be granted the success that befits Allah’s everlasting religion.

Some Muslim preachers have only lately awakened to this reality. Among them stands the eminent thinker Sayyid Qutb—may Allah have mercy on him. Under the heading “A Unique Qur’anic Generation,” he affirmed that this call once produced a generation unrivalled in all Islamic history—and indeed in all human history—but that such a generation has never appeared again. He then asked why, since the Qur’an that shaped that community is still with us, together with the Prophet’s hadith, his practical guidance, and his noble biography, exactly as they were with the first generation, the sole absence being the physical person of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He answered:

“If the mere presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were indispensable for the rise of the call and for its bearing fruit, Allah would not have made it a message for all people, nor the final revelation, nor would He have entrusted it with guiding mankind on this earth until the end of time.”

He then explored why the miracle has not been repeated, identifying several factors, foremost among them the change in the very nature of the source from which people now drink. He said:

“The first spring from which that generation drew was the Qur’an—nothing but the Qur’an. The Prophet’s words and guidance were simply an outflow of that spring. When ʿĀʾishah —may Allah be pleased with her—was asked about the character of the Messenger of Allah, she replied, ‘His character was the Qur’an.’¹

Thus, the Qur’an alone was the fountain they drank from, by which they were molded and under which they were trained. This was not because mankind in that day lacked civilization, culture, knowledge, literature, or scholarship—far from it! The Roman civilization existed with its culture, writings, and legal code, upon which Europe still lives, or at least upon its extension. The remnants of Greek civilization were also present, with its logic, philosophy, and art, which remain the wellspring of Western thought to this very day. Persian civilization likewise flourished, with its art, poetry, myths, beliefs, and systems of governance—and there were other distant civilizations as well…"