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Itmam al-Hujjah
of God’s Messengers
This world has
been made as a place of a trial for mankind. Its essential consequence is reward
and punishment for which the Day of Judgement has been fixed. In order to prove
this to mankind in the same manner as scientific facts are proven in a
laboratory, the Almighty, on several occasions, brought about lesser days of
judgement in this very world. The way which was adopted for this was that the
Almighty would send His messenger to any nation He intended. That messenger
would conclusively convey the truth to it, after which its fate would be decided
with full justice in this world. The way this would happen is that those who
accepted the truth would be salvaged and those who rejected it would face the
wrath and torment of God and would be eternally wiped out from the face of the
earth or would face the eternal punishment of subjugation and live in eternal
humiliation. The accounts of the nations of Noah (sws), the ‘Ad, the Thamud, the
people of Lot (sws) and other similar nations related in the Qur’an are the
accounts of such punishments.
The Qur’an
states that no nation faces this punishment unless a messenger of God
conclusively delivers the truth to them. Thus it is said:
(١٥:١٧) وَمَا كُنَّا مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّى نَبْعَثَ رَسُولاً
(We never punish unless We send a messenger, (17:15)).
A question arises on this: How exactly is the truth conclusively communicated?
It is evident from the Qur’an that three things are required for this:
Firstly, the
presence of a messenger of God who invites a nation to profess faith in him.
Secondly, the
nation is given enough time so that if its people want they can come to see the
messenger and directly hear the message of God from his tongue because the
person of a messenger itself is a sign of God.
Thirdly, God’s
help and close relationship with the messenger and his companions manifests
itself in such a grand way before the eyes of their addressees that no one can
form another opinion about it.
God says that
after this no one is left with an excuse to present before God:
لِئَلاَّ يَكُوْنَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللّهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ
الرُّسُلِ (٤:
١٦٥) (so that after the messengers
people are left with no excuse which they can present before God, (4:165)).
Thus if it is
possible for the believers to punish the rejecters, they are directed to do so.
Otherwise the angels carry out this task.
Muhammad (sws)
was also a messenger of God and was sent to his people to bring about this
lesser day of judgement for the last time on the face of the earth. Thus after
he had done itmam al-hujjah, his companions were also directed to implement
divine punishment on the rejecters.
Thus about the
Idolaters of Arabia, it is stated:
فَإِذَا انسَلَخَ الْأَشْهُرُ الْحُرُمُ فَاقْتُلُوا
الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدْتُمُوهُمْ وَخُذُوهُمْ وَاحْصُرُوهُمْ وَاقْعُدُوا
لَهُمْ كُلَّ مَرْصَدٍ فَإِنْ تَابُوا وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ
فَخَلُّوا سَبِيلَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ (٩:
٥)
Then when the sacred months [after
the hajj] have passed, kill these Idolaters wherever you find them, and [for
this purpose] capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each
and every ambush. But if they repent and are diligent in the prayer, and give
zakah, then leave them alone. Indeed, God is Forgiving, Most Merciful. (9:5)
Similarly,
about the People of the Book of Arabia, the words are:
قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَلَا
بِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَلَا يُحَرِّمُونَ مَا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَلَا
يَدِينُونَ دِينَ الْحَقِّ مِنْ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ حَتَّى يُعْطُوا
الْجِزْيَةَ عَنْ يَدٍ وَهُمْ صَاغِرُونَ (٩:٢٩)
Fight with those from among the
People of the Book who believe not in God or the Last Day, nor hold that
forbidden which has been forbidden by God and His Messenger, nor adopt the
Religion of Truth as their own religion until they pay the jizyah after being
subdued and live a life of submission. (9:29)
It is evident
from the context of these verses that their directive was specific to the
Idolaters and People of the Book of Arabia. However, we see that those of the
companions who succeeded the Prophet (sws) dealt with
certain nations outside Arabia in the very manner mentioned in these verses for
the People of the Book of Arabia. This obviously is a decision that is based on
their opinion and can be regarded as correct or otherwise. In our opinion, this
decision taken by them was absolutely correct. The reason is that the essential
components needed for the itmam al-hujjah of a messenger existed for all these
nations as well. Its details follow.
1. The Prophet
(sws) was still living in this world when he sent his envoys to those nations
and invited them to profess faith in him. Everyone aware of the history of his
time knows that he had written letters to heads of state of these nations and
warned them that since he was the messenger of God and since he had invited them
to accept Islam, the only way left for them to succeed in this world and in the
next was to respond positively to this invitation. These letters were written to
the following heads of state: Negus of Abyssinia, Maqawqas of Egypt, Khusro
Parvez of Persia, Heraclius of Rome, Mundhir ibn Sawī of Bahrain, Hudhah ibn
‘Alī of Yamamah, Harith ibn Abī Shamr of Damascus and Jayfar of Amman. There is
not much difference between the content of these letters. Following is the
letter written to Heraclius, the Caesar of Rome. The style, majesty and
authority with which these letters are written will become evident from it:
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرحمن الرَّحِيمِ من مُحَمَّدٍ عبد اللَّهِ
وَرَسُولِهِ إلى هِرَقْلَ عَظِيمِ الرُّومِ سَلَامٌ على من اتَّبَعَ الْهُدَى
أَمَّا بَعْدُ فَإِنِّي أَدْعُوكَ بِدِعَايَةِ الْإِسْلَامِ أَسْلِمْ تَسْلَمْ
يُؤْتِكَ الله أَجْرَكَ مَرَّتَيْنِ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّيْتَ فإن عَلَيْكَ إِثْمَ
الْأَرِيسِيِّينَ قل يا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إلى كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ
بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ ألا نَعْبُدَ إلا اللَّهَ ولا نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شيئا ولا
يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا من دُونِ اللَّهِ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا
فَقُولُوا اشْهَدُوا بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful.
From Muhammad, the servant and messenger of God, to Heraclius, the ruler of
Rome. Peace to him who follows the guidance. After this I invite you to accept
Islam. If you become Muslim you will live in peace. God will give you a double
reward for this. If you turn away, then you will also be responsible for the sin
of your subjects. People of the Book! Come to what is common between us: we
shall not worship anyone except God and nor associate anyone with him and none
of us will make anyone except God his Lord. Then if they turn away, tell them:
“Bear witness that we are Muslims.”
2. These
letters were written in Muharram 7th hijrah after the Prophet (sws) had returned
from Hudaybiyyah. He lived for about four years after this. During this time, he
even journeyed to Tabuk in anticipation of any attack from the Romans. If the
people of these nations as well as their ruling nobles had come to meet him if
they wanted, they could have seen the last messenger of God with their very
eyes.
3. God’s help
and close relationship that manifested itself in the battles of Badr, Uhud,
Ahzab and Khaybar before the Idolaters and the People of the Book of Arabia, and
as a consequence of which they were declared worthy of punishment, also
manifested itself before all those nations when, in accordance with the explicit
predictions of the Qur’an, the Quraysh of Makkah were subdued in spite of all
their might and majesty, all their leadership was killed, Makkah was conquered,
the Quraysh were stripped of the custodianship of the foremost House of God,
people in multitudes entered the folds of Islam, the sharī‘ah was imposed and no
other religion could politically and religiously dominate Arabia. Not only this,
the empires of all these nations crumbled to dust when onslaughts were launched
against them – nations whose rulers had been told that they will necessarily be
subdued after itmam al-hujjah by the messenger of God. Without accepting faith
their kingdoms could not flourish on the earth.
All these are
established facts which manifested themselves before people of those times.
Whatever the companions of the Prophet (sws) did was on these very grounds. They
would have necessarily directed the attention of people to these facts when they
delivered their message. There is no reason to make the evil estimation about
them that without communicating these facts to people they would have punished
an individual or a nation in this manner.
(Translated by
Dr Shehzad Saleem)
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