Is GOD the Enemy of
our Faith?
In the first place, Prophethood is a delicate matter.
According to the Holy Qur'an the idea of Prophethood is such a fundamental article of
faith that one who believes in this idea is a believer and he who disbelieves is an
infidel. If a man does not put his faith in a prophet, he is an apostate; similarly if he
believes in the claim of an imposter to be a prophet, he becomes an infidel. In such a
delicate and important matter Omniscient God certainly cannot be expected to have made a
slip. If there were to be a Prophet after the time of Muhammad (PBUH), God would have made
this possibility clear in the Holy Qur'an or He would have commanded His Apostle Muhammad
to make a clear declaration of it. The Apostle of God would never have passed away without
having forewarned his people that other Apostles would succeed him and that his followers
must put their faith in the succeeding prophets.
Had God and His Messenger (PBUH) any intention of
undermining our faith by hiding from us the possibility of opening the door of Prophethood
after the advent of Muhammad (PBUH) and the coming of a new prophet, thus leaving us in a
quandary that if we did not believe in the ministry of a new prophet we would apostate
from Islam? Further than this, not only were we kept in the dark by God and His Messenger
(PBUH) about all this, but, on the contrary, they made observations and affirmations which
the Ummah for the last thirteen [now fourteen] hundred years has taken to mean and even
today holds the view that no prophet will come after Muhammad (PBUH). Could God and His
Messenger really temper with our faith? Supposing for a moment that admittance to the
office of Prophethood is open and a new Prophet does appear, we shall refuse him without
fear. For this refutation, God might call us to account on the Day of Judgement; but we
shall place the whole record of His own affirmations and injunctions before Him and this
evidence will prove that (God-forbid) Allah's Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger had led
us to disbelieve the new prophet and had thus condemned us to be infidels. We have no fear
that after considering this record God Almighty will consider it fit to punish us for
blasphemy against the new Prophet. But if the door of Prophethood is in fact closed and no
Prophet will arise after Muhammad (PBUH), and despite this fact a person puts his faith in
the claim of a new prophet, that person should think well indeed as to what record can be
presented before God in his defense to avoid the punishment for blasphemy and to achieve
salvation? Such a man should look through the material of his defense before he is
produced in the August Court of the Almighty. He should compare this material with the
record that we have presented and then judge for himself if the material upon which he is
relying for his defense is worth the trust of a reasonable man and can he court the risk
of facing the charge of blasphemy and be punished for it with the kind of defense that he
has at his disposal?
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