The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page 476
476 Essence of Islam-1 I declare with all the emphasis at my command, that no revealed Book made this claim before the Holy Qur'an. Each confined its message to its own people. Even the Prophet who was deified by the Christians affirmed: "I have not been sent but to the lost sheep of Israel. "283 The conditions of the world also bear testimony that the claim of the Holy Qur'an of a universal message was timely for at the time of the advent of the Holy Prophet [peace and blessings of Allah be on him], the door of general propagation of the truth had been opened. [Chashma-e-Ma'rifat, Rūķānī Khazā'in, Vol. 23, pp. 74-77] Safeguarding of the Holy Qur'ān There is a promise in the Holy Qur'an that God would safeguard Islām at the time of trials and dangers as is said: إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَ إِنَّا لَهُ لَحْفِظُونَ 284 According to this promise God Almighty safeguarded His word in four ways. First, by means of those who have committed the Holy Qur'an to memory, its text and sequence were safeguarded. In each century there have been hundreds of thousands of people who had commit- ted this Holy Word to memory and thus safeguarded it in such a way that if they were asked about one word they could recite its context. In this way, the Holy Qur'an was safeguarded against verbal perversion in every age. Sec- ondly, through great divines who were bestowed an understanding of the Qur'an in every century, who inter- preted the Qur'an with the help of the Ahadith, and thus 283 Matthew 15:24 [Publisher] 284 We Ourself have sent down this Admonition and We shall surely safeguard it. ' al-Hijr, 15:10 [Publisher]