As most of the non-prophets belonged to the Middle East and the climate of that area is normally warm, would Huzoor kindly advise us if spirituality has any connection with heat? I know puberty has some connection with this. Depending on age, puberty has certain connection with the warm climates, that I know. And also the warmth has spiritual connection as well, there is no doubt. But it does not mean that the prophets have always been sent and only been sent to the warm climates.
The non-prophets, as you said, perhaps by that you mean the prophets as mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. But the Holy Qur’an mentions that there are so many prophets we sent, in every region we sent prophets, and in every people we sent prophets, in every age we sent prophets. So according to those verses which generally speak of prophets without naming them, it is very clear that thousands of prophets must have come in other places in other ages. So these prophets, some of them are known to their people and some of them may have been forgotten by them themselves. And also some of them have been distorted in their concept, in their conception and they have been raised to the status of godhood.
So do not say that these were the only prophets or the majority of the prophets who appeared in the Middle East. When Allah speaks of all regions, in all ages, of all the people, Allah speaks of the entire world in which most of the regions are colder and fewer regions are warmer, because on the side of poles, it’s cooler and in the Mediterranean it is warmer. So all the Mediterranean does not, I mean in the, what’s it called, this central, equator, equatorial regions I meant. In the equatorial regions, the climate is warmer and the closer to it, but the equator fortunately for us, mostly passes over the sea, there is no population.
So if you compare the population of the people living around the equator with those living away from the equator, you would come to realize that most of the people live away from the equator and they belong to the cooler climates. The population of China, Russia, America, Europe and the southern hemisphere, the countries of the southern hemisphere is larger and of those parts of Asia which belong to the cooler climates is definitely larger than the warmer climates. So from that we can infer that prophets must have come in those regions and because the population here is greater than the warmer regions, then the number of prophets may have been more and greater. I mean they are just conjectures, but possibilities of course.
So that conclusion is not correct, that because the prophets who are known to have appeared in the Middle East are greater in number to you, in your knowledge, to the prophets whom you do not know, so the warmer climate must have to do something with prophethood. This is not correct. Prophethood is not a phenomena which has any relationship whatsoever with the warmth of a place or coldness of a place as such. But spirituality as such has some connection with the warm climate and Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has written on this. Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. in his commentary on Ramadan and the philosophy of fasting has written extensively on this connection between warmth, heat and the spiritual excitement. They have some relationship of course. Energy of course, because there is energy around, so within you are also activated.
But this is, I mean, not the proper way of expressing what Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. has said. You better read it. It’s a very intricate writing and very rich in philosophy and a very deep analytical study of the human situations in various climates. So you better study those portions in the words of Hazrat Masih Maud A.S. himself. Then you will find a connection between a spiritual state or religious state of a person living in warm climates. But again I must make a distinction and remember this. This does not mean that Allah is dependent on a warm climate to send a prophet.
The phenomena of prophethood does not depend upon the climate. In every climate, as necessity arises and that necessity equally arises in warm climates as well as in cold climates, so because that phenomena is connected with necessity, so it has no relationship with climate. I had to speak at length on this because I am thankful to you, you pointed it out.
Some people reading Hazrat Masih Maud A.S.’s writings on this relationship of spiritual excitement with the warmth, with the hot climate, confuse these issues and misconstrue him. So it had to be clarified that the phenomena of prophethood is a different phenomena. It has no dependency on the climate of any country whatsoever. Shabbat Shalom.
