God has created man in freedom, but this freedom is not unlimited. The freedom of the individual is taken away at death. And, the freedom of the whole human race will be taken away on Doomsday. After the cessation of life in this world, a new life will begin in the Hereafter. There, people will be divided into two groups; one who, having made proper use of their freedom making it subservient to the will of God, will enter into Paradise; the other group will be of those who, having been fearless of God in using the freedom granted to them, will have to face punishment. This division will be eternal.

About a hundred years of life in this world is going to end in an eternal fate for man. And the end will either be a terrible punishment or the greatest of rewards. This state of affairs makes the matter of life extremely grave. Despite this extraordinary gravity, all realities remain hidden from human eyes. God, the angels, Paradise, Hell; nothing is visible. As such, it was expected of man that when these realities were revealed, he would say, “God, I did not know that this was going to be the end of life. Why did You not tell us before?”

Calling people to God involves conveying the divine message with beauty and wisdom and without any compulsion as per the Quranic commandments.

This would be a futile excuse as God has made plentiful arrangements for His message to be conveyed to mankind. With the very creation of man, God began sending prophets to the world. In fact, the very first man was also the first prophet. The prophets were sent revelations so that they could convey the divine message to mankind.

This series of prophets continued from Adam to Jesus Christ. Finally God decided to send the final Prophet to whom He would send the last divine book which would be preserved with the message of God for all time so that no further prophets were required anymore.

For the conveyance of God’s message to people after the last Prophet, the true followers of the Prophet were assigned the role. This is the task referred to in the Quran as ‘calling people to God’. This duty involves conveying the message with beauty and wisdom and without any compulsion as per the Quranic commandments. Those who take up this divine task must bear in mind that:

•    God has no special relationship with any particular community.

•    As this work is the task of representing God, it has to be performed with meticulous care and accorded the highest moral standards which it demands.

•    Well-wishing and complete goodness is expected of an earnest undertaker of this task.

•    The traits of the one who conveys the message to others should be of a completely peaceful and non-materialistic person. Such a person should be completely positive and one who contributes to the constructive activities of the world.

However, on observing the history of the entire Muslim world over the last 200 years, we find that this work has not happened. Most of the movements undertaken by the Muslims have been political in one way or another. What is actually desired of them is to work for a Hereafter-oriented movement, in which the goal is to make people aware of what they will have to face in the next world. Instead, Muslim political activities are directed at acquiring worldly rights through protests and demands.

The fundamental mission of the Prophet was to convey the message of God to man and Muslims as followers of the Prophet cannot afford to ignore this mission.

Muslims should now shun all such activities and if they claim to be the true followers of the Prophet, they must emulate the Prophet in their lives. The fundamental mission of the Prophet was to convey the message of God to man and Muslims as followers of the Prophet cannot afford to ignore this mission. Their activities must centre on the task of conveying the peaceful message of the Quran to mankind. Like the Prophet, they must live a noble life which involves being God’s worshipper and man’s well-wisher. This is the vision and the mission of Islam.