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Prophet Muhammad: "Era will come when humanity will
re-commit itself to God"
From: "jagbir singh" <adishakti_org@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:44 pm
Subject: Prophet Muhammad: "Era will come when humanity will
re-commit itself to God"
Dr. Shahid Athar, Millennium - An Islamic Perspective
"By the token of time (through the Ages), man is in a state
of
loss, except those who truly believe, act correctly and act
together
in mutual counsel of Truth and patience' (Al — Asr 103).
The Islamic calendar does not start with the birth or the
death of a
person, but with an event, the migration of believers from
oppression to freedom, freedom to practice 'submission to
the will
of God' in order to attain peace within and around. The
advent of
Prophet Jesus (Alaih Salaam-peace be upon him) was similarly
an
epochal event in the history of humankind. The Qur'n calls
him
a 'sign', a 'mercy', a 'witness' and an 'example'. He is
Messiah,
Messenger, Prophet, Servant, Word and Spirit of God. The
calendar
may not be exactly precise but the millennium can serve as
an
important point of reference in the Divine scheme of message
and
revelation. And take us into the future.
The future is very dear to us. Even if it has not arrived
yet, the
future is already in our thoughts. On the other hand, the
past is a
collection of good and bad experience, its use is in shaping
the
present and shaping the future....
Muhammad, (SAWS — Allah's Mercy & Peace be upon him), task,
defined in the Qur'n, is to be ' giver of the glad tidings
as well
as a warner'. The Our'n reminds us of nations who were
destroyed
—
because they had rebelled and disobeyed — and gives us a
glimpse
of the life in hereafter of people who do good and who love
and obey
God. In the scheme of divine revelation, the past, present
and the
future are one continuum....
In Islam service to humanity is a function of their duty
towards
God. The Qur'n says: And from among you there must be a
society,
community or party that should invite people to all that is
good and
enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing
of all
that is wrong.' (Ali-Imran, 3:104)
In inviting people to goodness and forbidding from the
wrong,
Muslims will need to join hands with other believers who
share a
great deal of these values about good and bad and about
right and
wrong. The conflicts that we witness today are not conflicts
between
religions, they are conflicts of irreligion. Therefore,
those who
believe in God and know the right from the wrong — Jews,
Christians and Muslims, especially — can join together to
build a
not a perfect, but an incomparably better world than we live
in
today: a society of neighbors who are just and fair to each
other.
The second half of the millennium has seen two world and
several
local wars. It saw nuclear incineration of entire
populations. It
invented a savage new crime against humanity: ethnic
cleansing. The
new millennium ought to be different. Let the people of
faith and
goodwill work together to turn it into a thousand years of
peace and
prosperity, love and mutuality.
Prophet Muhammad, (SAWS — Allah's Mercy & Peace be upon
him), has
foretold that 'fter many years of bad times, an era will
come when
humanity will re-commit itself to God and there will be
peace and
prosperity in the whole world.'
On the threshold of the next millennium, Muslims have a duty
towards
the world and towards the fellow humans. It is their
unilateral
obligation to invite others, and to work together in
building a
better and a peaceful world: a world which is free from
oppression
and exploitation, where rights are a reality and where
justice
prevails over hypocrisy."
Dr. Shahid Athar, Millennium - An Islamic Perspective
(Millennium & Religions Conference, Chicago, Nov 20, 1995)
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