Playing God

"All rights of this book are reserved for the publisher and the author. This copy is for reading purpose only. This copy cannot be uploaded on any website except those of the publisher and the author." Playing God: Misreading a Divine Practice 65 observable means, these messengers also elucidate and explain the truth to their respective peoples. As indicated earlier, this truth is that a person shall one day be held accountable before the Almighty on basis of his deeds and then be rewarded and punished accordingly. With the special help and assistance of the Almighty, these messen gers remove misconceptions that surround this truth, a nd vehem ently remind people that if they do not accept it they shall be doomed in this world and in the Hereafter. Messengers give glad tidings of success both in this worl d an d in the next to those who profess faith in them. P eople wh o deliberately deny the truth are punished in various degrees so that this whole process can substantiate the reward and punishment that is to take place on similar grounds in the Hereafter. As a consequence of this fundamental premise, what needs to be understood is that some directives of Islam are specific to this divine practice which relates to the age of the Prophet Muhammad (sws) and his Companions (rta) and cannot be extended to later periods. The reason for this, as pointed out many times before, is that as per the divine practice discussed in the previous sections, these directives relate to non-Muslims who intentionally deny the truth. After the termination of the institution of revelation, no one can know whether a non-Muslim is deliberately denying the truth or not. Only the Almighty knows this. In the age of messengers, He chose to reveal this judgement through His appointees, while after them He has not chosen to do so. Consequently, it is imperative that Muslims study the Qur’ ā n and the life of the Prophet (sws), which are www.javedahmadghamidi.com www.al-mawrid.org