With Love to the Muslims of the World — Page 19
19 When somebody claims to be from God, in order to judge the truth of his claim, the right approach would be to try and find out whether God has really spoken to him or not. His claim should be accepted or rejected on merit. But rejection should not mean physical assault on him and on those who accept his claim. In short what is the right attitude prescribed by the Holy Qur’an which should be adopted by the society which is invited to God by such a claimant? The situation is not new of course and the Holy Qur’an, with reference to the history of such people, lays down very clear and unambiguous instructions. When anyone claims to be from God, how should he be treated by those whom he addresses? This is the para- mount question which should be resolved before we proceed further. G UIDANCE FROM THE H OLY Q UR ’ AN The Holy Qur’an is very specific about it. When Moses addressed Pharaoh and his people and claimed to be the vicegerent of God, their immediate reaction was to at- tempt to have him murdered for this ‘false’ claim. This situation provides us with a very interesting study. If anyone claims to be a Messenger of God and the people believe him to be definitely false, do they have the right to murder or otherwise punish such a claimant? The same question is raised by the Holy Qur’an in relation to the situation mentioned above and it is categorically answered once and for all.