The objective behind the efforts made by the prophets and the battles they fought with the opponents of the path of the truth and in particular the battles of the early period of Islam were not for the sake of fighting. Nor was it to conquest. The objective has been to have a system of justice where justice and God's decrees would prevail.
The prophets went through all that trouble not merely to expel their adversaries and to take over the battlefield. Rather, the main objective had been to save the humankind from the claws of those men who lacked humanity and who were following the path of falsehood. The prophets would see this path as the path of wrongdoing, the path of atrocity, the path of darkness, a path that will lead people to atrocity in this world and to destruction in the next. The prophets were commissioned in behalf of God, the Blessed and Exalted, to deliver mankind. If they had left the people to themselves, they would be no more than an animal that could understand nothing but eating, sleeping and carnal desires, and act upon them accordingly, since the metaphysics is hidden from the public. What the people do know is this very universe, the nature universe- and those who are more knowledgeable, they understand the nature's characteristics. However, all of this is that they benefit from the nature and are attentive to the nature. They also know man by the very natural aspect and trouble themselves for this same natural aspect of mankind.
All the efforts of the materialists that are unrelated to the divine school are spent on perceiving nature and the characteristics that are to the nature and the use of nature, and that is, the nature of mankind from among the whole universe's natures. Whatever great and modern civilizations and humanity's great advancements you look at, all of it is related to this very nature and the human being's benefiting from nature, that is, the use by natural human of the nature's universe. Beyond the nature's universe, these natural creatures cannot understand. Hence, they do not have access to the other world but through the revelation that has the entire universe under its domination. And since this human is not like other animals, which are the same natural and worldly rather, humankind is created in such a manner that, in addition to natural life, it also possesses a metaphysical life. That metaphysical life is man's true life. Here, it is the very animal life. Thus, people are destitute to receive reports in finding the right path through revelation. And God, the Blessed and Exalted, made mankind obligated and sent on missions the prophets in order to show the way to them (people).
All of the prophets' teachings are meant to show the path leading to the destination which humankind has no choice but to pass through. Humankind is compelled to pass through this world to another world. If he is wayward, he is but an animal that passes from this world to the other world. And if he follows the path of the prophets, his humanity becomes complete and the more he obeys, the more his humanity grows. All the prophets' efforts have been to mold the humankind, modify him and change the natural human to a divine human so that he is a divine human even in this very world. The prophets' view of this world is different from that of ordinary people. The prophets aim at divinizing this world. In other words, they want it to be such that whatever they look at, they see a sign of divinity in it. Other strata, whether philosophers or other learned men, especially the natural scientists, all of them are of the opinion to discover the traces of nature and take advantage of nature. The prophets recognize the nature; however, they check the nature in such a way that it is controlled under the domain of divinity. In other words, it is under the control of the higher world. We, who are not knowledgeable about those realities, take the same advantage of this world of nature. An individual, who is aware of what is going on outside the nature's sphere, takes the same advantage. The only difference is that the one who does take such an advantage is focusing his intention on this very nature. And he, who does take such an advantage, considers the nature the traces of the other world and witnesses God, the Exalted, in the nature. All of those battles that have taken place in Islam and the troubles that the friends of God have gone through have been for the sake of Islam's survival and the implementation of Islamic decrees. All of this is meant to guide the human beings to the realities of which they are not aware and the paths they do not know. They (the divine guides) know how to traverse the path.
Sahifeh, vol9, Page: 10-12
Speech, July 7, 1979