Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 181
— Part II 176 excellence and superiority over all the other Prophets as. Evidently this argument is counter- productive. If lesser Prophets as than he upheld the torch of freedom of conscience, sanity would require that the Holy Prophet sa should have upheld this torch more loftily than any other Prophet as before him. For the very best of Prophets sa to have come to dash the freedom of human choice is a senseless allegation and is extremely blasphemous to the unblemished character of the Holy Prophet sa. This is exactly the power the Holy Quran denies the Holy Prophet sa when it declares: Admonish, therefore, for you are but an admonisher; You are not a warden over them. But whoever turns away and disbelieves, Allah will punish him with the greatest punishment. Unto Us surely is their return, Then surely, it is for Us to call them to account. (S u rah al-Gh a shiyah; Ch. 88: Vs. 22-27) In keeping with this inviolable principle, no Prophet as ever acquired the role of coercing people to righteousness. All who dared to violate this principle in the name of God, or in the name of righteousness, must be rejected as pseudo-gods, who acquired for