Prophetic Guidance for the Modern Age

The Quran tells us that the Prophet of Islam was sent as “a mercy for all mankind” (The Quran, 21:107). There is nothing mysterious about this. It is a natural reality, which can be understood by making an academic and rational study of it.

When a human being is born, he finds himself in a world, which is astonishingly vast and complex. How man has to relate himself to his world and how he has to form his ideas are matters of which he is totally ignorant. Neither is his birth accompanied by a guidebook, nor does he find a board set up on some hill-top inscribed with the necessary guidelines, which he is to follow.

That is why man continues to grope in the dark, finding only scraps of knowledge to lay his hands on.

Science and philosophy are two such cases in point. What is philosophy? Philosophy is an attempt to discover the secrets of the universe at the academic and scientific level. Man is born with a feeling of curiosity. Instinctively he feels the urge to find out the reality of things. That is why philosophy has always existed in rudimentary form since the very advent of man in the world. However, philosophy took a proper and organized form three thousand years ago in Greece. Subsequently in various academic and intellectual centers, philosophic discussion and debates were engaged in all over the world.

After a continuous effort for five thousand years, philosophy has not been able to give any meaningful concepts to man. During this long period of time the strivings of great minds have ended only in intellectual confusion and dissension (intishar). On the other hand, science gave man, within a period of just 200 years, so many new ideas that we find it difficult to enumerate them. It is science alone which has led man to the age of modern civilization.

What is the reason for this difference? The reason may be traced to the fact that science recognized the limitations of knowledge and, by accepting this reality, made full use of whatever knowledge it had at its disposal. But the case of philosophy was different. It remained ignorant of its limitations for thousands of years. In ancient times the fields of philosophy and science were not separate from one another. They were regarded as equal parts of human knowledge. Ancient philosophers considered all aspects of knowledge as belonging to their own sphere and gave thought to all of them in their totality.

Three hundred years ago the division of study was worked out, in that the subjects of science and philosophy were separated from one another. Now the perusal of realities of meaning or truths became the subject of philosophy, while the objective realities became the subject of science. That is to say, the chemistry of flowers became the subject of science while the meaningfulness of flowers became the subject of philosophy. This division of knowledge, or in other words, this acknowledgment of human limitation led to the emergence of extraordinary results. In ancient times, man remained engaged in intellectual efforts without differentiating between the knowable and the unknowable. This was a totally futile effort. But when he separated the unknowable and began working only on the knowable, then his efforts were crowned with spectacular success.

This is an instance, which shows how important it is in this world to recognize intellectual limitations: efforts bear fruit when man accepts the boundaries of knowledge. Before launching himself on an any course of action, he should know the correct starting point. He must have a clear perception of the difference between what is knowable and what is not. Only a keen realization of this distinction will yield appropriate results. A lack of proper understanding will render the greatest of efforts futile.

From this example we can understand how important to man is the guidance of God’s Prophet. God is the Creator of the universe and as such is fully aware of its secrets. He then selects a person from amongst human beings, giving him all the fundamental knowledge, which is necessary for construction and development. This is the divine guide, a prophet, whose advice makes it possible for man to begin his journey in a state of enlightenment, so that he may receive the blessings of both worlds.

Man has received many beneficial things from the Prophet of Islam. The first of these is conviction. It is the Prophet’s guidance alone which enables man to begin his life with the full confidence of faith. Man is certainly in need of such knowledge as may guide him in his thoughts and actions. One discipline we turn to in this connection is philosophy. But philosophy itself admits that it has yet to reach the ultimate reality, for it is still in the questing stage. This being so, all that philosophy can give man is skepticism. It cannot provide him with a source of conviction.

Then comes science. But science has itself admitted its inability to perform this service, having declared in advance that its chosen subject of study was only a part or the outward face of the knowledge of the universe. Knowledge of the universe as a whole was not to be an object of scientific research. Obviously, science is too limited in scope to provide man with the intellectual gift called conviction.

The nineteenth century saw the rise of socialism, which acquired the status of a complete philosophy of life as expressed by the ideology of Karl Marx (d. 1883). This ideology, initially given wide credence, cast its spell over a large number of the world’s intellectuals. In 1917, on the basis of this ideology, Marx’s supporters established a full-fledged government in Russia, which later expanded to become a great empire—the Soviet Union. From that time right into the middle of the twentieth century, Marxist socialism was the dominant world ideology. The American economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, claimed that Marx himself had achieved greater popularity in present times than all other historical figures, including Muhammad. The Marxist magic was undone only when the Soviet Union itself disintegrated in 1991.

By the grace of God, about 35 years before the fall of the Soviet Union, by delving deeper into realities, I was able to come to the conclusion that Marxism as a philosophy was entirely baseless. After a detailed study of the subject, I wrote a book titled: Marxism Tarikh jis ko rad kar chuki (Marxism rejected by history), which was published in 1959 by Maktaba Islami, Rampur. Today everyone is aware that the charm of Marxism has evaporated, so that it is difficult to find as many as two individuals who receive from Marx such intellectual nourishment as will bolster confidence and conviction.

Next comes the turn of religion. What is religion? Religion in its reality is the name of that knowledge which has come directly from God. Knowledge has been divided into two categories in the Quran experimental knowledge and revealed knowledge:

Bring me a Book revealed before this or some other vestige of knowledge, if you are telling the truth. (The Quran, 46:4).

In principle it is true that religion is the source of truth and can bestow upon man the blessing of conviction. But here a historical reality has come in between men and religion. That is, none of these existing religions are historically credible. There are about one dozen major religions in the world, there being also countless minor religions. But there is no historical evidence to support their reliability or credibility.

Furthermore, the revealed scriptures of these religions have been marred by human interpolation. This is a proven fact. There are many contradictions in their assertions. Purely academically, it is difficult to separate the human and the divine world.

When the image of religion was distorted by human additions, God sent His Last Messenger in order that he might put an end to discrepancies and tell man the truth.

This is the reality that has been pointed out in the Quran:

We have only sent down the Book to you so that you can make clear to them that concerning which they differ, and as a guidance and a mercy to people who believe. (The Quran, 16:64).

The divine book given to the Prophet is a perfectly preserved book. As such, it serves as a reliable source of divine guidance and confers upon its readers the blessing of conviction that they have been seeking all along. Confidence and conviction are essential for the building of life in this world.

One highly important point in the construction of a healthy human society is that human beings should learn the exact nature of man and woman. In the present age of freedom, there has been a growing belief that men and women are equal in every respect. In fact, modern society is adhering more and more to the principle that both should play an equal part without any discrimination in all social activities.

But the pursuit of such a course has destabilized human relationships to the point of throwing all social departments into disarray. The result is that in present times, despite extraordinary progress in civilization, man is not able to secure peace and contentment. There is no doubt about it that the most damaging factor is the acceptance of this modern concept of absolute equality between men and women. For details see the book titled: “Women in Islam” by the author.

In this matter, had man adopted the guidance given by the Prophet of Islam, he would never have suffered any lack of balance. One of the realities conveyed by God through the Prophet of Islam concerns the law of nature, viz. the creation of man and woman having been done in such a way that each of them has been given something which the other has not been given. In this way both go together to make a whole. Neither is complete in himself or herself. But when they both join together a complete whole is produced.

This is the reality, which has been thus expressed in the Quran:

You are members one of another. (The Quran, 3:195).

This finds expression in a Hadith in these words: Truly women are half of men (Sunan abu Dawood, Hadith No. 236).

One aspect of the knowledge that man receives from the Prophet may be called the divine scheme of things. That is, the Prophet tells us what God’s scheme in life for man and the universe is. This is essential for an understanding of life on earth. Those who are oblivious of this reality can never make a successful plan in life. For instance, thinkers of modern times may have devised ideal plans for the building of society, but these have largely failed to contribute anything positive to humanity, because of the unnatural premises which these thinkers took as their point of departure, i.e. they envisioned a social system in which all sections of society would find an equal position.

When we judge this projection by the criterion of nature, we find a basic weakness in the underlying theory. The difference existing between men socially and economically is not in reality traceable to exploitation. Nor is it due to the plotting of tyrants. The real difference stems from the fact that people are born different. For instance, some are more intelligent, some are less intelligent; some are strong, some are weak; some find every opportunity to work, while others are faced with some accident or early death; some are born in favourable circumstances, while others live and die in penury.

This difference, created by nature itself, is largely the result of the different status of people in society. And this difference is related to external factors, which are beyond human control. Then how can human beings ever root out these differences?

Socialist thinkers hold that all the resources of production should be taken over by the government so that it may enforce equality among all people by the use of state power. When the socialist system attempted to do so, it was revealed that this artificial effort to produce equality had killed something greater, and that was the incentive to action.

In the socialistic system no one was the owner; all were salaried government servants. This bid to bring about equality therefore eliminated the very thing, which was the greatest incentive to action that is personal interest. That is why progress and development in socialistic societies were affected to such a dangerous extent that they ultimately collapsed.

The truth is that the difference between human beings is not an evil but rather a great boon. It is this difference, in fact, that causes people to continuously face challenges and enter into competition in a free human society. Challenge and competition are stimuli, which keep people perpetually active. A society which eliminates difference and disparity will also eliminate challenge, and in its absence human initiative will wither away. The Creator of all things has created this world for the purpose of putting human beings to the test. But the thinkers want to carve out a plan of life without taking this purpose into account. In any case, they have so far failed to formulate a plan, so the question of establishing a practical system does not even arise.

For instance, all these thinkers vehemently hold forth on sin and wickedness. They even go to the extent of saying that the greatest problem our human society faces in this world is the presence of evil. That is why we have to pay the utmost attention to this matter.

But this is unrealistic thinking. What these thinkers call the problem of evil is, in fact, a major factor in the exigencies of man’s trial. Since this world has been created for the purpose of testing, many such incidents will inevitably take place as are mistakenly referred to as evils.

For instance, if the Creator of human beings desires to test them on the scales of patience and gratefulness, then it is essential that at times they should find themselves in difficult situations in order to see whether or not they remained patient on those occasions. Similarly, it is also necessary that man should receive the good things of life in order to see whether or not he responds with proper gratefulness or with insolence and haughtiness. Moreover, this purpose of man’s stay on earth requires some to be given more and some less resources. This is to test whether those who are given less remain free from the evil feelings of jealousy, and whether those who are given more spend the money solely on their own luxury or on the service of humanity, etc.

In the modern age, freedom has been given the status of summum bonum. Its prevalence stemmed, in fact, from the general reaction to the coercive system established by the despotic monarchs of ancient times. Freedom is without doubt extremely precious so far as human progress is concerned. But unbounded freedom, on the contrary, results in disaster. In a hundred-year experiment with unlimited freedom, thinkers are coming to the fore in the West who hold that freedom cannot be given the status of an absolute good. For instance, B.F. Skinner has written a book titled, ‘We Can’t Afford Freedom.’ The title indicates the gist of the book.

Through the Prophet of Islam, modern man is being shown how to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy freedom. The Prophet has brought real knowledge to the demarcation of what is lawful and what is unlawful. Similarly, through the Prophet of Islam, modern man can understand how to arrange for a practicable division of the workplace between men and women by according them equal respect. A knowledge of human limitations is essential for the proper organization of all matters in life. And man receives this knowledge of right and natural limitation only through a prophet.

This is the greatest boon of the Prophet to modern man: his teachings give man the opportunity to organize his life in a far better way, and on a far higher plane.