Throughout history, prophets and those who believed together with them have been accused of madness, lying, sorcery, theft, seeking to seize control of the state, transgression and many other similar offenses. However, none of these is the true reason for these accusations. All these slanders were put forward in order to discredit God's messengers and those who believed in them in the eyes of society, overshadow their rightful cause and portray the persecution to be inflicted upon them as legitimate.


Indeed, the deniers also made many groundless accusations against our Prophet Muhammad (saas); they accused him of lying, sorcery, being a poet and fabricating the Qur'an. They sought to discredit this blessed person, who was God's messenger, in the eyes of the people through mockery, insults and vilification. Yet none of these attempts achieved its aim; on the contrary, they further increased the love, trust and devotion of those who believed in the Messenger of God. God reveals this truth in the Qur'an as follows:

Those who are unbelievers say, ‘This is nothing but a lie he has invented and other people have helped him to do it. They have brought injustice and falsehood.’ They say, ‘It is myths of previous peoples which he has had transcribed and which are read out to him in
the morning and the evening.’ Say: ‘The One Who sent it down is He Who knows all hidden secrets in the heavens and earth . He is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’ (Surat al-Furqan, 4-6) 

One of the important reasons why the leading figures of peoples opposed God's messengers was that they could not accept someone who, by their own standards, was not one of society's prominent figures as their leader. Since they evaluated events solely according to worldly values, they regarded the prophets' call not as a call to a Divine truth, but as a threat directed against their own authority.


Yet the prophets called people to serve God alone. When this call was accepted, people turned to God, and the justice, compassion and good morality revealed in the Qur'an began to prevail in society. Honesty, sincerity, self-sacrifice, trustworthiness, industriousness and fairness became widespread.

 


Of course, this disturbed those who caused corruption on earth, who acquired position and wealth through oppression, who transgressed God's limits for the sake of their interests, and who made insincerity, lovelessness and immorality into a way of life.


The leading figures of peoples feared that they would no longer be able to direct, as they had before, the people whom they had made dependent on themselves through the positions and wealth they possessed. That is because those who respond to the prophets' call submit to God alone; they fear and heed God alone. For that reason, they avoid injustice, honor what is entrusted to them, do not reach out for what is unlawful, do not steal or cause corruption, and protect the rights of the poor, orphans and the oppressed. This is why the preaching of the prophets and believers harmed the interests of those who built their interests upon oppression.


Another matter that disturbed them was that, despite the power, esteem and authority they possessed, a person who was not one of them—and who, moreover, openly exposed their errors—was accepted by society by communicating God's religion. Because of their pride and jealousy, they regarded this not as a matter of truth, but as a personal contest for superiority; they could not tolerate the prophets being regarded as superior to them.


Yet God's messengers are the people with the finest morality, the most trustworthy and the wisest. Despite this, because of their jealousy and pride, the leading deniers sought to humiliate these blessed people before society, but in the end it was only they themselves who were humiliated.


The Prophet Noah (pbuh), the Prophet Abraham (pbuh), the Prophet Joseph (pbuh), the Prophet Moses (pbuh) and many other prophets, together with the sincere believers who believed in them, were sought to be exiled, imprisoned or killed by the leading figures of their peoples on the grounds that they threatened the order they had established and the false beliefs they had inherited from their forefathers.


God reveals this mentality of theirs in the Qur'an as follows:

When they are told, “Follow what God has sent down to you,” They say, “We are following what we found our fathers doing.” What, even though their fathers did not understand a thing and were not guided! (Surat al-Baqara, 170)

According to what the Qur'an reveals, those who sought to prevent people from sincerely living by God's religion were generally those in society who possessed wealth and power. These people intended to use the positions, wealth and authority they possessed against the believers, while concealing their true intentions behind accusations against the believers such as "seeking superiority," "seeking to seize power" or “disrupting the order.” 
Indeed, God states as follows:

The ruling circle of those of his people who were unbelievers said, "This is nothing but a human being like yourselves who simply wants to gain ascendancy over you. If God had wanted He would have sent angels down. We never heard of anything like this among our ancestors, the earlier peoples." (Surat al-Mu`minun, 24)


At the root of the accusations and slanders directed against the prophets and believers throughout history lies the fact that the call to truth and justice threatened the existing order of interests. When God's messengers called people solely to serve God and to good morality, those who possessed power and protected their interests through unjust means were disturbed by this; fearing the loss of their positions and influence, they resorted to methods of slander, vilification and pressure.


However, rather than intimidating the believers, these attacks further strengthened their faith, patience and brotherhood. That is because the deniers know very well that their false order will be shaken as the prophets' message spreads. For this reason, the psychological pressure and vilification campaigns they conducted remained nothing more than futile attempts intended to prevent the spread of the truth. Through God's help and the believers' patience, no power has ever succeeded in extinguishing God's light.


In conclusion, just as in the past, the slanders and attacks directed against believers today are rooted in fear of the truth, pride, jealousy and concern for self-interest. God's messengers and the sincere believers who follow in their footsteps, however, have continued to live by and cause others to live by justice, good morality and what is right despite all attempts to prevent them. As the Qur'an reveals, those who sincerely proceed on God's path are always under God's protection. Slanders ultimately cause only the disappointment and humiliation of those who utter them. In every age, this truth is a great source of consolation, strength and hope for all believers.