Mission of the Muslim Ummah
The Quran was revealed for all mankind. In the last phase of human history, the Brothers of the Prophet will find new opportunities to take the message of the Quran to the world.
The Quran has this to say, “Blessed be He who has revealed the criterion (the Quran) to His servant that he may warn the nations.” (25:1) We learn from this verse that the Quran has been specifically designed for communication of its message at a global level.
The Quran was revealed in the first quarter of the seventh century. For the first thousand years of its existence, there were no means of sending its message across the globe. There were no printed copies of the Quran, rapid transportation systems, and modern communication systems. Different languages are spoken in every region of the world. No international language existed into which the Quran could be translated and made accessible to people everywhere. With such a state of affairs, how could it have been possible to fulfill the very purpose of the revelation of the Quran, that is, to convey the word of God worldwide? We find the answer to this question in another verse of the Quran:
“Say, ‘This Quran has been revealed to me so that through it I may warn you and whomever it reaches.” (6:19)
The Prophet of Islam warned the people of his generation, and the believers who follow him will keep warning the people of their times in succeeding generations. This shows that the Prophet was responsible for conveying the message of the Quran to his contemporaries. Subsequently, it was the permanent responsibility of the ummah to keep conveying the message of the Quran to people of all ages. In this way, every generation of this ummah is duty-bound to keep conveying the Quranic message to people just as the Prophet had done in his time.
The dissemination of the Quranic message is to be done in every generation. In the early stages, those who did this work were called Companions (Sahaba), Companion’s disciples (Tabiin), and the commentators of the Quran (Mufassirin), etc. Similarly, in the last phase of human history, there will be a particular group who will avail of the new-found opportunities for spreading the divine message and will perform this task at a global level. This particular group has been called Ikhwan (Brothers of the Prophet). (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 249) Conveying the divine message to all mankind is the mission of the Muslim Ummah.
