Islam, as taught by the
Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa), validates the universality of spiritual experience
and recognizes the fact that all communities in the past were recipients of Divine
favour through the raising of spiritually awakened souls among them. Reflecting upon the profound impact of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa)
on the history of spirituality, the Khalifatullah
Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius, in his Friday Sermon of 21
September 2012, spoke about the extraordinary
spiritual revolution brought about by the arrival of Islam in a world of pagan
rituals and animistic practices. The Khalifatullah describes the raising of
prophets as a special Divine blessing for the human kind, for such spiritually-aware
souls provide a living, practical example for the common folks to emulate in
their own individual, spiritual lives.
Read the Extracts
from the Friday Sermon:
“Certainly Allah has conferred a favour upon the
believers by raising among them a Messenger from among themselves, who recites
to them His revelations and purifying them and teaching them the Book and
wisdom, although they had been before in manifest error.” (3: 165).
The expression,
by “by raising among them a Messenger from among themselves”, is
intended to awaken in the hearts of Muslims a desire to follow the example of
the Holy Prophet (sa) who was like them and one of them. The prophet was not
only a man like them but was actually one of them. If he could rise to such spiritual heights, why
could they not?
All messengers of God are raised from among human
beings and they possess the same desires and aspirations as other human beings. But a so-called “son of God” does not possess the
same desires and the same faculties as we have, and cannot therefore be a model
for us. Our model should be from our own kind. He who is not our kind, being a
divine being, free from human passions and humans weakness, cannot be held out
to us as a model for imitation.
The verse also
points to the fulfilment of the prayer of Abraham, contained in Verse 130 of Chapter 2 in which the different functions of the promised prophet have been
mentioned just as they are mentioned here. Our Holy Prophet (sa), was a great
reformer for the proclamation of truth, and restored to the world the truth
that had been lost.
No prophet
shares with him the pride that he found the whole world in darkness and by his
appearance that darkness was converted into light. He did not die till the
people among whom he had appeared had casted aside the garment of paganism and
had put on the robe of the unity of God. Not only this, but they achieved high
grades of faith and performed such works of righteousness and fidelity and
certainty which are not matched in any part of the world. Such success was not
achieved by any prophet other than the Holy Prophet of Islam (sa). It is a
strong argument in support of the truth of the Holy Prophet (sa), that he was
raised in an age when the world had fallen into deep darkness and called for a
Great Reformer.
He left the
world at a time when hundreds of thousands of people had abandoned paganism and
idol worship and had adopted the unity of God and the straight path. Such
perfect reform was particular to him that he taught a people, who were at the
level of animals, the ways of humanity, in other words, he converted wild
beasts into men, and then turned them into educated people, and then made them
men of God, and breathed spirituality into them and created a relationship
between them and the true God. They were slaughtered like sheep in the cause of
God and were trampled under the feet of the enemies like ants, but they did not
abandon their faith, and marched forward in the face of every calamity. Doubtless,
the Holy Prophet (sa) was a second Adam and indeed was a true Adam for the
establishment of spirituality through whom all human excellences arrived at
their perfection, and all good faculties were devoted to their proper task and
no branch of human nature was left barren.
Law-bearing
prophethood ended with him not only because he was the last prophet in point of
time, but also because all the excellences of prophethood reached their climax
in him. As he was a perfect manifestation of divine attributes, his law had the
qualities both of majesty and beauty. That is why he was named both Mohammad and Ahmad; and there was
no miserliness in his prophethood; it was for the benefit of the whole world
from the beginning.
The name Islam is the attainment of a life of
perfect peace and eternal happiness through complete surrender to the will of
God. Absolute and
uncompromising belief in one God is the central doctrine of Islam. There is
none worthy of worship but the one and only God who possesses all excellences
and Muhammad (sa) is His messenger. This is the most important doctrine of
Islam. Islam helps us to establish a permanent relationship with God, to
realize Him during our earthly life as our Helper and Guide in all our affairs.
Islam requires belief in all the prophets and
spiritual guides including, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius
and Zoroaster. Islam
represents the completion of the mission of all the prophets from the dawn of
history. It teaches that all the prophets of God came with one and the same
mission. Thus Islam establishes peace and unity between all religions.
The Holy Quran
– Our scripture (the Muslim’s Holy Book) – was revealed to our beloved master
and prophet Hazrat Muhammad (sa) more than 1400 years ago and has been
preserved intact without the slightest change. A large number of Muslims know
the whole book by heart; it is an inexhaustible treasure of spiritual truths
capable of satisfying the needs of all people in all countries and all stations
of life.
The
establishment of true democracy and universal brotherhood without any
discrimination of caste, creed, colour or country is the unique and unrivalled
distinction of Islam. Islam has fulfilled and realized the splendid principles
of democracy in the actual life and action of human society.
According to Islam, life after death is a
continuation of life on earth. Heaven and hell begin right in this life. Heaven
is eternal and everlasting, while hell is temporary for some categories of
people. Hell is a hospital for the treatment of the human soul. As a soul (who
has committed minor sins) is cured, it goes to heaven. Heaven is the attainment of a life of everlasting
progress and complete joy and happiness through union with God and by the
development of the fine spiritual qualities and the unlimited capacities which
have been implanted in human beings.
I pray to my
Rab, may Allah the Almighty make all of you understand this sermon very well
and put it into practice and may Allah enable you to give this message to all
ours brothers and sisters who are absent today. Insha-Allah, Ameen.