Need for a Guide
Man is always in search of Truth. The search itself proves that there is a Truth that man should know. Through the prophets, God makes people aware of the Truth.
When we feel hungry, we try to satisfy our hunger, and we know that there is something in the form of food that can satisfy our hunger. We feel thirsty, and we perform some action to quench our thirst. We know that something in the form of water can quench our thirst.
The same is true for Truth. An individual is always in search of Truth. The search itself proves that there is a Truth that one should know. Truth is much greater than eating and drinking. When the answers to our more minor requirements are present in this world, why will the answer to our most essential requirements be not present here, too?
The question about the Truth is about discovering the reality of one’s self. Suddenly, one day, you are born into this world. You did not take birth on your own. You now find yourself in a vast world that is separate from you. You live in this world for 70 or 90 years, then die. On your own, you have no idea where you go after death. The question of the Truth relates to finding the truth about these realities of life and death.
You cannot learn about the Truth in the same way as you learn how to obtain food to satisfy your hunger and water to quench your thirst. Truth is limitless and eternal. If Truth were not limitless and eternal, it would not be Truth. However, a human being’s reason and age are both limited. A limited mind cannot reach the eternal Truth. A person with a limited age cannot discover the Truth alone.
This inability to reach the Truth alone proves that we need prophets to know the Truth. What is prophethood? Prophethood means reaching the Truth to man, which an individual cannot reach on his own; the Truth that we cannot know through our efforts appears and tells us about itself.
Through the prophets, God makes people aware of the Truth. The prophets announced that a person should obey God, of his free will. Everything else in the world obeys God but out of compulsion. A human being should do so, but out of free choice. Based on the freedom to choose that God has given him, a person should choose to become choice-less and powerless in front of God. Despite the freedom that God has given him, he should willingly surrender to God. For those who do this, the reward is Heaven.
