Islam and the Earliest Muslims Two Conflicting Portraits

BACK⇒ Return to Table of contents   Islam and the Earliest Muslims Two Conflicting Portraits Prerequisites for Universal faith There are four prerequisites for a religion which claims to be universal, eternal and true, the only saving principle, the only sound creed and the sole path of virtue; inviting man to open the gates of a new and lasting revolution for his own good, on the individual as well as […]

BACK⇒ Return to Table of contents   Miraculous Guidance   The first condition in the nabi giving the call of such a religion should be that he is able to transform those coming into contact with him as if they were reborn with a completely new outlook, thoughts and values; this revolutionary change should have to be brought about without any means or the methods employed by other wise-heads, or […]

BACK⇒ Return to Table of contents   Puritanical Life of the earlier Khulafaʼ   The sincerity, piety and nobility of the first four khulafaʼ are demonstrated by their abstinence from the wealth that flowed from the newly conquered lands of the former Persian and Byzantine empires to the metropolis of Islam. Unlike other ambitious conquerors, they did not lead a life of ease and sufficiency but preferred to pass their […]

BACK⇒ Return to Table of contents   Rasulullah’s salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam attitude towards his Household   The second condition we had set forth for a universal religion claiming to revolutionise and improve the morals and manners of the entire humanity was that its founder should not feign piety and self-abnegation for establishing a dynastic rule, like the kings and conquers of the old. In other words, he should […]

BACK⇒ Return to Table of contents   Accuracy and preservation of the Qur’an   Yet another prerequisite, as indicated earlier, for a perennial nubuwwah is that the revelation vouchsafed to the last and final Rasul salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, which forms the basis of its doctrines and teachings, and serves as a connecting link between the Creator and the created, should be preserved without a change of a dot, […]