Infinite gratitude be to Allâhu ta’âlâ, who has sent Prophets to guide
people to the way of salvation and who has revealed four of His major Books to
them; these Books contain no aberration or abnormality. The Book He has revealed
to His Last Prophet, Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm), is Qur’ân al-kerîm, wherein evertyhing necessary for His human slaves has been
revealed, unbelievers have been warned of Hell’s torment while Believers who
carry out the requirements of Islam have been given the good news of Paradise.
By sending Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm), Allâhu ta’âlâ has completed the faith (dîn) of His human slaves. He has
declared that He will be pleased with those who are in the Islamic religion
(ad-Dîn). For His slaves of earlier times, too, He sent prophets with clear
revelations and great miracles. He has declared in the Qur’ân al-kerîm that no Prophet will succeed Muhammad (’alaihi
’s-salâm). He has decreed that, as a blind person entrusts himself to those who
will lead him or as a helplessly ill person commits himself to the care of
compassionate doctors, people must submit themselves to Prophets He has sent so
that they will attain benefits beyond mind’s grasp and escape calamities. He
has made Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm) the highest, the most merciful of
Prophets, and his Umma the most equitable people. He has made his Umma the most
perfect of all. He has announced through âyats in His Book that his conduct has
no excess or defect, that his grade is very high and that he is the Prophet for all creatures. He has sent
him as the Last Prophet to communicate the fact that Allâhu ta’âlâ is One to His slaves, and to treat their sick hearts. May
abundant blessings and good wishes, from us, be upon him, his household (’Âl),
and companions (as-Sahâba) day and night! They are the stars guiding to the
right way and the sources of light illuminating darkness.
Let it be known that this slave, that is,
[al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî Mujaddid al-alf ath-thânî] Ahmad ibn ’Abd al-Ahad, who is
greatly
in need of Allâhu ta’âlâ’s compassion and the
first of them to invoke Him to protect him, his ancestry, masters and disciples
against the troubles of the Rising Day, has seen with regret that the people of
our time have become increasingly slack in believing in the necessity of
Prophets’ coming, in the twenty-five Prophets whose names are given in the
Qur’ân alkerîm, and in obeying the religion brought by the Last Prophet. Moreover, some powerful people with
authoritative positions in India have been persecuting pious Muslims who
diligently follow Islam. There have appeared people who mock the blessed name
of the Last Prophet and substitute the blessed
names given to them by their parents with absurd names. Sacrificing a cow,
which is wâjib for Muslims to butcher during ’Îyd al-Adhâ, has been prohibited
in India. Mosques are either being demolished or turned into museums or stores.
Islamic cemeteries are being made into playgrounds or places for rubbish.
Disbelievers’ churches are being restored in the name of monuments. Their
rituals and festivals are being celebrated by Muslims, too. In short, Islam’s
requirements and Islamic customs are being abhorred or totally abandoned. They
are being called “retrogressive.” Disbelievers’ and atheists’ costums, false
religions, immoral and shameless acts are being praised. Efforts are being made
to spread them. Depraved and squalid books, novels and songs of the Indian
disbelievers are being translated into the languages of Muslims and sold. In
this way efforts to annihilate Islam and Islam’s beautiful ethics, which result
in Muslims’ îmân weakening, are being carried on while unbelievers and
rejectors are increasing. Moreover, even men of religion, who must be healers
for the disease of disbelief, are falling for this disaster and drifting into
calamity.
I have studied the causes for this
corruption in Muslim children’s belief and have scrutinized the origin of their
doubts. I have come to the conclusion that there is only one reason for the
slackness in their îmân. And the reason is that much time has ealpsed since
Rasűlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm), while at the same time some fanatical,
short-sighted, religiously nescient politicians and some ignoramuses, who pass
themselves off as scientists, talk on religious matters and have their words
accepted as true. I have spoken with people who read and believe the writings
of such fanatics of science and who therefore describe themselves as
enlightened, modern people. I
have
seen that they err mostly in comprehending the rank of prophethood (nubuwwa). I
have heard many of them say, “Prophets endeavoured so that people should get
along well with one another and form beautiful habits. This has nothing to do
with life in the next world. Books of philosophy, too, provide ways of getting
along well and forming good habits. Imâm Muhammad al-Ghazâlî divides his book Ihyâ’ulűm ad-dîn into
four sections. In the first section he explains beautiful habits, which he
terms Munjiyyât
(things that save). In the other three sections, he writes about
salât, fasting and other ’ibâdât. This book of his resembles books of
philosophy. And this shows that ’ibâdât are not munjî (able to save) and that
salvation depends upon beautiful habits.” Others say, “One who has heard of the
Prophet, his âyats and miracles but who
disbelieves this information because centuries have passed ever since, is like
a person who lives in the mountains or in a desert and has not heard about the Prophet at all. Like the latter, the former may not
have îmân, either.”
In response to them, we say that, Allâhu ta’âlâ pitied human beings in the eternal past
and willed to send them Prophets to guide them to perfection and to cure the
diseases in their hearts. In order to fulfil these duites of theirs, Prophets
must threaten the disobedient and give good news to the obedient. They must
inform the former of the torment and the latter of the rewards in the
Hereafter. Man desires to attain things that come sweet to him. In order to
attain them, he goes astray, sins and harms others. The sending of Prophets was
necessary for protecting men from doing evil and for providing them with a
peaceful and comfortable life in this world and the next. Life in this world is
short. Life in the next world is endless. For this reason, attaining happiness
in the next world takes precedence. Some ancient philosophers, in order to sell
more of the books they had prepared with their own views and imaginations,
embellished them with ways of beautifying one’s morals and doing useful acts,
which they had read in heavenly books or heard from those who believed in these
books. Concerning Hujjat al-Islâm Imâm Muhammad Ghazâlî’s (rahmatullâhi ’alaih)
explaining ’ibâdât in his books; scholars of fiqh explained how to carry out
’ibâdât, but they did not describe their subtle particulars because their
purpose was to state the conditions for and manners of performing ’ibâdât
properly. They did not look
to
men’s souls and hearts. The task of describing them devolved on scholars of
tasawwuf. Al-Imâm al-Ghazâlî combined the knowledge of religion that provided
for physical betterment and outward deeds with the knowledge of tasawwuf, which
enables one to attain inner cleanliness. He explained both of them in his book.
He named the latter Munjiyyât, that is, teachings that prevent
calamity, yet he said that ’ibâdât, too, were munjî. The way of making ’ibâdât
a means of salvation can be learned from books of fiqh. Those teachings of
salvation which pertain to the heart cannot be learned from books of fiqh. They
can be understood better by reading the explanations of that exalted imâm.
We have not seen the medical
scientist Calinos or the grammarian ’Amr Sibawaih. How do we know that they
were experts in those branches of knowledge? We know what the science of
medicine means. We read Calinos’s books and hear some of his statements. We
learn that he gave medicine to the ill and cured them. Hence we believe that he
was a doctor. Likewise, when a person who knows the science of grammar reads
Sibawaih’s books or hears some words of his, he knows and believes that he was
a grammarian. By the same token, if a person knows well what prophethood is and
studies Qur’ân alkerîm and the Hadîth
ash-sherîf, he will understand thoroughly that Muhammad
(’alaihi ’s-salâm) was in the highest grade of prophethood. As one’s belief in
the above-mentioned scholars would never be upset, so the slanders and
vilifications of the ignorant and deviated will never undermine one’s îmân in
Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm), since all the sayings and behaviours of Muhammad
(’alaihi ’s-salâm) guide people to perfection, make their beliefs and
behaviours correct and useful, and illuminate their hearts so as to cure them
of diseases and disencumber them of bad habits. This is what prophethood
(nubuwwa) means.
A person who lives in mountains or in a
desert [or a communist country] and has not heard of Prophets is called shâhiq al-jabal. It
is impossible for such people to believe in prophethood or that Prophets were
sent. It is as if no Prophet has come for them.
They are excusable. [After their accounts are settled following death, they,
like animals, will be eternally annihilated without entering Paradise or Hell.
The same is the case for disbelievers’ nonadolescent children.] They are not
commanded
to believe in Prophets. Concerning them, Sűrat al-Isra declares: “We do not torment
unless We send a Prophet before!”
With the intention of removing
the doubts and suspicions of those who acquired their religious knowledge from
the books of religiously ignorant people and from the venomous pens of the
enemies of the religion, I have thought of writing what I know. In fact, I have
deemed this a task, a debt which I owe to humanity. By writing this book, I
have tried to explain what prophethood means, to verify that Muhammad (’alaihi
’s-salâm) was in full possession of prophethood, to eliminate the doubts of the
unbelievers concerning this fact, and to display the wickedness and harms of a
few bigots of science who attempt to suppress this fact with their personal
thoughts and opinions. Citing documents from the books of Islamic scholars and
adding my humble thoughts, I have tried to rebut their thoughts. The book
consists of an introduction and two articles. And the introduction is divided
into two topics. Trusting myself to Allâhu ta’âlâ, I begin writing.
Hijri Kamarî 990 Mîlâdî
1582
AHMAD
IBN
’ABD
AL-AHAD
AS-SIRHINDÎ