However, to make matters clearer, to give man more detailed knowledge of God, and to show him in a more specific way how to relate to Him, God has since the creation of mankind sent messages to men through persons chosen and inspired by Him. Such persons have been the real leaders of mankind. They are called Prophets or messengers of God.
How do we know this? How do we know who these persons are? How do we know that these persons are true and what they said is true and not invented by themselves or others? And since many people have claim and some still claim to be a prophets, how do we know a true prophet from an impostor or a charlatan? Even if we can establish that a prophet is true, how can we be sure that the message be brought is preserved exactly as he brought it and has not been changed or distorted in any way? At this stage, we need to take a dip into history.
It is a fact that there exist many books in the world which are sometimes described as ‘holy’. Various people derive their worldview from these writings or scriptures. There is the Vedas and the Bhagawat Gita among Hindus. There is a Avesta and its various parts among the Zoroastrians. There is the Bible and various versions of it used by Christians and partly by the Jews. There is the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki of the Shinto religion in Japan. There is the Qur’an. Closer to our own times are such writings as the Adi-Granth of the Sikhs or the Book of Mormon of the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the United States.
Some of these writings or scriptures are regarded as the message or the words of a Supreme Being, or at least inspired by this Being and transmitted by prophets or people chosen by God.
Criteria for a true scripture
We could try to use reason and logic to find out which of the existing messages or scriptures may be considered as being inspired by the true God. In doing so, we must remember the attributes of God are absolute, that He is and must be the One and Unique, all-Powerful, all-Knowing Creator or the universe.
For a scripture to be true and not false and for it to be God’s message or inspired by God, it must logically meet certain standards or criteria:
1. The scripture should not attribute to god anything which goes against His unique nature. It should not say, for example, that God was ever a man or that there existed other gods or goddesses with him, or that there is an evil being which has power equal to His.
2. It should not attribute to any created being anything which pertains only to God. It should not say for example that any person knows or can know everything or that any person has the power to do anything and everything.
3. It should completely deny to anyone or anything, apart from the Creator, the right to be worshipped and obeyed.
4. No part of the scripture should contradict another part.
5. The scripture should not attribute major sins or vices to the persons whim God chose for the task of conveyed was not worthy enough to be followed or that God was ignorant or stupid in choosing such a person.
6. The person claiming to have received the scripture should be a person of whom no evil or sin is known and who is completely honest and truthful. He must be a person who claim no rewards or benefits for himself from people.
Most scriptures do not meet these standards. They certain many statements and stories which speak of God, man and the universe often in quite fantastic terms. Here is not the place to go into the details of the scriptures we have mentioned and others too. However, it can be safely said that the Qur’an is the only scriptures existing which meets these standards. This will be shown as we go along.
Why do other scriptures not meet or fall short of these standards? How do we account for the fantastic statements and stories about god and hi creation in these ‘holy’ scriptures? Is it because they belong to an earlier, more primitive stage in man’s history when men might have been ingorant and searching about on his own for explanations about life and the universe?
The Qur’an itself mentions that from the beginning mankind has been given knowledge and guidance from God. It mentions that when God created the first man, Adam. He ‘taught Adam the names of all things’ (2: 31). It also states that the most Gracious God ‘created man and imparted unto him articulate thought and speech’ (55: 3-4).