THE WORD OF GOD
From The Scriptures
The Quran is the book of God. It has been preserved in its entirety since its revelation to the Prophet of Islam between 610 and 632 AD. It is a book that brings glad tidings to humankind, along with divine admonition, and stresses the importance of man’s discovery of the Truth on a spiritual and intellectual level.
Translated from Arabic and commentary by
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
It is God who provides livestock for you, some for riding and some for your food: you have other benefits in them too. You can reach any destination you wish on them: they carry you by land, as ships carry you on the sea. He shows you His signs; which then of the signs of God will you deny? (40: 79-81)
Man needs many things for the upkeep of his existence and the development of human civilization, such as food, mounts, different types of industries, means of transportation etc. All these things exist in plenty in the present world. God has created the physical world in such a way that it is subservient and capable of being used by man for meeting his requirements.
All these things are, so to say, signs from God. Though this declaration is in indirect language, it is in man’s interest to understand it, because when God resorts to direct communication, it will mark the end of the period allowed for the performance of good or bad deeds and not the beginning.
Have they not travelled in the land to see the fate of those who went before them? They were more numerous and mightier and left greater traces of their power on the earth; yet all that they accomplished was of no avail to them. (40: 82)
When messengers came to them with clear signs, they revelled in whatever knowledge they had, and so they were engulfed by the very punishment they mocked: but when they saw Our punishment, they said, ‘We believe in God—the One God—and we reject the partners we used to associate with Him,’ but believing after seeing Our punishment did not benefit them at all: this is the law of God to deal with His creatures, and thus the disbelievers were the losers. (40: 83-85)
Knowledge is of two kinds. One is that which enables human beings to make worldly progress. The other is that which shows the path leading to success in the Hereafter. Those who possess worldly knowledge immediately receive the substantial benefits of this knowledge in the shape of worldly progress. Whereas the result of the knowledge of the Hereafter is not immediately visible in a tangible form. That is why the possessor of this knowledge comes to be degraded by worldly people.
This difference creates a superiority complex in those who are in possession of worldly knowledge. So, when prophets appeared among such people, they considered themselves superior and the prophets inferior. They even went to the extent of ridiculing the prophets. But God caused them to be destroyed in spite of all their powers and superior development. Now their remains are to be found either in the form of ruins lying above or interred deep in the earth. In this way, God Almighty has set a historical example for human beings—that the secret of permanent success lies in the knowledge of the Hereafter and not in worldly knowledge.
The prophets were initially rejected by their communities. The prophets had all the force of argument on their side, but these communities were not prepared to accept their credo. Finally, God made them aware of the reality in the language of punishment. Only then did they bow down before the truth. But this was of no avail, because only that admission of truth is desirable and useful which is arrived at on the basis of arguments. Any such admission which is made after seeing the divine punishment is worthless.