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 everything 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 (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 religion 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 and without any likeness, to correct the knowledge and deeds of His slaves,
and to treat their sick hearts. May abundant blessings and good wishes, from
us, beupon 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, the first of them being to
protect him, his ancestry, masters and disciples against the troubles of the
Rising Day, for which I offer Him my invocations, 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 Qur’ân al-kerîm, 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 ’Îd 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 nihilists 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
elapsed 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 sham
scientists 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 on 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 on 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 erfection and to cure the diseases in their hearts.
In order to fulfil these duties 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 book; 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 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 Sîbawaih’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
al-kerîm 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 purify 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’ non-adolescent 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
Hijrî
Kamarî 900 Mîlâdî 1582
AHMAD
IBN
ABD
AL-AHAD
AS-SIRHINDÎ