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To every nation that has passed on, Allah sent
a messenger who summoned them to His
true path. Messengers are those who communicate the
existence and oneness of Allah, spread His religion,
and inform them about what Allah demands from them,
in other words, things that they should do and things
that they should abstain from. They also warn them
against the punishment of Hell and give them the glad
tidings of Paradise.
The lives and struggles of the messengers are abun-
dant in lessons for believers who think and are inclined
to learn from them. In the Qur’an, Allah describes in
detail the subjects they communicated to their peoples,
the methods they employed to persuade them and
many other aspects of the messengers themselves.
Believers should not differentiate between any of the
messengers and should take their virtuous manners
and behaviour as described in the Qur’an as their
model. They should follow their advice, and act on it
and hold in very high regard their warnings.
Allah narrates the stories of these distinguished ser-
vants of His in the Quran not merely as historical facts,
but also in order to encourage believers to reflect on,
and pay heed to these superior people so that they may
take them as their models.
As a matter of fact, Allah sets forth in the Qur’an the
facts which messengers have invited their people to
accept, and provides a detailed account of the excellent
character traits they possessçd.
That being so, the responsibility of believers is to give
careful consideration to the life stories of messengers
related in the Qur’an, and make their best effbrts to fol-
low the path they indicate, and comply with their admo-
nitions and warnings. The purpose of these stories
therefore is to assist such efforts on the part of believ-
ers.
T P