The Islamic nation is a nation with a special property and a distinguished manner.
It is not a group of people gathered by the necessities, hardships and fruits of life.
It was given its name by the father of Prophets Ibraheem and accepted by Allah almighty and delivered by Gabriel�
It is the cult of your father Abraham. It is He who has named you Muslims, both before and in this (Revelation). [22:78]

It worth mentioning that when Ibraheem chose that name he didn�t just invent it rather he wanted to prove with it an ancient truth, and that is the nature that Allah placed in people and were asked for by the Prophets before him�

Yes, Ibraheem had Noah�s reply to his people in mind when they refused to believe in him so he said:
But if ye turn back, (consider): no reward have I asked of you: my reward is only due from Allah and I have been commanded to be of those who submit to Allah's Will (in Islam). [10:72]

It is as if Ibraheem�s admiration to Noah�s insistence on the truth and all that it holds is the reason for him wanting to call his nation Muslimeen (Muslims) in order to preserve in the future what Noah assured in the past.

With that this nation would be the heir of all the Prophets and a representative of their teachings.

In the ancient times and forever the nature of relationship between the world and its Creator wold never change.

In the ancient times and in the modern ones this relation between people and their Lord had never be replaced.
It is Islam�it is this slogan and what it holds from sincerity and surrender:

The religion before Allah is Islam (submission to His Will)... [3:19]

And we often assured in what we written before that this new title is also an old one.

Muslims are therefore asked to do two matters:
* To inform others of the facts.
* To protect these facts from distortion and manipulation.

The garment Prophets tailored for Humanity is still the same one and hasn�t change during the times. All what happened is that it might get dirty and need to be cleaned or it might get worn out and needs to be fixed�

Time also had its role in abusing the principles and diverting them to different directions� Prior to Mohammad pbuh came a lot of Prophets who fought a lot to keep the right clean and it�s path straight.

However, faking found its way to the truth and its path so there some people were found who would change disbelief to faith and sins to good deeds.
Others went hard on themselves and tried to get closer to God by torturing themselves and souls and by depriving them from the right for a kind life.

How cannot people- in those situations- be not in need for a man:
For he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); he releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. [7:157]

That means a Man who would unveil the markings of the road after they had been buried under oblivion for a long time.
We as Muslims have never grieved and will never because the Jews had followed Moses or because the Christians had followed Jesus. If we had such a feeling for just one time then it would be as if we have betrayed Allah and his Messenger.

We would truly be sorry if a lot of Christians and Jews abandon the message of Allah carried to them by Moses or Jesus and refused to mend themselves and the rest of the world.

It was natural after they have neglected their duties, Allah wouldn�t leave Earth in chaos under the custody of people who refuse to go along with Allah�s guidance brought to them.

So Islam was brought down along with its nation to stay through the days and nights and then was the badge that distinguished this nation from other nation and without which it doesn�t deserve Allah�s honoring to it.
This badge is the duty of informing others of the facts of religion, maintaining Allah�s laws and prohibitions and keeping the Good something asked to, and Evil something called against.
This duty made this nation�s status among nations like the status of its Prophet from it. In the same way the prophet pbuh explained thoroughly the ways of the truth and then said, �Oh Allah I have informed them so be my witness on them.� So should his nation do to explain the truth and live for it and by it and to be famous in this earth with its title and topic.

The Muslim community is a group with a message and target and this is the meaning of Allah�s words:

Strive in His cause, as ye ought to strive, (with sincerity and under discipline). He has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on you in religion; it is the cult of your father Abraham. It is He Who has named you Muslims, both before and in this (Revelation); that the Messenger may be a witness for you, and ye be witnesses for mankind! So establish regular Prayer, give regular Charity, and hold fast to Allah! He is your Protector, the best to protect and the Best to help! [22:78]

This similar meaning was repeated before:

Thus have We made of you an Ummat (nation) justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations�[2:143]
And witnessing over nations is to maintain and preserve the duty of religion in addition to informing its creeds, worships, manners, and dealings to others.

Nations alienated from the messages of Prophet had risen in this life. In this era there are nations who declared war against Allah publicly while others relate to him from the outside but take Him as an enemy him deep within themselves.

As for the Islamic nation it is an honor for it to be related to Allah from the outside and within, and to revive all his rules even if others rejected them.
The Prophet pbuh in his turn explained the message of his nation in this world and its duty in relaying the truth and defending it and the secret behind choosing this nation for doing this duty after it had been neglected by other nations.

Abi Musa Al-Ash�aari narrated that the prophet pbuh said, � An example of Muslims, Jews and Christians is like a man who hired some people to do him a job until the night for a known amount of money. They worked until mid of day then they said we don�t need your money and all what we have done is unaccepted. He said don�t do that, Finish your work and take your pay but they refused and went away.
Then after that he hired another group of people and they worked until the afternoon then they told him take your money we don�t need your pay and all that we have don�t is in oblivion.
He said don�t do that, continue your work and take your pay but they refused to comply. Then he hired a third group to work to the rest of the day and they did until the sunset so they took the pay of the previous groups. This is an example of what they accepted of this light. (Bukhari)

Pay attention to final statement �What they accepted of this light�. It explains the whole situation.
The Jews were given their book to work by it and to judge according to it:

It was We who revealed the Law (to Moses): therein was guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews, by the Prophets who bowed (as in Islam) to Allah's Will, by the Rabbis and the Doctors of Law: for to them was entrusted the protection of Allah's Book, and they were witnesses thereto: therefore fear not men, but fear Me, and sell not My Signs for a miserable price. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) Unbelievers. [5:44]

Christians were given their book also to work by it and to gather with those before them on it:

And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah. [5:46]

But this light vanished the moment it reached their hands because they weren�t loyal to their vows or straightened with their messages.

Nations deny their messages when it leaves its desires defeat guidance and falsehood to over come the truth so they keep their books with them but completely abandoned and left in the same way the united nations charters were delicately designed but deliberately rejected.

This ignoring might reach the point where the texts themselves be diverted and changed. When this happen the great catastrophe occur because this means the breaking of the lights and the end of its brightness and the prevalence of darkness instead.

It would be impossible for the world to gain from such a situation something more than chaos and evil. So in reality the religion of Moses had gone and replaced by another religion.

Does Zionism have any relation to Prophet hoods?
The same happened to Jesus� religion.

These leftovers named religion have no relation to Allah�s revelation and no room for happiness of humanity with them.

Their holders are considered to have abandoned their early work and turned their backs once and forever to the revaluation from heaven.
Since the spread and diversion of this twisted way occurred the need of the world for a new message with which its people could continue guiding people and leading them by the name of Allah to complete what others have refused to complete.
As a result came this Islamic nation. The truth it carried will accompany time until the end of life, preserved without errors and in it will remain preserved facts of faith, and laws of kindness as drawn by the supreme court without change.

Even if there found some people who refuse to work with Allah, work against what He ordered, or were incompetent in doing what they were asked to, people of the Quran will not fall in such mistakes. When some of these mistakes occur then war against it would never cool down.
Satan would never be able to cast away Truth and destroy its marks like what happened in the old days.

Ibn Omar narrated a Hadeeth that explains the role of this immortal message. Ibn Omar said that the prophet pbuh said, �Your presence in this life in comparison with the nations before you is like the time between the Aser (Afternoon) prayer and the Sunset prayer. People of the Tourat were given the Tourat and they worked by it until mid of day then they were unable to continue so they were given an amount of good rewards for that. Then came people of the Bible and they worked by it until the Aser prayer time so they were given an amount of good rewards for that. Then we were given the Quran and we worked by it until Sunset so we were give twice as much of good rewards.

The people of the two Books asked:
Oh Lord, you gave these people twice as much of what you gave us though we worked more than they did?
Allah replied have I treated you unjustly regarding the rewards I gave you? They answered No!
Allah almighty said: Then this grace from me to whomever I choose. (Bukhari)

Is this grace from Allah a kind of nepotism? Absolutely not and it is foolish to think that Allah would give favoritism to any nation.
It is a grace of providing the work for whoever is capable of doing it but if the work hadn�t been done then no grace or good will be given to those assigned to it.
Another thing is that no one nation has the right to relate itself to Allah just by claiming so! * A nation that bows to Allah would never submit to any but Him!
* A nation that directs to Allah the Absolute would never ask whether in hardships or in good days any but Him!
* A nation that submits to Allah would never rule except by His laws and would never live except according to His commands.
* A nation that fills its inside with piety, its outside with Justice and would limit its desires and needs with the facts of the hereafter�is the nation that can truly relate to Allah.

If a certain nation succeeds in making this earth a paradise with palaces that rivers run under but still its people have no respect to their Lord, not prepared for meeting Him, don�t glorify with His praise or submit to his Glory, then this nation would not have a value of a nail tip nor it would deserve any atom of respect.

A lot of nations related themselves to Allah but without seeking Virtuousness in this life, withhold from its inferiority and without paving the way of this life with modesty, goodness, or reform.
So what happened to them?

Allah denied this relation and placed on those who claimed it what they deserve from punishment and replaced them with other kind of people:
Both) the Jews and the Christians say: "We are sons of Allah, and His beloved." Say: "Why then doth He punish you for your sins? Nay, ye are but men, of the men He hath created: He forgives whom He pleases, and He punishes whom He pleases: and to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between: and unto Him is the final goal (of all). [5:18]

The Islamic nation itself would not escape this rule because Allah has abandoned those who were before them when they walked away from Him.
This is why that this nation�s dignity is attached to its message.
And it will remain in the eye of Allah as long as it keeps loyal to Him, glorifying His name, and seeking to please Him in all what it does or leaves.
The Holy Quran has pointed out the reasons of this nation�s survival.
The preservation of the Holy Quran and the immortality of the Divine revelation in its pages without change and the soundness of its explanations and interpretations in the Prophet�s Sunna (way of life) and the alertness of the scholars in studying and safeguarding it.
This is from the theoretical point of view.

From the practical point of view the elements of mixing life with the right and judging it according to that has never ceased from this nation through the times.

Superstitions might become public, sins spread through and unfairness occur. This is the nature of life but the resistance of the people of faith would follow all that.
They might either conquer it or contain its evil.
Defeat might hit them in a certain country to be followed by a victory in another.
They might retreat in a certain age to prosper in another.

Anyhow, Truth remains steadfast in the book, struggling in the lives of those fighting for its sake clear and bright.

In the Hadeeth, � A group of my nation will be with the right until the order of Allah comes while they are prevailing.� (Muslim)
This prevalence with the right would not be by eloquent speeches or valued books, rather it would be in the common situations and apparent actions.

It is in molding the group on the knowledge of the orders of Allah and disciplining its private and public matters according to His limitations.
Islam is not meant to function as a title of a reckless or mutinous nation or a nation who would go in life as it goes and moves without direction in its paths.
Islam is a group of facts established in the corners of souls as well as in the society. They remind us of Allah day and night, assure on following Him, honoring, and being loyal to Him.

* * *