ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Background of the Birth of Islam Where To We Begin? Concerning the fundamentals of religion, one can commence at two starting points: one of them is God, and the other the Prophet. Most people begin with the Prophet. In the case of Islam they begin with Muhammad (a.s.) as a man endowed with extraordinary powers and is in communication with a supernatural being. Thus they come to believe in him.

From here they deduce that the force that Muhammad (a.s.) represents is God, and thus most of them acquire faith. In the times of the Prophet himself a number of persons were seized with a belief about God Salman (Farsi) was one of those who reflected about God, and then followed up this research.

They realised that the teachings about God that prevailed around them were nothing but a set of illusions and superstitions When such individuals heard that a prophet had risen in Mecca who talked about God, they went there and saw that indeed he possessed both the merit to be God's representative as judged by his words, and also manifested the signs which proved that he was truly the Prophet of God.

In this case their faith in God existed prior to their faith in His prophet, and even prior to their contact with the Prophet. Then there were others who had no faith in God. They were materialists or naturalists, and did not believe in the existence of God at all. However their contact with the Prophet altogether transformed them, and through the Prophet they acquired faith in God Of course, later they turned directly to God, but the foundation of their faith was initially laid by the Prophet.

Thus the principle of faith in God as well as disbelief in Him both co-exist among the Prophet's contemporaries. Through a comparative study of recognition of God as it appears in various religions we can conclude that a certain religion conforms more appropriately with our intellect and reasoning yet it is not proof enough for believing such and such a person is a prophet. Likewise the prophethood of a prophet cannot be proved only through his sublime teachings pertaining to recognition of God.

Let us suppose that a priest comes along and through theological discourse delivers excellent instruction about God, would he then be a prophet, and would his teachings be adopted as the way of faith? Certain great philosophers who had no belief in religion, made noteworthy statements about God. Would you then regard them to be prophets?