Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
~ 19 ~
We have revealed to you this book so that, by
the will of their Lord, you may lead men from
darkness to light (14:1).
This same mission of leading men from darkness to
light had been entrusted to all the prophets in turn.
The sense, however, in which the Prophet of Islam
was distinct from the others was that, in his case,
God had decreed—since no Prophet was to come
after him—that he should not just communicate the
divine message to humanity and leave it at that, but
that he should also take practical steps to change
the entire existing state of affairs.
The prerequisites for putting this plan into action
were all provided by God. Moreover, God also
guaranteed that any shortcoming in worldly
resources would be amply compensated for by
special help from the angels.
This point has been made in the Hadith in different
ways. One
hadith
in particular is quite direct in its
wording: “I am the eradicator through whom God
will obliterate unbelief”. Thus the Prophet was not
just a
dai,
but also a
mahi.
He was the caller to the
faith, but he had also to compel people to answer
