Essence of the Holy Qur’an — Page xi
xi Introduction Human life has a noble purpose. It is real, it is earnest. The finite character of his reason, the brevity of the span of his life on earth, the multiplicity and the intricate and diverse nature of the phenomena of human life, furnish ample evidence for the inescapable conclusion that man's life has a most noble and sublime purpose. Man is God's vicegerent on earth and has been endowed with a Divine personality. He is manifestly the central figure in the universe. He is created to develop and reflect in his person Divine attributes. It is for the fulfilment of this most sublime object that from time immemorial it has been the Divine practice that whenever moral darkness enshrouds the earth and humanity consigns belief in God to oblivion and gives itself to the worship of the gods of his own conception and creation, and moral turpitude blunts the consciousness of sin, a Divine Messenger is raised to reclaim and redeem this great purpose. “The beginning of the seventh century was an epoch of national and social disintegration, and religion had become extinct as a moral force and had been reduced to mere ritual and ceremony and the great faiths of the world— Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Confucianism—had ceased to exercise a healthy influence on the lives of their followers. The holy flames kindled by God's great Prophets had been quenched in the blood of man” ( Spirit of Islam ). In describing the situation of the world at that time J. H. Denison wrote: “In the preceding two centuries the civilized world stood on the verge of chaos. It seemed that the great civilization that it had taken four thousand years to construct was on the verge of disintegration … Civilization like a gigantic tree whose foliage had over-reached the world and whose branches had borne the golden fruits of art and science and literature stood tottering, its trunk no longer alive with the flowing sap of devotion and reverence, but rotten to the core” ( Emotion as Basis of Civilization ). Most deplorable was the condition of Arabia at that time when every conceivable vice had taken deep roots in that country and its leaders had completely despaired of its regeneration. Biblical Prophecies about the Holy Qur’ a n Such was the moral condition of the world when the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), humanity's greatest Divine teacher, appeared in the world and the perfect Divine Law in the form of the Holy Qur’ a n was revealed to him. A perfect Law could only have been revealed when all or most of the evils had made their appearances and had