The Call of the Quran
1. Divine Planning
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began worshipping them. These brilliant bodies
captured human thought to such a degree and so
dominated people’s minds that even governments,
nay, empires began to be founded on their basis. The
emperors of that age ruled over people by declaring
themselves to be the descendants of sun and moon.
This age was brought to an end by monotheism
gaining supremacy through the Final Prophet. This
was carried out in two stages. The first stage is
referred to in the Qur’an in these words:
And fight with them until there is no more
persecution
(fitnah)
and religion should be
only for God; but if they desist, then surely
God sees what they do (8:39)
Fitnah
in this verse means religious intolerance,
which in ancient times had become a form of
oppression. Polytheism had become aggressive
because it was the bedrock of all governments and
as such enjoyed full state patronage. In such a
situation, whenever the call to monotheism was
raised, it was but natural for the rulers to feel
strongly that such a call, in holding their right to
rule suspect, posed a challenge to their sovereignty.
