Shaheed Muttahari highlights the importance of knowledge and intellect in understanding God and the world. He emphasizes that everything in the world is a manifestation of God, and that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was sent to guide humanity in understanding God’s existence, attributes, and teachings.

Shaheed Muttahari holds that everything in this world is a manifestation of God and leads us to God if we study it and comprehend it. Every object that exists is a sign of God and its study ultimately leads to God. Prior to the advent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), people were ignorant and did not possess the comprehension of God and both material and abstract objects of the world.

People wanted both comprehension of God and the world. So they worshipped idols and considered them as their gods. God precedes everything and his comprehension is indispensable to the comprehension of everything else because everything issues forth from Him and returns to him. Everything is of him and for him. His greatest creation, man, is also for his worship. He wants him to be always His. The deviation eliminates the highest designation of being a cognitive creation.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) interpreted God and introduced Him to the people. He commented on the attributes of God and prepared the minds of people to broaden their perspectives and interpret the world as a manifestation of God. It is debatable whether people would have understood God, had Prophet Mohammad not been there. It is he who knew Him and enlightened others to understand Him. He read the word of God, the Quran, to the people and unravelled its enigmas of wisdom and knowledge. He was divinely taught and prepared for his mission. He had infinite knowledge of things and best interpreted every ordinance of God. It is controversial whether God needed a prophet to get known. The answer is perhaps negative but it is also true that had the Prophet not been there, common people would not have understood God because people lacked knowledge and Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) taught them to understand God. Without knowledge, the comprehension of God is impossible. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was enlightened and he enlightened others to understand the schema of the world.

It is also debatable whether people understood God the way Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had understood because he was divinely taught. Things were revealed to him. He was infinite in knowledge and wisdom. People believed in the existence of God because Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) proved it through his arguments, worship and knowledge. I don’t mean the existence of God depends on the existence of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) but the existence of God without any mind knowing it, without any tongue interpreting him, without anyone worshipping him and without anyone understanding him is not so effective. God would not have created us and the world if his omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience had been enough.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) helped us to understand God similarly as our eyes can’t perceive anything unless they are supported by light. It is light that enables our eyes to see any object. Similarly, humans could not have understood God without the aid of Prophet Muhammad. He is infinite and cannot be captured with our finite minds.

Shaheed Muttahari says that faith can’t be attained without knowledge. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) taught people and made them knowledgeable to develop faith and understand the mysterious concepts of the universe. It is the knowledge that unfolds the convoluted secrets of this world and the primary assignment of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was to be a teacher to his people. The Quran defines the arrival of Prophet Mohammad as a teacher for the people. He was divinely taught and he transferred this divine teaching to his people.

He was born in the era of ignorance with a mission to enlighten people and revive their intellect. He emphasized intellect and challenged the shameful rituals of people like burying their daughters alive and drinking dirty water. He cleansed them of their insularity and brought them into the light to start new lives with different mindsets and different perspectives. Emotions and sentiments were curbed to a limit and intellect was stressed to play the central part in every trivial to significant affair of life. He is a Prophet of intellect and wants his adherents to listen to their intellect and act as per its beck and call.

By Fida Hussain Bhat

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Fida Hussain Bhat