10. Yunus

All of God’s gifts to man—whether agricultural produce or other things which are useful to man—are divine provision (rizq). As man utilizes them in the way shown by God, he developes a feeling of gratitude towards his Maker. But Satan wants man to fail to remember God while making use of divine provisions. In ancient times Satan induced people to associate with these provisions the rites due to false gods and goddesses so that in availing of them, they would forget the remembrance of their true Lord. In the present age Satan is achieving this purpose by advancing material explanations for things. God-gifted things are being shown to people as resulting from certain material factors, so that when they receive these things, they will not treat these bounties as the provision (rizq) of God but as the outcome of worldly toils.

Giving the call for Truth is a very difficult task. The preacher has to totally devote himself to Truth alone, and only then can he become a preacher (da‘i), in the true sense. When the preacher presents God’s religion in its original form and makes it very clear with the help of sound reasoning, then all those who follow their self-made religion become perturbed and infuriated. Showing themselves to be pious established leaders, they try to degrade the preacher. They treat everything, such as baseless propaganda, conspiracies, even violent actions as all being permissible in opposing him. The freedom granted to them in the present world gives them the opportunity to go on doing whatever they want to do against the preacher. A stage comes when all the power of materialism is ranged against the preacher’s arguments. And because the preacher’s opponents are vested with so much worldly power, they feel they can suppress his voice. This state of affairs is undoubtedly very trying. For it happens that, on the one hand, the opponents of Truth appear to be successful and thus become emboldened. On the other hand an errant thought crosses the mind of the preacher: ‘Is God neutral on this issue? Has He disassociated Himself after drawing me into this battle between truth and falsehood?’ But this is not so. It is not possible that God would cease to support the truth. The opponent’s becoming bereft of sound reasoning and all the strength of reasoning being totally on the side of the preacher are sure proofs that God is with the preacher of Truth. It is so, because reason is God’s representative in the present world. If anyone has the power of reasoning, then it is as if God is with him. The opponents have the opportunity of committing aggression and violence, simply due to the freedom given to them for the sake of testing them. As soon as the world of trial comes to an end, this position will change. At that time superiority and respect will be accorded to those who took a stand on the basis of reasoning, while others who failed to do so will be dishonoured. The group of true preachers of God are the friends of God. God gives them good news of a sublime life in the Hereafter in which they neither suffer any regrets about their past life nor have any fears about their future life.

Giving the call for Truth is a very difficult task. The preacher has to totally devote himself to Truth alone, and only then can he become a preacher (da‘i), in the true sense. When the preacher presents God’s religion in its original form and makes it very clear with the help of sound reasoning, then all those who follow their self-made religion become perturbed and infuriated. Showing themselves to be pious established leaders, they try to degrade the preacher. They treat everything, such as baseless propaganda, conspiracies, even violent actions as all being permissible in opposing him. The freedom granted to them in the present world gives them the opportunity to go on doing whatever they want to do against the preacher. A stage comes when all the power of materialism is ranged against the preacher’s arguments. And because the preacher’s opponents are vested with so much worldly power, they feel they can suppress his voice. This state of affairs is undoubtedly very trying. For it happens that, on the one hand, the opponents of Truth appear to be successful and thus become emboldened. On the other hand an errant thought crosses the mind of the preacher: ‘Is God neutral on this issue? Has He disassociated Himself after drawing me into this battle between truth and falsehood?’ But this is not so. It is not possible that God would cease to support the truth. The opponent’s becoming bereft of sound reasoning and all the strength of reasoning being totally on the side of the preacher are sure proofs that God is with the preacher of Truth. It is so, because reason is God’s representative in the present world. If anyone has the power of reasoning, then it is as if God is with him. The opponents have the opportunity of committing aggression and violence, simply due to the freedom given to them for the sake of testing them. As soon as the world of trial comes to an end, this position will change. At that time superiority and respect will be accorded to those who took a stand on the basis of reasoning, while others who failed to do so will be dishonoured. The group of true preachers of God are the friends of God. God gives them good news of a sublime life in the Hereafter in which they neither suffer any regrets about their past life nor have any fears about their future life.

Giving the call for Truth is a very difficult task. The preacher has to totally devote himself to Truth alone, and only then can he become a preacher (da‘i), in the true sense. When the preacher presents God’s religion in its original form and makes it very clear with the help of sound reasoning, then all those who follow their self-made religion become perturbed and infuriated. Showing themselves to be pious established leaders, they try to degrade the preacher. They treat everything, such as baseless propaganda, conspiracies, even violent actions as all being permissible in opposing him. The freedom granted to them in the present world gives them the opportunity to go on doing whatever they want to do against the preacher. A stage comes when all the power of materialism is ranged against the preacher’s arguments. And because the preacher’s opponents are vested with so much worldly power, they feel they can suppress his voice. This state of affairs is undoubtedly very trying. For it happens that, on the one hand, the opponents of Truth appear to be successful and thus become emboldened. On the other hand an errant thought crosses the mind of the preacher: ‘Is God neutral on this issue? Has He disassociated Himself after drawing me into this battle between truth and falsehood?’ But this is not so. It is not possible that God would cease to support the truth. The opponent’s becoming bereft of sound reasoning and all the strength of reasoning being totally on the side of the preacher are sure proofs that God is with the preacher of Truth. It is so, because reason is God’s representative in the present world. If anyone has the power of reasoning, then it is as if God is with him. The opponents have the opportunity of committing aggression and violence, simply due to the freedom given to them for the sake of testing them. As soon as the world of trial comes to an end, this position will change. At that time superiority and respect will be accorded to those who took a stand on the basis of reasoning, while others who failed to do so will be dishonoured. The group of true preachers of God are the friends of God. God gives them good news of a sublime life in the Hereafter in which they neither suffer any regrets about their past life nor have any fears about their future life.

Giving the call for Truth is a very difficult task. The preacher has to totally devote himself to Truth alone, and only then can he become a preacher (da‘i), in the true sense. When the preacher presents God’s religion in its original form and makes it very clear with the help of sound reasoning, then all those who follow their self-made religion become perturbed and infuriated. Showing themselves to be pious established leaders, they try to degrade the preacher. They treat everything, such as baseless propaganda, conspiracies, even violent actions as all being permissible in opposing him. The freedom granted to them in the present world gives them the opportunity to go on doing whatever they want to do against the preacher. A stage comes when all the power of materialism is ranged against the preacher’s arguments. And because the preacher’s opponents are vested with so much worldly power, they feel they can suppress his voice. This state of affairs is undoubtedly very trying. For it happens that, on the one hand, the opponents of Truth appear to be successful and thus become emboldened. On the other hand an errant thought crosses the mind of the preacher: ‘Is God neutral on this issue? Has He disassociated Himself after drawing me into this battle between truth and falsehood?’ But this is not so. It is not possible that God would cease to support the truth. The opponent’s becoming bereft of sound reasoning and all the strength of reasoning being totally on the side of the preacher are sure proofs that God is with the preacher of Truth. It is so, because reason is God’s representative in the present world. If anyone has the power of reasoning, then it is as if God is with him. The opponents have the opportunity of committing aggression and violence, simply due to the freedom given to them for the sake of testing them. As soon as the world of trial comes to an end, this position will change. At that time superiority and respect will be accorded to those who took a stand on the basis of reasoning, while others who failed to do so will be dishonoured. The group of true preachers of God are the friends of God. God gives them good news of a sublime life in the Hereafter in which they neither suffer any regrets about their past life nor have any fears about their future life.

Who has created heaven and earth; and who is sustaining them?—These questions have been the central point of the human quest in every age. But finding the correct answers to these questions will be possible only when a man is able to see beyond the physical world, and nobody possesses eyes which can see beyond the physical world. This is why every answer which man himself devises is based on mere guesswork and conjecture and not on any knowledge based on facts. In this world, those who speak on the basis of real knowledge are known as prophets. These are the particular people who have direct contact with the world above. God Himself, on His own, informs them of the reality of things. Therefore, prophets’ knowledge is the only knowledge on which one can rely with certainty. We have no direct means of testing the veracity of the Prophet’s claims. However, there certainly exists an indirect means; and that is the signs (ayat) of the universe. These signs, in effect, corroborate the inner realities explained by the Prophet. For instance, we see that on earth, day follows night and night follows day. This phenomenon of rotation has come into existence due to an extremely stable system which is regulated with mathematical precision. Moreover, this phenomenon is wonderfully favourable to our life. There appears to be a clearly purposeful plan at work behind it. This state of affairs is definitely a proof of the existence of a Being who is vested with Absolute power, who is Benevolent and Merciful, and about whom the prophets have been giving us information throughout the ages. Those who, according to their own ideas, follow ‘partners’ are not following any factual reality, but only their own conjecture and imagination. The reality revealed through the prophets is corroborated by the entire universe, but there is nobody here to corroborate or uphold the claim of the polytheists, or those who attribute partners to God (mushriks).

Imagining the sons and daughters of God is like imagining God on the lines of a human being. Man is the victim of shortcomings and limitations; he therefore needs children so that, through them he can compensate for these shortcomings and limitations. But imagining such a position in respect of God is absolutely baseless. The pattern of God’s creations itself confirms the existence of a Creator. The image of God which should be projected is that of one who is perfect to the final degree; one who is free of all kinds of flaws and deficiencies. Had God not been a perfect being, had He been full of shortcomings and defects, He would not have been able to create a universe like the present one and would not have been able to control it in the present, precisely regulated manner. This means that all the signs of heaven and the earth establish the existence of the one God, the concept of which has been presented by the prophets. But the concept of God devised for themselves by the polytheists has absolutely no proof in the present universe. Now, obviously, the polytheists’ acceptance of an unproved god shows that such people can never be successful, because how can a god who is actually non-existent come to help anybody or fulfil anybody’s wishes? God, who is really in existence, is not accepted by the polytheists and the god they accept does not exist anywhere. Under these circumstances, how can the polytheists be successful in the present universe? Their only possible fate will be to finally become helpless and without support and forever suffer disgrace and disappointment.

In the present world nobody loses anything by rejection of the Truth or shirk (assigning partners to God). This leads to great misunderstanding. But, this state of affairs comes about simply because of the respite given to man during his period of trial. In the present world man has been given freedom of action, so that he may be put to the test. The moment the period of testing is over, the present condition will also come to an end. At that time man will see that he has been left with none of those things of which he considered himself the owner, and on account of which he had become arrogant. It has been recorded in a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that God apostrophied wisdom, saying, ‘O, wisdom! In this universe I have not created anything superior to you, anything more beautiful or any creature better than you.’ The necessary consequence of the grant of such a great boon to a human being is that his responsibility should also be great. That is why rejection of truth is the greatest crime before God. When Truth is proved by reasoning, it becomes necessary for man to accept it. If, even after the truth has been proved by arguments, a man rejects it, then he is committing an unpardonable crime. When God has given to man the wisdom by which he may recognise the Truth as Truth and falsehood as falsehood, in such a situation there can be no excuse for his wrongdoing before God.

In the present world nobody loses anything by rejection of the Truth or shirk (assigning partners to God). This leads to great misunderstanding. But, this state of affairs comes about simply because of the respite given to man during his period of trial. In the present world man has been given freedom of action, so that he may be put to the test. The moment the period of testing is over, the present condition will also come to an end. At that time man will see that he has been left with none of those things of which he considered himself the owner, and on account of which he had become arrogant. It has been recorded in a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that God apostrophied wisdom, saying, ‘O, wisdom! In this universe I have not created anything superior to you, anything more beautiful or any creature better than you.’ The necessary consequence of the grant of such a great boon to a human being is that his responsibility should also be great. That is why rejection of truth is the greatest crime before God. When Truth is proved by reasoning, it becomes necessary for man to accept it. If, even after the truth has been proved by arguments, a man rejects it, then he is committing an unpardonable crime. When God has given to man the wisdom by which he may recognise the Truth as Truth and falsehood as falsehood, in such a situation there can be no excuse for his wrongdoing before God.