The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 432
honey varies in quality, so are all men not of equal spiritual development. Like the different colours and flavours of honey, the revelations of various Prophets are not of the same pattern, nor do their followers equally profit by them. Then one more argument is given in favour of the need of Divine revelation. When with the passage of time people become separated from the era of a Prophet and vested interests grow up and become entrenched and privileges flow from father to son and all natural avenues of progress and advancement are closed upon the common man, God raises a new Prophet who wages a relentless war against this tyranny of man against man and the so-called leaders who enjoyed a monopoly of power and benefit are dethroned from their seats of authority and the common men who follow the new Prophet take their place. By their acceptance of the new Divine Message, these common men demonstrate that they were the real leaders and not those mountebanks who traded upon the superstition and fear of ignorant people. The chains of bondage are broken and man begins to breathe in an atmosphere of true freedom. Then it is that false notions of fancied superiority of presumptuous leaders die their natural death. Another very serious consequence of separation from the era of a Prophet is that people take to idolatrous beliefs and practices which tend to impede their moral and spiritual progress. God cannot allow this state of affairs to continue for long. He sends a new Messenger who infuses a new life into a dead people. Disbelievers are then warned that great changes which are decreed to be brought about by means of the Quran would take place very soon. The time cries for a change and the New Message possesses all the essential elements and ingredients of a perfect teaching. The followers of this New Teaching will succeed and all power and dominion will pass into their hands. A veritable war will be waged against disbelief and its leaders will be destroyed. Towards the end of the Surah the Holy Prophet is told that the sphere and scope of his preaching would now widen and would embrace in its orbit Christians and Jews. This would excite a new opposition and Muslims would suffer persecution from all quarters; but the divine cause of Islam would continue to grow and prosper amid opposition and persecution and its enemies would meet with a terrible fate. 1640