So praise be to Allah, who sent us a Messenger from among ourselves, reciting Allah’s verses to us, purifying us, and teaching us the Book and wisdom, although before that we were clearly astray. The people of Paradise said:

“Praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this. We would never have been guided had Allah not guided us. The Messengers of our Lord certainly came with the truth.”

The whole world is accursed, and everything in it is accursed, except that upon which the sun of the divine message has shone and which is built upon that message. The inhabitants of the earth can endure only as long as traces of the Messengers remain among them. When those traces have faded from the earth and been completely effaced, Allah will destroy the upper and lower worlds and bring about the Resurrection.

The need of the earth’s inhabitants for the Messenger is not like their need for the sun and moon, the winds and rain; nor is it like a person’s need for life, the eye’s need for its light, or the body’s need for food and drink. Rather, it is greater and more pressing than any need one could conceive or imagine. The Messengers are intermediaries between Allah and His creation in conveying His commands and prohibitions; they are His envoys to His servants.

Their seal and leader, and the most honoured of them before his Lord, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say:

“O people, I am but a mercy bestowed as a gift.”

Allah Most High said:

“We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds.”

And he, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, said:

“Allah looked upon the inhabitants of the earth and detested them, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, except for some remnants of the People of the Book.”

This detestation was because they had not been guided by the Messengers.