The Prophets of God who came and the Last of the
Prophets, Muhammad, peace be upon them all, were able to mobilize a
potentiality in man that no branch of learning, neither philosophy nor
psychology, could ever have done or can ever do. In fact these branches
of learning have not been able to comprehend the full extent of human
potential. But the Prophets did not merely mobilized it to a certain end
- the good of the individual and the good of mankind as a whole. They instilled in man the will to seek God’s pleasure, to seek closeness with
the Divine. They inspired him to love and obey God, and to love and
serve God’s creatures; to strive for their happiness and well-being even
at the cost of one’s own. They created in man the urge to bring his
self to account in great depth and with meticulous detail. Their
teachings discovered in man the potential for selfless love, for
graciousness and delicacy of feeling, for compassion… They instilled in
him the greatest ideals - purity of soul, nobility of conduct, freedom
from worldly success, and a sense of attainable sustainability… the
Prophets implanted in him a longing for God; their gifts to man were
faith and knowledge of God…
- Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, Muslims in the West
