T h e Fo u r Pill a rs
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But for the unbelievers He has prepared a grievous chastisement.”
(33:7-8)
The last Prophet was ordained for this very purpose in
fulfilment of Abraham’s prayer (2:129). He was given the Arabic
Quran and was entrusted with the task of conveying the message
of God to the Makkans and to the inhabitants of other Arab lands
surrounding Makkah:
Thus We have revealed to you an Arabic Quran, that you may
warn the Mother City and those who dwell all around it; that you
may forewarn them of the Day of Gathering which is sure to come:
when some will be in Paradise, and some in Hell (42:7-8).
The people ofArabia were directly given the Quran in their own
language and other people who joined them in faith were indirect
recipients. The Quran says:
It isHewho has raised among the unlettered people amessenger
from among themselves who recites His revelations to them, and
purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, for they
had formerly been clearly misguided—and to others also, from
among them, who have not yet joined them. He is the Mighty, the
Wise One. That is God’s grace; He bestows it on whomHe pleases;
for God is limitless in His grace. (62:2-4).
A part of the prayer of Abraham, which he made at the time
of the Kabah’s construction was “to make this place the centre of
the worshippers” (14:37). DuringAbraham’s own time, therefore, it
had been decreed as a matter of Divine Will that Makkah should
be the centre of annual worship (22:27). Ibn-e-Kathir writes in his
commentary on this verse of the Quran that when the House of
God was constructed, God asked Abraham to announce to the
people that God had appointed a centre for them to which they
should flock. The aim of gathering at this centre was the same as
that of every prophet, and it is this same aim which is the very
raison d’etre of the
Ummah
of Muhammad, that is, taking God’s
message to the people of the world:
“The first House ever to be built (as sanctuary) for men was
that at Bakkah (Makkah), a blessed place, a beacon for the nations”
(3:96).
