The Truth Message – Part – 3.29:
Do Muslims need a Messiah / reformer?
Do Muslims need a reformer? Can a Book grant guidance on its own?
Some people raise the point that in the presence of a perfect book like the Holy Qur’ān, there is no need for a prophet or spiritual guide, and now we can fulfill all of our requirements from this book alone. However, contrary to this notion, the Holy Qur’ān itself states that a book and a teacher are two closely intertwined elements.
… This is a Book which We have revealed to thee that thou mayest bring mankind out of the depths of darkness into light, by the command of their Lord, to the path of the Mighty, the Praiseworthy – (Surah Ibrahim 14:2)
Allah states that the function of a prophet is not merely to convey the message, but also to bring forth the real explanations of its teachings and wisdom, as well as to purify the souls of the people. Therefore, along with a book, the requirement of a divine teacher cannot be disregarded.
It is said: If you are not able to understand or submit to Qur’anic teachings, it’s not your fault for it is said about The Qur’an:
… the knowledge revealed would be of such a high quality that without purification a person would be unable to gain its understudying (3:8).
And the problem is that the few notorious Mullahs that most of the Muslims follow today are again not the ones who are pure enough to understand the real meaning out of the verses of the great Qur’an.
If only a book was enough and a man of the past can be taken as an example… then perhaps we didn’t need more than one prophet, isn’t it?
Why did then God kept sending prophets?
Moreover many of them came without books!
If more Only books might have been revealed then, not a leader to gather us, command us, control us, and keep a check on the lives and ways of it! Absolutely not, isn’t it?
You can see and you know what the misguided people are doing today in the name of Jihad, Allah, and Islam these days whereas the correct meaning of Jihad, commandments of Allah and Prophet might have never crossed their mind, and not even of the mullah’s that they follow. They are spreading terror in the lives of the common man, killings innocents, orphaning children, widowing women, deteriorating lives, destroying peace and Muslims join together to say, ‘We Do Not Need A Reformer’!
These are the ones led by the Mullah according to whom God has stopped sending revelations and creating humans good enough to be a Prophet.
They mistakenly believe that prophethood ended with the last law giving prophet Mohammad (pbuh).
They again mistakenly believe that ‘Only a book is enough for guidance’ & no other prophet is needed now. How mistaken they are!
Let me provide you with examples of some famous Muslims…
First let’s consider the views of Dr. Allamah Sir Muhammad Iqbal now:
Iqbalian philosophy is against the need of a prophet altogether! According to him man has matured to the maximum of his faculties… Sir Iqbal neatly trimmed the maturity concept to suit his own purpose within the framework of Islam. He conceded that once man stood in the need of a Perfect Master and a Perfect Book which were received in the person of His Holiness Master Mohammad and His perfect book the Quran, and now that this objective is accomplished – the people require no more to be badgered with any further interference from on high. But that is not all!
The doctrine of maturity, as amended by Iqbal, does not merely do away with the need of prophethood, it does away altogether with the need for any communication from God even in the form of non-prophetic revelations. This has to be the only logical conclusion drawn from his doctrine of maturity. The maturity concept requires total independence of man from further Divine guidance in any form. He has become capable of taking all-important decisions for himself in the light of the guidance already vouchsafed to him. Iqbal argued that Man is no longer a child to be walked with his little finger held in a prophet’s hand.
Seems like a sound healthy logic, isn’t it?
But just one glance at the spiritual decadence and utter moral destitution of Muslims today is sufficient to dispel this argument as entirely fallacious and conjectural, actually ridiculous!
Let me present just one proof to defy this logic: The existence of seventy-three doctrinal divisions among Muslims themselves, despite a well-preserved book and a well-documented record of traditions, throws a dismal light on the Iqbalian philosophy of the maturity of man.
O well! ENOUGH of Iqbal and his postulations!
The Maudoodian Mentality: Let us now turn to Mr. Maudoodi, yet another renowned scholar of the mainstream Sunni Muslims. Maudoodi pleads that the absolute cessation of prophethood after Prophet Muhammad (saw) has been a singular blessing of God upon mankind. Why? It is a boon, especially for the Muslims, because it spares them the risk of rejecting a Divine messenger of God ever again. They are shielded from ever being accursed by God, as others before them were cursed, for committing the crime of rejecting the prophets of their time.
…fantastic reasoning, isn’t it?
Well, such a view deserves to be treated more by way of a joke rather than a legitimate argument.
Maudoodi’s philosophy, if accepted, would imply that the very institution of prophethood is a curse indeed otherwise its cessation could not have been claimed to be a blessing. This appears to be more in line with the thinking of St. Paul, who branded the law of the Torah as a curse and believed Jesus to be the redeemer because he did away with that law. If there were no law to be broken, argued St. Paul, there would be no sin to be committed.
…what-excellent-teachings!
The array of Maudoodi philosophy however, does not seem to originate from St. Paul alone. It also resurrects the image of Bahaullah as well. What the Messiah had done by rejecting the law of the Torah, according to St. Paul, Bahaullah claimed to have done to the Quranic law – thus he pronounced himself to be the liberator of mankind from the bondage of the Quran. Nonetheless he did not imitate St. Paul entirely because St. Paul had never claimed a role of God personified for himself. He assigned this role of godhead entirely to Jesus. Jesus to him, was in fact a liberator who had undone the blunder committed by ‘God the Father’ against mankind. The very promulgation of Divine law was tantamount to the creation of sin. Hence, by cancelling the Divine law, what Jesus actually achieved was to have destroyed the very soil from which sin sprouted. By the same act of redeeming mankind he appears to have simultaneously redeemed ‘God the father’ from the folly of creating sin.
Bahaullah applied this philosophy only partially and argued that the Quranic law being too heavy and cumbersome had lost its relevance to the people of the modern age. So by liberating mankind from this exacting ‘burden’ he feigned to set them free, but not entirely so; he betook for himself the role of a new ‘Law-maker’, after cancelling the previous Law. But in the final analysis Bahaullah succeeded only in making a mockery of God and himself. The Shariah (law) that Bahaullah dictated to replace the law of the Quran was no more and no less than a blatant affront to common sense, reason and rationality.
Between these two modern day disciples of St. Paul, i.e. Bahaullah and Maudoodi, nothing seems to have been left of the religion of Islam. As for the Quranic law, Bahaullah claimed to have done away with it in the name of emancipation. As for the institution of prophethood, Maudoodi ventured to abolish it by virtue of the same Pauline philosophy. Both failed to achieve their objectives in the sight of God.
Not to wonder, both were applauded as great heroes in the sight of men who were already spiritually diseased.
So, as we’ve seen Maudoodi did not follow St. Paul entirely. He did not go as far as to suggest that the Quranic law should be annulled by God, lest the people should incur His wrath by failing to abide by it. He only applied the Pauline principle to the institution of prophethood. Even if non-law-bearing prophets are raised after the Holy Founder (saw) of Islam, they are likely to be rejected by the majority of Muslims as prophets have been rejected before them. Thus according to Maudoodi’s logic, the threat of the curse would keep hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles. In Maudoodi’s estimation by altogether doing away with the institution of prophethood after the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), God has bestowed untold blessings upon mankind, particularly upon the Muslims.
If the institution of prophethood is finally brought to a close, lest people should be cursed, it is tantamount to pronouncing prophethood itself to be a curse. Thus, the neo-Pauline philosophy of Maudoodi would require God to do away with the curse of prophethood altogether.
What deliverance! What redemption! Good riddance is the other name for it!
[16:89] As for those who disbelieve and turn men away from the way of Allah, We will add punishment to their punishment because they acted corruptly.
(Copied from Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth)
The bringing of a book of law is not the only function performed by prophets. Prophethood is a thing of many splendors. After the death of a law-bearing prophet, the mere preservation of his book and his traditions cannot offer a sufficient substitute for prophethood itself. Let me explain: The case in point becomes amply clear when we examine the conduct of Muslims after the demise of the Holy Prophet (saw). The progressive deterioration of Muslim society should be sufficient to prove this point, isn’t it? The moral status of Muslims during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (saw) and that of Muslims today defies comparison. The Book however remains the same perfect, unaltered, un-interpolated Book that it was fourteen hundred years ago. You still think a prophet is not necessary?
A funny fact:
The Muslims of today who join to say that, ‘We Do Not Need A Reformer’, are themselves waiting for the return of Jesus!
Prophet Mohammad (saw) himself had predicted the ruining of Islam & informed coming of a reformer who’ll come in the person of Jesus, in the name of Imam Al’Mahdi and will be called as the Maseeh-e-Maood. The coming of this Promised Prophet / Messiah is believed by almost all religions of the world today including Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and many others… we’ll go deep into this matter in a while.
Misunderstandings pertaining to ‘Completion of Favour’
This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour upon you and have chosen for you Islam as religion. (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:4)
By presenting this verse of the Holy Qur’ān, few (non-Ahmadi) Muslim scholars try to prove that as a religion, Islam has been perfected and completed, and the completion of favor means that Prophethood has now come to an end and with it has come the end of Revelations!
The truth is that when these people became the insects of the earth, and the only insignia of Islam left in them were their turbans, beards, circumcision, a few verbal affirmations, and mere formalities of observing Prayer and fasting, God Almighty deadened their hearts. Thousands of dark veils covered their eyes and they lost all signs of spiritual life. They thus denied the possibility of converse with the Divine. This denial is, in truth, a denial of Islam; but since their hearts are dead, they do not realize their own true condition. (Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Part V, Ruhani Khaza’in vol. 21, pp. 310-311)
My only response to such people is: May Allah guides the wrongdoers along the right path, but if they reject it then most certainly Curse of Allah will be upon the liars.
And it is these very Muslims who think that all world people should accept Islam.
I ask them: If Islam is such a dead religion, whom can you invite to it?
Will you carry its corpse to Japan or will you present it to Europe?
Who would be foolish enough to fall in love with a dead religion that is bereft of all blessing and spirituality such as appeared in the religions of the past?
O Muslim Mo’mineen! Beware that such thinking is sheer ignorance and stupidity. O ye stupid and blind ones, our Holy Prophet, our lord and master (thousands of blessings be on him) was ahead of all Prophets in his spiritual grace… being his blessed Ummat, how can you even think about it?
Allah says in the Holy Qur’an:
‘…If an unrighteous person brings you any news, ascertain the correctness of the report fully…’ (al-Hujurat 49:7)
~***~
Continue to The Truth Message – Part – 3.30:
Orthodox Muslims’s view/expectations from the returning Messiah Jesus
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