INTIMATIONS OF PROPHETHOOD: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was forty when the first glimpses of light and of his future happiness appeared. The time of his mission approached. It had always been the Divine practice that whenever the darkness had become too intense and the wickedness widespread, a Messenger appeared. The Messenger of Allah’s distaste for what he saw reached a peak. It was as if he was being guided towards a certain

MAKKAH AND THE QURAYSH: After a long journey, Ibrahim (Alayhis salam) approached Makkah, which lies in a valley between desolate mountains. As there was no water, crops could not grow and human life could not be sustained there. Accompanied by his wife Hajar and his son Isma’il, Ibrahim was fleeing from the cult of idol-worship which had spread throughout the world. He wanted to establish a centre in which Allah alone would be worshipped and to which people could be

ANCIENT RELIGIONS: After the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) of Allah, Isa ibn Maryam, there was a long period without a Prophet. Light and knowledge disappeared. Christianity fell into disrepute and became a matter of sport for the corrupt and the hypocrites. From the very beginning, Christianity had been subjected to alterations by extremists and to interpretations by the ignorant. The simple teaching of the Messiah was buried beneath the transgressors’ evil behaviour. The Jews had become a society obsessed with