Belief in all the prophets
The great characteristic of Islam is that it requires its followers to believe that all the great religions of the world that prevailed before it were revealed by God; and thus Islam lays down the basis of peace and harmony among the religions of the world. According to the Holy Quran, there is not one nation in the world in which a prophet has not appeared:
“There is not a people but a warner has gone among them” (35:24).
One is further told that there have been prophets besides those mentioned in the Quran:
“And We sent messengers We have mentioned to thee before, and messengers We have not mentioned to thee” (4:164).
The Quran, however, not only establishes the theory that prophets have appeared in all nations; it goes further and renders it necessary that a Muslim should believe in all those prophets (2:136, 177, 285), and though the faith of Islam is summed up in two brief sentences, There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Apostle, yet the person who confesses belief in Muhammad, in so doing, accepts all the prophets of the world, whether their names are mentioned in the Quran or not. Islam thus claims a universality to which no other religion can aspire, and lays the foundation of a brotherhood as vast as humanity itself.
Perfection of religion
The great mission of Islam was not, however, to preach this truth only, which, on account of the isolation from each other of the different nations of the earth, had not been preached before, but also to correct the errors which had found their way into various religions, to sift truth from error, to preach the truths which had not been preached before on account of the special circumstances of society or the early stage of its development, and most important of all, to gather together in one book the truths which were contained in any Divine revelation granted to any people for the guidance of man; and last of all, to meet all the spiritual and moral requirements of an ever-advancing humanity. Thus Islam claims to be the final and the most perfect expression of the will of God, as the Quran says:
“This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favour to you and chosen for you Islam as a religion” (5:3).
Accordingly, the Holy Quran is spoken of as “pure pages, wherein are (all) right books” (98:2,3), the meaning being that all those right directions necessary for the guidance of man, whether previously revealed or not, are to be met with in this Holy Book.
The unity of mankind
According to the Divine scheme whereby prophets were raised for the regeneration of the world, as disclosed in the Quran, every nation had its prophets, and thus, though prophethood was in one sense a universal fact, it was more or less a national institution, the scope of the teaching of every prophet being limited to his own nation. The final step, therefore, in the institution of prophethood was the coming of one prophet for all the nations, so that the grand idea of unifying the whole human race could be brought to perfection. The Holy Prophet Muhammad’s mission is thus described in the Holy Quran:
“Blessed is God Who sent down the Furqan (the Quran) upon His servant that he may be a warner to all the nations” (25:1);
and
“Say : O mankind, surely I am the Messenger of God to you all” (7:158).
The World-Prophet therefore took the place of the national prophets, all geographical limitations were swept away as were all bars of colour and race, and the basis of the unity of the human race was laid upon the grand principle that:
“mankind is a single nation” (2:213).
It should be added that such unity of mankind could not be accomplished unless the finality of prophethood was established, for if prophets continued to appear after the World-Prophet they would undoubtedly shatter the very foundations of the unity at which Islam aimed by giving a single prophet to the whole world. Hence it is that the Holy Prophet Muhammad is spoken of as:
“the Messenger of God and the last of the prophets” (33:40).
It may be further added that the object of sending a prophet to a people was to point out the ways by walking in which men could hold communion with God. That object was also brought to perfection through the great World Prophet, whose message was so perfect that it met the requirements not only of all contemporary nations, but of all future generations as well. This is plainly claimed by the Quran (see 5:3 quoted above), a claim not put forward by any other religion. Religion thus being made perfect, there remained no need for another religion after Islam or another prophet after the Prophet Muhammad.
An historical religion
I wish to notice one more peculiarity of Islam by way of introduction. Islam is beyond all doubt an historical religion, and its Holy Founder an historical personage. It is a fact which even an hostile critic of Islam has to admit. Every event of the Holy Prophet’s life can be read in the light of history, and the Holy Quran, which is the source of all the spiritual and social laws of Islam, is, as has been remarked by Bosworth Smith,[3] “a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its preservation … on the substantial authenticity of which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt.” Even Muir[4] admits that “there is probably in the world no other work which has remained twelve centuries with so pure a text”, and adds with Von Hummer that “we hold the Quran to be as surely Muhammad’s word as the Muhammadans hold it to be the word of God”.
Having a book of Divine revelation so safely preserved through centuries to guide him for his spiritual and moral welfare, and the example of such a great and noble Prophet whose varied experiences in life furnish the best rules of conduct in all the different phases of human life, a Muslim is sure that he has not rejected any truth which was ever revealed by God to any nation, and that he has not set at naught any good which was to be found in the life of any good man. A Muslim thus not only believes in the truth of all Divine revelations and accepts the sacred leaders of all peoples, but also follows the lasting and permanent truths contained in those revelations by following the last and most comprehensive of them, and imitates all good men in all the good that is to be found in their lives by taking for his model the most perfect exemplar.