The position of the Prophet Muhammad was that of a dayee. On his behalf, the position of his Ummah too was, and still is that of a conveyor of God’s word. The Quran enjoins: “Say: ‘This is my path with sure knowledge. I call on you to have faith in God, I and all my followers.’” (12:108)

The Prophet Muhammad was not just a prophet; he was the Final Prophet. His responsibility extended, therefore, to the Final Day of Judgement. He had to communicate the message of monotheism to all the people coming into the world till Doomsday. But he could not go on living in this world forever. He had to leave the world at the end of the normal human life span. Now the question arose as to who should shoulder the responsibility of communicating the divine message. There was no doubt that this responsibility was to fall on the Muslim community. And with the Muslim community it still rests. In fact, the Muslim community has, on the Prophet’s behalf, to discharge this responsibility till Doomsday.

According to a hadith, the Prophet said: “Why do I need to hold your waist and save you from fire? Listen, my Lord will call me and He will surely ask me whether or not I communicated His message to His servants. I will say, ‘Yes, my Lord, I have communicated Your message.’ Listen, those who are present must communicate this message to those who are not present.”

According to this tradition, it is as if the Prophet Muhammad, is enjoining each member of the Muslim community to continue the dawah mission after him till Doomsday. That is to say, they were to enable him to say to his Lord that he had discharged his dawah responsibility by communicating his message to all the people till Doomsday; directly during his lifetime and indirectly afterwards.