Reflection 77 – The Message & The Audience

If you watch an interview for a famous actor, singer, football player, or any other celebrity, you will probably easily see one common theme. They would all probably say something in the lines of that they hope what they are doing gets people satisfaction. They are all people-centered. That‘s why many actors or singers, who might have certain standards that don’t match people’s wants and desires at a certain point in time usually struggle to cope with changes taking place. On the other hand, those who are clever and able to evolve and adapt quickly usually are successful somehow in a pure worldly sense. As long as these people can make people happy in way or another, life is good! However, as soon as people start to turn away from them for any reason, they could easily slip into depression or at least start to be less productive in their respective profession. In other words, their message is directly attached to the audience. Now, let’s turn to another profession: prophethood .
Prophets and messengers are required to deliver the message regardless of how nasty the audience might be. They don’t get to choose which part to say and which one to keep for later. Typically, their message contains some insults to the beliefs of their people but still they deliver the message fully. They don’t get to change parts of their message so that more people are happy and satisfied with it. It’s a very difficult and stressful task that we rarely think of and fully understand. To really appreciate their role, let’s do this thought experiment.
Imagine you’re invited to give a talk at a certain event. Twenty minutes into the event, a couple of people start to call you names. Another group starts to make fun of you leading others to laugh and ridicule you. Two big guys stand up and start threatening you. In fact, one of them throws something at your face! How do you feel now ? Are you excited to finish your talk? What about if I told that the following day you had to address the same people? What about the next day, and the next day, and the next day? Would you still be willing to do the same job every day? Probably not! Imagine that this is your job for life? Could be pretty depressing.
Now, next time you read in the Quran the stories of different prophets with their nations or what the disbelievers used to tell the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), try to put yourself in their shoes in order to fully appreciate what they did for humanity.