The principle of finality | The six principles of the prophetic call

In this Prishtina Talks lecture, Rudian Zekthi closes the cycle “The six principles of the prophetic call” with the sixth and final one — the principle of finality. He makes clear at once that he uses the word in a narrower sense than the familiar Albanian one: it is not simply that things come to an end, since everything does, but that an end can be of two kinds — either a mere breaking off, from which nothing is learned about the worth of what has passed, or a finalisation, in which the end itself expresses and concentrates the worth of the whole process. The prophetic principle, Zekthi argues, calls for the second: whoever carries the call has to set out from the very beginning what his final aim is, so that at the end there stands unmistakable evidence of the worth of everything he has done.

The central section builds a detailed analysis of the conflict of interest the caller runs into. Since his work sets out to change the very way the public judges, he enters a paradox: the public cannot judge him, because it is precisely its system of judgement he is calling into question; God's judgement stays uncertain until the Day of Judgement; and so he is left with nothing but his own. That, Zekthi says, is the most troubling illness of the call among Albanian Muslims: the self-sufficiency of callers who have cut themselves off from one another, convinced that no one but God can judge them, and who camouflage a breaking off as a finalisation with formulas of the kind “we will take it up to a point, the next generation will carry it further”. He illustrates the principle with two examples: the ark of Nuh, built in front of everyone after 950 years of the call as an exposure of the final aim, and the declaration of Muhammad on the hill of Safa, where a fundamental change in the conception of the truth was proclaimed at the outset with no compromise after it.

The lecture closes with a direct critique of the division of the call into “autarkic zones” in Albania and Kosovo — each caller with his own territory, with no agreement on method, with no capacity to see the global reality shifting under their feet — and with a practical recommendation: brotherhood, regular visits, reporting to one another, so that each has at least one judge besides himself. That, Zekthi says, is the only key against the unwitting corruption waiting for anyone who has no judge but himself.

Some of the points covered:

📌 Finalisation against breaking off: the two ways a work can end 📌 Who judges the worth of the work — the self, God, the public — and why none of them alone is enough 📌 The paradox of the call: it sets out to change the very system that judges it 📌 The conflict of interest, and the danger of self-sufficiency 📌 The greatest illness: callers cut off from one another 📌 Camouflaging a breaking off as a finalisation, with the illusion of the “relay” 📌 The ark of Nuh and the hill of Safa: exposing the final aim from the outset 📌 The recommendation: brotherhood and mutual reporting as a guard against corruption

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The views and positions expressed by our guests are the speakers' own and do not necessarily represent the positions of Prishtina Talks.