The Responsibility of
the Ummah
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
O Muhammad say: What counts most in testimony? Say God be witness between me and you. This Qur'an has been revealed to me so that I may thereby warn you and all whom it may reach. Will you really witness that there are other gods besides Allah? Say: I will testify to no such thing! Say: He is but one God. I deny the gods you serve besides Him.
(Quran 6:18-19) The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (SAW) was sent as a Warner to the world (Quran 25:1). Through his own personal efforts, the Prophet of Islam conveyed the message of the Quran directly to the people of his time. But the question then arises: since the Prophet of Islam lived in this world for only sixty-three years, how was his prophetic message supposed to reach the people after his death? Through what instrument or agency is this message of the Quran supposed to reach people after the Prophet Muhammad's departure from this world? This instrument is the Ummah of the Prophet Muhammad. After the Prophet, it is his Ummah as his representatives that will continue the duty of spreading the message of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad's adherents will continue to spread the message of the Quran to their fellow men throughout the ages to come until the very Day of Judgment.The Quran is a warning from God. It was not sent down as any ordinary book to remain on a bookshelf. In fact, it is an essential duty that the message of the Quran be spread continuously to people in every generation. If the Prophet had not performed this duty to people of his own time, his very Prophethood would have been considered doubtful in the eyes of God Himself! (Quran5: 67) For this reason, the Prophet was so completely and utterly obsessed with delivering the message of God to the people that God Himself had to say, "Perhaps you would kill yourself in the grief that people do not believe in this revelation (Quran 18:6). Now his Ummah has the very same responsibility in this matter the Prophet Muhammad used to have. The Ummah has to become that agency, that instrument, by means of which the message of the Quran reaches all of humanity. In this regard, the Ummah, and especially the scholars of the Ummah, have to strive to the utmost to prove that they are completely and absolutely intent on conveying the divine message to the people for their guidance. They must engross themselves in this task to such an extent that it begins to seem that maybe they too will kill themselves as a result of such extreme effort.
According
to one hadith recorded in Musnad Ahmad, the Prophet Muhammad said that this
Ummah is superior to all other Ummahs. This superiority of the Ummah of the
Prophet Muhammad is not due to some mysterious factor nor is it a matter of
hereditary right. The only reason is that after the final prophet, this Ummah
has to fulfill that grave responsibility which used to be that only of the
prophets themselves. According to a hadith its realization was so heavy that it
prematurely aged the Prophet. Since this great obligation devolves upon the
Ummah of the last Prophet, the status of this ummah is thus raised; the greater
the responsibility, the greater the reward. This responsibility of d'awah that
has been given to the Muslim Ummah is not an optional exercise that one can
choose to fulfill or abandon on some pretext. Just as the Prophet had no valid
excuse for inaction in this matter, neither does his Ummah-to the point that
even all other religious deeds put together will not suffice for the salvation
of the Ummah if the duty of d'awah is left unfulfilled. Thousands of people die
every day without accepting the truth-for the simple reason that no one has ever
presented it to them. They are thus deprived of the opportunity to ensure the
success of their lives in the hereafter. Therefore
the essential responsibility of the Muslim Ummah is to stop shirking their
duties and rise whole heartedly to join this d'awah movement.