Page 126 - Demo

It is mala fides and ill will to accuse prophets of122sensuality, rudeness, ignorance in sciences, and of other personal frailties. They were men like us and subject to the same natural inclinations and passions. They were protected only from mortal sins and from the perversion of the message, they had to hand further. We must be extremely careful not to exalt the prophets of God too high in our imagination, lest God be displeased with us. They are all His creatures and servants; they accomplished their work and returned to Him.The moment we forget God and concentrate our love and admiration upon the person of any of the messengers of God, we are in danger of falling into the sin of polytheism.Having so far explained the nature and the signification of the prophet and the prophecy, I shall now endeavour to prove that no prophet could be genuine unless, as Jeremiah expressly says, he preaches and propagates the religion of Islam.In order to understand better the sense and the importance of the passage under our contemplation we should just cast a glance over the preceding verse where Jeremiah tells his antagonist Prophet Hananiah: “The prophets that have been before me and before thee from old (times) prophesied against many lands, and against great kingdoms, concerning war and evil and pestilence.” Then he proceeds:-“The prophet that prophesies concerning Islam as soon as the word of the prophet comes, that prophet is known to have been sent by the Lord in truth.”There can be raised no serious objection to the English wording of this passage excepting the clause “l shālōm” which I have translated as “concerning Islam.” The preposition “l” before “shālōm” signifies “concerning” or “about,” and places its subject in the objective case and not in the dative, as it would be if the predicate were a verb like “come,” “go,” or “give.”