The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 159
Prophethood in Islam 159 -necessitates the pres كُونُوا مع الدين 17 the commandment ence of the truthful at all times. . Besides, observation confirms that the learning and knowledge of those who do not seek the company of the righteous does not help to rid them of their physical passions, and that they do not achieve even that minimum status in Islām which generates the certainty of belief that. God does indeed exist. They do not believe in the existence of God with the same certainty as they feel with regard to their wealth, which is locked in their boxes, or about the houses which they own. They dread swallowing arsenic, as they are certain that it is a fatal poison, but they do not dread the poison of sin, though they read in the Holy Qur'ān: إنَّهُ مَن يَأْتِ رَبَّهُ مُجْرِمًا فَإِنَّ لَهُ جَهَنَّمَ، لَا يَمُوتُ فِيهَا وَلا يَحْيى 128. The truth is that he who does not recognize God Almighty cannot recognize the Holy Qur'an. It is true that the Holy Qur'ān has been revealed for guidance, but the guidance of the Qur'ān is bound up with the personality of the one to whom it was revealed or of one who is appointed his substitute by God. Had the Qur'ān alone been enough, God Almighty had the power to have the Qur'ān inscribed on the leaves of trees or could have made it descend from heaven in the form of a book, but this was not what He did. He did not send the Qur'an into the world. till the teacher of the Qur'an had been sent. You will find that at several places the Holy Qur'ān affirms: 129 يُعلّمُهُمُ الحِكْمَةَ 29 127 Ibid. 128 Verily, he who comes to his Lord a sinner-for him is hell; he shall neither die therein nor live. '-Ṭā Hā, 20:75 [Publisher]