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Prophets and their Books
Ayatullah Shaykh Muhammad Reza al-Muzaffar
We believe that all the Prophets (`a) are on the truth;(11) and they are infallible and immaculate. To deny their prophethood, to revile and deride them are parts of disbelief and atheism, since such acts result in the denial of our Prophet, Muhammad (s), who has apprised us of them and declared their honesty.
It is however expressly obligatory to acquaint oneself with their names and codes of law, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, Moses, and Jesus (`a) as well as the other prophets whose names have been cited in the Holy Qur'an. Thus, to deny any of them is to deny all of them in general and the prophethood of our Prophet Muhammad (s) in particular.
It is also obligatory to believe in their Books and in whatever has been revealed to them from the Lord.
However, it has been proven that the current Torah and Gospel (i.e. the Old and New Testaments) have been distorted and their contents are not the identical revelations of the Lord. Many alterations, modifications, additions, and deletions, have been made to these two Divine Books since the times of Prophet Moses (`a) and Prophet Jesus (`a). Moreover, the majority, if not the entire, contents of these Books were written by the followers and disciples of these two Prophets a long time after their death.majority, if not the entire, contents of these Books were written by the followers and disciples of these two Prophets a long time after their death.
Islam
We believe that “The true religion with Allah is Islam.”(12) It is indeed the true, Divine code of law that is the last and most perfect of all Divine codes of law. It also accomplishes the greatest human happiness and achieves the most comprehensive benefits in this world as well as in the hereafter. Unchangeable and unmodified, Islam is valid for all ages and times, since it comprises all individual, social, and political systems of life that are needed by the human race.
Islam being the seal of all codes of law with no other law being expected to reform the conditions of human beings who are unfortunately plunging into wrong and corruption, there must come a day when Islam becomes most powerful and its justice and laws spread all over this globe.
If the laws of Islam are applied to the entire world completely and properly, peace will reach all human beings and pleasure will find its way to each one of them, and they will attain the utmost of their dreams of luxury, dignity, opulence, meekness, and virtuous morality. Besides, clouds of persecution will be driven away from the horizons, amicability and fraternity will prevail among people, and poverty and dearth will be extinct.
It is noticeable, in the present day, that those who claim being Muslims are experiencing shameful and derogatory conditions. The reason for this is that the religion of Islam with its laws and spirit was not implemented since the first century of its advent. It was certainly not their obedience to the precepts of Islam that caused such disgraceful retardation. Quite the reverse, it was their disobedience to the precepts of Islam, their underestimation of its regulations, and the spread of oppression and aggression among all their social classes, beginning with their kings and retinues down to the paupers and ordinary subjects. All these have been the factors that crippled the movements of Muslims, enfeebled their powers, destroyed their spirituality and caused them affliction and distress. As a result, Almighty Allah has destroyed them on account of their faults: That is because Allah never changes the Grace He has bestowed on any people until they first change what is in themselves. (8:53)
Thus does Allah treat His creatures: Lo! The guilty are never successful. (10/17)
In truth, their Lord would never destroy their cities unjustly till their folk were doing right. (11/117)
Even thus is the grasp of the Lord when He grasps the cities while they are doing evil. Lo! His grasp is painful, terrible. (11/102)
How do they expect that the religion of Islam will extricate this nation from its abyss while the religion in the view of the members of this nation is mere ink on paper! They do not carry out even the least amount of its instructions.
Although the prime foundations of Islam are faith, honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, good behavior, altruism, loving for one’s brother-in-faith whatever one loves for oneself, and the like moral standards, Muslims have left these morals far behind since ages up to the present day.
With the progress of time, we find Muslims increasingly separating into scattered fragments, sects, and parties, rushing madly upon the transient pleasures of this world, crushing each other for fancies, and accusing each other of atheism through incomprehensible notions or affairs that are not their concern.
Such matters have distracted them from the essence of religion and from pursuing the interests of their communities and their own. Useless questions like:
• whether the Holy Qur'an is eternal or was created afterwards;
• whether it is correct to believe in the Divine menace and the Final Return or not; or
• whether Heaven and Hell have already been created, or will be created in future.
Such disputatious issues cause them to wrangle against each other and accuse each other of atheism.
If such disputations carry an indication, they certainly indicate the deviation of these polemical individuals from the norms that were drawn up to take them to the right path after it had been already paved for them. They also indicate that they are following the other crooked paths that bring about nothing but perdition and extinction.
With the passage of time, Muslims’ departure from the right increased until ignorance and deviation surrounded them as they engaged themselves with worthless and trivial affairs and concentrated on tiring matters, myths, illusions, wars, disputes, and vainglory that finally led them to bottomless abysses. While they were diving in inadvertence and carelessness, the West, the vigilant yet bitter enemy of Islam, colonized their territories and threw them into an unending abyss whose extent and bottom no one knows except Almighty Allah: In truth, the Lord would never destroy their cities unjustly while their folk were still doing right. (11/117)
There is no alternative for Muslims today except that they gather their parts and settle an account with themselves for their past negligence. They must then start with disciplining themselves and their coming generations through the orthodox precepts of their religion to eradicate all traces of oppression and injustice among them. Only by doing so can they escape the current catastrophic calamity. The next step must be that they fill the earth with justice and fairness after it has been filled with injustice and oppression. This is the promise of Almighty Allah and His Messenger to them and this is exactly what is expected from their religion since it is the sealing of all religions without which there is no hope to set this world right.
To achieve this, it is inevitable that a leader (imam) shall come out to erase all delusions, innovations, and aberrations that have been imputed to Islam, save people from the wide-ranging corruption and incessant oppression they are experiencing, and redeem them from the current underestimation of moral standards and disparagement of human souls. May Allah hasten his reappearance and make easy his advent.(13)
The Lawgiver of Islam
We believe that the message of Islam is contained in the person of Muhammad ibn `Abdullah (s), the seal of the prophets, the chief of all Messengers, and the best of them. He is the master of all human beings; no virtuous one can ever match him in virtue, no one can ever approach him in nobility, no rational person can ever be equivalent to him in rationality, and no civil person can ever resemble him in courtesy. He is verily on an exalted standard of character and the most excellent in all these characters from the beginning of the human race up to the Day of Resurrection.(14))
The Holy Qur’an
We believe that the Holy Qur’an is the Divine revelation that was revealed by Almighty Allah to His honorable Prophet, making everything clear. It is also the Holy Prophet’s immortal miracle that challenges all human beings to bring the like of its eloquence together with the elevated facts and knowledge it comprises. Therefore, no modification, change, or distortion can ever come upon the Holy Qur'an.(15)
The Book that we are currently holding and reciting is the very Qur'an that was revealed to the Holy Prophet. Whoever claims any statement opposite to this belief is definitely fabricating, erroneous, or dubious. All these categories are devoid of true guidance, since the Holy Qur'an is verily the word of Almighty Allah Who describes it as: Falsehood cannot come at it from before it or from behind. It is sent down by One Full of Wisdom, Worthy of all Praise. (41/42)
One of the testimonies to the miraculous nature of the Holy Qur’an is that with the progress of time and evolution of science and art, the Holy Qur'an has always kept its freshness and beauty as well as its supreme objectives and notions. It never contradicts a fixed scientific theory nor does it disagree with a positive philosophical fact.
On the contrary, with the development of scientific researches and the presentation of modern theories, we notice that some books of scholars and master philosophers seem to be trivial, repugnant, or fallacious, irrespective of what elevated scientific rank or intellectual level their writers might have attained. Such fallacies are visible in the works of even the greatest Greek scholars and philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle who have been recognized as fathers of knowledge and intellectual excellence.
We also believe that it is obligatory to respect and esteem the Holy Qur'an in words and deeds; it is therefore impermissible to defile even a single word of it intentionally, as the Holy Qur'an states: None shall touch it save the purified ones. (56/79)
It is also impermissible for those who are ceremonially impure, whether by major impurity(16)—such as janabah,(17) menstruation, puerperium, and the like—or minor impurity(18) including sleeping unless ritual bathing or ritual ablution has been performed. The details of these laws are mentioned in the books of Shi`ite jurisprudence.
Furthermore, it is impermissible to destroy the books of the Holy Qur'an by fire or to offend them by any deed that is conventionally considered a sort of insult, such as throwing them away, staining them, or putting them under one’s feet or in a despised place. Whoever intentionally insults or despises the Holy Qur'an through any of these deeds or their likes is decided as having reneged faith and disbelieved in the Lord of the Worlds.
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