Prophethood

By
Sheikh Mohammad Āl-Yasîn
Translated by:
Mohammed Nabil H. Ouda
BA-MA Translation Studies
Published by:

Designed & Printed by:
MBG (INT) Ltd
London 02072899000
First Edition
1435-2014

(We send the apostles only to give good news and to warn: so those who believe and mend (their lives),- upon them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve).

(O ye who believe! Believe in Allah and His Messenger,
and the scripture which He hath sent to His Messenger
and the scripture which He sent to those before (him)
Any who denieth Allah, His angels, His Books, His
Messenger., and the Day of Judgment, hath gone far, far
astray).

(The Holy Qur’an)
Then Allah sent His Messengers and series of His prophets towards them to get them fulfi the pledges of His creation, to recall to them His bounties, to exhort them by preaching, to unveil before them the hidden virtues of wisdom.

Amirul Mu’mineen Ali Bin Abi Talib (P.U.H)

Introduction
In the Name of Allah All Merciful, All Compassionate

Thank is due to the Lord of the Worlds and prayers and peace be on our Master Mohammad and his pure progeny.

When the Rule in heaven and on earth belongs to Allah, the Exalted, and to Him alone without a partner or a contest to Him as (Allah is He, than Whom there is no other god;- the Sovereign, the Holy One, the Source of Peace (and Perfection), the Guardian of Faith, the Preserver of Safety, the Exalted in Might, the Irresistible, the Supreme: Glory to Allah. (High is He) above the partners they attribute to Him).

Allah is He, than Whom there is no other god;- Who knows (all things) both secret and open; He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

When Rule is for Allah, the Exalted, in this depth and comprehensiveness by the testimony of the proof, evidence and the innate knowledge, the fist of the duties of this Ruler- out of his courtesy, generosity and condescension- is to assign to the humanity what secures their safety and stability and safeguards their dignity and purify their behaviour and the course of their lives.

And the fist of His duties- in completion for His condescension, graciousness and courtesy - is to guarantee the continuance to people and their generations the details of these legislations and laws for the spread of benefi and the evidence to be accomplished.

This is, in short, the meaning of ‘prophet-hood’ in its general meaning.

And because human’s intellect, throughout centuries, has been living its constant development and its steady move towards maturity, depth and comprehensive understanding, the divine messages were in accordance to the development of the intellect and its progress.

They were for certain people at certain time in accordance to the suitability for that period and its people and in conformity with their intellectual maturity.

These messages have reached the climax in the Islamic one that Allah, the Exalted and the Sublime, has chosen to be the exemplary doctrine for people throughout the centuries of their intellectual growth and their huge cultural progress.

This is, in short, the meaning of prophet-hood in its ‘specifi concept’.

In this booklet, the issue of ‘prophet-hood’ in its general sense that is connected with all divine messages and their apostles, throughout history, and by its ‘specifi concept’ which is related to the Islamic message and its great messenger (P.B.U.H), bearing in mind the plain explanation of everything, clarity of expression and fim evidence.

I have not to forget, as these lines are about to come to their end, to state that, when mentioning the name of our great prophet (Allah bless him), I am not going to indulge in talking about the history of his blessed life and sides of his honoured course of life because this requires wider space and detailed explanations that the lines of this series cannot accommodate, delaying all this to my large book, ‘In the Expanse of the Messenger’ which I hope to complete and publish at the earliest chance , if Allah wishes.

Therefore, readers will not fid in this booklet anything more than the talk about prophet-hood within this issue and its special scientifi frame, and from Allah is the help and guidance.

(Our Lord! we have heard the call of one calling (Us) to Faith, ‹Believe ye in the Lord,’ and we have believed.

Our Lord! Forgive us our sins, blot out from us our iniquities, and take to Thyself our souls in the company of the righteous).

(Our Lord! Grant us what Thou didst promise unto us through Thine apostles, and save us from shame on the Day of Judgment: For Thou never breakest Thy promise).

The last of our invocation is thank is to Allah the Lord of people.

Iraq-Baghdad Kadhamiya

Mohammad Hassan Āl-Yasîn

PROPHETHOOD
In its general meaning

We have concluded from previous studies1 an unchangeable outcome which we have no choice but to acknowledge by the authority of evidence and it is that the faith that there is a creator for this universe, with all its contents, is an axiom of the intellect, logic, innate knowledge and sentiment.

And, all comments said to arise doubt about the correctness of this axiom could not stand in front of the debate and the proof.

And since the ‘matter’ was created, there has to be a source (creator) for it that was not created and it is the necessary existent, and the First Creator must be intellectual, aware and wise.

These features cannot be realised in the blind ‘matter’.

From an earlier study we have also reached another outcome which can be summed up as follow: The actual governance with all its dimensions is for Allah, the Exalted, as He is the omnipotent and does what He likes and in whose hands is the governance of all things,1

and (He cannot be questioned for His acts, but they will be questioned (for theirs)), and who is free from all dishonourable actions and that Allah is Free of all wants, and worthy of all praise.

We cannot acknowledge any authority the actual governance as being the source of legislations only if has enjoyed all these properties and none can enjoy except Allah, the Exalted, by the authority of intellect and axiom.

And, if this real governance is exclusive to Allah, the Exalted, as seen earlier, then the legal authority with all its powers belongs exclusively to Him, the Exalted and the Glorifid, without a partner or contest because boththe actual governance and the legal one are inseparable.

So the deduced result from this is:

This God who is omnipotent, intelligent and wise to whom governance in all its dimensions and the legal authority with its powers exclusively belongs to Him, He has to establish for humanity the system where this authority is obvious in deciding what is permissible and impermissible, particularly, He, the Exalted, is omniscient and is aware of peoples’ destiny in tens or hundreds of centuries, regardless to the huge numbers of contradicting tastes and desires, with different interests and inclinations, with various notions and intellects- in a way that there is no stable comfortable living for them without a system that rules all and is respected by all, and assigns for every individual and community their duties2 .

This is what ‘Muslim theologians’ call the secret of the prophets’ mission and what we can call for clarifiation 'The required aim of prophet-hood'.

There may be someone who may ask, “Why does Allah force humanity to live under certain system and decide the course of their conduct and does not give them their full freedom to legislate their laws and regulate them, depending on their on their intellects and perceptions, benefiing from their experiences and knowledge of what is wrong and what is right, by omitting, adding and revising until they establish, at the end of the journey, the best system.

The answer to this is

• Firstly:

The establishment of the system and the legislation is the sole right of the ’’source of powers’’ alone without sharing this with anyone else.

This is the meaning which has been agreed on unanimously by legislators and politicians of today.

As we believe - as we have stated earlier - that Allah, the Exalted, is the source of powers and He is the actual and the legal Ruler who cannot be challenged by anyone else, it has to be said that He is the fial authority for the endorsing the law and choosing the system.

(Say: “The Guidance of Allah,-that is the (only) Guidance”).

• Secondly:

We believe that human intellect whatever power of originality and creativity does it enjoy, it cannot realise the far reaching interests for the problems of the tortured humanity and the proper solutions only after a long period of time of numerous experiments which are full of confusion, incorrectness and doubts and the right solution and the required result despite all this may not be achieved (And We sent down the Book to thee for the express purpose, that thou shouldst make clear to them those things in which they differ).

• Thirdly:

The establishment of the system by humans will not be free from private interest and the monopoly of great concessions, and will be a reflction of personal and class subjunctive feelings of those who have laid it down, regardless to their class affiiations.

Therefore, it is necessary to save humanity from the suffering of confusion, ignorance and unsuccessful trials to have their general system established by the one who knows their needs and aspirations, and who is aware of their present and future diffiulties, and distinguishes between what is in their interest and what is against, and achieve equality among them without favouring a certain group, class, individual, sect or a country.

There is no one in the whole universe that enjoys such characteristics except Allah, the Exalted.

His systems and legislations are but those messages which His prophets and messengers have carried to earth to make humanity happy and lead Man from darkness to light.

This is the meaning of ‘benevolence’ which is agreed by Islamic speculative theologians who rely on it in declaring the necessity of prophet-hood and the necessity of its continuity on earth as long as there is life and humans are alive.

Brahman ‘ordained Buddhist monks’ 1 have declared that there is no need for divine messages or messengers and they have supported their claim by saying if the message’s content is in conformity with what the intellect agrees to, there is no need for it and if its content is contrary to the satisfaction of the intellect, it is then rejected by it in advance.

This claim is untrue as it is refuted by successive proofs because anyone who is acquainted with the divine messages knows they have contained what the intellects are familiar with and what they are ignorant of.

As with the issues the intellects are familiar with, the role of the divine doctrines is to affim them and the necessity of observing them and this is in support for the intellect position and practical importance life building.

The issues which are unknown to the intellects are classifid by Braham as “the issues which the intellect

1- See my book ‘Allah between the Innate Knowledge and the Evidence and my book’ Hawamish ‘la Naqd Al-Fikr Al-Diny/ Beirut 1391H- 1971.
2. See our book ‘Al’dlul Alilahi Bayna Aljabru walikhtiyaar’ and their rights, and establishes for every individual his/ her course of conduct with himself and to the outside world, and the best solutions are engineered in its shadow for the human diffiulties in their close and far future.