The Islamic belief system comprises of three basic tenets:

1. Tawheed or belief in the Oneness of God

2. Risalat or belief in Prophethood and

3. Akhirat or belief in the Day Hereafter

We have already dealt with Tawheed. We will cover Risalat (Prophethood) and Akhirat the next time.

Introduction to Prophethood or Risalat

The Universe comprises of four physical aspects: 1. The Physical World, 2. The Plant World, 3. The Animal World and 4. The Human World. Let us understand each one by one.

The Physical World

The Physical world comprises of all inanimate objects: stars, planets, our earth, air, water, soil etc. The objects in the physical world do not have any thinking power and do not have a free will i.e., law of nature governs them. For thousands of years, the stars and planets are moving on their path without colliding with each other for millions years without any deviation. The air in the sky is follows the rules laid down for it. Water is circulated on earth as per the laws of the Water Cycle laid down for it. In this way, all objects of the inanimate world do not have any thinking power or free will of their own and are governed by the laws of nature.

The Plant World

The Plant World comprises of all the plants that we see on earth: grass, climbers, creepers, trees, shrubs, herbs etc. The plants in the plant world also do not have a will of their own. The laws of nature govern them. They are however different from inanimate objects as they have the nature and quality of growth.

The Animal World

The Animal World comprises of various animals that we see on earth: the elephant, the ant, cats, dogs etc. They also do not have a will of their own and are basically guided by their instincts. Food and security is their only concern.

The Human World

The world of man is however different from each one of the above, in that many has the power to think and a free will. We know that man has the unique quality of conceptual thinking; due to which man is an Explanation-Seeking-Animal. For example, when the apple fell from the tree over Newton, his mind thought: What is the reason for the falling of the apple down – this led to the discovery of gravity. In this way, man is the only creation who has the power of thinking and thus questioning.  His questioning also was at the level of Truth, wherein he asked questions such as: Who am I? Where did I come from?; What do I have to do while I am here?; Where will I go when I die? etc.

Over the years, many philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, spiritual personalities such as ___________ and Scientists such as ______________ searched for answers to such questions.  They however only stayed at the thinking or seeking level, but were not able to reach at the finding level.  With a result, they were not able to reach the final lapse and discover the end reality. 

Spiritual Personalities or Realized Souls

The Spiritual personalities or Realized souls studied themselves and were able to have some sorts of Self-Realizations. They were not able to reach to the level of Truth. This was because man being a limited entity, self-realization could only reach to a limited level and not to the unlimited level of Truth.

The Hindus believe in the concept of Monism, where god is a spirit and not a personality. They believe that god comes down as an Avatar in human form.  They were not able to reach the level of truth because if they thought that god is a spirit and not at a personality level then how can a god, who is not a personality but a spirit come down in a personality form? Moreover, the Mythological concept is not real.

Spiritual Personalities such as Sufis or Mystics, on the other hand believed that god comes down on them – it being like making them self-realized.

However, the problem with both these concepts is that whether they are Avatars, Spiritual Personalities or Realized souls, they are all at the level of man.  Man is in himself a limited personality.  How can anything having limitations, be like God, who is unlimited. 

Due to their wrong concept, these Spiritual Personalities or Realized souls, who looked within themselves for truth were not able to find truth at that level and therefore remained at the seeking level and never at the finding level.

Scientists

Scientists, on their part never claimed that they have got the truth. It is said, “Science gives us but a partial knowledge of things.”

In this way, Science is only concerned with knowledge of things and not the knowledge of truths.

After the Renaissance till the middle of the 20^th Century, although Science gave us a lot of explanations regarding the knowledge of things, to the extent that Atheists believed that there was no longer a need of God, however it was not in a position to give us the knowledge of truths.

Therefore, philosophers, realized souls as well as scientists, on their own claim were not able to give man answers to the questions regarding truth that he was looking for.  This left the field open for only Prophets.

Prophethood

A Prophet is also a human being, but he is one whom God (the unlimited) has selected to give the knowledge of truth through His angels.  Even though Prophets have been given knowledge of truth from God, they are however still human beings. In this way, amongst the all of men, Prophets are the only ones trustworthy as they have been given the knowledge of truth from the unlimited God.

It is reported through the Sahih Hadith that almost 1,25,000 Prophets have been chosen and sent by God to give the Message of Truth to men of all communities in the world.  Of these Prophets, however none except the last Prophet of God, Muhammad bin Abdullah bin ______________ were historical prophets. This means that none of the Prophets had historical creditability and there is doubt about there existence.

Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has historical credibility and was born in the full light of history. If you want to know about Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), his parents, his relative, his life etc. there is full information about it in historical records. As the other prophets do not have history to back them up, so they cannot be trusted as there is no historical credibility.

This can be seen from the words of Nishikant Chattopadhyaay, who was a relative of Sarojini  Naidu. He had full knowledge about spiritual sciences, various religions as well as Islam. He had questioned, “Earlier prophets have no historical record so how can we trust them?” Then he studied Islamic literature and the life of Prophet Muhammad. Upon doing this, he is known to have said “What a relief to find a truly historical prophet to believe in” and he embraced Islam.

A person has to be sincere and serious to know the truth. After understanding the above, we will be able to understand that if anyone wants to know about truth, then he has only one choice-to study Prophet Muhammad and follow his path.

He has no other option. Only Prophet Muhammad stands on historical grounds .

Prophethood in Islam (Risalat)

Prophet of Islam was born on 570 AD and went from Mecca to Medina. He lived for 23 years after having prophethood. Book revealed to him is in the form of Quran and is preserved. And also whatever he said is in the form of Hadith and is well preserved as compared to other prophets. Maulana has studied Prophet Muhammad and he is the only choice to know the truth and we can take guidance from him. Maulana has full conviction and has taken the truth from him.

This time the subject is risalat. One man asked how can we believe a person as Prophet if he claims so”. It is similar to the case of “sun itself is the proof that it is sun”. It is the same for prophet. This is a historical fact that a person can claim to be prophet only if he is actually the prophet. It is very strange that in the history nobody else claimed that he is the prophet if he is not. Only an actual person claims himself to be prophet except the a mad person. There is example in Iran a man was born. Bahullah khan, he formed bahai faith. Some people think that he claimed himself to prophet, which is wrong. He said in Persian “I’m manifestation of God”. He did not say I’m prophet and manifestation is different all together. He did not claim he is prophet of god. What he said was  different. He cannot be a candidate.

There is another person in Kadiyyan his name was “Ghulam Ahmed Kadiyaani”. He never said I’m prophet of God and called himself as “shadow of prophet”. He was also not the candidate. What he said was different. Maulana has a personal experience also. A person was born in Iran in Abbasif period his name was Mutallabi. He said I’m a prophet of God. Afterwards his said I was joking and never meant. Prophet is in a position of unopposed victory. Nobody claimed himself as prophet.

There was a another person in Delhi his name was “Gurbachan Singh”. There is a center in Kings way camp. His disciples came to Maulana and gave a pamphlet. It was written that his guruji is the prophet of the time. Maulana went to his center. Their mission is Nirankari Mission. Maulana said tell your guru to tell me that his is the prophet of the time and he stayed at there ashram for 45 minutes but guruji did not say that he is prophet of time nor directly or indirectly. It is impossible to say that a person is prophet unless he is mad.

In Kerala there is a mission “shantigiri ashram”. It was written that guruji is a  prophet . Maulana went to question him and asked “do you claim that you are prophet of god in the same way that Moses, Muhammad and Jesus claimed”. He said “no”. He did not claim and refused repeatedly. These are the two personal experiences Maulana has faced.

Prophet’s contribution for mankind:

This is in reference to Quran ch no 90 “he found you wandering and then he guided you”.  It is said that we found you Prophet as a seeker and we guided you. This is said in reference to prophet to the whole mankind. Finding the truth starts from being a seeker and then it becomes as a finder. This is the case of whole mankind.
There is nothing else which can be a starting point. Seeking is by nature man unconsciously has concept of God.  When a person has question related to his existence, his purpose of creation then he becomes a seeker. Like a person should drink water only when he is thirsty. Man has knowledge and inquisitiveness about god . It is only when there is inquisitiveness which arouses he becomes a seeker. When a person wants marafat and wants to find the truth he has to become a seeker. It is said, “ who finds will get”. The starting point is to search. A person who is a seeker will only become a finder. His receptive arises and becomes serious . Till the time a person is not sincere and serious he will not get the truth and will not understand it and study it. And after that he reaches the stage of realization. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) told the creation plan of God and the Creator. Then there is discovery of God. Till the time there is no clarity till that time discovery and realization cannot be gained. .

Prophet is on whom god reveals . Prophet is a revealed person and he gets the message from god.

People use unnecessary words, which has no meaning. In the book of Diwan Abdul bijnori he said there is a commentary “in India there are only two revealed books”. Ved and diwan-e-ghalib. Ved does not mention that it is a revealed book. Similarly ghalib never claimed himself as Prophet. They did not claim themselves as revealed books.  Their claim was other than prophethood. Prophet saying himself, as he is the prophet is a claim in itself. Somebody who is not a prophet cannot say this. It is not easy to claim as a prophet.  One cannot say that sun is on my hand. There is a limit to lie and one cannot say this as it is beyond the capacity.

When there was crisis in Hunnain and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said “I’m prophet is not a lie and I’m the son of Abdul Muttalib (to tell his identity as human being). Nobody else could say this. Prophet has a role for mankind.

From thousand of years man was astray. Anthropology studies tell that man always has concept of god interwoven in him but was astray from thousand of years. He used to believe in the concept of God but he did not know the truth. He knew god is powerful and creative. Man used to doubt the existence of God but was never satisfied with answers as how could mountain, stars, moon and its attributes match with omnipotent god. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) told the concept of God clearly and which could be identified with attributes of God and his creation. Man was astray from along time and used to search for creator but was only looking at the creations of God. Then there was another question about the number of Gods? Like there can never be two prime ministers in a country to run the country smoothly. It is self contradictory to see that universe in running so smoothly on its own, the concept of God interwoven in man was never getting satisfied but Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) explained in clear manner to mankind.

Man wanted to know the creation plan of God. In Quran Ch 67 there is a verse  “god made man for test”. Every person is looking for an ideal society and nobody is successful. It is against the creation plan of God. Everybody has freedom, which can be misused. Also if a person is having freedom then one cannot have an ideal society. There can never be revolution and ideal society is not possible like Marx, Rosso and Gandhi wanted. After attaining freedom Gandhi was killed.  The yardstick to measure society was wrong. We have to realize that we have to avail the opportunity and there is no problem free system. We have to ignore the problem and avail the opportunity- this is positive status quoism.

People do not know the contribution of prophet. They sing songs for it. There are mysterious qualities thru which prophet is depicted. Thinkers wanted to have peace and with peace there can be development in the society. In pacifisms there is no formula, which is workable. It is a discipline in which there is discussion for peace but there is no formula to establish peace. The minds want peace with justice, which is impossible. But first time prophet told that this is not possible. He said peace opens the opportunities and after availing the opportunities one leads to justice. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said that we have to settle on peace and avail the opportunities. In Ch 67 he has said, “god has made this universe as a testing ground”. There is pre death period and post death period. Pre death is for test and after the test we will get paradise. After death we will get paradise as ideal society. There is problem of suffering and everybody wants to finish that. This is not possible as this is a part of creation plan of God. Till the time we face problem there is no challenge and no solution is searched for it. There are millions particles in brain and to arouse them we need shock treatment. All thinkers are in obsession to have ideal society, which is not possible. God has made haves and have knots so that people face problems. Every time haves will not remain haves but will be have nots. Example abdul kalam azad. Earlier he was have nots and not he is haves. God has differentiation between people so that there is incentive among the people/.God has made people with varied qualities and they cannot be made equal, due to there different character tics. It is against the scheme of God to have society with equal opportunities . God scheme is to have unequal opportunities and problems and not on equal opportunities . There is emphasis on reengineering of mind and there is emphasis on thinking . Man could know that the right scheme of God is workable and prophet told this.