Introduction to the Quran

Introduction to the Qur’ ā n 17 death to you and raise you to Myself and cleanse you from those who have denied; I will make those who follow you superior to those who reject faith till the Day of Resurrection.” (3:55) In the light of this theme of the Qur’ ā n, there is a very important premise that must be understood. It relates to the established practice of the Almighty that only He has the authority to punish people for intentionally denying the truth. In the prophetic era, this denial manifested in the crimes of pol ythe ism ( shirk ), disbelief ( kufr ) and apostasy ( irtid ā d ). Th e Almighty punished the perpetrators of these cri mes through His messengers or natural disasters in t he pro phetic era. However, in the post-prophetic era, neither an individual nor a state has the right to punish people for these crimes. This is solely God’s prerogative. He will once again exercise this prerogative on the Day of Judgement. Of paramount importance in this regard is to differentiate between the Jews and Christians of the prophetic era and the post- prophetic era. Whilst the Jews and Christians of the prophetic era were meted out punishment for their crimes, the Jews and Christians of the post-prophetic era cannot be treated in this way because, as just stated, this punishment relates to God’s established practice that is solely related to the prophetic era. The second premise that must be understood in the light of this theme is that since in the prophetic era the Almighty had to accomplish His established practice of punishing those who intentionally denied the truth, certain phenomena are mentioned in the Qur’ ā n (as well as earlier divine scriptures) that no longer happen in the www.javedahmadghamidi.com www.al-mawrid.org "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."