Al-Baqarah 2:124

The Children of Israel were selected by God to perform a very special task: they were to call other nations to turn to God, impressing on them the fact that they were answerable to their Lord for their actions. God sent innumerable prophets from amongst them to help and guide them in the performance of this task—Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Zachariah, John the Baptist and Jesus, to name just a few. Over the centuries, however, the community of the Children of Israel began to degenerate. They took their privileged position, which was in fact due solely to the lofty task that had been entrusted to them, to be an indication of ethnic superiority. They thus lost their right to be representatives of divine religion on earth. The coming of the Arab prophet signified the replacement of the Children of Israel by the Children of Ishmael as God’s chosen people: it was they who were chosen to carry on the task of communicating God’s word to other nations of the world. Those among the Children of Israel who were truly pious and God-fearing soon realized that the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad came to him from God. They recognized that the word he preached emanated from the same source that had inspired the prophets before him. Those who denied him were acting solely out of prejudice: they refused to accept that any other nation besides their own could have been selected to benefit by God’s favour. These people were warned, through the Arab prophet, that in the next world value would be attached solely to true faith borne out by earnest actions. In this world one person is able to bear the burden of another; sometimes intercession is accepted; sometimes one can free oneself by giving compensation; sometimes a helper is at hand to see one through a difficult situation. In the next world, however, none of these mitigating factors will be allowed to come into play. There, God’s justice will apply to one and all equally, for no ethnic group holds a monopoly over the next world. Take the example of Abraham, patriarch of both the Arabs and the Jews. He was granted leadership of mankind only after he had undergone very severe tests, and had shown himself to be faithful and true to God under all circumstances. What God had demanded of Abraham was the most difficult sacrifice—his son’s life—and when God finally intervened before Abraham could actually sacrifice his own son, it was because Abraham had demonstrated his perfect willingness to make any sacrifice demanded of him by God, no matter how great or how terrible it might have been. The rule that applied to Abraham applies to every generation: only those who prove themselves worthy will be granted a share in God’s covenant; those who do not will meet the same fate as any other offenders in God’s sight, regardless of the nation to which they belong. One who is willing to make soul-searing sacrifices for God’s cause shows his utmost dedication to it: it is only just and natural, then, that he should become the leader of his people.