International Centre for Applied Islamics

There is a popular principle of Physics known as Anthropic Principle. There was a time before Galilee when the scientists regarded the universe as earth-centric; for they considered earth as the central point of the universe. Then the scientists realised that the earth in fact revolves around the Sun and started theorising that the earth and therefore man has no privileged position in the universe; the earth forms only a minute insignificant part of it. With the arrival of the twentieth century the new realisation started gaining ground, which put mankind as the privileged creation in the universe. Anthropic principle says that man was created because there would not have been anyone to admire the beauty of the Universe if man was not there. Anthropic Principle has come closer to what has been the established position of Islam since the time of Prophet Muhammad. There is a significant difference though. As scientists have vowed to keep Allah out of the arena of Sciences, they have given an atheistic definition of Anthropic Principles known as Trivial, Strong and Weak Anthropic principles. Islam’s version of Anthropic Principle (I have named it True Anthropic Principle) is that man was created to admire the beauty of the Universe, to recognise its Creator and to submit to His System. Quran says:

Not without purpose did We created heaven and earth and all between! that were the thought of Unbelievers! (38: 27/Abdullah Yusuf Ali)

I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me. (51: 56)

Anthropic Principles regard man as the desired Product of the Creation; True Anthropic Principle would regard Prophet Muhammad the Final Product of the Creation and the Quran as the Final Document sent for the guidance of the product. Let me explain it further. Allah created the universe, and first of all made Physical laws for its governance. Each and every particle and each and every corner of the space that formed the universe submitted to the Physical Laws of Allah. It was simply not in their power to act otherwise. Having created the Physical universe, Allah intended to create a kind of existence that will not just submit to Allah because of the inability to act otherwise. This creation will have the capability if it chooses to even disregard the Laws of Allah. The submission as well as rejection by this new creation would of course carry more weight. Greater reward and punishment would await it, as it would willingly accept or reject the System of Allah rather than as part of its in-built nature. To bring this product, Allah first created biological laws and then spiritual ones. Once man was created and started multiplying, social laws were created and recreated in accordance with the demands of the developing world. Mankind as a whole was the best product of the creation, as it was capable of admiring the beauty of the universe, analysing its functioning and using its parts for its own benefit. But the Best of the best would be those who would recognise the biggest truth of the Universe—that it has been created and is governed by a Supreme Being—and would be His representatives in the world. The messengers came with the books of Guidance in their areas of influence ultimately paving the way for the arrival of the Final Product of Creation who will start the process of unification of the whole mankind under the Final System of Allah. Muhammad (PBUH) came and showed to the world the Way, confirming the truth that was revealed before him and inviting all to the Final version of the Truth. The unity of Allah was aimed at the unity of mankind, and if the mankind fails to unite in its submission to One System, the ultimate purpose of the unity will not be achieved. The duty to achieve this is man’s and if it fails it will be held responsible. Allah has however taken upon Him to help him fulfil this Duty by sending guidelines and models for the mankind. If Muhammad (PBUH) is the Final Product of the creation, he is truly the Rahmat-al-lil-aalameen, the Mercy for the Universe, for the universe would not have come into existence if it was not destined to create its best product.

I feel sorry for those who discuss the relevance of Muhammad (PBUH) in the current world. This in my view is a serious degradation of his status. When we speak of his relevance in the world, it means that we are taking the present world as the criterion to judge different personalities, and in the process we want to judge Muhammad too. The truth on the contrary is that Muhammad is the final Criterion and the only Role Model for the world. The world has to be judged in accordance with the Final Criteria, Muhammad (PBUH) and the Book he brought. Rather than studying the relevance of the Prophet in the current world, we must study the relevance of the current world in the light of Prophetic Seerah. And when we analyse the modern world in the light of the Seerah, we find it to be totally irrelevant. Its aims are other than his aims, its dos and don’ts are in clear violation of the dos and don’ts of his mission and its institutions are nothing but a travesty of the system of justice, purity and equality he perfected. The current world is unfortunately not the paradise the Lord of the Universe asked mankind to make but a Shangri-La of the Devil, which looks alluring to eyes from a distance but is nothing but a blazing inferno inside.

. Muhammad’s (PBUH) agenda, as shown by the Quran and his seerah, is to establish Natural Word Order. The agenda of the present world is to establish and sustain New World Order. The truth however is that New World Order is unstable by its very meaning; what is new now will become old tomorrow. The Order has only brought chaos at all levels. It has led to the development of a strange kind of world, which appears to be paradise from outside, but as one enters it, one finds nothing but hell. We are living in a world where, thanks to the designs of merchants, immorality reigns. Where it is easier to be bad than good. Where wearing a scarf is banned and baring the body is promoted. Where being a wife or husband is outdated and being a bed partner is smartness. Where piety is ridiculed and impudence glorified. Where prosperity is considered to be the synonym of peace, education that of knowledge and entertainment that of happiness. We are living in a world where children are aborted in the name of women’s rights. Where, murderers and rapists are protected in the name of ‘right to life’. Where, criminals are given all amenities of life in the name of human rights. Where, sexual perverts receive all kinds of sympathy and attention. Where those talking of righteousness in life are condemned as “bloody moralists”. Where, the media do everything to change the choices of the people, but if some reformer tries to warn them against evils, he is dubbed as a retrogressive, who has no business to teach lessons of good behaviour to the people. Alcohol, smoking, gambling and unrestrained-sex are considered to be the biggest symbols of liberty, brothels, beaches, bars and casinos the citadels of “freedom”. One third of the total population of the world smokes, millions of people take drugs, millions drink and gamble and a sizeable percentage indulges in all forms of unhealthy sexual behaviour, including promiscuity, homosexuality, purchased sex, etc. In short, we are inhabitants of a world where the biggest virtue is to openly indulge in the biggest sin; and the biggest sin is to try to exhibit virtuousness.

The globe of New World Order is therefore rapidly developing into nothing but a fireball of chaos. It is hardly surprising then that

· More than 1 million people are murdered every year. (More than 240 million people lost lives in wars in the last century)

· More than 2 million people commit suicides

· More than 5 million people die of sex related diseases (more than 20 million have died of AIDS in recent years); more than 100 million suffer from sex transmitted diseases (42 million from HIV/AIDS)

· More than 2.2 million die of alcohol related problems; more than a hundred million suffer from alcohol related illnesses

· More than 5 million die of smoking related problems; more than 2000 millions smoke

· More than 70 million children are not allowed to take birth and are aborted.

· Hundreds of millions indulge in gambling. 500 million are now using Internet alone for gambling. (In US alone, 20 millions show some signs of gambling addiction and 2 million divorces had gambling as a significant factor.)

· Tens of millions of women are in prostitution and other sex related businesses (more than one million Americans alone have served as prostitutes)

· More than 1.2 million of children are exploited annually in prostitution and other sex trades

· More than 800 million watch pornography

· Millions of homes are broken every year

· Millions of women are raped every year; in many Western countries one tenth to half of all women have been raped (The total number of women who have been raped at least once is in hundreds of millions)

· Sexual abuse of children is on the rise all over the world; in many Western countries up to one third of all people have been sexually abused in their childhood

· Drug addiction is also persistent; tens of millions of people are addicted of harmful drugs

· Civil wars, wars and riots for various reasons are also not showing any remarkable decline, consuming thousands of lives every year

· Economic disparity between different countries and people of the world and among the people of the same countries is continuously growing; poverty may be on the decline but relative poverty is showing steep rise.

It is in the backdrop of this universal disharmony that Islam, in its final form established by the Last Prophet, has to play its role. The whole social, legal, economic, administrative, scientific, health and educational set-up all over the world is founded on un-Islamic premises. Yet Muslims seem to be in a permanent somnolence. Everything that Quran expressly prohibits is destroying the social fabric everywhere. All international organisations including the UN, WHO, WTO and Amnesty have been dancing to the melody of globalisation trampling, in the process, individual’s physical, mental and spiritual health, family peace and social order. We have to fight New World Order and establish Natural World Order, in accordance with the principles laid down by the Book of God .and the life of the Prophet

The uniqueness of Muhammad’s (PBUH) mission was its totality, comprehensiveness and perfection; there is no way mankind can improve on it; if it tries to improve upon it, it would only distort and degrade it. What we can however do and must do is to study how best it can be applied to the modern world; and how best we can change the world in accordance with Islam the Prophetic Mission. Muhammad’s revolution was no ordinary revolution; it was an ideological, intellectual, social, economic, political, moral and spiritual revolution moulded into One Single System based on the unification of the mankind under the unified system of the Only Creator and Sustainer of the world. Seen from the worldly point of view, Muhammad was a genius unparalleled in the history of mankind, Viewed from the point of Divine view, he was no genius; for geniuses are only highly intelligent human beings capable of doing better than others. On the contrary, he was a chosen man, chosen not by the majority of the human beings but by the Creator of God; he was chosen because he was the final destination in the evolution of conscious beings. There are unfortunately some scholars who try to turn the “messenger into a “postman”. There cannot be a worse commentary on his mission than this. He was not a postman who just brought God’s messages to the mankind; he was the true Ambassador and envoy of God who guided individuals, then moulded them into a community, then led them to develop a system and then gave Islam the true global colours it was meant for. The earlier the inhabitants of the globe recognise him as the sole Role Model, the better it will be for them individually as well as collectively.