Islam - The Summit of Religious Evolution — Page 48
48 The Jews, Christians and the Muslims unanimously believe that Moses was a true Prophet and that the prophecy in Deuteronomy was a revelation from God. The question arises whether the unpredictable successes and the improbable failures of his much stronger enemies were mere coincidences. The answer to this question is an absolute and unqualified No. Neither the Holy Prophet's successes nor his enemies' miserable failures were coincidental. On the other hand, it seems that the Quran had the terms of this prophecy in view when it unequivocally guaranteed the safety of the Holy Prophet's life very early in his career: 27 "And Allah will protect thee from men". Similarly, addressing the enemies of the Prophet, the Quran declared: 28 He is the Knower of the unseen, and He reveals not His secrets to any one, except him whom He chooses, namely a Messenger of His. And then He causes an escort of guarding angels to go before him and behind him. That is to say, the Prophet, having been charged with an important mission, would not be left unprotected. Enemies would never be able to kill him. These verses prove that the successes that the Holy Prophet attained were not an accident of good fortune. He declared early, through revelations received by him from God and recorded to this day in the Quran, that God would protect him from the murderous attacks of his enemies. He foretold the world that because he was the Prophet promised in the prophecy in Deuteronomy, he would be successful in his mission. In short, one thousand nine hundred years before the advent of the Prophet of Islam, Moses declared that his own Law was, in the divine scheme, not the last Law; that the world was to have a fuller Law in the latter days. To accomplish this mission, God would send another messenger. This Messenger was to teach all truths to the world; it was he who was to mark the last stage in the spiritual advancement of mankind. The world had to wait for another book and another Prophet. If, therefore, the Quran and the Holy Prophet have come after the Bible and after the Prophets Moses and Jesus, and if they claim to have come from God as guidance for mankind, their claim must be treated seriously and verified through the conditions specified in the earlier scriptures. If they fulfilled the stipulated requirements their claim must be accepted. If, however, they fail to meet the requirements, then the search should continue. The revelation of the Quran was not a gratuitous revelation, a redundancy in the presence of earlier revelations. It attested to the authenticity of all earlier scriptures and presented a Law that appeared to be significantly different from all its predecessors. In reality the Quran updated the earlier Laws and corrected the human interpolations that had corrupted them. Indeed, if the Quran had not been revealed, promises made by God through His Messengers would have gone unfulfilled, and the world would have become afflicted with doubt and disbelief. The promise of another Prophet after Moses is again reconfirmed in Deuteronomy: 29