先知穆罕默德ﷺ曾说:"真主垂视世人,憎恶阿拉伯人和非阿拉伯人,唯独对于有经人中的一些余民除外。"祂说:"我派遣你(穆罕默德ﷺ)来考验你,也借你来考验他们。我降示给你一部不会被水洗去的经典……"23

The Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم once said, Indeed, Allah looked towards the people of the world and resented the Arabs and non-Arabs alike, except for some remnants from the People of the Book. And He said, ‘I have sent you [O Muhammad] to test you and test [others] through you. And I sent down to you a Book that cannot be washed away with water…23

许多专家认为，六世纪是最糟糕的时代。那时并不是1346至1353年——黑死病夺去了半个欧洲人的生命，也不是1520年——天花夺去了美洲原住民60%至90%的生命，更不是1918年——西班牙流感导致超过5000万人死亡。

Many experts believe that the sixth century was the worst in which to live. It was not 1346-1353, when the Black Death killed half of Europe, nor 1520, when smallpox killed 60-90% of the indigenous people of the Americas, nor 1918, when the Spanish Flu led to the deaths of over 50 million people.

据哈佛大学的迈克尔·麦考密克（Michael McCormick）24 提出，536 年及其所引发的苦难，或许才是人类已知历史上最糟糕的时期。25 他的著作与研究聚焦于生态学，而世界的道德沦丧也同时在发生。无论人们转向何处，黑暗都占据主导。在罗马竞技场中，观众会为一头狮子撕咬尖叫的囚犯而欢呼。在波斯，即便是帝国皇室也practiced乱伦，因为到了萨珊王朝末期，近亲通婚在琐罗亚斯德教法律中已成为常态。26 萨珊王朝之所以能实现崇拜的统一，是通过暴力迫害各种非正统的做法，甚至包括同属一个琐罗亚斯德教框架之内的教内同道。

As Harvard University’s Michael McCormick24 posits, it was actually the year 536 and the misery it spawned which could be the worst period of all known human history.25 While his books and research focus on ecology, the moral regression of the world followed in parallel. Wherever a person turned, darkness prevailed. In Roman coliseums, crowds would cheer a lion as it mauled a screaming prisoner. In Persia, even the imperial family practiced incest, as by the late Sasanian period, next-of-kin marriages had become normative in Zoroastrian law.26 Uniformity of worship was only achieved by the Sasanians through violent persecution of unorthodox practices, even against co-religionists within a common Zoroastrian framework.

在印度，种姓制度中处于最底层的人，即便不说比鼠类和害虫更低贱，也与之相当，因为这些动物有时被视为神圣的寺庙居住者。

27 In India, those at the bottom of the caste system were equivalent, if not inferior to, rodents and vermin—since such animals were sometimes considered holy temple-dwellers.

在阿拉伯，要找到一颗能忍心活埋自己幼女的铁石心肠，并不是什么难事。在基督教中，关于耶稣基督的身份，神秘之说占了上风：许多人宣称他是化身为人的神，而其他教派则指称他是一个出生于非婚生的冒牌传道者。

In Arabia, finding a stony heart that could stomach burying his infant daughter alive was no challenge. In Christianity, mystery triumphed regarding the identity of Jesus Christ , many claiming he was God incarnate, while other faith groups alleged he was an imposter preacher born out of wedlock.

再往东方，人们崇拜火、水、武器和生殖器，而不崇拜造物主。在许多社会中，女性被视为没有灵魂，或被认为仅为服侍男人而被创造；有时这甚至意味着她可能被男人拿去与朋友们赌博作为消遣的抵押品，或在他的葬礼上被活活烧死。许多婴儿在出生时便夭折，能长大成人的更是少之又少。生来为奴的人一般无法改变自己的身份，而在那一历史时期的一些主要文明中，这一阶层占人口的比例超过了75%。28

Further East, people worshipped fire, water, weapons, and genitalia instead of the Creator. In many societies, a woman was seen as having no soul, or as having been created only to serve man, and at times that could even mean pawning her over a recreational gamble with his friends or being burned alive at his funeral. Many infants did not survive birth, and even fewer reached adulthood. Those born into slavery were generally unable to change their status, and in some major civilizations of that historical period, this sector of society exceeded 75% of the population.28

鉴于当今世界的这种状况，真主怎能不为地球上的人们留下一线希望呢？一位至仁、全能的主竟不加干预，这是难以想象的。的确，至慈的主并没有抛弃祂的受造物，而是再一次向他们伸出了援手，“……

With this being the condition of the world, how could God not offer a glimpse of hope for the people of this planet? It is unfathomable that a supremely compassionate, all-capable God would not intervene. Indeed, the Most Merciful did not abandon His creation, but reached out to them yet again, “...

这样，那些灭亡的人，是在明证之后灭亡；那些存活的人，是在明证之后存活。”29

so that those who perished [through disbelief] would perish upon evidence and those who lived [in faith] would live upon evidence.”29

通过派遣最后的先知穆罕默德ﷺ，真主并没有辜负他们，即便有些人在真相已经清楚之后，选择辜负自己，拒绝接受他的使命。

By sending the final prophet, Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, God did not fail them, even if some choose thereafter to fail themselves by deciding after the clarification to decline his message.