SPIRIT OF ISLAM AUGUST 2O13

42 Spirit of Islam Issue 8 August 2013 We have sent you forth as a witness and a bearer of good tidings and a warner, so that you may believe in God and His Messenger, and may help him, and honour him, and so that you may glorify God morning and evening. Behold, all who pledge their allegiance to you indeed pledge their allegiance to God: the hand of God is over their hands. Hence, he who breaks his oath, breaks it only to his own loss. Whereas he who remains true to what he has pledged to God, shall have a great reward bestowed upon him by God. 48: 8-10 The real work of the Prophet is to be an exponent of the truth ( shaahid , as translated by Shah Waliullah). He should clearly show who will be entitled to God’s Grace and who will deserve punishment from God in the eternal life after death. The rising of such a ‘ shaahid ’ or witness of Truth poses the greatest trial for his addressees. They have to hear God’s voice in the voice of a human being. They have to see a representative of God in the shape of a human being. While giving their hand into the hands of a man, they have to think that they are giving their hand into the hands of God. For those who prove to have this superior insight, God has great rewards in store, but to those who fail in this test, God will mete out the most severe punishment. o Receptive Intellect There is nothing that can take the place of a receptive intellect. One who remains open to instruction will look on the whole world as living proof of divine realities. One who goes through life with a closed mind, however, is like an animal that hears and sees all, but understands nothing.