The Message of Islam — Page 6
6 the knowledge of which can be progressively acquired by man, throws wide open to man all avenues of knowledge which he is not only encouraged, but is repeatedly urged and exhorted, to explore unceasingly. The only limitation is imposed by another of God’s laws that so long as man continues to make beneficent use of God’s boun- ties, God will continue to multiply them unto man without limit, but if he misuses or abuses them, he will be called to account in respect of them, and these very bounties may become the instru- ments of his ruin and his destruction. (see Surah Ibraheem, 14:8) Universal Guidance The Quran teaches that God has, at all stages, furnished guid- ance to mankind through revelation vouchsafed to the Prophets. It requires faith in all previous Prophets, so that all of them are believed in and revered by the Muslims. It teaches, however, that previous revelations were limited in their scope. Each was designed to meet the needs of the people to whom it was sent dur- ing the stage of development upon which that people was about to enter. Each contained fundamental truths, valid through the ages, in respect of the whole of mankind, but it also contained guid- ance, directions, commandments, and prohibitions which were of a local or temporary character. Moreover, in the course of time, portions of those revelations were lost or forgotten or perverted. That which was of universal and permanent application in previ- ous revelations, has been reaffirmed in the Quran. Such portions as had been lost or were overlooked or forgotten, but were still