Revival of Religion — Page 15
15 everyone appointed by God was faced with a storm of opposition. All prophets came with the message of truth and eternal life but were opposed by those who preferred falsehood to truth, and spiritual death to spiritual life. This indeed is the process of th e birth of religions. When impurities and corruption crept into religions, their rebirth also took the same course. The reformers sent by God also suffered as the prophets had suffered. Whenever the Almighty chose to revive a nation spiritually, it split i nto two groups - those who saw the truth and those who opposed it. And neither group ever changed its demonstrated attitude. The Holy Quran describes this oft repeated cycle in a most effective and moving manner. A study of the Quran shows that: 1. Religions are born and revived through divinely appointed reformers. Never have the scholars ever reformed a religion through conferences and consultations. 2. The divinely appointed reformers are invariably rejected by their people and treated with arrogance and disdain. 3. Such reformers are always opposed by violence. They are accused of corrupting the religion of their forefathers. They are branded heretics and held guilty of apostasy. 4. The creed professed by the opponents prescribes death or banishment as the punishment for apostasy. The reformers are offered a choice of either a return to the fold or exile, failing which they are threatened with death. 5. The reformers never advocate violence. Their followers demonstrate steadfastness of such a high degree that they