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Introduction
This is the second in the series of three articles based upon the book by Dr. Israr Ahmad (late) ; "Lessons from history - Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Two Muslim Communities." According to the Qur'an, here has been only one true religion throughout human history i.e. Islam (surrender and obedience to God), all other systems of belief and worship as they exist today are nothing but corrupted and distorted versions of the originally pure and natural teachings of various Messengers of God. For the committed and convinced Muslim, neither the flow of history itself nor the study and interpretation of it can be considered apart from the realm of the sacred and the workings of the Divine. God as the Creator is also the Maker of history; He controls every moment in time, every historical event. History is the arena in which His Will is made manifest, His Dominion is expressed, and His commitment to the fulfillment of its Divinely ordained rules is evidenced. And yet, in the Islamic understanding, it is not God alone who is responsible for the historical process. Every individual shares in the responsibility insofar as he has assumed through his heritage and according to the verification of the Qur'an a part of the God-given legacy to be a vicegerent, to represent the Divine Will on earth. That role which the Jews and Christians relinquished by veering away from the true obedience of the one God (and non adherence to His commandments, and law) is assumed by Muslims as their full and final responsibility. Islam thus bears the obligation to make known to the world the reality of the historical revelation of the Qur'an, that which provides for the proper understanding of God's continuing action in history.
In the previous article the linkage between Islam and the previous revealed religions, Judaism and Christianity was established. They deviated from the right path by abandoning the true teachings of prophets and corruption of scriptures. The ultimate outcome of this line of thought is the eventual religious disassociation of the prophets of these two communities - particularly those of the Jews - from their followers. The entire line of Biblical personages is then claimed for Islam.
Histories of the...