Why Does Humanity Need Divine Revelation?
Allah,
the Exalted, says, {Indeed, We have sent revelation
to you ˹O Prophet˺ as We
sent revelation to Noah and the prophets after him. We also sent revelation to
Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and his descendants, ˹as well as˺ Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon.
And to David We gave the Psalms. There are messengers whose stories We have
told you already and others We have not. And to Moses Allah spoke directly. ˹All were˺ messengers delivering good news and
warnings so humanity should have no excuse before Allah after ˹the coming of˺ the messengers. And Allah is Almighty,
All-Wise.} [An-Nisa’ 4:163–165]
One Divine Message Throughout Human History
This
Quranic passage speaks of a single procession of prophets extending throughout
human history, carrying one message and one guidance, through which people are
warned and given glad tidings.
It is a
single procession bringing together this select group of human beings: Noah,
Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the Tribes, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, Solomon,
David, Moses, and others whom Allah recounted to His Prophet, peace and
blessings be upon him, in the Noble Quran, as well as those He did not mention
to him.
It is a
procession drawn from different peoples and races, different regions and lands,
and different periods and generations. Neither lineage, race, land, homeland,
time, nor environment divides them. They all come from that noble source, all carry
the same guiding light, and all fulfill the mission of warning and bringing
glad tidings. Each strives to lead the caravan of humanity toward that light,
whether sent to a particular people, a city, or a region, or sent to all
humankind, as was the case with Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and
blessings be upon him, the Seal of the Prophets.
All of
them received revelation from Allah and brought nothing of their own invention.
It was Allah’s justice and mercy that He sent these messengers to His servants, including those whose stories He
recounted to His Messenger and those He did not mention. They brought glad
tidings of the bliss and pleasure Allah has prepared for the believers who obey
Him, and warned of the Hellfire and wrath He has prepared for the disbelievers
and those who disobey Him.
All of
this was intended: {So humanity should have no
excuse before Allah after ˹the coming of˺ the messengers.} [An-Nisa’ 4:165]
(The
Prophet of Allah Job, Dr. Ali As-Sallabi, p. 44)
Divine Mercy and the Need for Prophetic
Guidance
Allah
possesses the ultimate and conclusive proof in the human soul and throughout
the universe. Yet, out of His mercy toward His servants, and in recognition of
how powerful desires can overwhelm the great faculty He has granted them—the
faculty of reason—His mercy and wisdom required that He send messengers to them
as bearers of good news and warners. They remind people, enlighten them, and
strive to rescue their innate nature and liberate their minds from the
accumulated weight of desires, which may obscure the signs of guidance or
prevent people from recognizing the indications of faith within themselves and
throughout the universe.
{And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.} [An-Nisa’ 4:165] He is Almighty, fully capable of holding His servants accountable for what they have earned, and All-Wise, managing all affairs with wisdom and placing everything in its proper position.
Why Human Nature and Reason Alone Are Not
Enough
We should
pause to reflect on the greatness of divine justice, which
establishes that people could have a case against Allah, the Exalted, had He
not sent messengers to them as bearers of good news and warners.
This is
so even though the open book of the universe and the hidden book of the human
soul are filled with signs and evidence of the Creator, His Oneness, His
governance and decree, His power, and His knowledge. The innate human nature is
also filled with longings and inner promptings toward connecting with its
Creator and submitting to Him. There is harmony, responsiveness, and mutual
attraction between this innate nature and the signs of the Creator’s existence
in the universe and within the human soul. Added to all this is the gift of
reason, which is capable of examining the evidence and drawing conclusions.
However,
Allah, the Exalted, knows the factors of weakness that may affect all these
faculties, disabling them, corrupting them, obscuring their function, or
introducing error and deviation into their judgments.
Therefore,
Allah has not made the evidence of the universe, human nature, and reason alone
sufficient to establish accountability before sending messengers to people.
Rather, He sent them to rescue all these faculties from whatever might obscure
or corrupt them and to regulate them according to the standards of divine truth
embodied in the message.
In this
way, their judgments become sound when they conform to the principles of the
divine methodology. Otherwise, their claims lose their validity, and people
become deserving of punishment.
Why Human Intellect Cannot Replace Divine
Revelation
It is a
mistake and a form of misguidance—if not outright deception—to claim that great
intellects could have independently reached, without divine revelation, the
same conclusions they reached through it.
Reason
becomes properly regulated through revelation, which provides it with a sound
methodology of inquiry. Evidence of this is that what is achieved through
revelation, even by means of reason itself, cannot be achieved without
revelation. Human reason, therefore, cannot render it unnecessary. (In the
Shade of the Quran, Sayyid Qutb, vol. 2, pp. 805–806)
Human
history has never recorded a single instance of one of its rare, exceptional
intellects arriving independently at what ordinary and average minds have attained
through divine revelation. This applies to every field: matters of belief,
moral character, systems of life, and even a single piece of legislation
governing human society.
The
intellects of Plato and Aristotle were undoubtedly great. Indeed, some even
claim that Aristotle possessed the greatest intellect humanity has ever known.
Yet, when we examine his conception of God, as he described Him, we see the
enormous distance separating it from the understanding of God held by an
ordinary Muslim who has received the guidance of divine revelation.
(In
the Shade of the Quran, Sayyid Qutb, vol. 2, p. 811)
The Wisdom Behind Sending Messengers
Glory be
to Allah, who says in His Noble Book: {˹All were˺ messengers delivering good news and
warnings so humanity should have no excuse before Allah after ˹the coming of˺ the messengers. And Allah is Almighty,
All-Wise.} [An-Nisa’ 4:165]
We also
observe that this noble verse does not follow the chronological order of the
prophets in its presentation, as is evident in other passages. This is because
the purpose here is to present the procession of prophets as a whole, rather
than to arrange them according to historical sequence.
Among the
prophets and messengers mentioned in this great procession is Job, peace be
upon him. Thus, he is included among those who attained the rank of prophethood
and messengership, and among those to whom Allah sent His revelation.
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