Israr Ahmad - The objective and goal of Muhammads Prophethood (saw)

Keeping aside philosophical controversies and theological intricacies, the quintessential claim of belief in Allah is as follows. The entire realm of being and the whole cosmic complex is neither eternal nor ever-lasting; rather, it is both contingent and perishable. In itself, it has no warrant for its own existence and it cannot explain itself. However, there is one such Being as has neither beginning in time nor an end Allah, the proper name for God. It makes no difference whether one calls Him Allah or Al-Rahman (The Most Beneficent). He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and of man, and, particularly, the giver of guidance for man and the Supreme Judge of his conduct. God's existence can be brought home to those who care to reflect, so that it not only ceases to be an 'irrational' or 'unreasonable' belief but also becomes for them the Master-Truth. He is all-enveloping, literally boundless, and He alone is absolute, eternal, and infinite. Everything else carries in the very texture of its being the hallmark of its finitude and creatureliness. He is the personification of all good attributes, like Power, Majesty, Mercy, Munificence, Knowledge, etc., in the utmost degree. In the very nature of the case, there can be only one God, for whenever one tries to conceive of more than one, only one will be found to emerge as the First. The Holy Qur'an declares:

Do not take two gods (for) He is only One . [TMQ Al-Nahl 16:51]

God bears witness that there is no god but He. [TMQ Aal-i-Imran 3:18]

Say (O Muhammad) if there were other gods beside Him, as these people assert, they would all (necessarily) seek their way to the (one) Lord of the Throne. [TMQ Al-Isra 17:42]

Nobody from amongst the creatures shares His substantial essence, attributes, rights, authority and privileges. God cannot be regarded as an existent among other existents. In the metaphysical realm, there can be no democratic and equal sharing of being between the Original, the Creator, the Self-Sufficient and Necessary on the one hand and the borrowed, the created, the contingent on the 0other. The Qur'anic condemnation of Shirk (assigning partners to God) has its roots firmly in the metaphysical realm and then issues forth its corollaries in the political and moral fields.

The whole Sura al-Ikhlas, like many other verses of the Holy Qur'an, most categorically emphasizes the oneness and absoluteness of God Almighty:

Say:He is one God: God the eternal, the Uncaused (Absolute) Cause of all being. He begets not, and neither is He begotten; and there is nothing that could be compared with Him . [TMQ Al-Ikhlas 112:1-4]

And say: All praise is to God, who begets no offspring, and has no partner in his dominion, and has no weakness, and therefore no need of any aid,and (thus) extol His limitless greatness. [TMQ Al-Isra 17:111]

He allots to no one a share in His dominion and rule . [TMQ Al-Kahf 18:26]

Almighty Allah (swt) has created the universe with a purpose and for a definite period of time. The creation of the universe is a serious affair, not a sport or triviality:

And We have not created the heavens and the earth and what is therein purposelessly that is the opinion of those who reject (God) or are ungrateful . [TMQ Al- Saad 38:27]

The non-ultimacy of nature itself proves its destructibility and the Qur'an tells us that God in His wisdom has created the myriad forms of existence for a finite duration of time, known only to Him. At the pinnacle of God's multi-layered creations appears man whom He endowed with a dual nature: Allah (swt) created his animal form and then breathed into him out of His own Spirit, and made him His vicegerent on earth. In other words, the Holy Qur'an presents a theomorphic conception of man: he is homo cum Deo . The creation of man represents the acme of Divine creative process, as, according to an authentic tradition of Prophet Muhammad (saw), God has created man in His own image. The following verses of the Holy Qur'an refers to both aspects of the creation of man: