kinship and the rights of our neighbours, and to refrain from crimes and from bloodshed. So we worship God alone, setting naught beside Him, counting as forbidden what He has forbidden and as licit what He

against us, and have persecuted us to make us forsake our religion and revert from the worship of God to the worship of idols. That is why we have come to your country, having chosen you above all others;

was for them a life of enlightenment as opposed to a life of ignorance; it was a discovery of One God, and abandonment of idols. They had abandoned an unruly life for a life of divine guidance, revealed

Difficulties were to be faced with fortitude. No impulse was to cause one to deviate from the path of God. In order to survey the situation, the Prophet made a halt at Hudaybiyah, which is situated nine miles

Kharash ibn Umayyah on camelback to inform the Makkans that the Muslims had come to visit the House of God, not to do battle. On reaching Makkah, Kharash’s camel was slaughtered, and attempts were made to murder

for the Quraysh and defeat for the Muslims. The Prophet’s followers could not understand how, when God had given them tidings of a visit to 1 A minor pilgrimage which, unlike Hajj, need not be performed

wisdom. In Islam, fasting is worship. And worship is for God. But fasting is the kind of worship which at one and the same time is for the sake of God and for the sake of man. Thus, if fasting is observed

to the Prophet before dawn and he was eating Sehri. The Prophet observed: ‘Sehri is a blessing that God has bestowed on you. So do not leave it out.’” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 23142)

heart turns to God. When he gets water to drink and food to eat, and his feelings of thirst and hunger are satisfied, he is overwhelmed with feelings of thanksgiving and praise for God. Fasting produces

what lead man to the state of the heart which enable him to experience the feeling of nearness to God. It is only then that those words come to one’s lips as are held worthy of divine acceptance. Patience

the Islamic revolution of the Prophet’s time. Through the revolution brought about by the Prophet, God brought certain factors into play. A process of historic change, finally culminating in the scientific

establishing the dominance of monotheistic thought over polytheism at the onset of the Islamic era, God also created factors, which would in later times enable monotheism to triumph once more, this time

the awe in which worldly phenomena had been held collapsed. People realized that all things besides God were objects of His creation. There was no cause to consider worldly phenomena as sacred: their natures

prevalence of the war culture in previous centuries. This state of affairs was against the creation plan of God. According to the creation plan, it was required that every man and woman should have a free environment

environment in which to develop his or her personality. But over time this scheme was vitiated. Then, God endeavoured to manage history while maintaining human freedom. This required very intricate planning

de-monopolize all the resources of life so that every man and woman might have freedom of choice. Therefore, God initiated a process of management of history. Our modern civilization is the culmination of this long

the Islamic revolution of the Prophet’s time. Through the revolution brought about by the Prophet, God brought certain factors into play. A process of historic change, finally culminating in the scientific

establishing the dominance of monotheistic thought over polytheism at the onset of the Islamic era, God also created factors, which would in later times enable monotheism to triumph once more, this time

the awe in which worldly phenomena had been held collapsed. People realized that all things besides God were objects of His creation. There was no cause to consider worldly phenomena as sacred: their natures

requiring patience, and not to hesitate in facing the Ka‘bah: “O believers, seek assistance in prayer. God is with those who are patient” (2:153). As history tells us, this state of affairs continued for six