The Prophets Called People Wisely and with Kindness

 

Another attribute of the Prophets is calling people to the way of God with wisdom and fair exhortation.

The Prophets never resorted to demagogy and dialectics. They always acted wisely and always spoke with wisdom. God ordered His Last and Greatest Messenger:

Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the best way. (al-Nahl, 16:125)

Man is not a being that consists of a mind or heart only. He has a complex structure, composed of many faculties, including the mind, intellect, heart, soul and other innermost faculties. Each of these requires satisfaction, and the Prophets addressed all of them.

Those who were taught by the Prophets acquired certainty, and their view of things differed from those with limited external sight, devoid of insight and spiritual vision. Their conviction of religious truths was unshakeable, and they were continually fed with Divine Revelation. They did not merely speak without action nor act without contemplation. They combined speech with action, knowledge with practice and action with contemplation. Some among them, like ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, would say, ‘If the veil of the Unseen were lifted up, my certainty would not increase.’1 Their conviction was so strong that supposing they were to see with their eyes what they believed of the Unseen, their certainty would not increase. There was no further degree of certainty left for them to attain.

The education given by the Prophets to their disciples, or the function of the Prophets, is described in a precise way in the Qur’anic verse:

We have sent among you, of yourselves, a Messenger, to recite Our signs to you and to purify you, and to teach you the Book and Wisdom, and to teach you what you know not. (al-Baqara, 2.151)

 

1. ‘Ali al-Qari, al-Asrar al-Ma‘rufa, 286.

 

This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.