is the “oath by the Book” as if saying, “Noon; by the pen and the Book”.

Syed Abul A‘la Maududi and Syed Amin Ahsan Islahi have also adopted the same Tafseer.

Accordingly, the “pen” in the oath refers to a pen, in general, as an instrument of writing that was being used by the Prophet’s scribes to write the revelations of the Qur-aan; “they” refers to the scribes who were commissioned to write; and “what they write” refers to the text of the Qur-aan that was being dictated to them by the Prophet. These oaths, thus, present the exquisitely eloquent, rational, wise, concise and superb text of the Qur-aan as witness and evidence to the statements that follow in verses 2-4 that “by the bountiful favour of your Lord, you are not an insane or possessed man; there definitely is a never-ending reward for you; and you do maintain a tremendous character.”

In this way, Allaah SWT has presented the very Dzikr (the Qur-aan) for the recitation of which the opponents were calling him majnoon (insane, possessed) as the evidence of the falsity of their claim. Similarly, the last two verses of the soorah reinforce this connection and close with the same matter with which the first two verses started:

To reflect upon other linkages between different parts of the soorah, pondering on the message of the following verses will also be helpful:

The opponents of the Prophet ŜA‘WS are being questioned that the Qur-aanic revelations that are being written declare that only Muslims will be rewarded in the Hereafter, while those who commit evils will be punished. Do you have any book that says otherwise, or that says you will get what you choose?

Then, addressing the Prophet, it raises a similar question about his opponents: what is the basis of their refusal to believe in the Prophet ŜA‘WS; are they, like him, receiving any knowledge of the unseen and putting it in writing?

This interpretation of the pen and what they write is further supported by the way the Qur-aan has responded to the opponents’ calling him majnoon in Soorah At-Toor 52:29-41. 

Therefore, there is a consistent theme throughout the soorah challenging the disbelievers on the basis of the text of the Qur-aan and it being put in writing.

Quite often questions are raised as to what will happen to the disbelievers (Kuffaar) in the Hereafter. Will they be punished in the Hell? Even the nice, friendly, charitable people? How about scientists and doctors who are benefiting humanity with their services? Is there any difference between the consequences for the people of the book (Jews / Christians) and those for the pagans? Why should they be punished if they are sincerely following their own religion? What if they do not know anything about Islam, Prophet Muĥammad Ŝall-Allaahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam (ŜA‘WS) or the Qur-aan? Especially, when their intention is only the service of humanity or the service of God? Why should they be punished, after all they are what they are because of the family and the society they were born in? Had they been born in a Muslim home, they would have been Muslims! The list of these questions can go on and on.

Responding to Disbelievers

When a disbeliever raises these questions, it is understandable. It may be difficult to tell them the truth, but that is what we have to do. It must, however, be done with the appropriate Da‘wah message with it. The following points have to be clarified to them along with an appropriate Da‘wah message that will depend on the audience and the circumstances:

True Faith is the Foremost Pre-requisite of Salvation

From the Islamic point of view, only those people can attain salvation and success in the Hereafter who fulfill two pre-requisites. The first pre-requisite is to have accurate beliefs about God, His messengers, His books and the life Hereafter. The second pre-requisite is acting righteously on an ongoing basis. Both requirements must be satisfied to attain salvation and to avoid the punishment in the Hereafter.

If the belief is incomplete, inaccurate, or faulty, the person cannot become a citizen of the Kingdom of God, irrespective of his/her deeds. The belief in God must be with the conviction that He is One and Unique Creator of everything and everyone that exists or has ever existed in this universe; Who is infinite in every respect, above and beyond any finite or human attributes; has never begotten anyone nor is He begotten; indivisible in His person or his roles; and there nothing is the universe in His image or like, resembling, similar, or equal to Him, in any sense, shape for form. The belief in the messengers of God and His books requires that not a single of them is denied and that the latest prophet or the messenger of the time and the latest edition of the book of God in force during one’s time must be accepted and followed. For example, if a person living in the years of Moses, peace be upon him (PBUH), regardless of how devoted to God that person was, accepted wholeheartedly Noah (PBUH) and Abraham (PBUH) but did not accept Moses (PBUH) and the Torah, he/she would not have been able to attain salvation. After Jesus (PBUH) arrived, even a God-fearing or a devout Jew could not have attained the salvation without accepting and following Jesus (PBUH) as the messenger of God. It is so because a believer in God must accept the latest messenger sent by God as His representative. God sends messengers to be accepted and followed. He does not tolerate rejection of His messengers. Rejection of any of His messengers is indirectly rejecting God Himself.

After Jesus (PBUH), Allaah SWT appointed Muĥammad ŜA‘WS as His messenger and revealed His Word, the Qur-aan, to him. Muhammad ŜA‘WS is the last messenger of Allaah SWT and the Qur-aan is the last book of Allaah. They both are currently the God’s Messenger and the Book in force and they both will remain in force until the Day of Judgment. Anyone not accepting Muhammad ŜA‘WS as the Messenger of God and Qur-aan as the book of God cannot be a believer, a person of God, or a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Both must be accepted and followed for anyone’s faith being acceptable to Allaah SWT; otherwise, Allaah considers him/her a disbeliever. Hence, even ‘good’ Christians, for example, cannot attain salvation by practising Christianity. They are failing on almost four counts. Their belief in God (because of the concept of trinity) is highly suspect, they reject Muhammad ŜA‘WS and the Glorious Qur-aan, and their belief in the Hereafter is also imprecise and clumsy. To remedy these flaws, they have to accept Islam if they want salvation, Similarly, the Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Pagans, Satanists, agnostics, atheists, etc. – any disbelievers, regardless of how good they are, cannot attain salvation in the Hereafter without adopting Islamic beliefs.

This what Allaah has taught; that is the admitting standard He has set and the law He had laid down. We have no option except to state, preach and warn people about this reality. That is precisely every believer’s duty for which they will be held responsible; however, while stating this fact is our duty, we are not the one who will judge people against his law, standard and criteria.

What if They Don’t Know?

The judgment is going to be carried out in the Hereafter by God who is All-Knowing, Most-Wise and Absolutely Just. He has perfect knowledge of everyone’s circumstances, attitudes, ideas and also of the opportunities available to everyone to know about the true faith of Islam. He has absolute knowledge of what a person could or could not have done. Because He knows all that is there to know and because He will not be unjust to anyone, He will obviously consider one’s peculiar circumstances before giving His Judgment. But before any disbeliever takes courage to put up ignorance about Islam, Muĥammad ŜA‘WS or the Glorious Qur-aan as a defence for themselves, they have to justify and prove to the satisfaction of the All-Knowing God if:

• They fulfilled their responsibility fully in finding the truth when they saw or heard about Islam, Muĥammad or the Qur-aan mentioned by people or in the newspapers or radio and TV programs.
  
• They, as they grew up, fulfilled their obligation to themselves by questioning rationally their beliefs vis-à-vis other faiths and ideologies.
  
• They tried to seek the truth when their mind questioned everything in their lives at the age of puberty and at the mid-life stage. After all, God did not put in vain these questioning stages of life in our nature.
  

So, if you have honestly and sincerely exhausted all avenues of finding the truth of the Islamic faith, and have availed all the opportunities given by God in seeking the true faith but you still remained ignorant about Islam, God will not be unjust to you. If that is not the case, what is your excuse?

What about their Good Deeds?

God being Just will not let anyone’s good deeds go in vain. Because there will be no reward for their good behaviour in the Hereafter, the good deeds of all the non-beleivers are rewarded right here in this world through prosperity, good fortune, fame, applause, recognition, acclaim, monetary gain and awards (the natural consequences for their good actions). For those good deeds for which they did not enjoy the rewards by way of natural consequences, Allaah SWT may reduce the severity of the Fire of the Hell for someone’s consistent good behaviour but eternal punishment in the Hell will not be taken away without one’s adopted the valid Islamic beliefs (1).

1  For more discussion on this topic, see appendix titled “Justice and Mercy of Allaah:”.

Responding to Muslims

When these questions are raised in Muslim circles, it is disconcerting. It is incomprehensible, both logically and Islamically, that a Muslim would raise such questions or argue about them! Why? Let us see:

Logically Speaking

A Muslim is a person who believes in the truth of Islam. In other words, a Muslim claims that Islam is the true religion and, by default, implies that other religions are wrong. Then, how can a Muslim logically question the punishment of the people of other faiths or resent the idea that non-Muslims will be punished, unless he is implying one of the following absurdities:

• That all religions are equally true and acceptable.
  
• That faith is a useless thing. Believing or not believing in Islam really does not matter. It has no impact on the consequences in the Hereafter.
  

Perhaps they think that being a “good” person is the only thing that matters. Disregarding the perception or definition of “good”, let us take their way of thinking to its logical conclusion. If faith is not important and only being “good” is all that is needed for salvation, then why to believe in Islam at all? If faith in Islam is not a requirement for salvation, why did Allaah Subĥaanahu Wa Ta‘aalaa (SWT) send Prophet Muĥammad ŜA‘WS and make him go through all the difficulties he went through? And why would He make Muslims go through all the persecutions they have faced for the sake of Islam and are still facing? If all that is needed to attain success in the Hereafter is to become a “good” person irrespective of faith, then, why not let all those who are being persecuted all over the world just because they are Muslims become good Jews in Palestine, good Christians in Bosnia and good Hindus in Kashmir?

If Islam is not a real factor in attaining the salvation, why is Allaah SWT putting people through unnecessary troubles? Is He stupid or is He a masochist Who enjoys seeing people go through useless hardships and seeing people persecuted for their faith unnecessarily?

Any sensible person can see that the consequences of being a Muslim (a true Muslim who follows Islam properly in actions and behaviour) and a non-Muslim cannot be the same. And if they are not the same, why all those aforementioned questions?

Islamically Speaking

Usually, for the Muslims who raise these kinds of questions it is hard to accept that some people who do nice things in the life of this world will be punished in the Hell. Not realizing the criticality of these issues from an Islamic perspective and not knowing the Qur-aanic verdict in this regard, they assume that the punishment of all the nice non-Muslims friends and neighbours in the Hell must be the product of unstable thinking of some narrow-minded religious fanatics. Instead of accepting the reality, they try to justify what they think should be the reality. Sometimes, these questions are also raised by the Muslims who have been confronted with these questions by a non-Muslim friend whom they could not answer because of the lack of their knowledge. For the benefit of these people, let us see, then, what the Glorious Qur-aan has to say in answer to these questions:

Is any religion other than Islam acceptable to Allaah SWT?

What does the Qur-aan say about the treatment of Kuffaar or Disbelievers in the Hereafter?

There are about 170 places in the Glorious Qur-aan that describe unequivocally that the people who do not follow the Islamic way of life will be punished in the Hell. At a majority of those places, Jannah (Garden, Heaven) is also mentioned in parallel as the reward for the believers. Here are a few examples:

Also consider the following verses:

As the preceding verses indicate, there are basically two requirements that must be fulfilled by those who wish to avoid the torments of the Hell and enter into the Jannah (the Garden). First requirement is faith (Eemaan) in all the articles of faith including the Glorious Qur-aan and Muĥammad ŜA‘WS. The second requirement is performance of good deeds. Both must be satisfied. Just one requirement is not enough. If the faith in Islam is missing, the best actions are not going to help. If the actions are not in line, the faith is questionable. Wherever in the Glorious Qur-aan Allaah SWT has mentioned the reward of Jannah, both faith and good deeds have been mentioned as the qualifying criteria. Here are two more examples:

Does the Punishment Apply to Ahlul Kitaab (Believers of the Book, i.e. Jews and Christians)?

It certainly does! As the following verses indicate, it applies to all Kuffaar (Disbelievers) whether they are Ahllul Kitaab or any other kind of disbelievers.

If they want to attain salvation and enter Paradise, they have to believe in Muĥammad ŜA‘WS:

And as it is reported in the Aĥaadeeth:

What about the verse 62 of Al-Baqarah?

Many people being unfamiliar with the style of the Glorious Qur-aan are confused when they read the literal translation of the verse 62 of Al-Baqarah (2:62) out of its context. Taken in isolation, the verse appears to suggest that one does not have to be a Muslim to attain Salvation. Regardless of the religion, any person who believes in God and the Day of Judgment and performs good deeds will have no problem attaining the Salvation. But that is not the correct message of the said verse. Before embarking on the detailed discussion on this verse, it will be useful to review a few points about the style and understanding of the Glorious Qur-aan.

Three features of the literary style of the Glorious Qur-aan must be kept in view in order to understand the proper meaning of this verse and the Glorious Qur-aan in general:

1. The Glorious Qur-aan uses as few words as possible to make a statement, give an order or narrate an incident. A lot is left unsaid that can be determined by other means within the Glorious Qur-aan. This brevity is one of the most outstanding beauties and miracles of the Glorious Qur-aan.
   
2. The Glorious Qur-aan puts significant reliance on the context of the words, phrases and sentences to determine their specific meaning. To understand the Glorious Qur-aan properly, its phrases and sentences should never be taken in isolation of its context.
   
3. If something is alluded to briefly or partially in one place because the context did not require the rest of the details, it is always given fully and completely at some other place (or places) in the Glorious Qur-aan. Hence, the meaning of any Qur-aanic term, phrase or verse must be determined in conjunctions with all its occurrences in the Glorious Qur-aan and the contexts where they appear. That is why the first and foremost principle of the exegesis (Tafseer) or explanation of the Glorious Qur-aan is that the Qur-aan explains itself and determines the meanings of its own contents. It is also the reason that anyone who does not have expert knowledge of the whole Qur-aan should not try to determine the meanings of its words, phrases or verses on one’s own.      

If these fundamental features of the text of the Glorious Qur-aan are not kept in view, a person may have difficulty in understanding the meaning of many other verses in the Qur-aan, not only this verse 2:62.

So, what is the context of the verse 2:62?

The Jews of Arabia were renowned for their scholarship, knowledge and religious leadership. Their animosity to Islam and their anti-Islamic activities were keeping some people who were much impressed with the Jewish scholarship away from Islam. The reality of the Jews needed to be brought to light so that they could be seen as they were. Also, there are always some good elements in all people. To bring sensible, good natured Jews towards Islam, it was necessary to make them realize the crimes of the Jewish people and show them directly the proper behaviour that should be adopted. Moreover, the Jews were, in fact, the Muslims of the past. It was also necessary to warn the Muslims of the Jewish follies, so that the Muslims do not fall into the same trap. For all these reasons and more, Soorat-ul-Baqarah (Chapter 2) addresses the Jews and presents a summary of the Jewish history starting from verse 40.

In this regard, a lot of Jewish crimes were exposed and their misconceptions dispelled. One of their greatest misconceptions was that they, being the descendants of the prophets, were the chosen people, blessed by God forever, not to end up in the Fire except maybe for a short while. To them, regardless of what they did, salvation was theirs. No one else could get it. Because of their misconception and their pride in their heritage, they were very condescending to the Muslims as well as to Gentiles in general. The questions 2:61-62 are answering is: Do their claims have any merit? Are they so dear to Allaah SWT that they are not going to be punished regardless of their behaviour? Will Allaah not favour anyone except them? Is salvation dependent on the family, tribe, genealogy or ethnicity of a person, or is it dependent on one’s personal faith and good deeds?

Firstly, Allaah SWT bluntly dispelled their notion that they were the ‘chosen’ people loved dearly by Allaah SWT, and informed them that rather than being Allaah’s favourites, they have in fact earned Allaah’s curse due to their repeated transgression:

Then, Allaah SWT continued further by telling them that Allaah rewards the true belief and sincere practice of any individual, whether a Jew or a Gentile:

The same comment is repeated in Chapter 5:

Both of these verses negate the misconceptions and wishful thinking of the Jews by saying: NO! Allaah SWT is not racist. Allaah SWT does not and will not reject anyone’s faith and actions just because the person did not belong to a certain race or ethnic group. The real determinant of success and salvation in the Hereafter is one’s personal faith and good deeds. Nothing else! If a person believes and practices accordingly, he/she will be appropriately rewarded regardless of ethnicity. Conversely, if a person is devoid of faith and does not perform good deeds, he/she will not attain salvation regardless of which category of the census data one’s name used to be counted in the world or which family one was born in. When it come to the Hereafter, it is all an individual affair. Indirectly, it was encouraging the good-hearted people from the Jews, Christians and others that they should step forward and adopt the proper faith and practice in order to attain salvation. At the same time warning the Muslims, that if they do not have true faith and appropriate actions, even they would not get the salvation.

As to what constitutes faith and good deeds acceptable to Allaah SWT is not the subject matter of these verses. Those details had been well explained throughout the earlier revelations. It is against the style of the Qur-aan to repeat the full list of things that are not the topic of the discussion and have already been appropriately dealt with in the past. The objective here is just to allude to the faith and good deeds, not to expound on them. Thus, neither the details of the good deeds have been given here, nor all the articles of faith mentioned. The verse briefly mentions only the faith in Allaah and the Day of Judgment as the representative of all other articles of faith. All other articles of faith are automatically covered by these two basic beliefs. A person who believes in Allaah SWT as his Lord and believes in the accountability on the Day of Judgment has to automatically believe in the messengers and books as they explain what Allaah wants us to be accountable for. And the belief in the messengers and books is not acceptable without the belief in the last of them. So the faith in Allaah and the Last Day fully represents the Islamic Faith as we know it.

In fact, at the beginning of the discourse in verse 40, Allaah SWT had invited the Jews:

If a few verses later He was going to tell them, “You will certainly be successful if you remain a good believing Jew”, why would Allaah SWT remind them about the covenant of believing in the Prophet ŜA‘WS, command them to believe in the Qur-aan, and warn them against rejecting it?

Similarly, the verse immediately preceding the verse 5:69 of Al-Maaidah has the following to say:

Also consider the following verse:

Hence, it is clear that the purpose of the subject verses is not to give a license to the people to disbelieve in the last Messenger of Allaah and His last Book and still attain Salvation. Anyone who wishes to attain Salvation must believe in Islam, as has been described earlier, including sincere belief in Muĥammad ŜA‘WS and the Glorious Qur-aan. Without sincere Islamic belief and full practice of Islamic lifestyle no one will be able to attain success in the Hereafter.

As the Glorious Qur-aan says:

The real message of both of the verses from chapters 2 and 5 is that:

• The Jews do not have special status with Allaah SWT;
• The people who believe in Islam and practice accordingly will succeed in the Hereafter and attain salvation, regardless of what kind of society they were born in;
  

Moreover, these verses also serve the following other purposes for the future Muslims (like us) through the example of the Jews (the Muslims of the past):

• To frankly explain to the Muslims that Allaah’s favours and blessings are endowed to people on the basis of their personal faith, commitment, dedication, actions and righteousness, not on the basis of being born in a certain group of people. Having a Muslim name or being born to a Muslim family has absolutely no value in the eyes of Allaah SWT, unless it is backed by sincere, passionate faith as well as devoted, total obedience to Allaah SWT.
  
• To warn the Muslims that they will be cursed and humiliated like the Jews if they do adopt the same kind of attitude to Islam.
• To remove the misconceived notion of superiority the ‘born’ Muslims may sometimes feel over ‘converted’ Muslims. Some ignorant Muslims have been observed to have this kind of feeling towards converts, just as the Jews had this kind of feeling towards the Muslims.
  
• To encourage the people contemplating conversion to Islam that they should not feel held back by their roots and origins. Islam values individual faith, conviction and actions of a person, regardless of one’s past. Islam is for the whole humanity. It does not reject anyone coming forward to believe, unlike a situation reported in the Gospels and (perhaps wrongfully) attributed to Jesus that he refused to help a Canaanite woman on the premise, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” (Mt. 15:26)

What happens to the Good Deeds of Disbelievers?

Regardless of the nature of their actions, the disbelievers do not get any reward in the Hereafter.

Allaah SWT is not only Just but also Merciful to people. Although He has every right and justification to punish, irrespective of their good deeds, those who do not follow His straight path and His religion, He rewards such disbelievers for their good deeds in this world in the form of wealth, fame, prestige, recognition, etc (2):

2  For more discussion on this topic, see appendix titled “Justice and Mercy of Allaah:”.

Also, as the Hell has various levels differing in the intensity of the punishment, naturally, the non-Muslims will be punished in various levels of the Hell in accordance with their overall good / bad behaviour and lifestyles. According to the reports in Aĥaadeeth, the lightest punishment of the non-Muslims will be given to Aboo Ŧaalib because of his untiring and unrelenting support and sacrifices for the sake of the Prophet SA‘WS. Even in that case of lightest punishment, his brain will boil with the heat of the Fire in which he will be kept in. And the punishment will be never-ending, eternal.

In Brief

None can attain salvation, be successful in the Hereafter, enter Paradise or avoid the Fire of Hell without accepting Allaah SWT as the Lord, Muhammad SA‘WS as the messenger, the Qur-aan as the ultimate guidance and Islam as the way of life - unless and until the person had never heard about Muhammad SA‘WS and had no way of knowing about the existence of the religion of Islam. The Glorious Qur-aan invites the whole mankind:

And the Prophet SA‘WS himself said:

What about the People Who are Unaware of Islam?

The questions dealt with so far have been in the territory of our control and our understanding. They are in the area of our control because a person who finds his or her behaviour deviant from the guidance mentioned here has full control to change himself or herself accordingly. These questions are in the human realm of understanding because people can understand the points made. Moreover, the people need these questions answered for their guidance. They need to know what way of life is rewarded by Allaah SWT and what incurs his wrath and punishment. They need to understand the consequences of various modes of actions and behaviours so that they can adopt the appropriate models. Hence, the Glorious Qur-aan has gone to great lengths to explain this kind of issues, and has repeated them in various styles so that they become ingrained in our minds, our psyches and our souls.

This last question (about the treatment of non-Muslims who are unaware of Islam) does not pertain to our area of control. This is beyond our territory. This is the territory of Judgment and the Judgment belongs to Allaah SWT alone. That is why Allaah SWT has not even alluded to it in the Glorious Qur-aan. The Glorious Qur-aan provides the information only on the ‘need to know’ basis. It addresses only those issues that are essential for our guidance and it talks about them only as much as is essential - no more, no less.

As far as Allaah SWT is concerned, He knows how to handle such issues and He has told us clearly:

For the ordinary Muslims, any indulgence in this issue is extremely hazardous for four reasons:

1. A blanket statement cannot be made because each person’s circumstances are different as to what chances a person had to know about Islam and Muhammad SA‘WS and how had he or she availed those chances.
2. We cannot comment on any individual regardless of how much we know about that individual. Our knowledge is neither complete nor perfect and we do not know the motives, the intentions, the agendas, the considerations and the emotions behind the actions of individuals.
3. If someone concludes an opinion about a specific case and presents it to others as a valid opinion, the person is committing a blasphemy of second-guessing Allaah SWT. If that opinion in fact happens to be different from Allaah’s judgment, the person is incurring the wrath of Allaah SWT.
   
4. In addition to being dangerous for our own salvation, it is a sheer waste of our time and energy because we cannot do anything about it anyway. Whatever we say is irrelevant. None of our discussion is going to affect the outcome which Allaah SWT decides is the Just outcome.

For those who insist to delve into such hazardous area, one just need to ask them some basic questions:

Do we need this issue answered to live an Islamic life? Do we need it for da‘wah purpose?

No, certainly not for any of these two purposes. The Glorious Qur-aan would not have left it out, were it going to be useful for us to know. And had it been necessary at all, the Glorious Prophet ŜA‘WS and all the believers since his day would not have been able to succeed without an answer to this question. Then, if this issue is useless for our performance of duties, why do we indulge in it?

Do we think Allaah needs a helping hand from us? Do we doubt His being able to do justice? Do we want to make up a deficiency in the Qur-aan? Or, do we feel ashamed of the harsh punishments Allaah SWT has promised to give to our non-Muslim friends, bosses, colleagues and masters?

Our Responsibility to Non-Muslims

There is, however, one aspect of this issue that must concern us the most. In reality, that must make us shudder and shiver for the enornous responsibility that we have on our shoulders. As long as there are any people in this world who have not heard about the truth of Islam, it is our job and our duty to make the message of Islam known to them. And if we do not perform our duty, we might ourselves end up in the Hell. So, the issue is serious for us but in a totally different context. It is serious not because we do not know what will happen to them; it is serious because we will be held accountable for their lack of knowing about the truth of Islam.

And we owe this duty to non-Muslims not only because Allaah has made it our obligation but also because of the compassion we must have for the people of the world. We must try to save everyone we can reach from the punishment of the Hereafter.

Hence, the topic of the discussion among the Muslims should not be “What will happen to the people who have no idea about Islam”, but rather “How can we fulfill our responsibility to the people who do not know anything about Islam”. If we do our job properly, we will have no people in this category to worry about. Either people will be Muslim or they would have been fully informed by the Muslims about Islam. If we have not done our job, our worry should be about doing the job which is in our control and capacity rather than worrying about the Judgment that is beyond our control and capacity.

Why is this an Issue?

Given the above analysis, you can see that the questions this article was started with should never be an issue among the Muslims. Granted that living in a predominantly non-Muslim society, it is natural for these questions to come up. It, however, should never become a hot topic of discussion. It usually happens, as I have mentioned earlier, only because of the lack of awareness of the Qur-aanic teachings among the Muslims. But there is more to it.

The Muslim community nowadays is made up of people of different psyche, attitude and commitment to Islam. Some people are sincere in their belief and they really want to understand. They are the people who listen without arguing to the response from the individuals who have the knowledge of the issue. Once the facts have been explained to them, they accept the Islamic position wholeheartedly and do not keep revisiting the issue.

Then there are those who do not have any concept of the value of time. They have some leisure time to kill and they don’t care how it happens. Perhaps they have nothing better to do in life except for wasting time arguing about meaningless, purposeless and irrelevant issues. These are the people who need a reminder about the fact they will have to account for the use of the time Allaah SWT has bestowed on them. They need to understand Soorat-ul-‘Aŝr.

Others just want to have a good time, even if it is by laughing and joking about the issues that the Glorious Qur-aan considers extremely sensitive. Still others may get into these discussions because it may be considered fashionable in their circle to challenge whatever the religious persons say and to side with the Western way of thinking. And then there are highly unfortunate souls who have a disease of heart. They claim to be Muslims but they really are not sure in their hearts if they want to be. Especially when it comes to the issues that are not popular with the West like the subject being discussed right now. They really want to find a way out of Islamic teachings to appease their Western masters.

Let all of these groups of people reflect upon the following verses:

All of these verses are about the people who claim to be the Muslims. Just consider the strong language used by Allaah SWT. The religious issues are not insignificant matters to laugh and joke about. It is serious business. And proper attitude in matters of faith is extremely critical to keep oneself within the Islamic fold.

November 8, 1997

1  Please refer to an earlier bulletin on that topic. Briefly, anyone who like to run the affairs of the world according to his ways and opinions rather that Allaah’s commands

2  Please refer to a recent bulletin for the identity of Dajjaal.

Our Prophet Muhammad life was full of incidents where demonstrated his dedication to and expertise in winning the hearts of the people. Often, his bitter enemies became his ardent followers because of his superb qualities of forgiving unconditionally when having power over them, giving magnanimously when requested, and being genuinely concerned about the well-being of everyone who came in contact.

His Conquering of Makkaah on 20^th Ramadhaan provides a good example of his strategies to reduce the loss of human life and his emphasis on winning the hearts. By the 6^th year of Hijrah, Makkan’s had tried every means at their disposal to destroy the Islamic state of Madeenah including the attack with the biggest coalition army in the history of Arabia at that time, but had failed miserably in their goals. Knowing that their campaign to root out Islamic movement had lost steam, the Prophet amazed everyone by going for pilgrimage (‘Umrah) with about 1400 of his devoted, unarmed followers. That was a peaceful challenge to the authority of the militaristic Makkans over the holy sanctuary. That forced Makkans to recognize Islamic state as a legitimate entity and to sign a peace treaty with it. The atmosphere of peace afforded the Prophet to consolidate his power, propagate Islam and tremendously increase his influence and power. By the year 8^th, Islamic state had become a powerful force to be reckoned with. That year Makkans terrorized a tribe that had a defense treaty with Islamic state by waging a war and conducting a massacre, even within the Holy Sanctuary. When asked for reparation of damages, they rescinded the peace treaty with Islamic state altogether in arrogance, making it incumbent on Muslims to take a military action.

The prophet could have taken a huge army and crushed Makkan with power. But his goal was to save the lives of the people in this world and save their souls in the Hereafter. Hence he devised a strategy to remove the terrorist Makkan regime from power without bloodshed. He prepared for a surprise attack which was kept secret so that Makkan leadership did not have a chance to incite people to fight. That would have caused unnecessary bloodshed and prolonged the war which Makkans could not have ever won regardless of the preparation they would have made. When the army reached at the outskirts of Makkah and was setting up their camps, he asked the units to spread out their camps to demonstrate their power in numbers and asked everyone to lit his personal fire in the evening. That is what drew Makkan’s attention.  The scene was dazzling and effectively demonstrated the huge size of the Muslims army. In addition, He asked Makkan leaders to tour the encampment to see with their eyes the strength of the army as well as their devotion, commitment and  dedication to the cause for Islam. This was all done to convince the Makkans to surrender without fighting. This psychological demonstration of power and persuasion for avoiding fighting worked. The leadership decided not to fight. To provide further incentive for surrender and give more excuses to Makkans to give up any urge to resist, he announced that anyone who lay done arms, stays inside his home, or inside Holy Ka‘bah or inside Aboo Sufyaan; house will not be touched or apprehended. In this way, arch enemies who had been waging wars against the Muslims were made to surrender without blood shed or loss of human life.

The prophet entered the city from which he was expelled less than a decade ago as the conqueror. People were expecting, as normally conquering people used to do, that the prophet would enter with pride, pomp and show. People were pleasantly amazed with his show of extreme humility, gentleness and restraint. Then, he really won their hearts, souls and their loyalty when even his worst enemies who had been terrorizing Muslims for decades and who were expecting death and harsh punishments were forgiven. 

Indeed every action of life is a practical demonstration of the excellence behaviour Muslims should adopt in their lives. He clearly showed how a Muslims conqueror is different from a Taaghoot or a Dajjaal.

February 3, 2003

1  The Arabic phrase means: Allaah’s blessings and peace be upon him. The same sentiments are conveyed by the abbreviation of this Arabic phrase “ŜA‘WS” or the English abbreviation “pbuh”.

The fact is that the Prophet was not only mentioned but a firm covenant was also taken from the followers of the previous messengers in this respect and they were given some signs about Muĥammad ŜA‘WS, so that they could easily recognize him when he came. According to the Bible, before John (the Baptist) and Jesus, the Jews were expecting and waiting for three distinctly different persons: the Messiah, Elijah (2), and “that prophet” (3). Thus, when John launched his mission, the Jews asked him, as per the Gospel according to John 1:19-27 RSV:

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” And he answered, “No.” They said to him then, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

2  Promised or foretold in Malachi 4:5.

3  Promised and foretold in Deut. 18:18.

The expectation was that Elijah (or Elias in KJV) would come first, to be followed by Christ and then by the Prophet. So, when Jesus claimed to be the Christ (Messiah), the question arose: who was Elijah who had come before the Christ? Jesus explained that John was in fact Elijah:

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John;  and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come” (RSV Matt 11:12-14)

 And they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?”  And he said to them, “Elijah does come first to restore all things; and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him” (RSV Mark 9:11-13).

From the above-mentioned quotes, one point is established without doubt: out of the three personalities that were anticipated, neither John nor Jesus claimed to be the particular prophet who was so clearly defined in people’s mind that just “that prophet” or “the prophet” was enough to identify him. Thus, after Jesus, people continued to wait for him knowing that the time of his advent was approaching. According to the knowledge they were given, they even knew that “the prophet” was going to be in Arabia and they had some clear signs to recognize him. In fact, the Jews living in Yathrib used to warn their Arab neighbours that soon “that prophet” is going to come under whose leadership all of the Arabs would be conquered. Based on those warnings from Jews, many residents of Yathrib became believers when they heard about Muĥammad and his mission because they found that the kind of signs the Jews used to mention about him were all present in his case. That was also the reason that many of the Jews and Christians became Muslims when they saw the truth in the claims of the Prophet. And ever since, there have been many others at various times in the history and at various places who arrived at the same conclusion and became Muslims.

Someone may look for the name of Prophet Muĥammad in the Bible and not finding it explicitly mentioned in the current versions of the text may conclude that he is not mentioned in the Bible. But the prophecies for Muĥammad can be by such signs that are applicable only to him. A good example in this regard is that of the prophecies about Christ or Jesus. The Bible does not have any prophesy for him where he has been mentioned by name. In the same manner, the current scriptures do not have any prophesy about Muĥammad ŜA‘WS by name, but despite all the manipulations and changes, they still retain enough signs that a profile of “the prophet” can be compiled to discern who is being described by it.

So, what were those signs? Let us see what the Bible – both Old and New Testaments – has to say about it.

Old Testament

How did God fulfill His promise to Ibraheem?

Starting from Genesis, we note that Ibraheem did not have a son and was praying to Allaah that He grant him a son. In response, Allaah SWT made a promise to him that:

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (NIV Gen. 12:2-3).

His wife, Sarai (Sarah), was barren. Therefore, in order to have children, he used the established practice of polygamy and married Haajirah (Hagar):

^“So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived” (NIV Gen. 16:3-4).

“So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael” (NIV Gen. 16:15-16).

Thus, Haajirah was Ibraheem’s legitimate wife and Isma‘eel his legitimate first born on whose birth Ibraheem was very happy that Allaah had responded to his prayers, that is why he named him “God hears” on the suggestion of an angel (Gen. 16:11). This son was the sole centre of Ibraheem’s love for the next 14 years, when the second son Isaac was born. When Ibraheem was given promise for the birth of Isaac, he was assured about Isma‘eel:

“And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation” (NIV Gen. 17:20).

After Ibraheem offered his only son for sacrifice, Allaah repeatedly referred to His promise of making him father of powerful nations:

“Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him” (NIV Gen.18:18-19).

“… Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (NIV Gen. 22:17-18).

The question is: Some nations of the earth were blessed through Ibraheem’s second son Isaac and his descendants, what about his offspring from the firstborn and their nations? Has Allaah fulfilled his promise or not? Has there been a prophet from the firstborn of Abraham to bless the nations of the earth through him?

Some people may try to erroneously exclude Isma‘eel from this promise citing the reasons such as:

• Isma‘eel was not a legitimate son;
  
• Hagar was a handmaid of Sarah, not a legitimate wife of Ibraheem;
• Isma‘eel was excluded from the blessing because Sarah was not happy with Haajirah.

Obviously, all of these excuses are baseless in the light of quotation given above. In fact, they are not God’s reasons at all; rather, they are a product of an extremely racist mentality that discriminates against a child whose mother was supposedly (4) an Egyptian handmaid or not liked by the senior wife. Although Haajirah was a legitimate wife because Ibraheem took her to be his wife, even if she were not a legitimate wife, Isma‘eel still could not be deprived of his special status as the firstborn according to the Biblical law (5):

“If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father's strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him (NIV Deut. 21:15-17).

4  Some researchers have shown that the claim about Haajirah being a handmaid and an Egyptian are also corruptions of the Bible introduced because of the racism of certain vested interests. According to them, she was an Arab lady whom Abraham married on his own will.

5  We want to make it clear that Allaah SWT treats all human beings equally. He does not prefer one person over the other because of order in birth, race, ethnicity or any such notions. He judges people only on the basis of their behaviour. In every other respect, all human beings are equal and have equal dignity. We have quoted Biblical ideas only to clarify the point that has been clouded by such discussions. All the notions of racism and preference of one kind of people over others are corruptions of the Bible, not God’s original message. This is acknowledged by many Christian theologians as well. For example, according to The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 1 page 575:                                                                                                                   “Many Israelites did not want a God who would be equally the God of all nations on the earth. They did not want one who would be impartial Holiness. They wanted a God who would be partial to them.”

Hence, commentators of the Bible such as The Interpreter’s Bible, agree that:

“However, the law of the first-born had ancient sanction, and so long as it was accepted, justice demanded that mere favoritism not be allowed to deprive the eldest son of his rights (6)."

6  The Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 2, p. 461.

As a matter of fact, Isma‘eel was not excluded from the covenant but was rather part of it. When the covenant was established through circumcision, Isma‘eel was included:

“You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you” (NIV Gen. 17:11).

“Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, and his son Ishmael was thirteen; Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day” (NIV Gen. 17:24-26).

In summary, the evidence is clear that God’s promise to bless the nations of the world through Ibraheem’s sons is more applicable to Isma‘eel than the other son. How was then the promise fulfilled? From Isaac’s side, we know it was fulfilled through people like Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Jesus. But who was sent from the progeny of Isma‘eel to bring God’s blessings to humankind?

The Promised “Prophet” was to be like Moses and from Ishmaelites

Now, let us go to Deuteronomy. When the covenant was taken from Israelites, the atmosphere was made frightening by making Mount Sinai appear as if it would fall upon and crush them. They requested that in future the process should be made easy for them. In response to the request by the Israelites, Allaah made a definite promise to Moses about a specific prophet:

“A prophet will I raise up unto them from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that the man who hearkeneth not unto my words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19 Darby).

This is the prophet the Jews were waiting for, as quoted earlier. If  any Bible’s concordance is examined, “the prophet” being asked about in the Gospel of John is always referred to these verses of Deuteronomy.

Some Christians are quick to assume that it applies to Jesus. What they forget is that “the prophet” was a distinct personality separate from that of Christ. If Jesus was the Christ, he cannot also be “that prophet”. But there are many other reasons that it cannot apply to Jesus. As per this prophesy, “that prophet” must have the following attributes:

1. He will be like Moses;
   
2. He will be from the brothers of Israelites;
3. Allaah will put His words in his mouth;
4. He will tell people only what he is commanded;
5. He will speak Allaah’s words in His name.

They may say Jesus is like Moses because both were Jews and both were prophets; but they forget that this definition of similarity applies to all Israelite prophets who came after Moses. That is not specific enough to identify a particular prophet. They also forget that, according to their beliefs, Jesus was God which Moses was not; that Jesus died for their sins which Moses did not do; and that Jesus was in Hell for three days (7) before being resurrected, while it did not happen to Moses. Hence, Jesus is so dissimilar to Moses that it cannot apply to Jesus at all. But there is more to it. Consider the following table of comparison:

7  According to the Apostles' Creed, which states, “He descended into Hell.” Wikipedia, Roman Catholic Church translation into English;  Also see Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL), under Apostles’ Creed www.ccel.org/creeds/apostles.creed.html.; also see www.creeds.net/ancient/apostles.htm, The Apostles’ Creed, Traditional English Version; also see CRTA (Centre for reformed Theology and Apologetics) site under The Apostles Creed at www.reformed.org/documents/index.html.

8  Jn. 18:36

9  Mt. 5:17-18

10  John 1:11 “He came unto his own (the Jews) and his own received him (Jesus) not.”

Thus, this prophecy has nothing to do with Jesus. It also cannot apply to any other Israelite prophet because none of them are like Moses in many respects. Moreover, they do not fulfill any other parts of the prophecy. The second aspect of the profile is that “the prophet” must be from the brethren of Israelites, not from Israelites themselves. Ishmael and Isaac were brothers and their descendants (Jews and Arabs) were brethren. That is why Israelites were referred to as brethren of Ishmael in the Bible:

“And he (Ishmael) will be a wild-ass of a man, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell before the face of all his brethren”(Gen. 16:12).

“And they dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite to Egypt, as one goes towards Assyria. He (Ishmael) settled before the face of all his brethren” (Gen. 25:18) (11).

11  Both translations from Darby version. Although later on this was used as a given name for the father of David, this prophecy could not have been for a person from the progeny of unknown Jesse. If the prophet was supposed to be from line of David, it would have used the more renowned and recognized David, instead of an unknown Jesse. Also it does not fit the facts of the case because many prophets came out of the progeny of David.

According to the Hebrew Dictionary of the Bible, “brethren” is “personification of a group who were regarded as near kinsmen of the Israelites (12)." Some people try to infer that “brethren” refers to Levites as compared to other tribes. If the address is to a specific tribe of Israelites, then other Israelites tribes will be regarded their brethren, as in the following:

“The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings by fire to the Lord, and his rightful dues. They shall have no inheritance among their brethren” (Deut. 18:1-2).

12  Muhammad in the Bible, Jamal Badawi, p. 16

Similarly, when the address is to all Israelites, as it is in the case of Deut. 18:18-20, the Israelites brethren can only be Ishmaelites.

The Bible provides more evidence that “the prophet” was going to be from the descendants of Ishmael:

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:1-2).

According to Encyclopaedia Biblica, “Jesse is contracted from Ishmael (13)." Note how specific the words used are to present a visual image of the situation. It tells about a situation where after the original tree was cut, there were no branches and no shoots, just a stump out of which only one fruit bearing branch came out. Unlike the situation with descendants of Isaac, From Ishmael there was to be only a single fruit-bearing shoot that would come after a long time that the stump had been dead.

13  Cheyene, Encyclopedia Biblica under “Names”.

More Signs from Old Testament

Attributes of The Promised Prophet in Isaiah

Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 29:12) prophesied about “the prophet to be illiterate or not learned”, as per the following:

And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned” (KJV).

Then the book is delivered to one who ^[a]is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I am not literate” (NKJV).

The 42^nd Chapter of the book of Isaiah gives a very revealing prophesy about “the prophet”, called, The Servant of the Lord :

¹ "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations (or as in KJV, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles). ² He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. ³ A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness, he will bring forth justice; ⁴ he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law, the islands will put their hope (14)."

⁵ Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it, ⁶ “I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, ⁷ To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”… ¹⁰ “Sing to the LORD a new song, His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them. ¹¹ Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops. ¹² Let them give glory to the LORD and proclaim his praise in the islands. ¹³ The LORD will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies.”…¹⁷ But those who trust in idols, who say to images, 'You are our gods,' will be turned back in utter shame (15).

14  Isaiah 42 NIV

15  Isaiah 42 NASB

Accordingly, “the Prophet” mentioned in the above verses will:

• Have two distinguishing characteristics of being Servant of the Lord and the chosen one of the Lord;
• Bring justice to all nations, especially Gentiles (which requires him to be a ruler who can establish law and order);
• Be a gentle, kind-hearted, mild-mannered person, not like Jesus who, according to the existing Gospels, had very tough and rough words for his disciples and for Israelites;
• Will not falter or be discouraged until justice is established on the earth and his laws are enforced;
• Be “a light to nations” as compared to Jesus whose mission was only to Israelites (16)
• Sing a new song to the Lord (new revelation and teachings)
• Cause the Praise of Lord to be raised from far corners of the earth;
  
• Be descendent of Kedar, son of Ishmael, whose settlement will rejoice his advent;
  
• Be among the people of Sela who will welcome him with song of joy;
• Will triumph over his enemies; and
  
• Defeat the worshippers of idols.

16  As per Matthew 15:24: He (Jesus) answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

New Testament

Prophecy by John

The NT has not much to say about or from John the Baptist. Whatever little has been reported about him has many textual problems; however, what has been reported from him in Matt. 3:11 is extremely important from the perspective of our subject matter:

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 

Who was John talking about out of the other two persons: Jesus or “that prophet”? Obviously, it cannot be his contemporary Jesus who was already there, because John was clear:  “after me will come…”

Had he meant Jesus, he would have become his disciple, be baptized with the spirit and proven his words of not being fit to carry his sandals. Instead both continued their work in parallel. In addition, the followers of both were baptized with water as it continues to this day.

This person who was going to be greater than John was going to separate believers (wheat) from disbelievers (chaff), organize believers in the form of an organized society (barn), and cleanup his geographical area (threshing floor) from disbelief. The historical facts are undeniable proof that Jesus was not the person meant by John because Jesus did not accomplish any of the things John had mentioned – Jesus departed without clearing the threshing floor with unquenchable fire.

It is thus evident that John was talking about “the Prophet”

What Jesus had to say about “the Prophet”?

Now, the question is that if “the Prophet” was to come, did Jesus have anything to say about him? Jesus did talk about someone coming after him, in the following passages, quoted from different versions to give a better perspective of the contents:

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the spirit of truth…” (John 14:16-17).

“…he shall testify of me” (John 15:26).

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.¹³ Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. ¹⁴He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:12-14) From KJV.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. ...” (John 14:16-17) (17).

17  Emphasis in all these quotations has been added to highlight the key components of the text.

This prophecy talks about coming of another comforter or counsellor – another in the sense that he will be playing a role similar to Jesus. The person has been called “Parakletos” in Greek. This is a peculiar word, which has been difficult to translate for the translators. Different scholars have attempted to derive some sensible meaning by translating it into words such as a comforter, counsellor, advocate, intercessor, defender and helper. We will discuss this word in detail later on, for now we will focus on the nature of the person mentioned here.

Usually, Christians have interpreted it to mean Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. They have even inserted their interpretation within commas in verse 26 of John 14:

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (KJV).

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (NIV).

This is the kind of insertion for which Christian scribes have been taking liberty to suggest to the reader what in their mind the words mean (18). For example, “not Iscariot” was inserted in the following verse:

“Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world” (John 14:22).

18  A researcher Bernard D. Muller, ex-Christian humanist, has prepared an original text of the gospel of John and indicated the changes it has gone through. He has also concluded that Holy Ghost was a subsequent interpolation. According to him, the original verse 14:26 was: “But the Helper, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (www.geocities.com/b_d_muller/index.html).

Or it may be an intentional play with the words of the scripture to obfuscate the identity of the promised person. Such interpolations are a common practice among Christians, as has been acknowledged and documented by Christian researchers themselves. A person just has to read the prefaces to the Revised Standard Version and New International Version to understand this issue (19). Dr. Maurice Bucaille’s research indicated that the famous Palimpsest version written in Syriac has the word Spirit only, not the Holy Spirit. Ahmad Deedat has noticed examples of recent changes in Urdu and Afrikaans versions of the Bible that the Christian authorities have made to cover up their vulnerabilities in response to Muslim-Christian Dialogues (20). In the Afrikaan’s Bible, they have changed the word "Trooster" (Comforter), to "Voorspraak" (Mediator) in John 16:12-14 verses under discussion, and interpolated the phrase — "die Heilige Gees" — meaning The Holy Ghost, a phrase no Bible Scholar had yet dared to interpolate into any of the multifarious English Versions.

19  The interested reader should also refer to Jehovah’s witnesses’ Awake magazine of September 8, 1957, published in Brooklyn NY; as well as Look magazine of February 26, 1952.

20  Muhammad – The Natural Successor to Christ by Ahmed Deedat

The fact is that this person cannot be the Holy Ghost for the following reasons:

The above points establish that the person whose advent Jesus prophesied according to the Gospel of John was another human being, not any kind of ghost or spirit. As for John’s use of term, “spirit of truth”, he has himself clarified in his epistles that to him “spirit” means prophet – true spirit meaning true prophet and false spirit meaning false prophet. Accordingly, “spirit of truth” in his Gospel means a “prophet of truth”.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (NIV 1John 4:1-2).

Some people think that because it is said that God will give “you” another comforter, the person Jesus was talking about must appear in the life of his disciples who were being addressed at that time. This is not the case. In religious pronouncements, “you” is used in reference to all the generations of the people who come after. For example:

• The promise of God to Moses to raise a prophet in Deuteronomy was addressed to “you” without meaning the generation that was being addressed at that time. The Christians have accepted that fact without raising any question about “you”, assuming erroneously (26) that it applied to Jesus.
  
• Jesus’ second coming has not happened for more than 2 millenniums, although it was promised to “you”:

“¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…²⁸ You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.” (NIV John 14).

26  Acts 3:22

Thus, in the case of such promises, “you” means the people who are around at the time of the fulfillment.

Every prophet of God is understood to remain with people as long as his teachings are remembered, remain in force and continue to be practised – usually until the teachings are replaced with a new edition of the guidance from Allaah through a new prophet. But this prophet will be the last prophet, as his teachings will remain in force and in practise until the end of the world.

The fact that the prophet “will say only what he is told” is the same quality that was mentioned in the Deuteronomy 18 prophecy more precisely that Allaah will put His words in his mouth.

Hence, Jesus’ prophecy belongs to “the prophet” who will:

• Be the spirit of truth;
  
• Guide people into all the truth;
  
• Be the last prophet who will remain with the believers forever;
  
• Not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears;
• Inform people of what is to come; and
• Honour, testify or bear witness about Jesus.

In addition:

• “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”(John 16:8 KJV).
• “When the Helper comes, He will show the world the truth about sin. He will show the world about being right with God. And He will show the world what it is to be guilty” (John 16:8 New Life Version).

And in words of John the Baptist, he will:

• Baptize with spirit and fire, not with water;
• Organize the believers and clean them from disbelievers (clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff).

Fitting Like a Glove

If all of the prophecies from both the Old and New Testaments mentioned in the previous paragraphs do not apply to Jesus or Holy Spirit, who are they talking about? Here we will revisit and review them to show for whom they were meant. If you earnestly reflect on them, you will realize that all of them apply perfectly to Muĥammad and were fulfilled fully by his advent. The following paragraphs and tables indicate the perfect fit:

Indeed, Muĥammad was the last member of the Kingdom of Heaven ruled by Allaah and comprised of all of his prophets and messengers. His advent also fulfilled the promise of God to Ibraheem that all nations will be blessed through his progeny. Now more than a fifth of the world population is blessed through Muĥammad from the descendants of Ishmael. He indeed achieved most superbly and completely what no other prophet and messenger could achieve – complete and full establishment of Islam – cleansing his locality altogether from idolatry. Jesus rightfully exclaimed about him when he said:

“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least (meaning last) in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (RSV Matt 11:11).

All the prophesies in the Old and New Testaments about “the prophet” have been fulfilled by Prophet Muĥammad’s advent, without any doubt or without manipulating any words of the prophesies. The well-documented facts of his life are a witness to their fulfillment. That is why many noble souls who discover this knowledge cannot help but become Muslims.

Another Two Interesting points

Do you see how the rites of Muslim pilgrimage are being described? Are there any such rites performed in any other religion to which these quotations from the Bible can be applied?

Those who still hesitate should pay attention to the last part of the Deuteronomy prophecy, which indicated the listening to “that prophet” was compulsory and a part of the covenant. Those who do not listen to Prophet Muĥammad, God has warned them in Deut. 18:19: “I will require it of him” in KJV; “I will be the revenger” in the Catholic Bible; “I myself will hold accountable” in NRSV and “I myself will call him to account” in NIV.

Thus, the Qur’aan (Al-A‘raaf 7:157) reminds the people of the Book that God’s mercy will be allocated to:

28  The word Ummiyy, امّیّ implies those who are unlearned, unlettered and unaccustomed to books and education. The Qur’aan uses it for its literal meaning (illiterate or unlettered) as well as to differentiate the Arabs, who were unaccustomed to the concept of a religious book, from the Jews and Christians who were believers in the earlier books. In that sense, it identifies non-Jews like the words “Goyim” or “Gentiles”, but does not carry the negative connotations associated with those words.

Hence, they are invited in the next verse:

Attempts to Hide Muĥammad’s Mention in the Bible

It was because of such clear prophesies about him that all people of the Book, both the Jews and Christians, were waiting for him and used to talk about him. That is what helped people of Madeenah accept him. And that is why he was promptly recognized by Heraclius, the Emperor of Rome, and Negus, the king of Ethiopia, once they knew about his particulars.

After his arrival, those Jews and Christians believed in him who were sincere to themselves and were seekers of the truth instead of being slaves to their own prejudices and versions of truth. Others succumbed to their own innovations, traditions, customs and biases instead of accepting the truth of Islam for which he was promised and to which he invited them. When they rejected him, it posed a dilemma for them: All the predictions and prophecies applied to him perfectly, so how to reject him without exposing their own bigotry and aversion to the truth. To resolve this dilemma an organized attempt to cover up the clear prophecies about him was undertaken. This manipulation of text of the “Book” introduced many inconsistencies and contradictions as well as “difficult” to explain words and phrases in both Old and New Testaments. A perusal of those difficult to explain words usually indicates that it is the manipulation of the words and their spellings that has made those words unusual and difficult to explain. One source of problem was the general tendency among the Biblical scholars to translate names and titles instead of leaving them in the original words. Closely related to that problem was their tendency to misspell them either out of ignorance or to make them fitting in the patterns of the language to which they were translating (29). Mistranslation and mispronunciation of the titles and names of people and places have been some of the most favourite techniques used to hide the truth about Muĥammad, in addition to outright interpolation or deletion of words. These unexplainable, difficult words, confusing phrases and contradictory statements appear wherever the Bible refers to anything to do with Ishmael, Makkah – his place of residence, Islam and Muĥammad, indicating a deliberate attempt to cause confusion or to hide the truth. Illustrated in the following paragraphs are only a few examples of such confusions and difficulties created in the text of the existing Bible.

29  Some commonly known name and title translations and misspellings are: Moshi to Moses, Eesau to Jesus, Messiah to Christ, Cephas to Peter.

Another technique that was used to hide the truth about the Ishmaelites and the Prophet was to obfuscate the names of tribes, cities and places by misspelling them or mis-describing them. For example, the narrations about Ishmael (Isma’eel) and his parents, Abraham (Ibraheem) and Hagar (Haajirah) have been grossly mis-described. It has been established historically and through the real-life empirical observation of thousand of years that Isma’eel and his family settled in Makkah and most Arabs are his descendants. The Arabs had memorized their genealogies back to Isma’eel and used to recite them in public fairs. They celebrated every year without fail the incidence of Isma’eel being offered for sacrifice by performing animal sacrifices at Marwah; and performed pilgrimage of the house built by Ibraheem, without any break whatsoever, year after year for thousands of years. And these rituals continue till this day. However, the Bible writers obfuscated these facts by mis-describing words like “Bakkah” (“city” the original name of Makkah in Prophet Abraham’s language) to the Valley of Baca or Baka (the Valley of “weeping”), Marwah (the place of his son’s sacrifice) to Moriah, Bethel (Allaah’s house that Abraham constructed) to a name of a town instead of what it was. The migration of Haajirah and Isma’eel to the Makkan valley in the wilderness was obfuscated by confusing “Wilderness of Paran” with the Sinai Peninsula. Therefore, if the Biblical statements about Ishmael (Isma’eel), his family and his progeny are read with the right names of the places and towns (as clearly established by the history of Arabs), the prophecies will become clear. Keeping in mind the annual pilgrimage of Muslims to the House of Allaah in the valley of Bakkah (Makkah), glorifying and praising their Lord passionately and frequently, take Psalms 84:4-6 for example and see what it is mentioning:

⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools (or blessings).

Although there were prophecies about the advent of Prophet Muĥammad in the previous scriptures, Jesus declared that an essential part of his mission was giving good news about the advent of “that Prophet.” Jesus clearly declared that the Prophet would be coming right after him and that he would establish the Kingdom of God. Jesus even mentioned him by describing his Arabic name, “The most praised one”, in his own language. However, the current version of the New Testament does not carry that attributive name. As mentioned earlier, the reason is that there have been planned attempts to hide this fact. Following are some of the indications of such attempts:

Old Testament

Thus, it is clear that Gen. 49:10 has nothing to do with Jesus. Then, the question is, who is this Shiloh and what does the word mean? It is obvious that it cannot apply to anyone except Muĥammad who established his rule and authority as the last Messenger of Allaah, taking it over from Judah and bringing it to the progeny of Ishmael.

Regardless of whose translations one uses, it points towards Muĥammad and none else. Those who translate it “to whom it belongs”, they assume “sh” is shortened form of “asher” (meaning “he, that”) and “loh” means “is his”. Although it is a speculative synthesis of a “difficult Hebrew word”, it still points only to Muĥammad as there is none else in the world to whom it can apply. Other translators have looked at its Hebrew spelling in its written form “Shylh” (pronounced Shiloh), and come up with possible meaning of “tranquil, peaceful, trustworthy” – all of which were the recognized qualities of Muĥammad, “Trustworthy” being one of the titles he was known as. However, it appears that this strange word “Shiloh” is a corrupted form of the real word Shiluaĥ or Shiloĥah, which are normal Hebrew words meaning the Messenger of Allaah, the exact title of Muĥammad (31).

31  Adapted from pages 49-59 of “Muhammad in the Bible” a research work by Professor David Benjamin Keldani (Abul-Ahad Dawud): Former Roman Catholic Bishop of the Uniate Chaldean.

New Testament

Those who are really interested in discovering how clearly and abundantly Jesus preached the good news of the advent of Muĥammad (ŜA‘WS), the leader of the prophets and messengers, they should study “Gospel according to Barnabas”, which was excluded from canonical gospels in 325AD by the vested interests. A copy of this Gospel was discovered in late 16th century in Pope’s library, when Pope Sixtus V had his library catalogued and a certain Roman Monk called Framarino managed to bring it out. That copy ended up in Hofbibliothek (Austrian National Library) in Vienna. Its English translation was published in 1907 by Oxford University Press, but mysteriously disappeared from the market. Only two copies survived: one in the British Museum and the other in the Library of Congress in Washington. Using photocopies from the Museum’s copy, some Muslim organizations have now printed it to make it available to interested readers. Because this gospel has very clear predictions about Muĥammad and his advent, and because it quotes Jesus mentioning Muĥammad by name, Christians try to discount the importance of this Gospel by speculating that some Muslim may have authored it. This speculation is baseless for many reasons: the Gospel of Barnabas existed long before the advent of Muĥammad and was listed in the two authentic lists of non-canonical gospels. Even if a Muslim would have manipulated the text later on, he would have done it to spread it in the world to help in the cause of Islam. But history has no record of any such attempt by Muslims. Also, Muslim scholars who wrote on the topics related to Jesus and Christianity would have quoted from it or mentioned its existence. Generally, Muslims and non-Muslim scholars who compiled exhaustive list of books available on such topics, were not even aware of its existence until it was mentioned by George Sale in his book or until its English translation was published by Oxford.

In short, despite their efforts to hide the truth, there are enough pointers, as has been shown, to indicate how his advent was foretold. Many truth-loving knowledgeable Jews and Christians keep finding the hidden truth and converting to Islam. Praise be to Allaah that in every segment of history ordained ministers, bishops and educated people continue to convert to Islam (45). The question to ask yourself is: are you one of those truth-lovers?

45  In fact, most of the research presented here had been initially done by those theologians who had the firsthand information of the original writings of the Bible and expert knowledge of Hebrew and Greek languages. When they sincerely discovered the truth, they became believers in Islam and informed the world what they had uncovered. They include eminent people like Professor David Benjamin Keldani (Abul-Ahad Dawud): Former Bishop Of Uramiah – the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Uniate Chaldean (died 1940 CE); ‘Ali ibn Raban Al-Tabari who had been Christian and then embraced Islam and died in 247 HE; Abdullah Al-Turjuman, Anslam Tormida, a Spanish priest who died in 832 HE; Ibrahim Khalil Ahmad, previously a Christian priest who embraced Islam and Sulaiman Shahid Mufassir another ordained minister who became Muslim. All of them wrote their observations in the books and tracts to help other people discover what they discovered through painstaking research after which their conscience did not allow them to continue without accepting and declaring the truth they had discovered.

As shown above, despite their efforts to hide the truth, there are enough pointers to indicate how Prophet Muĥammad’s advent was foretold. As told by Jesus, the Prophet indeed achieved most superbly and completely what no other prophet and messenger could achieve – complete and full establishment of Islam – cleansing his locality altogether from idolatry. Jesus rightfully exclaimed about him when he said:

“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least (meaning last) in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (RSV Matt 11:11).

“They want me to get freedom by renouncing Islam, while dying is easier for me than disbelieving. Tears are flooding my eyes but I am not going to complain or be impatient. I am not going to cry or to show weakness to the enemies because I am departing to God. When I am dying for Islam, I do not care how I fall dead. I hope God will bless each piece of my flesh and limb of my body being cut out.”

Aboo Sufyaan remarked, “Would you not wish that Muĥammad be here in your place, while you attain freedom’. Khubayb responded, “By God, I do not like even to see a thorn prick Muĥammad Ŝall-Allaahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam while I am safe and secure in my family.” At this response, his limbs were dismembered and he was tortured to death.

Khubayb’s sacrifice for the sake of his faith did not go in vain. In addition to the reward form Allaah SWT, it opened the hearts of some of the people who witnessed the sincerity of his faith in the face of the most horrendous persecution. Sa‘eed Bin ‘Aamir, one of the great companions, was one of those who were brought to the truth of Islam by Khubayb’s patience and steadfastness. Even the woman of the Haarith family who was worried about her child’s safety had this to say about Khubayb:

"By Allaah, I had never seen a better captive than Khubayb. By Allaah, one day I saw him eating from a bunch of grapes in his hand while he was fettered with iron chains and (at that time) there was no fruit in Makkah." She used to say," It was food Allaah had provided Khubayb with."

The story of Khubayb teaches us many lessons such as:

• The enemies of Islam have always used dirty tricks, cheating, terrorism and extreme cruelty to fight against Islam and the Muslims. Despite all the vicious terrorism that they encounter, Muslims always stand by their noble principles and do not compromise on their decency even to save themselves from terrorism.
• The Muslims withstand all the terrorism that is inflicted on them with bravery, steadfastness and without showing any weakness. They fight back bravely when war is imposed on them, but they never let the innocent be victimized.
• Islam was spread by winning the heart of people through the personal excellence of the Muslims, their uncompromising stance and their perseverance for their faith.
• Despite the lapse of 1400 years and immense progress on material side, the anti Islamic forces of today are as vicious and barbaric as they were at the time of the Prophet Ŝall-Allaahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam. Serb, American, Israeli, and Russian atrocities on Muslims are as vicious as Makkan atrocities on Khubayb and others. With time, the tools change, but the human psychology always remains the same. That is why Islamic teachings are permanent and valid for all the time to come. It is only Islam that can bring peace to the world, as it did at the time of the Prophet Ŝall-Allaahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam.

December 18, 1999

To understand the life of Muhammad in its proper perspective, one needs to get briefly acquainted with his tribe and roots.

According to ancient history of Arabs, their genealogical records and their poetry, Arabs were proud descendants of Abraham through his son Ishmael. When Abraham migrated from his native land, he settled in a wilderness area between Palestine and Arabia where he had wells dug and that is why it was called Beir Sab‘ah (1) (seven wells). After birth of his son Ishmael, Abraham settled his wife Hagar and son Ishmael in a close by valley in the Arabian wilderness. Their settlement in that valley in the Arabian wilderness was named Bakkah – a township or settlement, which later on came to be known as Makkah. That is where Abraham and Ishmael constructed the first house of worship for Allaah, and called it the House of Allaah. There were two small hillocks in the valley right beside the House of Allaah. They were called Ŝafaa and Marwah. It was at Marwah where Abraham offered his firstborn and the only son for sacrifice. He was saved by Allaah from sacrifice and was dedicated to the service of the House of Allaah. Since that time Arabs have been performing pilgrimage of the House and offering sacrifices at Marwah and its vicinity up to and including a place called Minaa.

1  In the Bible it is called Beer-Sheba (Gen 21)

The Arab society grew and spread in the area on tribal lines. The tribes lived by the rule of jungle and fought constantly to establish their own tribal power. Nobody was safe out of his tribal area. Weak people had no life. They were at the mercy of the powerful people of the society who would abuse and exploit them as they wanted. Despite lack of peace and constant fighting and insecurity, the city of Makkah remained a citadel of peace and security because of the House of Allaah. Even the pilgrims coming to visit the House of Allaah were not attacked by any one.

Ishmael had twelve sons, one of them named Kedar. From his progeny was the most powerful and respectable tribe of Quraish who were the custodians of the House of Allaah and hence commanded respect and security from all tribes of Arabia.

Muhammad was born into the most respectable clan of Quraish. His father had died just before his birth, thus, he was born as an orphan. His grandfather was delighted on his grandson’s birth after losing the most favourite of his ten sons. He named him Muhammad, meaning the most praised while his mother named him Ahmad, also meaning the most admired – two new names never given to anyone before him in Arabia. 

Muhammad being poor and orphaned did not receive any education or schooling. Despite lacking father’s supervision, contrary to the norms of the society in which he was raised, he grew up to be an excellent, peace-loving human being. He became known for his modesty, decency, fairness, truthfulness, honesty, support for the weak, charity, compassion, and kindness to the vulnerable people in the society. However, being honest and truthful par excellence was his hallmark. People had given him nicknames of “the trustworthy” and “the truthful”. He became a popular person to whom people will bring their valuable to keep in trusts. When a bitter multi-party dispute arose in Makkah, all of the fighting parties were unanimously joyous to have him act as the arbitrator.

He started working as a trade manager for other people but because of his extremely fair and honest dealings, one of his investors, a rich lady also known for her modesty and good character proposed to marry him. They got married and combined their business ventures. His business grew tremendously and he himself became a rich man, which provided him with more resources and opportunity to help the poor and the needy.

Another special thing about him was, despite the pressures of the society he never bowed to or worshipped any idol. Worshipping any idols or moon, planets or stars did not make sense to him. Instead he started going into seclusion in a cave to meditate and worship Allaah, the Invisible but the Eternal Creator of everything.

It was during one of his secluded retreats in the cave, a few moths after his 40^th birthday, that he was visited by angel Gabriel (Jibreel) who read to him the word of God. He brought to him the message from Allaah commanding him to preach the Allaah’s Word. Muhammad was scared with his sudden appearance and mentioned his illiteracy as the reason for his inability to preach. Gabriel asked him to repeat the words after him. Muhammad repeated the words while feeling absolutely terrified with what was happening. This way he received the first revelation. Gabriel told him that Allaah had chosen him to preach oneness of God to people and that he had been appointed as a Messenger of Allaah. As soon as the angel left, Muhammad left the cave and went home terrified. He described the incident to his wife who consoled him. After the initial shock was over, the angel continued to visit him with reassurances to the effect, “I am Gabriel sent by Allaah, I do not mean any harm to you and you have been appointed the Messenger of Allaah.” Once the Prophet became somewhat familiar with him, he would often visit him with the revelation of the word of Allaah. These revelations, which continued for the next 23 years, comprise the holy Qur’aan.

What was his Message?

His message was simple but with very profound implication on human behaviour. He wanted to free people from every kind of slavery, subjugation, serfhood, lordship, control, influence, etc. and bring people to the slavery and obedience of Allaah -- the One and Unique Creator. Then living in obedience to Allaah and only for His pleasure, people should excel in their ethics, conduct and dealings and collectively establish rule of law, fairness and justice as a society that is distinguished in peace, love and magnanimity. To achieve those objectives, people should follow him as the Messenger of Allaah – the agent of change. This was captured in a brief slogan: There is no ilaah (god, deity, sovereign, ruler, provider or protector) except Allaah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah.

Life after Prophethood

Muhammad abandoned his business and started preaching the oneness of Allaah day and night. He called people to abandon worship of idols and other finite entities and worship only the Infinite Creator of all finite entities. People initially reacted with censure but as he continued his mission, it turned into anger, ridicule, physical and psychological abuse and persecution. When, despite all the persecution, he remained dedicated to his mission, they tried to woo him through incentives. They offered him the kingship, wealth, the most beautiful girls and every incentive they could think of. His response was always the same, more or less to the effect that: “You keep all these things, I do not need any of what you have to offer. Just give me one commitment -- There is no ilaah except Allaah, and Muhammad is Messenger of Allaah.” They increased the intensity of persecution, but nothing would stop him from working for his mission. They offered a compromise that he and his followers can worship and obey Allaah only, but he should not demand them to reject idols and other finite gods or human lords. Muhammad would not stop until they abandoned the worship of idols or subjugation of other human beings completely.

More than ten years had gone by and the intensity of persecutions had increased so much that his life was in danger. He tried to find another neighbouring community that would let him continue his mission by providing shelter for him. For that purpose, he visited a close by township called Ŧaaif. The leadership of that city was even crueller. They asked the hooligans of town to chase him. When he was leaving that town, they kept stoning him all the way. By the time he was able to get out of their territory, he was bleeding all over and exhausted with hunger, thirst and pain. He sat down under the shade of a tree and humbly prayed to Allaah:

“O Allaah! I complain to You of my weakness, my scarcity of resources and my humiliation before the people. O Most Merciful of those who are merciful! O Lord of the weak and my Lord! To whom have you entrusted me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom you have granted authority over my affair? So long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Your favour is of more abundance to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or your displeasure descend upon me. I desire your pleasure and satisfaction until you are pleased. There is no power and no might except by You.”

In response to this supplication, Allaah sent Gabriel with the message that if he wished, Allaah would instantly destroy these people who have treated him so viciously. But instead, Muhammad requested mercy and guidance for those hooligans and expressed hope that, if not they, their children will come to Islam as believers.

After his arrival back into Makkah, one night Gabriel came to him and took him first to Jerusalem where all previous prophets were present in soul. He led all of them in worship of Allaah. Then, he was taken to heavens for a special audience with Allaah. His travel occurred at angelic speed – faster than the speed of light, hence, he was back from the trip within a short period of time that night.

He continued with his mission in Makkah. During this time (13 years), despite all the violence, terror, and persecution his followers were subjected to, the number of his followers kept increasing steadily. Just as Muhammad never responded to any verbal or physical abuse except with calm and determined call towards Allaah, he did not allow his followers to respond in kind to the persecution, abuse and terror inflicted on them -- neither by any indecent words nor actions. 

Also, during this period he had spent all his own and his wife’s riches in charitable activities and in helping the poor and needy, so much so that he himself became poor. Despite the hatred towards his belief in one God, and their animosity to his mission and their persecution of him, people still acknowledged his honestly, truthfulness, kindness, benevolence, selflessness and highest ethical standards. As before, people continued to keep their trusts with him knowing that they will be returned when they want.

Finally, Makkans decided to kill him. They selected a band of leaders from different clans to kill him at his home while asleep, so no one could be identified as his killer. But Allaah helped him to slip away the night he was to be killed. He went into hiding in a cave where he stayed for three full days and three nights, during which time Makkans exhausted their efforts to find him and posted a huge prize for anyone who brings him dead or alive. After three days and three nights in the cave, he took an unusual route to migrate to another city, Yathrib. The people of Yathrib welcomed him and appointed him as their leader. The city was renamed from Yathrib to Madeenah.

His hometown people were furious at his escape and his finding a shelter to continue his mission. They attacked Madeenah several times and waged war after war in and effort to destroy his mission and kill him, but despite winning some battles, they did not succeed in their goals. Instead, his movement continued to gain more followers and tremendous success. He produced a society of the best people that the heaven has ever seen – those who could truly be called saints. Finally, after nine years of his migration and defending many attacks, Muhammad came with ten thousand of his saint-like followers, conquered Makkah without much blood shed or disruption of people’s lives and entered the city peacefully from where he had to migrate under threat to his life. Upon his victory, he amazed everyone by forgiving even this bitterest enemies and persecutors – even those who had committed war crimes. He won their hearts with his benevolence and they became his ardent followers.

Soon, he took over the whole Arabia and cleaned it up from the worship of idols and all other finite gods. He became a ruler who was not only obeyed but so dearly loved and cherished that people would be willing to die to protect him from the prick of a thorn. When he performed ablution for worship of Allaah, the believers would not let drops of water fall to the ground.

In twenty-three years full of sacrifices and dedication to the prophetic mission, he accomplished what no one had ever accomplished. He rooted out idolatry and the worship of all finite gods and brought the whole Arabia to the worship of one God, the Infinite Creator of the universe. He brought peace, justice, law and order to a land where rule of jungle and lawlessness were the only lifestyle people used to know.

One aspect of his greatness was that he never let his followers compare him and exalt him over the previous prophets and Messengers. He always held them and taught his followers to hold them in the highest esteem and respect. That is why Muslims never tolerate a word of disrespect for any of Allaah’s prophets and messengers. But what he did to restore the respect and status of Jesus was incredible. Allaah SWT used him to clear Jesus and Mary’s names from all Jewish accusations. Jews slandered Mary accusing her of unchasteness and accused Jesus of being illegitimate (2), practising magic, being supported by Beelzebub or Beelzeboul (Satan, chief of devils or demons) (3), falsely claiming to be the Christ and making blasphemous claims against God. The Qur’aan defended both of them. Substantial portions of the revelations of Allaah (the Qur’aan) were dedicated to restore their honour and status. Thus, it was clarified that Mary was a chosen woman of Allaah who conceived Jesus miraculously by the command of Allaah, not by human action; that Jesus was created as a special sign of Allaah to guide Israelites; that he was the legitimate Christ; that he was able to show astounding miracles by the power of Allaah; and that he was aided by Gabriel – the holy spirit – not by Satan. At the same time, Jesus was also cleared from the Christian blasphemy who regard him as the Son of God who died on cross. It was strongly clarified that Jesus is free from such abominations and that he did not die an ignoble death on the cross. Such ideas are all heresies concocted after his departure from this world. Above all, the Qur’aan cleared their names and established their true status so respectfully that even the accusations or any word of disrespect used by the enemies of Jesus and Mary was not quoted or mentioned in any way or form. 

2  Dummelow's Bible Commentary, page 668; and "Evidence that Demands a Verdict," by Josh McDowell, a graduate of Wheaton College and magna cum laude graduate of Talbot Theological Seminary.

3  Matt. 12:22-27, Luke 11:14-19 and Mark 3:22

How did he celebrate or enjoy his success?

After he succeeded in his mission and triumphed over his enemies, he had every reason to be proud of his accomplishments. Instead, he grew humbler. When a conqueror enters a conquered city, it is done with pride, display of power, pomp and show. The harder the battle or tougher the fight, the more is the display of pride and arrogance. But Muhammad was different. When he entered his hometown as a conqueror, instead of sitting up and looking down on his defeated opponents and persecutors, he bowed so much in humility that his head was touching the back of his camel.

Even when he was ruling the whole Arabia as the Messenger of Allaah, he was extremely humble, and remained poor. Although a lot of wealth came to his treasury, he always spent it on poor masses and did not leave anything for his own use. He would distribute everything he received immediately, so much so that often he would not even have food to eat in his own home. He himself died poor, of his own choice, without leaving any inheritance, while he could have amassed much wealth and comforts without anyone objecting to it. Even his followers would respectfully suggest him to spend on himself, but he would spend every penny of the revenue on the wellbeing of people. Many beautiful women would insist on marrying him to dedicate themselves for his pleasure, but he would refuse. In short, he would not want to enjoy any rewards of his success in this world so that his work remained purely and solely for the pleasure of Allaah. Because of his outstanding qualities and achievements, people were ready to worship him like God, but he insisted to remain a slave of Allaah and His Messenger. He strongly decreed his followers from regarding him anything but the salve of Allaah. He wanted them to treat him like an ordinary human being and would not allow them even to stand up for him in respect.

The Product of His work -- His Followers

Anyone who became his follower, became a better human being: pure in character, fair in dealings, kind in behaviour, friendly in attitude, refined in social manners and tastes, just in words and actions, clean in morals, superb in ethics, intolerant for vices and uncompromising in standards. Even the enemies acknowledged that those who follow Muhammad become the best of the society.  The moment a person said yes to his message, he started on a fast path of continuous personal improvement. He never looked back and nothing in the world could either entice him or scare him to turn back. Anyone who became his follower, loved him, adored him and held him dearer to everything else in life. Even outsiders were amazed to see the level of love, respect and devotion his followers had for him.

Evaluating His Claim in a Rational Manner

Different people at different times have tried to evaluate the accuracy of his claim to prophethood in their own manner. Here is an example of how a Roman Emperor performed his due diligence.

Heraclius was the Emperor of Rome and a prominent Christian leader at the time of the Prophet. Heraclius had heard the news that a prophet had appeared in Makkah, but then he received a letter from the Prophet inviting him to Islam. Heraclius wanted to know more about this religion. When he learned that a Makkan caravan was in his area, he summoned the merchants to his court to seek information about the Prophet. Now the leader of the caravan was Aboo Sufyaan, one of the bitterest enemies of the Prophet, so he became its spokesman. The following conversation took place between Heraclius and Aboo Sufyaan:

Heraclius: Is the family of the person claiming prophethood a noble one?

Aboo Sufyaan: It is a noble family.

Heraclius: Has anyone else in this family claimed prophethood?

Aboo Sufyaan: No.

Heraclius: Has there been any king in this family?

Aboo Sufyaan: No.

Heraclius: Are the people who have accepted this religion weak or influential?

Aboo Sufyaan: They are weak people.

Heraclius: Are his followers increasing or decreasing?

Aboo Sufyaan: They are on the increase.

Heraclius: Has anyone amongst those who embrace his religion ever become displeased and renounced the religion afterward?

Aboo Sufyaan: No.

Heraclius: Have you ever known him to tell lies?

Aboo Sufyaan: No.

Heraclius: Does he ever commit a breach of any pact?

Aboo Sufyaan: He has not done it so far, but we would like to see if he keeps up a new peace treaty that we have recently negotiated with him.

Heraclius: Have you ever fought against him?

Aboo Sufyaan: Yes.

Heraclius: What was the result?

Aboo Sufyaan: Sometimes we won and sometimes he.

Heraclius: What does he teach?

Aboo Sufyaan: He tells us to worship Allaah and Allaah alone, and not to worship anything except Him. He tells us to renounce all our ancestors’ views. He tells us to pray, speak the truth, to be chaste, to be charitable and to have a good relationship with our family and relatives.

Heraclius then summed up the conversation thus:

“You say that this man belongs to a noble family. Prophets always come from noble families. You say that no one else in the family ever before claimed prophethood. Had it been so, I would have thought that he was influenced by family traditions. You say that none of his predecessors was a king. Had it been so, I would have thought that he was aspiring to attain kingship. You admit that he never tells lies. A person who does not tell a lie to a man cannot tell a lie about God. You say that his followers are mainly poor people. The first followers of prophets are mostly poor. You say that his religion is expanding. This is a characteristic of a true religion. You observe that no one who embraces Islam ever becomes displeased with it or renounces it; this is the case when belief enters the heart and consumes it. You say that he does not deceive. Prophets do not deceive anyone. You say that he bids you to worship only God and to observe purity, charity and chastity. If all this is true, his realm will come right up to my domain. From my scriptures, I was certain that a prophet would soon appear, but I did not know that he would be born in your people in Arabia. If it were possible for me to meet him I would, without hesitation, wash his feet.”

Aboo Sufyaan used to say that he had to give true answers to the emperor, as he was afraid of being contradicted by one or more of his caravan companion if he gave any false reply.

What about his Miracles?

Although the claim of his prophethood should be evaluated on the basis of the facts of his life in a rational and open-minded manner, some people still look for miracles before making up their minds. The life of Muhammad ŝall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was full of every kind of miracle one can think of; however, the most outstanding miracle was the Book that was revealed to him, and has been discussed in the previous section. The rest of his greatest miracles were those of his character, personality and accomplishments.

Miracle of Character

People are the product of their society. They grow up conditioned to the values and customs of the people by whom they are surrounded. It is impossible for people to think of an alternative to what is being talked about, written, taught or practised in the society. Muhammad being an orphan was even more vulnerable to the influences of society, in particular bad influences of the society’s youth. But amazingly, he grew up to be a person with all the perfect qualities but without any vices or weaknesses common in the society. His excellence in dealings and conduct was proverbial. Throughout his life, no one could ever put a finger and say Muhammad has this weakness. Throughout his mission, no one could ever find even a slight variance between what he preached and what his personal practise was. That kind of excellence, consistency and constancy was humanly impossible, and was nothing but a miracle.

Another special thing about him was that, despite the pressures of the society, he never bowed to or worshipped any idol, not even in his childhood. Had he been avoiding idolatry just because it did not make sense to make idols and worship them, he would have stopped that practice only in adult life. The miracle is that he resisted it and avoided it even when he was a little boy and was asked to pay respects to a family idol. Also, had he been avoiding it just on the basis of his own analysis and logic, he could have become a Jew or Christian. But he miraculously stayed away from every kind of misguidance and worshipped purely and solely Allaah, the one and only Creator of everything.

Miracle of personality and speech

He had such a magnetic personality that whoever spent some time with him became fond of him. The influence was so noticeable that opponents tried to neutralize it by initiating rumours that he used some kind of magic. Everyone who sat in his gathering felt fully attended to and properly recognized even if many people were attending at the same time.

His dealings with people were such that even bitter enemies would change and become his devotees. In a few incidents, those who came to kill him went away as his passionate followers because of his personal excellence and the heart-winning ways of his character.

His mission was basically a speaking mission. During his mission he made his call, presented his mission, explained his message, guided his followers, supported his close-ones, responded to his opponents and adversaries, and dealt with attackers on his honour and life. He did so as a friend, as a family person, as a victim, as a victor, as a judge, as a ruler, as a companion, as a master. He spoke during war and when in peace, and in times of pain and when happy. Regardless of the occasion or conditions, his words were always measured, concise, full of meanings, not a single syllable that could be superfluous, not a single word that could be offensive to anyone. He never had an argument with anyone. Nobody, not even his persecutors and bitter enemies, ever complained that Muhammad ever said something inappropriate. The more a person came close to him, the more he adored him. A young man served him for 10 years. During all those 10 years, he was never rebuked even once, not even asked, “Why did you do this or not do that?” Unbelievable by any human standards! Indeed, it was his miracle!

Miracle of Accomplishments

He was given the responsibility of the mission in his 41^st year of life. When he died 23.5 years later, his mission was fully accomplished. During this time, a whole society in the Arabian Peninsula had been transformed completely. A society characterized with lawlessness, bloodshed, rule of jungle, lootings, robberies, abductions, alcoholism, gambling, slavery, exploitation of weak, abuse of orphans, subjugation of women, racial and social discrimination, loan sharking, illiteracy, indecency, etc. had become the most organized, law-abiding, peaceful, literate and civilized society characterized with giving, sharing, fairness, justice, kindness to orphans, respect for women, generosity to the poor and needy, forgiving to enemies, honesty, trustworthiness and excellence of ethics in all kind of dealings. Age-old claims of blood and wars were dropped, as were claims of compound interest. People were freeing slaves happily, without anybody engaging in a civil war. Anyone who lost something could come back and pick it up later because none else with take it. A lonely woman could travel the whole land without being fearful of any one touching her. In short, his is the only example in the history of mankind where a society was revolutionized in all aspects of life, to the deepest level, in the shortest time frame without any bloodshed.

In short, every aspect of his life is a clear evidence for him being a Messenger of Allaah.

Excuses for not Believing and Attempts to Mislead

Some people just do not want to be bothered. They are too busy in their own areas of interest. What they need to think is that if Muhammad was true in his claim and they did not pay attention, they are going to be in very serious trouble with God. It is not a matter that one can summarily dismiss or put on a back burner. It is serious matter that must be reflected upon seriously and urgently.

People have many reasons to be sceptical about Muhammad’s claim to the prophethood and his opponents have their own reasons to oppose him. However, the contemporary sceptics and opponents have one advantage. There is hardly any reason, assumption or accusation that they can come up with that was not brought up earlier. Sincere people who follow up on those reasons and assumptions usually end up discovering the truth and becoming Muslims.

When Muhammad started giving the message of Islam in Makkah, initially the Makkans tried to summarily dismiss his claim. But soon they realized that it was serious matter. Those who wanted to maintain status quo to preserve their self-interests opposed him vehemently. Despite their opposition, his mission kept growing. His simple yet powerful message continued attracting decent people of the society. To stop its growth, Makkan leaders tried to spread different false rumours so that Muhammad would be so discredited in people’s minds that people stay away from him and refuse to pay attention to him. Unfortunately, none of their accusations would stick for long because of the outstanding character and superb personality of the Prophet. Those who would come in contact with him would find the falsehood of the rumour and become even closer to him or become Muslims. For example, everyone knew that Muhammad did not have any schooling to learn any literature or history. But the Qur’aan he was presenting was the most splendid in its literary style and also contained historical references. One of the accusations they came up with was that someone must be composing it and Muhammad is just presenting it. But this charge was so ridiculous that it could not hold water for even a short time.

Like Makkans, initial reaction of most people is to assume that Muhammad composed a text claimed it to be from God. Makkans pretty quickly realized implausibility of that idea and abandoned it.  Even today, anyone with a basic knowledge about Muhammad and his life can easily see the impossibility of this speculation for the following reason:

• Muhammad did not receive any education or training in reading, writing or literary composition.
• Writing of an author reflects a lot about the personal life and psychology of the author and in greatly impacted by his circumstances. Muhammad went through some extremely difficult and painful times in his life and some great successes as well. a reader of the Qur’aan can never detect any variation in the style of the Qur’aan that will reflect his pains, sufferings, joys or successes. Not even a minor reflection of his personal life can be detected anywhere in the Qur’aan.
• The personal words of Muhammad were kept totally separate from the revealed words of the Qur’aan. One can see two totally different styles of both texts. It is impossible for a human being to maintain two totally different styles of speech throughout his life so that one does not show any effect of the other style.

Another common assumption of people of all times is that he must have done it for some material gain. This is easily clarified when, if a person is serious to read, he or she studies even cursorily his life history and find that he made tremendous sacrifices for his mission rather than trying to get any material benefit from it.

Also like Makkans, Muhammad’s opponents in every age have tried to fabricate some propaganda to mislead people from listening to the message of Muhammad. For that purpose, they dream of a possibility and then try to create a reality out of it by repeating it and spreading it to make it stick. They do succeed in fooling some of the people for some time, but sensible, truth-seeking people do always succeed in discovering the reality and truth.

For their purposes, Makkans tried to convince people that Muhammad was a magician. The contemporary equivalent of that claim which has recently been fabricated and floated by constant media propaganda is about use of violence and terror. Again, this is so baseless and so ridiculous, that a serious seeker of truth has just to peep a little into his life to discover his kindness, mercy, gentleness, heart-winning personality, and his forgiving even his bitterest enemies and winning them as friends. A sincere study of his biography refutes it forever.

The academics, also called orientalists, use two other misleading fabrications to keep people away from Islam.

They try to give the impression that Muhammad took ideas from Judaism and Christianity, and presented them as Islam. In doing so they usually point to some elements and historical anecdotes common among these religions. But what they conveniently forget is that:

• God who revealed Islam also revealed the same teachings to Moses and Jesus and other prophets, so there have to be common points between them. The historical anecdotes will also be common because the same personalities are being talked about. The source of this kind of information is God, not Judaism or Christianity.
• Muhammad was illiterate, did not know how to read or write and had no access to any religious books of any religion.
• It could not have been hearsay or information provided by someone else. Had some other person been source of information, he would not have been able to hide from his followers or opponents, especially when the Prophet had such an open life. Those who were ready to kill him and waged wars against him would have been more than happy to find such a culprit. Such an informant could not have been his follower, because his followers ardently loved him, obeyed him and were always ready to give their own lives to save him from the prick of a thorn. A person who himself is the source of information can never be an ardent follower. Also how could Muhammad have worked so hard and sacrificed everything in his life for a fake claim?
• Even if all the knowledge of Judaeo-Christian books were available to Muhammad, Islamic teaching could not have been from that source because of the magnificent superiority of Islamic teaching over others. The same anecdote mentioned in the Bible usually is full of errors, inconsistencies and contradictions and unscientific and illogical statements, but the way it is mentioned in the Qur’aan, it is so cohesive, unchallengeable, logical and rational. If it were not from Allaah, how did it become so superior in quality as compared to the “so-called” source?
• In many cases, the Qur’aan mentions additional facts nowhere mentioned in the Torah, Talmud or Bible, and the Qur’aan information is corroborated by scientific discoveries and historical research. Examples of such cases were provided in the chapter about Qur’aanic miracles.

The invalidity of such speculative and ignorant remarks to summarily dismiss Muhammad’s prophethood can easily be realized by an honest reader who cares to reflect just a little on his life. How can a person be meticulously truthful in every matter throughout his life while continuing to tell one big lie? How can a liar have the kind of confidence and trust in Allaah in extremely dangerous circumstances as shown by him? How can a fake claimant make the kind of sacrifices made by him for his mission?

Some people tried to cast doubt about his claim by concocting a perception that the Prophet had epilepsy. Thus, he heard some voices during his epileptic attacks and sincerely believed them to be really from God. Again, this smart attempt to question the legitimacy of his claim conveniently overlooks many questions they should be asking before repeating their fabrication:

• Do the epileptic people remember what they mumble during the attack?
• The Prophet went through extremely difficult times during his mission and led his people bravely when everyone was losing senses, did he ever collapse under the attack of this “falling down” disease?
• Why is that no Makkan, no Jew, no Christian who were desperate to see him fail in his mission discovered this fact during his lifetime and use it to their advantage?
• Why had the Prophet’s followers never noticed his “disease” and allowed themselves to be fooled by it. Did those extremely intelligent people who led the world in knowledge and science in an unprecedented manner, allowed themselves to be fooled by a person who was not a Prophet but honestly thought so under the influence of his disease?  Did they leave their homes and properties and kith and kin to be with this deluded person? Did they sacrifice their lives in vain while fighting for a fake mission of an epileptic man?
• Do they have any sense? Do they who concoct such rumours have any honesty or fairness?
• Can any sane person honestly regard this marvellous and amazing Qur’aan which is a living miracle product of epileptic hallucinations?
• Have they read Qur’aan? Does it sound like a collection of mumblings of an epileptic man?

When all else fails, and those who are bent upon disbelieving in the Qur’aan and Muhammad do not find any other way of denying the truth of their claims, they resort to an age-old technique of attributing it to the devil. Had they been honest to themselves and opened the Qur’aan to read, they would not have dared to say something so ignorant as this. Will the Satan teach kindness, generosity, fairness, justice, forgiveness, charity, etc? Will he insist again and again that people should not worship anyone but God? Will Satan condemn and curse himself? There are 87 verses in the Qur’aan where people have been warned about him in one way or the other. The following is a sample:

That is why the new Catholic Encyclopaedia, under the heading “Qur'an”, addresses this kind of speculations and mentions that over the centuries there have been many theories as to where this book came from. Then, it concluded that currently, no sensible person believes any of these theories (4).

4  The Basis of Muslim Beliefs, Gary Miller, under the heading: Origin of the Qur'an 

Recently, a leading intellectual in the Catholic Church, Hans Kung (5), Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Research at the University of Tübingen in West Germany, concluded:

“Whatever we Christians do with this fact, we must affirm that he acted as a prophet and that he was a prophet.” And "God has spoken to man through the man, Muhammad."

5  "Christianity and World Religions: Dialogue with Islam", in Leonard Swidler (ed.), Muslims in Dialogue: The Evolution of A Dialogue, vol. 3 (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992)

Thomas Carlyle rightly told his fellow Christians:

“The lies, which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man, are disgraceful to ourselves only. (6)"

6  ON HEROES, HERO-WORSHIP AND THE HEROIC IN HISTORY, Lecture II, May 12, 1840

The Qur’aan mentions:

1  People may face many injustices, exploitations and abuses in their lives at the hands of other human beings, that is not the topic of the discussion at the moment. We are talking here about how Allaah Himself treats people. As for injustices committed by people to others, they will be judged on the Day of Judgment. In fact the existence of the Day of Judgment is in itself a great mercy of Allaah SWT because that day every victim of a crime will get his/ her full and just compensation for every injustice they suffered in this world.

The following paragraphs provide an overview of the basic aspects of Allaah’s justice and mercy in this world and Hereafter. 

Justice in This World

Every human action in this world has its natural consequence. That natural consequence is, in fact, the natural justice. Hard work brings success. Lethargy or wastage of time and resources causes failure. Whoever tills and sows and tends his crop, reaps the good harvest. Whoever studies well, gets good grades. Everyone who consumes poison suffers. Anyone who does not practice good hygiene is prone to infections (2).

2  Sometimes chance occurrences may negate the natural outcomes such as hard work being destroyed by some accident or natural disaster. Such issues have been discussed in the earlier article.

This law of natural justice extends to moral practices as well. Honesty and truthfulness establish credibility and good reputation, which brings its social and economic rewards. Kindness is compensated by gratitude and goodwill. Charitable acts are rewarded through praise, respect, recognition and influence in the society. If a person is unjust or unfair to another person, their mutual relationship is negatively affected and the perpetrator loses his social capital as well as respect and trust of the victim. The concept of social reciprocity is also an example of such natural consequences.

Thus, whether a person is a believer in Allaah or a disbeliever, all are treated equally and justly in terms of bearing the natural consequences of their actions. That is the pre-programmed justice for human actions in the world. That is Allaah’s justice in the world.

However, there may be some special situations that warrant commentary. If human dealings are not done exactly on the basis of justice to each other, there is naturally a party who is short changed or abused. If such a person did not get compensated in the world, Allaah SWT will do justice in the Hereafter between the two, even if the victim did not know or realize that he/she was short-changed or treated unfairly. This will be done by transferring balances from one’s account to another. If the perpetrator has credits, those credits will be transferred to the victim to the tune of the injustice done. If the perpetrator does not have enough credits, the victim’s debits will be transferred to the perpetrator to the tune of the injustice done. 

If someone commits huge crimes for which he does not receive an equivalent condemnation and just punishment in this world, Allaah SWT will do full justice in the Hereafter to ensure that such crimes are justly punished and victims are justly compensated. On the other hand, if someone performed extraordinarily selfless service to humanity for which he or she did not get duly compensated in this world, they will be compensated in the Hereafter.

Allah's Mercy in This World

There are innumerable mercies of Allaah SWT in the way He has created us and provided for our needs. They are too many to count or list; and they are not the topic for this writing. Here we are covering only the justice and mercy of Allaah as it directly relates to human actions and behaviour. From that perspective, there are two aspects of His mercy:

• When people commit crimes, Allaah SWT does not punish them immediately, rather they are left to the Day of Judgment. This affords them an opportunity to repent and reform (3).
  
• Those who rebel against Him or refuse to believe in Him, He does not deprive them of their sustenance, the natural results of their efforts or use of His resources.

3  Every moment that people are alive is an opportunity for them to do good and/or to repent /reform and to be forgiven by Allaah. This holds true until the moment of death at which point it will be too late to repent.

Justice in the Hereafter

Allaah SWT is the Creator, Owner, Lord and Sovereign of the whole universe. Human life and everything people use in life is His, bestowed by Him. He wants people to live according to the teachings of Islam. Thus, they who:

• Do not believe in God or associate partners or equate others with Him (commit Shirk) or in obeying Him commit the crime of high treason for which they will be punished;
  
• Do not believe in Him the way He has told people to believe in Him are guilty of sacrilege against Him, for which they will be punished; and
• Do not accept Islam as their Deen (a complete system of life), are guilty of disobedience of His commands for which they will be punished.

These are the most heinous and the gravest capital crimes in the eyes of Allaah SWT that call for the severest eternal punishment possible.  It should be remembered that these people got their justice in the world through the natural consequences of their actions. That matter was finished in the world. This punishment is for their disbelief and the efforts they put in for practising, promoting and preaching their disbelief, instead of practising, preaching and promoting belief in Allaah and Islam. People often ask about some exceptionally kind and charitable disbelievers. The fact of the matter is that the just punishment for these crimes of disbelief is so huge, that even the compensation for any amount of good deeds done for people cannot balance the punishment for these crimes against the Creator. Allaah SWT may reduce the intensity of their punishment for their extraordinary service to humanity, but they will still be punished throughout their eternal life. One example is that of Aboo Ŧaalib, the Prophet’s uncle, who supported and protected the Prophet as long as he lived. He will be given the lightest punishment of all disbelievers for his refusal to accept Islam.

As for those who believe in Allaah as the One and Unique God and the Creator and in His Deen Islam but do not live their lives according to the teachings of Islam are guilty of disobedience of His commands for which they will be punished.

Allah's Mercy in the Hereafter

As mentioned earlier, Allaah’s mercy in the Hereafter is only for those who believed in Him and in the Hereafter according to the Islamic standards. Also, the mercies of Allaah that will be bestowed upon the people of Jannah (Garden) in the Hereafter are numerous and even beyond our imagination. Here we are covering only the mercy of Allaah as it directly relates to the accountability of human beings for their actions and behaviour. From that perspective, His mercy takes many forms:

• As soon as someone believes in Allaah as His Lord, He accepts the person and forgives all of his or her sins immediately;
  
• Whenever a believer repents, He accepts his or her repentance and forgives the repented sins;
• If a believer does good things purely seeking His pleasure, He rewards them for their pure intention, even though they received the just compensation in the form of the natural consequence of those good deeds in their worldly life.
• Those who strive in His way and stand for Truth and Justice and are not compensated in this world for their efforts and sacrifices, will be graciously rewarded in the Hereafter. Although they did what they should have done as the slaves of Allaah SWT, He will still reward them abundantly and graciously;
• Depending on the purity of intention and hardships suffered for good deeds, He rewards them many times beyond the value of what any of their actions may deserve;
• He judges the believers according to their overall performance, instead of holding people accountable for every infraction they committed; and
• He rewards the believers according to the best of their performance at any time in their lives, instead of their average performance over their adult life or their least performance.

Thus, all the rewards the believers will get in the Hereafter are because of the mercy and grace of Allaah SWT. That is why it is said that people will enter paradise only because of the mercy and grace of Allaah SWT.