ISLAM AND OTHER RELIGIONS. PAGE 1 OF 3 THE UNIVERSALITY AND UNIQUENESS Prophecy is the means whereby God offers guidance to human beings through human intermediaries. Just as Gods mercy takes precedence over his wrath and thereby determines the nature of wrath, so also Gods guidance takes precedence over his misguidance. Guidance itself demands the existence of misguidance. Without the misguidance that is embodied by Satan, the prophetic messages would be meaningless. Without distance, there can be no nearness; without wrong, no right; without darkness, no perception of light. All the distinctions that allow for a cosmos to exist depend upon the diversification and differentiation of the divine qualities. On the moral and spiritual level, this diversification becomes manifest through the paths of guidance and misguidance, represented by the prophets and the satans. Wherever there have been prophets, there have been satans. The Koran uses the word satans to refer both to some of the jinn and to some human beings. To be a satan is to be an enemy of the prophets and an embodiment of misguidance: We have appointed to every prophet an enemy-satans from among mankind and jinn, revealing fancy words to each other as delusion. Yet, had thy Lord willed, they would never have done it. So leave them with what they are fabricating. (Quran 6:112) Just as Adam, our father and the first prophet, was faced with Iblis, so also we are faced with Iblis, his offspring, and their followers. Misguidance is a universal phenomenon, found in the outside world and within ourselves. In the same way, guidance is a universal phenomenon. In other words, the human race is inconceivable without both prophets and satans, because human beings are defined by the freedom they received when they were made in the divine form. They are able to choose among the divine attributes, because all the divine attributes are found within themselves. Just as they can choose Gods right hand by following guidance, so also they can choose his left hand by following misguidance. Without that choice, they would not have been free to accept the Trust. As we have seen, the fundamental message of the prophets is tawhid. In the Islamic perspective, all prophets have brought the first Shahadah:We never sent a messenger before thee save that We revealed to him, saying, There is no god but I, so worship Me (Quran 21:25). In contrast to the first Shahadah, which designates a divine guidance that is embodied by all prophets, the second Shahadah refers to the domain of the specific message brought by Muhammad. Other prophets had their own messages that correspond to the second Shahadah: Every nation has its messenger. (Quran 10:47) We have sent no messenger save with the tongue of his people. (Quran 14:4) To every one of you [messengers] We have appointed a right way and an open road. (Quran 5:48) The Koran insists that Muslims should not differentiate among the prophets of God. Each prophet, after all, was sent by God with guidance, and the primary message of each is the same: Say: We have faith in God, and in that which has been sent down on Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Tribes, and that which was given to Moses and Jesus and the prophets by their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them, and to Him we have submitted. (Quran 2:136; cf. 2:285, 3:84) The Koran tells us in several verses that the later prophets came to confirm the messages of the earlier prophets: And when Jesus son of Mary said, Children of Israel, I am indeed Gods messenger to you, confirming the Torah that has gone before me... .(Quran 61:6) He has sent down upon thee the Book with the truth, confirming what was before it, and He sent down the Torah and the Gospel aforetime, as guidance to the people. (Quran 3:3) At the same time, the Koran makes clear that the details of the messages differ. Any distinction that can be made among the messengers has to be made on the basis of the difference in their messages: And those messengers-some We have preferred above others. Among them was he to whom God spoke, and He raised some in degrees. And We gave Jesus son of Mary the clear explications, and We confirmed him with the Holy Spirit. (Quran 2:253) TO CONTINUE IN PAGE 2 OF 3 IN SHA ALLAHU.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 21:57:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015