This eleven worded short ayah has declared one of the most crucial and critical modus operandi of Allah Ta’aala Subhaanahoo (sunnat-e-Ilahi) for running HIS creation. It has been described as Itmaam-e-Hujjat ie conclusion and culmination of the argument of a Prophet leading to the wrath (azaab) of Bari Ta’aala on the rejectors. More about it as we proceed.

The initial segment of only three words announces another vital and momentous mode and manner of Divine Guidance for mankind. It enunciates  وَلِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ رَسولٌ And every nationhad a messenger. That there is Messenger for every community “is one of the clearest Quranic verses that affirm the universality of revelation as a source of guidance for humanity”. This is one of the major themes of the Quran. It is a continuous process of heavenly counseling and direction for humans on the planet. A continuous chain of Messengers of God Almighty were appointed starting from Prophet Adam. Thus the ayah highlights the continuity of Divine revelation and confirms that prophetic guidance has reached every community, people or civilisation. This Quranic concept that every community has a messenger is one of the clearest; it affirms the universality of revelation as a source of guidance for humanity.As the final revelation of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic faith, the Quran has described the stories of prophets from Adam to Muhammad. These prophets have been sent at different times, to various communities and in numerous languages but with the same central message: lā ilāha illa’Llāh. The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said, “The prophets are half brothers; their mothers differ, and their religion (dīn) is one”.These stories of the prophets in the Quran are meant to divulge “the story of the epic struggle between truth and falsehood or good and evil that takes place among peoples and within each individual’s soul”.This truth can be regarded as  one of the major themes in the Quran. That every individual should know, learn and understand the message of Islam is crucial, as God Almighty has declared elsewhere:^[3]

“That is because your Lord would not destroy the cities for wrongdoing while their people were unaware.And for all are degrees from what they have done. And your Lord is not unaware of what they do”.

Hence God Almighty announces in the Holy Quran that no soul will be able to say on the Day of Judgement that he never received HIS message.

As a little diversion, this ayah has a segment وَلِكُلٍّ دَرَجاتٌ مِمّا عَمِلوا i.e. And for all are degrees from what they have done. The eminent scholar Dr. Mohammed Asad puts in a meaningful nuance in the rendering of this segment in his tafseer The Message of the Quran as follows “ Lit., “all shall have grades out of what they did”, i.e., consciously – since God does not take people to task for any wrong they may have committed unless it was done in conscious contravention of a moral law already made clear to them by the prophets”.

Coming back, this queue of Prophets came to an end with our beloved Prophet Mohammed. Why? Why was this string and sequence of prophets stopped and discontinued. “God knows best” is as good an answer as any, I think. However man is a curious and questioning animal. Probably the answer is provided by God Himself when He declared:^[4]

“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion”.

There is another plausible explanation. The state of  Human intelligence and knowledge and the level of information is rapidly increasing; in our times it has increased exponentially. Therefore the Quran and the Message of Islam has been recorded completely and securely. It can now be propagated through out the planet(which has been reduced to a small village) to every individual of all communities. Hence the Divine decision to declare the Holy Prophet as the Last in the line. However, we are assured in the very first Wahee in the Quran that Heavenly advice and counseling will continue for ever through the PEN:^[5]

“Read – for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One, who has taught [man] the use of the pen, taught man what he did not know!”

It is inconceivable that our Creator and Sustainer would leave us in limbo without any line of communication. The “Pen”, obviously stands here for human intelligence and wisdom and his desire to fathom the unknown.

The term Ummah is very dear, specially to Muslims of today. It is also commonly used in the Holy Text. Let me quote Dr. Mohammed Asad to explain different connotations for this word: “One of the meanings of the term ummah (preferred by Zamakhshari in his commentary on the above verse) is “people of one time” or “age”; another, “people of one kind”, i.e., “a nation” or “a community” (which is adopted by me in this context). Taking into consideration a third, well-established meaning, namely, “a [particular] way of life” or ‘of behaviour” (Jawhari), the term “community” comes, in this instance, close to the modern concept of “civilization” in its historical sense”.

Maulana Maudoodi introduces another angle to the definition of Ummah. He maintains that a living messenger is not a criteria in this context. So far his message is current in its original form and within the reach of every individual the folks will be regarded as his ummah even after his death. “According to this standard, all the people of the world are the ummat of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and will remain so, as long as the Quran continues to be published in its original and complete form as today. That is why it has not been said, “There is a Messenger in every ummat” but “There is a Messenger for every ummat” asserts the Maulana.

It is the practice the Quran to repeat at least twice any discussion of an important matter. I will quote two additional ayahs stressing the point that every segment of humanity has received a Divine Messenger:^[6]

“Verily We have sent thee in truth, as a bearer of glad tidings, and as a warner: and there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them (in the past)”.

“And indeed, within every community have We raised up an apostle [entrusted with this message]: “Worship God, and shun the powers of evil!….”

Please note that the reference to the prophets as “a warner having lived among them (in the past)” emphasises that each of them was human and mortal.

Let us now discuss the other segment of the ayah فَإِذا جاءَ رَسولُهُم قُضِيَ بَينَهُم بِالقِسطِ  which I have labelled earlier as one of the most crucial and critical modus operandi of Allah Ta’aala Subhaanahoo (sunnat-e-Ilahi) for running HIS creation. Using a broad brush, one can divide the history of selection and  appointments of prophets into two phases. Prior to the appointment of Prophet Ibrahim, it was the practice of God Almighty to send a Messenger in each community from among themselves in all the different areas in the world. It is estimated that about 124000 of them were designated. With the assignment of Prophet Ibrahim, Bari Ta’aala embarked on a different path. The line of messengers was restricted to his progeny only. It began with Prophet Ishaque and continued as the line of Bani Israel. This is the first Ummat-e-Muslimah. Later on they were deposed from this title because of the persistent and repeated rebellion of the Israelis to God’s command. They were replaced by Bani Ismael which forms the present Muslim Ummah.

These prophets are sent down with a mission: to guide the people on the right path and warn them of the consequences in the Hereafter if they refuse. Here is the RULE: At the end of the mission of a rasool (but not a nabi), a sort of Divine Tribunal (Allah kee Adalat)  is set up on the ground, simulating a secondary day of judgement (Qiyaamat-e-Sughra). A judgement is pronounced and executed before the departure of the prophet in one of following two styles:

First, many Messengers were unable to attract a reasonable following. Prophet Nooh preached for nine hundred and fifty years but could attract only a few supporters. These prophets did not even have a sanctuary to turn to. Hence they, together with their few followers were isolated and the rest of the people were annihilated by natural disasters like cyclones, floods or earthquakes. We are informed in the Quran that this was the fate of people of Nooh, Hood, Samood, Saleh and Shoeib. It should be noted that this punishment is exclusive for the Mushrekeen (polytheists) in the words of Quran. Degradation and subjugation are the lot of those who believe in tauheed (monotheism) and yet rejected the messenger. The Israelites are a glaring example of this group.

Second, God Almighty adopts a different route, if the Messenger attracts a large following and is able to acquire a defendable sanctuary also. In this case the rejectors are vanquished by the force and swords of the believers. Thus the Quran declares “God will punish them by your hands” in this ayah:^[7]

“Fight them, and God will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers”.

This second route was offered to the Holy Prophet. Hence the Messenger fortified his sanctuary, trained and prepared his followers, morally and physically to fight and vanquish the rejectors.

We  have seen that our beloved Prophet achieved this objective very brilliantly and successfully. Michael H. Hart in his 1978 book “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons inHistory” placed  the Holy Prophet at the top of the list. The rejectors and deniers were vanquished and Islam became the power to reckon with. As we have  discussed earlier, this was consequential to a Divine regulation (sunnat-e-Ilahi) 0f “itmaam-e-Hujjat” ie conclusion and culmination of the Divine argument by the Prophet beyond any doubt leading to the wrath—azaab- of Bari Ta’aala on the rejectors. It cannot be overemphasized that this Divine regulation is conditional to the presence of the Messenger on the ground. At this time, God Almighty Himself is regulating the life on the earth; occasionally even individual questioner may be graced by an answer by the Creator.

The Quran has mentioned about this event on three occasions; one of them:^[8]

“It is He Who hath sent His Messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to prevail it over all religion, even though the Pagans may detest (it)”.

However, some of our eminent scholars have taken a different view of this success of the Holy Prophet. They regard and esteem the the Holy Prophet as a revolutionary leader who by his personal sagacity, determination and perseverance brought out this outstanding transformation and reformation for the Muslim Ummah. This is not all. The philosophy goes further. For example, the eminent scholar Dr. Israr Ahmed  brings out this view very emotionally and forcefully in his video series of his tafseer, Al Bayaan. He maintains that the Muslim Ummah has inherited this revolutionary duty from the Holy Prophet  and is capable of accomplishing the same feat. He asserts  that it is the mandatory duty of all Muslims to propagate this revolution and continue to bring the whole planet under Muslim suzerainty. He further says that it is not proper for any Muslim to undertake any other activity till Muslim domination is total and complete. He grants that non Muslims may follow their own religion but they have to live under Muslim rule as “secondary” citizens. He is not alone here; he is expressing here the views of other prominent scholars like Maulana Maudoodi and Sayyid Qutb. This view and vision is completely against the meaning and message of the ayahs we have discussed above as pointed out by the research scholar and mentor Javed Ahmed Ghamdi and his Ustad Amin Ahsan Islahi. Additionally, it runs contrary to Islamic and current precepts, principles and regulations for international behaviour. This has led to some dangerous and damaging problems for Muslims vis a vis the international community.

First, the serious non-Muslim community declares that Muslims cannot co-exists with other humans. Second, it plunges the world into a perpetual state of confrontation and war; the powerful running the show. The lands which received the message of our beloved Prophet and came under Islamic sway and sovereignty under the Divine sunnah for Prophets, have retained their Islamic color and identity. How ever the lands the Muslim rulers and sultans occupied later in the history have swung back and forth. Muslims ruled for centuries over Spain. Then what? They were thrown out to the last man. Again our rule over India for a long time was ended by the British. The under lying drive and thrust for ISIS was also under this philosophy of Muslim dominance. After a short burst, it was completely demolished.  This concept has also generated a culture of double standards in our thinking and moral fabric. We relish and gloat our imperial majesty when we were the masters of the world. However when the tides were turned and the non-Muslims took over the reigns to conquer and convert, we do not miss a chance to condemn it as colonialism, occupation, imperialism etc. Tariq ibn Ziad continues to be our hero for occupying Spain but Bush is labelled as a devil when he tried to do same in Iraq.

I am sure I have offended a majority of my Muslim community with the above remarks. The Muslim dominance theory of our eminent scholars is very popular. After all the “urge to dominate” is one of the three major driving forces for humans. Vast majority of Muslims find it very difficult to outright condemn Al Qaeda or ISIS. These are regarded as movements to establish Muslim dominance. Dr. Israr Ahmed lauded the role of Talibaan and chastised US for destroying ISIS and Iraq. “Talabaan are not as bad as portrayed by the media”, “why blame ISIS, blame US for manufacturing the weapons used by ISIS”, “why blame talibaan for the attempted murder of an innocent young girl Malala, blame the drone attacks of US” are some of the remarks heard in informal discussions of the Muslim elite. I will be happy if I am proved wrong.

……..and Allah knows best.

May Allah Ta’aala bless us with true understanding–“fahm”–of our Deen, Aameen.

Dr. Khalid Mitha