Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
17. Manifestation of Prophethood in the Present Day and Age
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fathers had worshipped; and he commanded us to
speak truly, to fulfill our promises, to respect the
ties of kinship and the rights of our neighbours, and
to refrain from crimes and from bloodshed. So we
worship God alone, setting naught beside Him,
counting as forbidden what He has forbidden and
as licit what He has allowed. For these reasons have
our people turned against us, and have persecuted
us to make us forsake our religion and revert from
the worship of God to the worship of idols. That is
why we have come to your country, having chosen
you above all others; and we have been happy in
your protection, and it is our hope, O king, that
here, with you, we shall not suffer wrong.”
We can see from Ja’far’s words how much Islam
meant to him, and to those on whose behalf he was
speaking. Islam was for them a life of enlightenment
as opposed to a life of ignorance; it was a discovery of
One God, and abandonment of idols. They had
abandoned an unruly life for a life of divine guidance,
revealed to them through the Prophet Muhammad.
They now sought eternity, not the world. Gone was
the permissiveness of yesteryear; what they had
discovered now was the joy of an upright moral
