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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/25254-0.txt b/25254-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d77dd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/25254-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3156 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes on Islam, by Ahmed Hussain + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes on Islam + +Author: Ahmed Hussain + +Editor: Khan Bahadur Hajee Khaja Muhamma Hussain + +Release Date: April 30, 2008 [EBook #25254] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES ON ISLAM *** + + + + +Produced by Turgut Dincer, Michael Ciesielski and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + +NOTES ON ISLAM + +BY + +SIR AHMED HUSSAIN, K.C.I.E., C.S.I. + +(NAWAB AMIN JUNG BAHADUR) + +Collected and Edited + +by + +Khan Bahadur Hajee Khaja Muhammad Hussain + +"_The fear of the Lord is the beginning +of knowledge._"--_Proverb_ + +HYDERABAD, DECCAN +GOVERNMENT CENTRAL PRESS + +1922 + +_ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_ + +TO + +THE MEMORY + +OF + +K. AMJUD HUSSAIN. + +_One of the four for whom these Notes +were first written, +in 1917._ + + +---------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's note: | + | Bold characters are shown with "+" signs. | + | Arabic names are kept as in the original | + | text. Arabic transliterations are according | + | to ISO 233 system in most cases and from the| + | version by the CANADIAN SOCIETY OF MUSLIMS | + | with their kind permission. | + +---------------------------------------------+ + +[Printer's mark] + +FOREWORD + + +The following Notes were enclosed by the author in his weekly letters to +his brother and sons who were students in the Universities of Cambridge, +Edinburgh and Birmingham. I persuaded him to allow me to have them +printed, as I thought they were suggestive and useful. He has however +desired me to say that they should not be regarded as anything but +concise memoranda jotted down (at short intervals between the busy hours +of his official life) as general answers to questions put to him. They +contain some passages which are too concise or abstract, if not vague or +enigmatic. But, the author says, he left them designedly so in order to +induce his readers to try to understand them or at least to seek +explanation and illustration. Numerous foot-notes have been added for +the same purpose. + +He frankly admits that his view of Islam is neither quite orthodox nor +quite heterodox but something midway between the two. It was put forward +in order to make his boys think for themselves and argue with him. The +first three Notes may be 'skipped' at the first reading. + +Sincere acknowledgments are due to Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk Bahadur Bilgrami, +C.S.I., Mr. J.C. Molony, I.C.S., Khan Bahadur Abdur Rahim, B.A., B.L., +Mr. Syed Ross Masood, M.A., and others who very kindly read the proofs +and favoured the author with valuable suggestions. + +Banganapalle, } +_11th August 1922_. } K.M.H. + + + +Duty is Deity +Work is Worship.--_Sanskrit Proverb_ + + +CONTENTS + + + + PAGE + +FOREWORD 7 + +MUSLIM PRAYER 9 + +NOTE 1. INTRODUCTION 11 + + " 2. THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE QUR'AN 15 + + " 3. WHAT IS RELIGION? 20 + + " 4. WHAT IS TRUE ISLAM? 25 + + " 5. WHAT IS NOT ISLAM 29 + + " 6. "ISLAM" AND "NOT-ISLAM" 35 + + " 7. WHY IS ISLAM THE BEST RELIGION? 43 + + " 8. UNITY & UNION 49 + + " 9. PERFECTION & SELF-HELP 57 + + " 10. MODERATION & VIA MEDIA 63 + + " 11. EVOLUTION & SURVIVAL 73 + + " 12. "RELIGION BEGINS WITH THE FEAR OF THE LORD + AND ENDS IN THE LOVE OF MAN" 79 + +APPENDIX: + + MUSLIM REFORMATION 87 + + OUR PRAYER 97 + + + +Worship Truth +Love Humanity.--_Islamic Maxim_ + + ++THE MUSLIM PRAYER.+[1] + +_Surai Fatiha_ + + + Praise be to Thee my God, Lord of the Worlds! + O Merciful, Compassionate art Thou! + The King of all on Day of Reckoning, + Thee only do we worship and adore, + To Thee, most merciful, we cry for help; + O guide us ever more on the straight path, + The path of those to whom Thou gracious art + On whom Thine anger falls not then nor now, + The path of them that from Thee go not stray. + + Amen. + + + Grant that the knowledge I get may be the + knowledge worth having.--_Thomas a Kempis._ + + + + +NOTES ON ISLAM + + ++Note 1.+ + +_Introduction._ + + +Two of you--Lateef and Altaf--will recollect that more than a year ago +you wrote to me saying that you were puzzled by certain questions which +a Missionary had put to you. I remember that Amjud or Mahmood even went +so far as to ask what was the good of Islam, when countries and people +professing that faith had weak governments and were crumbling to pieces +under the influence of Christian Powers.[2] I answered your queries only +in a general way as your University education had not then advanced far +enough. But I think the time has now come when I should try to explain +to you what I conceive to be the true spirit of the religion of our +fore-fathers. + +I firmly believe that Islam is the best[3] religion in the world--I +mean, Islam rightly understood and interpreted and _not_ the +Muhammadanism[4] of some of our formularist Maulavies,[5] who say that +a man goes to Hell or Heaven according as he wears his trousers lower or +higher than his ankles! They have degraded our religion by paying undue +attention to formulas and forms to the exclusion and neglect of its +living spirit and reality[6]. The poet Hafiz rightly stigmatised their +vain controversies when he said that [Persian: Chon nadiden haghighat +afsaneh zadend] "since they did not see the fact, they ran after +fiction." + +I am more than ever convinced of two characteristics of Islam:-- + +_1st._--It is not inconsistent with _true_ Christianity, or with any +other _true_ religion[7] of which the fundamental principle is [Arabic: +Tawhid] One God [Arabic: waḥdahū la šarīka lahū] "the Peerless +One."[8] + +_2nd._--It conforms to modern scientific ideas better than any other +religion. + +I have already explained, in some of my letters[9] to you, why I believe +that Islam is but a continuation and consummation of Christianity as +taught by Jesus himself in _his own speeches_ which are reported in the +Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament. We have nothing to do with the +interpretation of his words by his Apostles and others after them. If we +take the plain words and the plain meaning of those words reported to +have proceeded from his own blessed mouth,[10] we clearly see that they +teach the same sublime truths as our Prophet himself inculcated. Jesus +did not live long to complete his mission, Muhammad completed it. Both +were God's holy messengers [Arabic: Rusul-u-llah]. Says the Qur'an: +"This day I have completed your religion for you." [Arabic: l-yawma +ʾakmaltu lakum dīnakum] + +I need not now go into details, or refer to other religions, to shew +that the spirit of Islam is not inconsistent with their true spirit, if +rightly conceived and interpreted in the light of modern science. I hope +I shall be able some day to write down the result of my own thought and +investigation in the matter. I content myself at present with drawing +your attention to the first characteristic of Islam, and I propose to +write a few Notes to draw your special attention to its second +characteristic which is the more remarkable--the characteristic that it +is quite consistent with modern ideas of science. + +No scientific idea influenced the thought of the last century more +profoundly than the idea of progress or development embodied in what is +called the Law of Evolution. It is now widely accepted. You will be +surprised to know that many an Islamic tenet is entirely in accord with +it. Indeed Maulana Rumi outlined it poetically in his famous _Masnavi_ +in the thirteenth century, in the same manner as Lord Tennyson did in +his _Princess_ in the nineteenth. I desire that you should try to +understand it in its modern form. I strongly recommend that you should +read an admirable book by Edward Clodd called _The Story of +Creation_[11]. When I first read it, some years ago, I felt it was as +pleasant and interesting as a novel. Its introduction and Part II are +quite easy to read. They will give you a very good idea of the great +revolution which Darwin and Wallace, Huxley and Spencer have wrought in +the thought of our own times. + + + + ++Note 2.+ + +_The First Chapter of the Qur'an._ + + +The following is a translation of the "Opening Chapter" of our Holy +Qur'an. I have analysed it by placing Roman and Arabic numerals, the +first indicating verses [Arabic: ayyat] and the second indicating +sub-divisions of verses. + + + _Opening Chapter._ +[Arabic: Sura al-fātiḥa]+ + + In the Name of God the [Arabic: bi-smi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm] + Compassionate, the + Merciful. + +I. Praise be to God, [Arabic: al-ḥamdu li-llāhi] .I + + (1) Lord (Nourisher) [Arabic: rabbi l-ʿālamīn (1)] + of the Worlds, + + (2) the Compassionate, [Arabic: ar-raḥmāni r-raḥīm (2)] + the Merciful + + (3) King of the Day [Arabic: māliki yawmi d-dīn (3)] + of Reckoning (= day + of judgment.) + +II. .II + + (1) Thee only do we [Arabic: ʾiyyāka naʿbudu (1)] + worship, + + (2) and Thee only do [Arabic: wa-ʾiyyāka nastaʿīn (2)] + we ask for aid. + + (3) Guide us in the [Arabic: ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭa l-mustaqīm (3)] + right Path (that is) + +III. the Path of those [Arabic: ṣirāṭa llaḏīna] .III + + (1) to whom Thou [Arabic: ʾanʿamta ʿalayhim (1)] + art gracious, + + (2) who are not objects [Arabic: ġayri l-maġḍūbi ʿalayhim (2)] + of wrath, + + (3) and who go not [Arabic: wa-lā ḍ-ḍāllīn (3)] + astray. + + _Amen_[12] [Arabic: āmīn] + + +The whole Sura divides itself into three parts and each part into three +divisions thus:-- + +Part I.--_Nature of God_. + +Three principal attributes of God:-- + + (1) Creator or Nourisher [Arabic: Rab] + (2) Protector [Arabic: raḥmāni wa r-raḥīm] + (3) Adjuster [Arabic: māliki yawmi d-dīn] + + +Part II.--_Man's duty to God_ lies in, + + (1) Worship [Arabic: ʿibādat] + (2) Seeking His Protection [Arabic: Isti'anāt] + (3) Seeking His Guidance [Arabic: Istihdā] + +Part III.--_The Straight Path_ [Arabic: islām = madhab] _for Man_ + being:-- + + (1) the path of Grace (= path of those who + obtain Grace) + + (2) not the Path of Sin (=path of those + who deliberately go wrong). + + (3) nor the Path of Error (=path of those + who by mistake go astray). + +Observe:-- + + (_a_) Each of the three duties in the second part + corresponds with the three attributes mentioned in the + first part. + + (_b_) The third part, the Path of Grace, _i.e._, the + straight path, is _the mean between two extremes_--the + path of deliberate sinners on the one hand and the path of + unwitting stragglers on the other. + + (_c_) The Islamic prayer is simpler than the Christian + prayer. I do not say the one is good and the other is bad. + No; _both_ are _very_ good indeed, but the one _seems + simpler_ than the other. Compare them. + + +_The Christian Prayer._ _The Muslim Prayer._ + + THE LORD'S PRAYER. THE FATIHA. + +_Adoration._ _Adoration._ + +(_a_) Our Father which art in (_a_) Praise be to God, Lord + heaven, Hallowed be thy of the worlds, the compassionate, + name. Thy Kingdom the merciful, King of the day + come. of reckoning. + +_Submission._ _Submission._ + +(_b_) Thy will be done in earth (_b_) Thee only do we worship and + as it is in heaven. of Thee only do we ask aid. + +_Supplication._ _Supplication._ + +(_c_) Give us this day our daily (_c_) Guide us into the right + bread. And forgive us our path--the path of those + debts as we forgive our to whom Thou hast + debtors. been gracious, + And lead us not into not the path of those + temptation, but deliver who are the objects + us from evil: for Thine of wrath nor of those + is the Kingdom, and the who have gone astray. + power, and the glory for Amen. + ever. Amen. + +_St. Matthew_, vi 9-13. _The Qur'an_, i. + + +If you will carefully compare the parts of each Prayer which I have +written as separate paragraphs marked (_a_), (_b_) and (_c_), you will +observe that there is difference only in the language, but no difference +whatever in the real meaning. There is in both Prayers absolutely the +same spirit of + + (_a_) Adoration, + + (_b_) Submission, and + + (_c_) Supplication. + +Both begin with the _praise_ of the Lord to whom all praise is due. This +is followed in both by an expression of our _entire dependence_ on Him +and submission to His will. Lastly, there is _solicitation for +guidance_, positive and negative, _viz._, guidance towards right action +and guidance for avoiding temptation. + +The three parts (_a_), (_b_) and (_c_) of the Christian as well as of +the Muslim Prayer are in perfect accord with the results of a +comparative study of the religious systems of the world. They correspond +to three essential elements in _all_ religions, _viz._, + + (_a_) _Belief_ in the existence of a Supreme Power which + is Infinite and Absolute, + + (_b_) _Feeling_ of man's entire dependence on that Power, + and + + (_c_) _Desire_ to seek or solicit guidance of that Power + in the daily life of man. + +You will thus see that both the Lord's Prayer in the Bible and the +Opening Chapter of the Qur'an go to the roots of all religions ever +professed by man. They are truly Universal Prayers. No man need hesitate +to join in the solemn recitation of either. + +We ought to view all monotheistic religions--religions which enjoin +belief in one God--in the spirit in which St. Peter viewed them when he +said (_Acts_ x. 34-5): "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter +of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh +righteousness is accepted with Him." The same is the spirit of the +oft-repeated definition of 'Muslims' in the Qur'an: [Arabic: llaḏīna +ʾāmanū minkum wa-ʿamilū ṣ-ṣāliḥāt] "those who believe and work +righteousness." "Trust in the Lord and do good," as the psalm says. + + + + ++Note 3.+ + +I.--_What is Religion?_ + + +I have said that _true_ Islam is the _best_ religion in the world. I +must prove my assertion. In order to do so I have to explain:-- + + I. What do I mean by religion? + II. What is true Islam? +III. Why is it the best religion? + +I.--_Religion, God and Nature._ + +_Religion._--No thinking man can help asking himself the questions: +"Whence has this world come? Whither is it bound to go?" in other words, +"What was the _origin_ ([Arabic: mabdā]) and what will be the _end_ +([Arabic: ma'ād]) of the world of men, animals, plants and things that I +perceive?" The answers which each man gives to these questions +constitute his _religion_. A few earnest persons (poets, philosophers +and theologians) try to answer these questions for themselves by patient +study and earnest thought[13]. But a large majority of men and women +merely take the answers taught them by their parents, teachers or +priests. There may possibly be a small number of men who do not trouble +themselves about these questions. These are not "thinking men" and may +therefore be left out of account. + +Religion is a silent and subtle power that works in the heart of man and +makes for righteousness. It is generated by his conviction as to the +beginning and end of himself and the world in which he lives and +moves[14]. + +_God._--No intelligent and intelligible answers can be given to +questions as to the origin and the end or the government of _Nature_[15] +without assuming the existence of the _One and only one God_ who is +_Infinite_ and _Absolute_, _i.e._, One who hath neither beginning nor +end and who is not conditioned or limited by anything whatever[16]. The +Infinite and Absolute One has been called by different names by +different people at different times[17]. Yezdan, Ishwara, Jehovah, God, +and Allah are the names, in different languages, of the same _Infinite +and Absolute God_. + + God of the Granite and the Rose + Soul of the Sparrow and the Bee! + The mighty tide of being flows + Through countless channels, Lord, from Thee. + +*_Conceptions of God, His attributes, and His relation to +Nature._--These have been and will ever be many and various. But I +summarise three principal conceptions under each head, for I believe +that other ideas, notions or conceptions are but combinations of two or +more of these:-- + + +I. Conceptions of God:-- + + 1. God as the Ultimate _Law_. + 2. God as the Omnipotent Energy or _Power_. + 3. God as the Supreme Being or _Person[18]_. + +II. Notions of God's principal attributes:-- + + 1. God as Creator or Nourisher. + 2. God as Preserver or Protector. + 3. God as Adjuster or Judge[18]. + +[*] _Paragraphs marked with asterisks and their footnotes may be + omitted at the first reading._ + + +III. Ideas of God's relation with Nature[20] (_i.e._, with the world of +men, animals, plants and other objects, and their inter-relations, of +which men are aware):-- + + 1. All is _from_ God = God is _above_ Nature + which He created and + governs (Theism). + + 2. God is _in_ All = God is _in_ Nature although + Nature is not + God (Panentheism). + + 3. God _is_ All = God _is_ Nature and + Nature is God (Pantheism)[21]. + +* The above is but a rough summary. I have neither time nor space to +explain and illustrate it. I have ventured to give some hints--imperfect +hints, I fear--in the footnotes. I may however state here that, of the +above three conceptions, notions or ideas Islam accepts the medium or +the middle one which, as a little thought will show, includes the other +two conceptions also. You need not at present try to understand the +summary or the words given in brackets. My subsequent Notes will explain +it to some extent. Please remember that there are many men and many +minds, and that there are likely to be as many religions, as many +conceptions of God, as many notions of His attributes, and as many ideas +of the beginning or end of things, ([Arabic: mabdā' wa ma'ād]) as there +are _thinking_ minds[22]. + + +Let me conclude this Note with a short answer to the question why +religion is necessary to Man[23]. No society is possible without +religion, because of the dual nature of Man. As our poet says, [Persian: +ba bahaa'm bahra dari ba malaa'ik neez ham] and as all modern men of +science (such as Sir Oliver Lodge and others) admit, there is a higher +and a lower in every man's nature, the one lifts him up and the other +pulls him down in the scale of animal and social existence. Religion is +necessary in order that every man's higher nature may conquer his lower +nature in order that he may become a social being who is virtuous and +does good of his own accord, and may not remain a mere beast whom the +whip alone prevents from doing mischief. It is religion that fosters +high-thinking and holy-living, so necessary for the advancement of the +human race. + + + + ++Note 4.+ + +II.--_What is true Islam?_ + + +The answer to this question is contained within the four corners, as +it were, of the Opening Sura[24] [Arabic: Sura al-fātiḥa] which is a +general summary of the whole Qur'an. I have already analysed it and +asked you to compare it with the Christian prayer called the Lord's +prayer. I am sure you have noted and admired its simplicity and +clearness and its almost scientific precision and comprehensiveness. I +am only amplifying what I have already said when I say that the Sura +teaches three cardinal and eternal truths:-- + +_1st._--There is but One God who has created the worlds, maintains them, +and rules them. In the inimitable words of the Sura of Purity. + + + [Arabic: Sura al-ʾiḫlāṣ] + +[Arabic: qul huwa llāhu ʾaḥad] Say, God is one. } = One. + +[Arabic: allāhu ṣ-ṣamad] God is Eternal. } = Infinite. + +[Arabic: lam yalid] He does not beget } +[Arabic: wa-lam yūlad] nor is He begotten. } = Absolute.[25] +[Arabic: wa-lam yakun lahū kufuwan aḥad] } + and He hath no kith or kin. } + +_2ndly._--(_a_) God being our Creator, we have to _worship_, adore and +love Him and Him alone. This is the duty we owe to God. (_b_) Again, God +being our merciful Preserver, we have to seek the protection of Him and +Him alone. This is the duty we owe to ourselves. (_c_) Finally, God +being our Judge or Ruler, we have to solicit guidance of Him and Him +alone. This is the duty we owe to our fellow-creatures (including lower +animals) in the world we live in. + +You must not fall into the error of believing that God is Creator at one +time or place, that He is Maintainer or Preserver at another time or +place, and that He is Judge or Ruler at a third time or place. No, no; +He, being the One and only God, is all the three together, Creator, +Preserver and Ruler, at all times and in all places. It is we who, in +order to understand Him properly and adore Him rightly, separate in our +minds His three principal attributes, and think of Him as our Creator +_when_ we worship Him, think of Him as our Preserver _when_ we seek His +protection, and think of Him as our Ruler or Judge _when_ we solicit His +guidance. It is only we, finite and conditioned creatures, that are tied +down to and limited by time, place and circumstances. To God there are +none such. He is the One Infinite and Absolute, the One who hath neither +beginning nor end--the One who is absolutely unlimited and unconditioned +by time, place, circumstances, or anything else. This is the Islamic +conception or idea of God. + +_3rdly_.--What does the Sura teach us as to the guidance which we have +to ask of God in our dealings with our fellow-creatures? It is guidance +into the straight path. What is the straight path? It is the path of +righteousness or the path of _Grace_ which is between two extremes, the +path of _Sin_ and the path of _Error_. A Muslim's right path, _i.e._, +his right course of conduct, lies between two extreme paths or courses +of conduct, _viz._, on the one hand, the path of those who sin, who +knowingly and deliberately go against the will of God, which is manifest +in Nature, and on the other hand, the path of those who unwittingly, +through ignorance, go against His will. The right path lies thus:-- + + +_Path of Sin_ } _Path of Grace_ { _Path of Error_ + } { +which leads } which leads to { which leads to +to ruin or } eternal bliss. { confusion worse +destruction. } { confounded. + +You thus see that _true_ Islam consists in a threefold duty to God, to +oneself, and to others, and this duty is to be discharged by simply +adopting, under God's guidance, _the mean between two extremes_. As our +Prophet has pithily expressed it [Arabic: khair ul umoor-e ausatiha], +"the best of things is the medium thing." This is the fundamental +principle which underlies everything which is Islamic or Muslim.[26] +Please remember it, as also the three-fold Islamic Duty:-- + + (_a_) Duty to God, which is Worship or Adoration implying, + as it does, complete submission to His will = [Arabic: + islām] + + (_b_) Duty to yourself, which is self-preservation or + self-perfection = [Arabic: Aslām] + + (_c_) Duty to others, which is peace and good will towards + them = [Arabic: islām] + +"Islam"[27] as a religion means nothing more nor less than those three +duties. + +Islam is not Philosophy, much less is it Science. It is but a Religion, +_an attitude of man's mind towards his environment_--the attitude of +self towards others and God. Both Philosophy and Science influence one's +attitude of mind. To that extent Islam has to reckon with both. It is +therefore that Sufis and other philosophic sects have risen in Islam +from time to time. The sphere of Islam is Faith manifesting itself in +good works; and the spheres of Science and Philosophy are Knowledge and +Reason. The latter often come into contact with the former, but can +never be identified with it. + + + + ++Note 5.+ + +_What is not Islam._ + + +In my previous Note I tried to sketch briefly what is true Islam. I now +offer a few observations on, or illustrations of, what is _not_ Islam. +In order to know anything quite well, it is desirable not only to know +_what it is_ but also to know _what it is not_. + +1. The religion taught by the Qur'an and the Traditions [Arabic: +ahādith] of our Prophet is _Islam_ and not "Muhammadanism," as it is +often named. Those who profess Islam are _Muslims_ and not +"Muhammadans," as they are called. The word "Musalman" is but a +corruption of the Arabic plural [Arabic: muslimūn/muslimīn] of the +singular [Arabic: Muslim]. We and our religion have been called[28] +after the name of Muhammad just as the terms Christians and Christianity +have been derived from the name Christ. But "Muhammadanism" and +"Muhammadans" are not at all the correct names of "Islam" and "Muslims" +as you will presently see.[29] + + +2. From the point of view of Islam, all religions may be divided thus: + + + Religions are either, + | + |---------------|---------------| + | | +_False_: being beliefs} {_True_: being beliefs +in more gods than } or {in one and only God; +one, } {and True Religions +(Paths of Sin) } {are either, + | + +----------|----------+ + | | + _Pure_, such as } {_Mixed_, such as + true Islam } {religions which + unmixed with any } {mix up inconsistent + inconsistent } or {ideas with + ideas. } {the idea of + } {one God. + (Paths of Grace) } {(Paths of Error) + +Observe that a pure Religion, such as true Islam, comes in between false +Religions and mistaken or mixed Religions, just as the Quranic Path of +Grace lies between the Path of Sin and the Path of Error. It is the mean +between two extremes. + +3. It is not Islam to believe that there has been no true religion +besides Islam.[30] Such an erroneous belief leads to intolerance, +thereby begetting bigotry and fanaticism [Arabic: taa'ssub]. It is +contrary to the teaching of the Qur'an and the Prophet. The first verse +of the second Sura [Arabic: Baqrah = ʾ-l-m] commands us to +believe in not only what was revealed to Muhammad but also in what was +revealed to those who went before him. It clearly indicates that there +are, and will ever be, many true religions of which Islam is one. Almost +the first saying of our Prophet reported in collections of his +traditions [Arabic: ahaadith] is "whoever says 'there is no god but +God,' will attain Salvation" _i.e._, will obtain eternal bliss. This +shews clearly that all religions which inculcate belief in one God are +true religions--are right Paths of Grace which lead to eternal bliss. +Observe that most Muhammadans (not Muslims) of to-day have +forgotten this principle and have therefore become +intolerant fanatics,[31] which accounts largely for the loss of +political power of most Muhammadan Governments of modern times. + +4. Neither is it Islam to believe that all religions are true. Such an +erroneous belief leads to indifference, thereby begetting caprice and +impiety. It is obviously contrary to the teaching of the Qur'an and the +Prophet, for they both denounce many a false religion. If everybody +thinks that every religion is true, there will be no two men professing +the same religion, and there will be no real agreement between their +thoughts and actions. Co-operation[32] [Arabic: ittifāq wa ittihād] +among men (which is the root of Family, Society and State) would tend to +become impossible. Note that it is the indifference to religion and the +consequent impiety of some of the Muhammadans of to-day that accounts +mostly for their lack of co-operation, and for their loss of political +power in modern times. Degradation is the lot of _faithless_ Muslims, +for as the Qur'an says, "Ye will be exalted only if ye be faithful +Muslims." + +From what has been said you can easily infer that we should adopt the +mean between two extremes and must therefore believe that neither are +all religions true nor are they all false, but that _some religions_ are +true and that Islam is one of them. The characteristic mark of true +religions is belief in one God; and this indeed is the reason why +Muslims are permitted to eat and live with, and even marry, Jewesses, +Christians and others who believe in one God and possess sacred +Scriptures. + +5. I, for one, would not hesitate to call all Monotheists (Jews, +Christians, and other Unitarians [Arabic: muwahiddin]) _Muslims_, +because they believe in one God: but I would not call them _Momins_ +[Arabic: Momins,], because they do not believe in one God in accordance +with the teaching of our Prophet. You know that our Creed [Arabic: +kalimah] consists of two parts:-- + + (i) There is no god but God, + (ii) And Muhammad is His Messenger. + +Those who believe in the first part are Muslims ([Arabic: Muslim ] = the +peaceful)[33] and those who believe in the first as well as the second +part of the Creed are Momins ([Arabic: Mumins ] = the faithful). Both +Muslims and Momins are believers in one God; the only difference between +them is that Muslims may not (like Momins) accept Muhammad as their +guide in the belief. The Qur'an (iii. 83) defines Islam thus:-- + + Say ye; We believe in God, and that which hath been sent + down (revealed) to us, and that which hath been sent down + to Abraham and Ismail and Issac and Jacob and the tribes; + and that which hath been given to Moses and to Jesus and + that which was given to the Prophets from their Lord. No + difference do we make between them--and to God we are + resigned (Muslims). + +6. "There is no deity but God." Since God is One, His Revelation to Man +cannot be other than one and the same for all time. There has therefore +been and will ever be but one true religion. That religion is Islam. +[Arabic: ʾinna d-dīna ʿinda llāhi l-ʾislām] "Verily the (only) religion +with God is Islam" (Q. iii 19). All the prophets from Adam to Muhammad +received but one and the same Revelation and therefore preached Islam +and Islam only. [Arabic: ḏālika d-dīnu l-qayyim] "It was (and is) the +standard religion"--Q. xii. 40.[34] + +Whenever any people went astray and deserted Islam for idolatry a +prophet arose among them to preach Islam and bring them back to +righteousness.[35] Each prophet or messenger of God did nothing but try +to restore the universal religion to its pristine simplicity and purity. + +It was only in interpreting the Revelation and applying it to the +practical needs of their age, that successive prophets and their +followers differed; and the differences gave rise to the so-called +_religions_ and religious systems of the world. + + + + ++Note 6.+ + +_"Islam" and "not-Islam"._ + + +I must devote this Note also to my observations on "Islam" and +"not-Islam" in order to prepare you for a just appreciation of my +contention that there are many good religions in the world but Islam is +the best of them[36]. + +1. The Prophet Muhammad lived and died more than thirteen hundred years +ago. There are now on the face of the earth no less than 250 millions (= +25 crores) of human beings who profess his religion, and who love and +respect him just as his own immediate followers loved and respected him. +These two simple facts are enough to prove-- + + (1) that there must be something real and + true in the religion professed by so many + people, and + + (2) that the man who preached and established + it must have been both great and + good to an extraordinary degree; + +for common experience leads us to conclude (_a_) that nothing which is +false or unreal can survive centuries of change and (_b_) that none who +is not good and great can be loved and respected by millions of men. No +Muslim or Momin need therefore believe in any thing more than:-- + + (i) that Islam is a real and true religion, and + + (ii) that Muhammad was a very great and good man.[37] + +Thus, your belief in one God [Arabic: lā ʾilāha ʾillālāh] makes you a +Muslim[38] (= _peaceful_), no matter by what other name you call +yourself; and your belief in the goodness and greatness[39] of Muhammad +[Arabic: Muhammad rasūlullah] makes you a Mumin (= _faithful_), no +matter by what name others may call you. Let me quote here a passage +from Sir Edwin Arnold's Preface to his beautiful poem "The Pearls of +Faith: the Ninety-Nine Names of Allah:" [Arabic: asmāʾu l-ḥusnā] + +"The soul of Islam is its declaration of the _unity_ of God: its heart +is the inculcation of an absolute _resignation_ to His will. Not more +sublime, in religious history appears the figure of Paul the tent-maker, +proclaiming 'the Unknown God' at Athens, than that of the camel-driver +Muhammad, son of Abdullah and Amina, abolishing all the idols of the +Arabian Pantheon, except their chief--Allahu ta 'Ala, God the Most +High--and under that ancient and well-received appellation establishing +_the one-ness of the origin, government, and life of the Universe_. +Thereby that marvellous and gifted Teacher created a vast empire of new +belief and new civilization, and prepared a sixth part of humanity for +the _developments and reconciliations_ which later times will bring. For +Islam must be conciliated; it cannot be thrust scornfully aside or +rooted out. It shares the task of the education of the world with its +sister religions, and it will contribute its eventual portion to + + --"that far-off divine event + Towards which the whole creation moves." + +The _italics_ are mine. I shall have to refer to them in my subsequent +Notes. Observe, the cosmopolitan poet uses only the word "Islam" and not +"Muhammadanism". + +2. It is not Islam or Eman [Arabic: īmān] to deify Muhammad or to +represent him to be akin to God, as sometimes some Moulvies represent +him and call him "the One (Ahad) in the guise of Ahmad[40]." Our Prophet +himself never claimed that he was anything more than a mere man. Indeed, +he taught us all to say [Arabic: Ash-hadu allā ilāha illallāh, wa +Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasūlullāh] that he was but "a servant and +messenger of God." The only thing he ever claimed for himself was that +God had chosen him to be a messenger [Arabic: rasūl = payghambar] to +convey His messages to men. "That an immense mass of fable and silly +legend," says Rodwell, "has been built up upon the basis of the Qur'an, +is beyond a doubt; but for this Muhammad is not answerable,[41] any more +than he is for the wild and bloodthirsty excesses of his followers in +after ages." + +3. God's messages which Muhammad delivered to men were all collected +soon after his death and are preserved intact in a remarkable book +called the QUR'AN--a book which has lived through no less than thirteen +centuries without undergoing the least alteration in a single word or +even a dot! The difference in the messages contained in the Qur'an and +the ordinary sayings of the Prophet reported in books on Hadis [Arabic: +hadith] is simply this:--that when delivering God's messages Muhammad +himself felt, and those who were in his company witnessed, that he was +inspired by some divine energy or power which impelled him to say what +he said; whereas at other times, when he was talking like an ordinary +man, no signs of divine energy or inspiration were visible. It will +carry me too far if I endeavour to explain here the real nature of "the +divine inspiration" under which he delivered what he and others believed +to be "divine messages". You will understand it if you read such books +as Professor James's _Varieties of Religious Experience_. Let us, like +good Momins, take it as a _fact_, what our Prophet's intimate companions +[Arabic: ṣḥābah] vouched, that he appeared to be quite a different man +when he uttered such messages. Their style or matter itself even to this +day proves to all unbiassed minds that they are no ordinary sayings of +an ordinary man. There is something unique in them which we can only +feel but cannot define or express in words. Even historians and +biographers like Gibbon and Muir and translators like Rodwell, Palmer +and Lane-Poole are obliged, in spite of themselves, to admit and admire, +what some of them call, the rugged grandeur and eloquence of the Qur'an. +Even Sale says that some passages are really sublime. + +4. We call the Qur'an _the word of God_, chiefly because it contains +messages of high spiritual value delivered by _an illiterate man_ like +Muhammad. It is neither a history like some of the books of the Old +Testament, nor a biography like the four Gospels of the Bible. It is +only a collection of sermons, commands, and instructions delivered and +issued from time to time as occasions required. It contains, indeed, +references to stories of older Prophets and previous events well known +to the people of Arabia. But they are less by way of narration than by +way of illustration. They are parables more or less ([Arabic: tilka +l-ʾamṯālu naḍribuhā li-n-nās])[42]. Commentators like Zamakh-shari +([Arabic: tafsīr-e-kashshāf]) and Imam Razi ([Arabic: tafsīr-e-kabīr]) +whose learning and authority cannot be questioned, have clearly proved +that there is nothing in the Qur'an which is improbable or cannot be +rationally explained to be quite in accordance with the laws of Nature +[Arabic: qanun-u qadat]. If you read Sir Syed Ahmad's Commentary +[Arabic: tafsir ahmadi] or his Essays [Arabic: khutbāt] you will find +rational explanations of the ideas of Paradise and Hell, the Day of +Judgment,[43] etc. I need not dwell on them here. I would however draw +your attention to what is called the rule of "Parsimony in Thought" +which is in vogue among men of Science. It is that if and when you can +explain anything by what is well-known and understood by every one, you +should not believe in the existence of "supermen" or assume the +occurrence of supernatural events. When, for example, we can explain any +action of Muhammad as an ordinary action of a reasonable man, we should +not assume or believe that he performed a miracle. If we can explain the +defeat and discomfiture of Abraham's Army by natural causes, such as an +epidemic, we ought not to assume the occurrence of any supernatural +event[44]. + +5. The Qur'an does not favour any particular system of Philosophy. It +leaves Muslims free to adopt any system of thought that commends itself +to them, provided that it is not inconsistent with the ([Arabic: +tawhīd]) idea of the one eternal and absolute God. Thus the Qur'an +confines itself to the sphere of religion--the sphere where man is +brought face to face with his God. + + (a) _What, then, is the object or aim of the Qur'an?_ + +To reveal a man unto himself. [Arabic: mun arafa nafsa hu arafa rabba +hu] (He who has understood himself has understood his God.) + + (b) _Why should a man be revealed unto himself?_ + +In order that he might know his true relation with the rest of the world +so that he might shape his conduct accordingly _i.e._, be true to +himself, true to others, and true to his God in thoughts, words, and +deeds. + + (c) _How does the Qur'an reveal a man unto himself?_ + +By showing him:-- + + (1) God in History[45] ([Arabic: huwa l-ʾawwalu wa-l-ʾāḫir] + He is the First and the Last.) + + (2) God in Nature[46] ([Arabic: wa-ẓ-ẓāhir] He is the + Manifest.) + + (3) God in Man's Conscience[47] ([Arabic: wa-l-bāṭin] and + He is the Hidden--Qur'an lvii. 3.) + +In this sense the Qur'an is truly a revelation! + + His sign is in all things, | * [Arabic: fa fi kulli šayʾin lahū] + | + Indicating that He is One. | * [Arabic: aayah naral anna hu wāḥid] + + + + ++Note 7.+ + +_III.--Why is Islam the best religion?_ + + +My real task begins with this Note. I have to explain to you why I +consider Islam[48] the best of the religions that are now professed by +men all over the world. Mark, I do not say that other religions are not +good, but I only say that Islam is the best religion of all those I +know. Why do I say so? Because no other religion accords so well as +Islam with the modern ideas of Science. + +By applying the adjectives "good," "better" and "best" to religions, I +indicate the _degree_ to which each religion, by its tenets and +teaching, induces men to seek their welfare [Arabic: falāh]: and by the +word "Science" [Arabic: ilm] I mean simply the systematised knowledge of +things known and knowable. + +_Science_ discovers things that are necessary or desirable for human +welfare. _Arts_ generally show the way in which those things can be +obtained or manufactured. _Governments_ provide, or ought to provide, +facilities for scientific investigation and for improvement in arts. And +it is _Religion_ that should move men to take the fullest advantage of +the science and arts of the time. You may take a horse to a river but +you cannot make him drink unless he is thirsty. If he is thirsty he will +drink of his own accord; but if he is not, neither the appearance of +clear water, nor the easy way to get at it, nor indeed your whip or +coaxing can ever induce him to drink. In the same way Science may show +you water or anything that is useful, Arts may show you different ways +of getting it, the Government of your State may offer rewards or even +threaten punishment; but you will not drink, that is to say, you will +not take advantage of the good things shown you and placed at your +disposal, unless you are thirsty, unless there is something in you which +impels you to it. This thirst, this something that is the moving force +or _motive_, is created or furnished by Religion. + +The chief use of religion lies in the desire that it fosters in men to +live well, and virtuously.[49] It is true that for most men the fear of +punishment and the hope of reward, either here or hereafter, are motives +for right conduct: and some religions (and even Islam as taught by some +Moulvies) give glowing pictures of Heaven and Hell awaiting good and +bad people after death.[50] But these motives are unworthy of the higher +nature [Arabic: qu wa ye malakūti] of man. They are like the crack of a +whip or the show of green grass to a horse that will not run. They are +not so effective and lasting as the high spiritual motive for a virtuous +life furnished by true religion. I cannot dwell further on this point +without entering upon a philosophical or metaphysical discussion which +is foreign to the purpose of these Notes. Suffice it to say that the +spiritual or religious motive for virtuous conduct is the best of all +motives, as it conforms to the higher or angelic [Arabic: malakūti] +nature of man and assists him in subduing his lower or animal [Arabic: +ba ha'i mi] nature.[51] + + +"The son of man is a unique | +and complex product (of | +Evolution) which has combined | +in him the natures of | [Persian: Aadmi zada turfah m'a +both the angel and the beast. | joo ne ast za fa-rish-ta sa-rish-ta +If he leans towards the latter, | hay wan gar kunad mayl een shuwad +his animal nature, he | wa kum azeen dar kunad qasn +falls lower than the beast | aanshuwad beh azaan.] +itself, but if he turns his | +attention to the former, his | +angelic nature, he rises higher | +than the angel himself." | + + +It is but religion, true Religion, that enables the "son of man" _i.e._, +mankind to surpass angels in godliness. Note, this is exactly what Sir +Oliver Lodge says in his book, _The Substance of Faith allied with +Science_. + +There is another use of Religion to which I should refer briefly before +I pass on to the main argument. You always intend doing many things but +never succeed in doing them _all_, either because you change your mind +or because somebody or something prevents you from carrying them out. It +is nevertheless important to yourself and society that your wishes, +which are naturally more numerous than your actions, should be as good +as the actions themselves. Laws and social conventions cannot adequately +control them, for they take account of only outward manifestations, that +is, actions which flow or result from your inward desires, passions and +prejudices. These are controlled by such religions as true Christianity +and true Islam which take that as done which was merely intended to be +done, and inhibit bad intentions even before they appear in action. + +Now, whatever religion supplies the best motives for virtuous conduct +and most effectively prevents mischievous intentions, must necessarily +be one which conforms best with the most approved ideas of the science +and arts of the time. I hold that Islam is such a religion.[52] + +Let me begin by showing a conformity of Islam to a modern idea, that +there are more worlds than one.[53] There are still some religions +which assume that there is no other world than the world we live in, and +that God created and maintains it for men only. Science has proved that +such assumptions are unwarranted, and has even suggested grounds for +believing that there are beings in the innumerable worlds of stars. This +world of ours with its inhabitants has therefore no right to monopolise +God to itself. Nor indeed have we, human beings, any right to consider +ourselves as its superior inhabitants. Science is now-a-days on the +track of finding out beings who are or who may be superior to man. Note +that all this is implied in the expression [Arabic: rabbi l-ʿālamīn] +"the Lord of the _worlds_" contained in the Sura and other parts of the +Qur'an. It does not say "the king of the _world_" ([Arabic: rabbi l- +ʿālam]) or of _men_ [Arabic: rabbi l- ʾinsān] but says generally and +truly that God is the King or Lord of great or grand _worlds_: [Arabic: +rabbi l-ʿālamīn], the definite article [Arabic: al] in Arabic is often +used to express greatness or grandeur as in the word [Arabic: Allah] +which means the Most High God. + +According to Islam there are two sources of knowledge, _Science_ and +_Revelation_: the one represents man's effort to learn God's ways, and +the other represents God's grace to discover His ways to man.[54] I for +one believe that the difference between the two sources of knowledge +corresponds to the difference between "Experience" and "Intuition," +between Acquired Ideas and Innate Ideas--a difference which modern +philosophers (Spencer and Bergson) consider to be one of degree only and +not of kind. + + + + ++Note 8.+ + +_Unity[55] and Union._ + + +I cannot go over the whole field of Muslim theology to show how its +ideas are in accord with the scientific thought of our days. I will +confine myself to three principles and three maxims implied in the +analysis of the Opening Sura [Arabic: Sura al-fātiḥa] given in one of my +previous Notes[56]. + +I. The verse [Arabic: al-ḥamdu li-llāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn; ar-raḥmāni +r-raḥīm] points to _the Principle of Unity_: + + There is but one God who created the worlds, + maintains and rules them. + +From this results the _Maxim of Union & Loyalty_: + + Union is strength = Be loyal to your King. + +II. The verse [Arabic: ʾiyyāka naʿbudu wa-ʾiyyāka nastaʿīn] points to +_the Principle of Perfection_: + + Worship of God, His protection, and guidance + are necessary for the perfection of our + mind and body. + +From this results the _Maxim of Self-help_: + + God helps those who help themselves = Be + true to yourself. + +III. The verse [Arabic: ṣirāṭa llaḏīna ʾanʿamta ʿalayhim ġayri l-maġḍūbi +ʿalayhim wa-lā ḍ-ḍāllīn] points to _the Principle of Moderation_: + + It is the straight path of righteousness that + enables you to avoid crooked paths of sin + and error and leads you to happiness. + +From this results the _Maxim of the Average_: + + Adopt the mean of two extremes = Be moderate + in everything. + +I will now endeavour to shew, as briefly and as simply as possible, how +the principles and maxims I have stated correspond with the best +scientific ideas of the present age. By "the best scientific ideas," I +mean nothing more than _conclusions_ arrived at by eminent men of +science after severe study and prolonged investigation. I can only refer +to the conclusions as such without attempting to summarise the +reasoning, etc. by which they have been reached. You may read the works +of authors I shall name, if you wish to learn more of their thoughts. + +I. + +_Principle of Unity._ + +1. The first Principle of Unity [Arabic: tawhīd] implies that there is +but one Energy or Force whose different transformations we call +_forces_, but one Life whose appearance in different shapes we call +_lives_, and but one Mind whose different manifestations we call +_minds_. But the universal Energy, the + +[Sidenote: +1. Herbert Spencer. +2. Dr. A.R. Wallace. +3. Prof. James. +4. Sir Oliver Lodge. +5. Dr. Theodore Merz.] + +universal Life, and the universal Mind[57] [Arabic: rabbi l-ʿālamīn, +ar-raḥmāni r-raḥīm, māliki yawmi d-dīn] are themselves but so many +forms, appearances or manifestations of the one Being [Arabic: Allah] +who is Infinite [Arabic: ṣ-ṣamad] and Absolute [Arabic: lam yalid, +wa-lam yūlad]. This is exactly what scientific men and philosophers have +said and are saying to-day. Read the works of any of the eminent men +mentioned in the margin, and you will find that the conclusion they have +reached after life-long investigations, tallies remarkably with the +conception of God which Islam formulated centuries ago. + +Every child begins with the experience of 'This is _mine_' and 'That is +_not mine_.' This experience matures in the adult into "I" and +"not-I"--the _subject_ that knows and the _object_ that is known. We +call the _knower_ or subject, Mind; and the _known_ or object, Matter. +Most modern Philosophers agree in believing that Mind and Matter are but +two aspects of One Reality underlying All. Just as a big building like +the Falaknuma Palace presents different aspects when viewed from +different directions, and yet is one and the same building; so the +Reality of Existence _appears to us_ in different aspects as Mind and +Matter, and yet is one and the same Reality[58]. + +Dr. Theodore Merz of the Durham University, at the end of his grand +survey of the Scientific Thought of Europe in the 19th Century,[59] +says: "The scientific mind advances from the idea of Order or +arrangement to that of Unity through the idea of Continuity." + +The process adopted by Science of arriving at Unity is only the reverse +of what Islam adopted: the former begins _a posteriori_ with Order finds +Continuity and arrives at Unity, but the latter started _a priori_ with +Unity, passed over Continuity, and found Order, thus:-- + +_Science._ _Islam._ + +1. Order 1. Unity = [Arabic: rabbi l-ʿālamīn] = [Arabic: Allah] + = The Reality[50] + of which both Mind and Matter + are different aspects. + +2. Continuity 2. Continuity = [Arabic: raḥmāni wa r-raḥīm] = Force + or Energy. + +3. Unity 3. Order[60] = [Arabic: māliki yawmi d-dīn] = Order + or Process. + +What Sir Edwin Arnold calls the soul of Islam, _i.e._, the Principle of +Unity, so patently corresponds with the ultimate results of modern +Science and Philosophy, that I need not dwell on it at any great length. +It is sufficient to point out that Science has now proved three Unities, +the Unity of _Substance_, the Unity of _Force_, and the Unity of +_Process_; and Philosophy has shown that the three Unities resolve +themselves into One Infinite Power.[61] + + "There is no strength (to avoid } + evil) nor ability (to do good) } [Arabic: La hawla wa la quwwata + great and supreme." } ʾillā bi-llāhi alee-eil aẓīm.] + + _Maxim of Union and Loyalty._ + +2. How is the Maxim of Union and Loyalty inferred from the principle of +Unity? Man, being a creature of God, should try to be godly and godlike, +try to imitate God in actions, try to co-operate with his fellow +creatures for the good of all, and should thus attain the ideal: "Union +is Strength." This is the Islamic doctrine of Atonement[62] (= +at-one-ment [Arabic: fana fil-lah]): to be _at one_ with God by _union_ +and _co-operation_ with God's creatures so far as your and their +constitutions and environments allow. But you need not bother yourself +with theories at present. It will be enough if you remember that the +ultimate aim or the sole object of the Prophet's mission was to +establish the universal union and brotherhood of mankind by means of a +firm belief in the eternal truth of God's unity. He preached the Unity +of God and worked all his life for the union of men into a universal +Brotherhood. + +In order that you should _co-operate_, _i.e._, work together with your +fellow-men for the good of all, your work must needs be _co-ordinated_. +It must be guided and directed so that it tallies with the work of +others. This guidance and direction comes from your leader, whom you and +your fellow-workers must obey, in order to attain the best results. +Co-operation thus implies Co-ordination which requires a leader--Caliph +or King--whom you ought to follow loyally. _Loyalty to your leader_ is +therefore the gist of co-operation. The Qur'an and the Traditions are +full of injunctions for obedience to "those in authority among you" +[Arabic: ʾulī l-ʾamri minkum][63] "The surest way of pleasing God is to +obey the King." + +Modern Science teaches exactly the same thing. I have a series of little +books in my Library called "People's Books" published at 6d. each by +Messrs. Jack, London. One of them on "Zoology" is written by Professor +MacBride, F.R.S. He traces the development of Man from Protozoa,--little +specks of animalculæ--and points out how each species of animals has +risen higher than another by (i) greater "inventive capacity", the +capacity of adopting new means to an old end and old means to a new end: +and (ii) higher "tribal morality" implied in co-operation and loyalty to +leaders. He says: "Mankind progresses by the appearance of individuals +in whom (besides the inventive genius) the instincts of co-operation and +loyalty are more strongly developed". It is precisely those instincts +that Islam fosters by its doctrine of the universal brotherhood of +Muslims--a doctrine which implies primarily loyalty to your King. Just +as the affairs of a family like yours, consisting of a dozen members, +cannot prosper unless each follows loyally the lead of the eldest, or +the wisest among you; so the affairs of a nation can never be in a +satisfactory condition unless each individual is loyal to his King and +country, and co-operates with his Government by willingly doing what is +required of him. + +Muhammad enjoined [Arabic: utlibul ilm wa lov kaana bis seen] "Seek +knowledge even if thou hast to go for it to China"--(the farthest +country known in his days). + + Delve gems of Science divine + Ev'n unto Cathay's mine. + +He said that wisdom was the birthright of every Muslim who should seize +it wherever he found it. He thus encouraged the learning of Science and +the consequent acquirement of inventive capacity which is biologically +as essential for human progress as co-operation and loyalty. + +A study of animal life from the lowest animalcule to the highly +civilized man, teaches us to know, feel and act, in a particular manner, +_viz._, + +(_a_) to _know_ our environment, _i.e._, to know the + Laws of Nature in order to improve our + general capacity for invention, manufacture + and commerce, (Knowledge) + +(_b_) to _feel_ for our fellow-men in order to increase + mutual good-will so necessary for co-operation, (Sympathy) + +(_c_) and to _act_ for the general good of our race + under the guidance of our political and social + leaders, (Loyalty). + +"Knowledge, Sympathy and Loyalty" are thus the watchwords of the Science +of to-day no less than of the Islam of our ancestors.[64] + + + + ++Note 9.+ + +_Perfection and Self-help._ + + +Allow me to explain here that my object is not to persuade you to +believe what I say but only to make you think for yourself. I will +therefore avoid arguments and discussions as much as possible and +content myself with bare outlines of certain Islamic doctrines and brief +references to the corresponding ideas of modern Science. I shall be very +pleased if they serve to excite your curiosity and stimulate your +thought. + + +II. + +_Principle of Perfection._ + +1. The second Muslim doctrine which I have called the Principle of +Perfection may be inferred from the second part of the Sura:--It is +essential for our perfect development that we should worship God and +implore Him for help and guidance in the discharge of the three-fold +duty of our life. + +No sane man thinks that he is perfect as he is. There is always a +feeling of some sort in our mind that somehow, and in some respect or +other, we are not as perfect as we should be. It is to remove this +feeling of imperfection inherent in us that we have to worship God and +supplicate His help and guidance. If you ask: "Why should I worship +God?" Islam answers your question by asking another: "Why should you +admire beauty in Nature and Art?" You can answer only: "Because it is +beautiful. I am so constituted that I cannot do otherwise than admire a +beautiful object when I see it". You are unable to give any other reason +satisfactorily accounting for your admiration of the beautiful. Islam +returns a similar answer to your question: _"You should worship God +because He is God"._ You, as one of His creatures, cannot help +worshipping or reverently adoring Him when you see, at every instant of +your life, manifold manifestations of His divine Goodness and Beauty. +Some Sufis[55] even go to the extent of identifying God with "Infinite +Beauty" [Arabic: husn-e azlee] which is the object of their love +[Arabic: ishq] and ecstasy [Arabic: wajd]. + +You remember the verse which every devout Muslim recites when he hears +the news of the death of any one: [Arabic: inna lil lahi wa inna ilaihi +raji-ūn] + + "Verily we are God's and to Him we shall return". + +This as well as some other verses support the Islamic belief in the +re-union of a man's soul with God. As I have mentioned in my previous +Note, Islam conceives that there is but one Universal Soul. Small +parts--infinitesimal fractions--of the Universal Soul are confined in +men's bodies and break free at death to re-join the Whole[56]. This +belief is in entire accord with Sir Oliver Lodge's theory (or +"speculation", as he calls it) put forward in his book, _Faith allied to +Science_. Without stopping to enquire how far the belief indicated by +Qur'anic verses, or the theory advanced by a man of science, is +supported by scientific facts, I would only point out that it gives a +clear and intelligible meaning to the word "worship" [Arabic: ibadāt]. +It is the communion of the fractional soul, which is somehow confined in +a man's living body, with the Whole Soul, the Soul of the Universe, to +which it--the fractional soul--shall return some day freed from the +trammels of the flesh. This "communion" [Arabic: ibadāt] includes +Adoration [Arabic: tasbīh wa tahlīl] and Prayer [Arabic: du'ā]. + +I cannot do better than quote Sir Oliver Lodge's admirable description +of the meaning and object of Prayer:-- + + "In prayer we come into close communion with a Higher than + we know, and seek to contemplate Divine perfection. Its + climax and consummation is attained when we realize the + universal Permeance, the entire Goodness and the Fatherly + Love of the Divine Being." + + [[Arabic: al-ḥamdu li-llāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn, ar-raḥmāni + r-raḥīm.] + + Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, compassionate and + merciful, King of the day of Reckoning.] + + "Through prayer we admit our dependence on a Higher Power, + for existence and health and everything we possess; we are + encouraged to ask for whatever we need as children ask + parents; + + [[Arabic: adnee istajib lakum] Call upon me--I will + hearken unto you] + + and we inevitably cry for mercy and comfort in times of + tribulation and anguish." + + "The spirit of simple supplication may desire chiefly:-- + + "1. Insight and receptiveness to truth and knowledge. + + [[Arabic: iyyaka na'budu] We worship Thee alone.] + + "2. Help and guidance in the practical management of life. + + [[Arabic: iyyaka nasta'een] We seek help from Thee alone.] + + "3. Ability and willingness to follow the light + withersoever it leads." + + [[Arabic: ihdinas sirātal musta-qīm] Guide us into the + right path] + +Compare the verses I have placed in brackets with what Sir Oliver says, +and you will observe how well he has interpreted the Qur'an. It looks as +if he had the Opening Sura [Arabic: Sura al-fātiḥa] before him when he +wrote. Even the sequence of his ideas corresponds _practically_ with the +order of the verses. But you may be quite sure that he never thought of +the Qur'an at all. He evolved it all from his own inner consciousness +well trained by scientific studies. + +_Maxim of Self-help._ + +2. There are numerous verses in the Qur'an which enjoin "purification +[Arabic: tazkīm] of one's self" and prohibit "cruelty [Arabic: Tazkīya] +to one's own mind". They obviously imply the rule of conduct which I +have called the Maxim of Self-help. No one has expressed it more +beautifully and truthfully than Shakespeare in the well-known speech of +Polonius. + + This above all: to thine own self be true, + And it must follow, as the night the day, + Thou canst not then be false to any man. + +[Sidenote: Herbert Spencer, Prof. +T.H. Green, Lecky (Historian), +Profs. Muirhead, +Mackenzie, and Sen.] + +It is the basis of the ethical system advocated by authors mentioned in +the margin. There are at present two contending schools of Morality. +Each tries to determine what is 'good' or 'bad', and sets up a +'standard' or test by which men's actions should be judged as 'right' or +'wrong'. The standard according to the one school is Happiness (the +surplus of pleasure over pain); according to the other it is Perfection +(the fullest development of men as social beings). I think the latter +school is more in favour now than it was at the end of the last century. +Men of science now-a-days realize with Herbert Spencer that every one +ought to develop himself by freely exercising all the powers of his mind +and body to the fullest extent consistent with, and limited by, the +_like_ exercise by his fellow men.[57] I cannot expatiate on this +subject without entering into the realms of philosophy and metaphysics. +I have only to say that the teaching of Islam as regards +self-development is in entire accord with the views of latter-day +moralists. + +If you are a student of Ethics you will observe that the doctrine of +"making the most of oneself" (Perfection) is, in accordance with the +Islamic principle of Moderation, the mean of two extreme doctrines:--the +doctrine of "duty for duty's sake" (Rigourism) on the one hand, and the +doctrine of "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" +(Utilitarianism) on the other. + + ++Duty--Perfection--Utility.+ + +I have to add that "self-perfection" really means "self-help," = due +exercise of one's faculties with patience and perseverance. If you have +not read Dr. Smiles' book on Self-help, you had better read it at your +earliest convenience. I can recommend no better commentary on the +saying: "God helps those who help themselves."[58] + + + + ++Note 10.+ + +_Moderation and Via Media._ + + +Islam[59] is, so to speak, the youngest of all the great religions that +are now professed by millions of people. Like a child who is heir to all +the mental and physical tendencies inherited and acquired by his +ancestors, Islam inherited all the revelations which "one hundred and +eighty thousand" (_i.e._ innumerable) prophets had communicated to the +world before the advent of Muhammad. I have already referred to the +injunction, contained in the Qur'an, that we should believe not only +what was revealed to Muhammad himself, but also what was revealed to all +"Messengers of God" who had come before him; provided always that we +have authentic records of those revelations.[60] (This proviso is very +important.) It is therefore no detraction from the merits of Islam that +some of its doctrines resemble those of other revealed religions. Parsis +say that Islam borrowed: [Arabic: bi-smi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm] "In +the name of God the most merciful and most compassionate"[61] from their +holy scripture, Zendavesta, which begins with the words [Persian: ba nam +eezad ba bakh sha-inda bakhs ha bikasr meher ban gar.] Some Christian +writers on Islam seem to take delight in pointing out that the Prophet +of Arabia borrowed this, that, and the other doctrine from certain +Christians and Jews whom he had met in his earlier life. It is very +doubtful whether he had ever met such people. But it is certain that he +was too illiterate [Arabic: ummī] to understand their recondite +doctrines if they had condescended to teach him. Even if we admit that +he borrowed doctrines from other religions, his own religion is not +thereby rendered the less valuable; for there is no religion which is +_absolutely_ original. He never denounced former religions but only +claimed to have confirmed and supplemented them by the religion revealed +to him. He always referred to "former revelations" with great respect. + +Muslims picture the Supreme Truth as a beautiful citadel built on the +top of a steep mountain. Different religions are but so many paths +[Arabic: madhāhib] leading to it from different directions. In their +estimation Islam is the best and the easiest path of all. This fanciful +idea implies that some of the paths might cross each other at different +parts of their course, and others might run parallel to one another or +even run together for a considerable distance. Many religions may +therefore have certain doctrines bearing close resemblance to each other +like parallel paths. Some religions may even have certain doctrines in +common, like paths running together. All religions are, and purport to +be, paths leading to one and the same citadel of Truth.[72] None the +less has each of them an individuality of its own and a claim that it is +better and easier than all others.[73] + + +III. + +_Principle of Moderation._ + +I have prefaced this Note with the above remarks because the Principle +of Moderation and the connected Maxim of the Mean, which are indicated +in the third and last part of the Sura, were enunciated by Plato +[Arabic: Flatun] and his disciple Aristotle [Arabic: Aristo] who lived +more than 1,000 years before Muhammad. Some Muslims count those great +sages of ancient Greece among the innumerable (180,000) Messengers of +God who preceded our Prophet.[74] The records[75] [Arabic: sahaif] of +their sayings possess an authority second only to that of the Qur'an +itself, being in fact revelations which God vouchsafed from time to time +for the benefit and guidance of mankind. + +1. I need not repeat what I have already said as to 'the Path of Grace' +[Arabic: ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭa l-mustaqīma] being the _mean_ between two +_extremes_, 'the Path of Sin' [Arabic: ġayri l-maġḍūbi ʿalayhim] and +'the Path of Error' [Arabic: wa-lā ḍ-ḍāllīn]. I may however explain that +the pursuit of the Path of Grace implies the Principle of Moderation in +the sense that we should fully and freely exercise all our mental and +physical powers _with due regard to their respective limitations_. For +all practical purposes, you may take Reason, Passion and Action as the +principal representatives of a man's powers, and view Reason as the +guiding force in his constitution, Passion as the moving force, and +Action (voluntary acts and omissions) as the resultant of the guiding +and moving forces thus:-- + + Y ------------------------------------ P + / _.-' / + . / ary) _.-' / + n / unt _.-' / + o / ^ (Guide) (Vol _.-' / + s / / ion _.-' / + a / / Act _.-' / + e / / _.-' ant) / + R / / _.-' ult / + / _.-' (Res / + / _.-' / + /_.-' ---> Passion. / + O------------------------------------ X + (Mover) + +Now, the Principle of Moderation means simply that you should not allow +your passions to influence your actions unduly, nor should you allow +your reason to control your passions unduly; but you should ever try to +hold the balance even between them in order that the resultant action +might be quite right--might discharge the three-fold duty of man,--and +might thereby tend (be it in ever so small a degree) to the perfection +of the individual and the race. If at any time your passion over-rides +your reason, you commit Sin; and on the contrary, if you exercise your +reason so much as to stifle your passion altogether, you fall into +Error. If you permit neither reason, nor passion to discharge their +respective functions, you lapse into Inaction which is again an Error. +Undue suppression of Passion, and over-exercise of Reason, as well as +non-exercise of both--militate against the Principle of Moderation, the +essence of which is (as Aristotle pointed out) that no power should +tyrannize over any other in our constitution. + +What is "due" or "undue" exercise of a power, is a question which your +common sense should decide in each case with reference to the person +acting and the circumstances under which he acts. The only general rule +that can be laid down is implied in the ideal of perfection explained in +the previous Notes. Every exercise of any of your mental or bodily power +is right or wrong according as it does, or does not, tend to the +perfection of yourselves or your offspring, and your community or race. + +I have only to add that the Principle of Moderation, in the form in +which I have roughly described it, is fully recognized by such +up-to-date writers on the Science of Ethics as Sir Leslie Stephen, one +of the two talented Editors of the Dictionary of National Biography. + + +_Maxim of the Mean or Average._ + +2. Addressing Muslims the Qur'an says:-- + + [Arabic: wa-ka-ḏālika ǧaʿalnākum ʾummatan wasaṭan li-takūnū + šuhadāʾa ʿalā n-nās] + + "We have thus made you a middle nation (= a moderate + people) in order that you should be an example to + mankind."--i. 137. + +One of the ways in which God has made Muslims a moderate people is by +enjoining them to avoid extreme courses of action and to adopt the +middle or the mean course whenever and wherever it is possible[76]. + +The Maxim of the Mean is the objective counter-part of the subjective +Principle of Moderation. The latter says: Don't over--, or +under-exercise any of your faculties; and the former says: Don't have +too much or too little of any thing. Too much of any thing is good for +nothing. Too little of it is worse than nothing. "Too much" and "too +little" are relative terms and signify nothing by themselves. It is only +with reference to oneself and one's environment at any particular time +and place that they acquire a meaning as "excess" and "defect" +respectively. I cannot explain it better than give a few instances in a +tabular form where the "mean" comes between the "excess" and the +"defect" of a quality of the head or heart, or a course of action. + +(1) Qualities of the Head (Reason):-- + + _Excess. Mean. Defect._ + + Caution Prudence Neglect + Doubt Conviction Uncertainty + Conceit Modesty Diffidence + Sensitive Attentive Indifferent + +(2) Qualities of the Heart (Passions):-- + + Cowardice Courage Rashness + Sensuality Temperance Abstinence + Bigot Enthusiastic Lukewarm + +(3) Courses of Action:-- + + Restriction Liberty Licence + Flattery Courtesy Rudeness + Favouritism Justice Injustice + Prodigal Generous Miserly + +You will find out for yourself what are the appropriate qualities or +courses of conduct, of which the excess, mean and defect are expressed +by the words given above. Fear, for example, is the feeling of which +excess is Cowardice and defect is Rashness, while the mean is Courage. +Similarly as regards one's own opinion of one's powers, excess is +Conceit and defect is Diffidence, while the mean is Modesty. Again too +much or too little restraint on action is Restriction or Licence while +the mean is Liberty. + +It will be a useful exercise to make a long list of such words as +express the difference of _degrees_ of the various qualities or +functions of Reason, Passion and Action (= Knowledge, Feeling and Will.) +But it will _not_ always be possible to find three contrasted words, +like those in the table, for every quality or action; because no +language is so perfect as to have separate and single words to express +the immense number and manifold shades of ideas which our mind is +capable of entertaining. Still the fact is duly recognized by modern +Science that there are differences not only of kind but also of degree +in everything--ideas, feelings, desires, actions, objects and attributes +of objects--with which we are concerned. Although you may not have a +word expressive of degree in every case, yet you can _practically_ +ascertain the extremes and the mean in all cases without exception, and +can so order your conduct as to avoid the one and adopt the other in +all cases. I may point out here that "_the Mean_" is not the +"arithmetical mean" (like 6½ which is the arithmetical mean of 5 and +8) but only _an approximately medium or middle course of conduct--via +media_.[77] [Arabic: khair ul umūr ausatuha] + +You may object that, since the ascertainment of the mean in each case +requires calm thought with reference to yourself and your environment, +the rule is too difficult to follow in these days of quick +communication, speedy locomotion, and urgent action. I answer that it is +but an _ideal_ rule of conduct. Like all rules of Logic (Thought), +Æsthetics (Beauty), or Ethics (Conduct), it sets before you an ideal +which you should ever strive to attain though you may not attain it +fully at any time. No thinker may have been absolutely logical, no +Artist may have wrought a perfect work of beauty, and no man may have +ever been quite moral. But that is no reason why thinkers, artists, and +men generally, should not endeavour to attain perfection in their +respective spheres of thought and action. + +There is a further and greater objection to the rule of the middle +course, _viz._, that, if followed strictly, it will reduce all men to a +dead level of mediocrity, and will not foster the development of men of +genius. I have to admit regretfully that such will be the case, and, as +my next Note will show, it will be in accordance with a Law of Nature +recently discovered. Some writers have even attempted to prove that +_genius_ or excessive intelligence is a form of madness as bad as its +opposite form, _imbecility_ or defective intelligence. They seem to +believe that only the men of average intelligence are quite sane. + + Great wits are sure to madness near allied + And thin partitions do their bounds divide.--_Dryden_. + +The late Sir John Gorst created a sensation when he declared in the +House of Commons that great countries were governed by mediocrities +only. + + The world knows nothing of its greatest men.--_Sir H. + Taylor._ + + + + ++Note 11.+ + +_Evolution and Survival._ + + +It was Adolphe Quetelet, Astronomer-Royal of Belgium, who in the +seventies of the last century attempted to prove that "_the average man +is to a nation what the centre of gravity is to a body_." A similar, if +not quite the same, conclusion has since been reached by Sir Francis +Galton and Professor Karl Pearson in their researches into men's +physical and intellectual qualities in the light of Darwin's theory of +Natural Selection or Survival of the Fittest. This theory which, in its +more extended form, is called the Law of Evolution, has profoundly +influenced, if not entirely revolutionized, the Science and Philosophy +of our own times. It has _not_ however succeeded, as was at first +feared, in destroying men's belief in God, the Creator and Ruler of the +Universe. For it has done no more than disclose but a few of the +numerous ways in which He creates and rules. + +I have been a student of Evolution Literature ever since I left College. +Speaking for myself I can say that my study of it has not in the least +shaken my belief in God, but has rather strengthened it. I entirely +agree with a popular writer[78] on "the Scientific Ideas of To-day," who +says: + + "True Science does not seek to deprive man of his Soul or + to drive the Creator from his Universe, but it honestly + endeavours to study His marvellous works ... to see the + manner in which He has caused Nature to work out His + design." + +The Law of Evolution or the Development Hypothesis, as it has been +called, is in fact a clever guess at truth--very valuable as a formula +which enables us not only to remember the result of numerous +observations and experiments, but also to predict certain events to be +verified by subsequent observations and experiments. It is impossible to +convey a clear idea of it in a few sentences. A great man like Herbert +Spencer spent 50 years of his life in explaining and illustrating it in +no less than ten stout volumes of his "Synthetic Philosophy." The +central idea may however be expressed in the following propositions, +using the word "_thing_" in its widest sense as any object of +perception, or knowable objects[79]. + +1. Nothing exists absolutely by itself; everything exists in relation +with something else which is its "environment." + +2. A thing and its environment cannot exist side by side for any +considerable time without each affecting or influencing the other in +some respects at least: a thing A and its environment B, which cannot +but exist together, must needs act and re-act on each other. + +[Illustration] + +3. The action and re-action of the thing A and its environment B on each +other, brings about mutual adjustment, the fitting of each into the +other. + +4. According as this mutual adjustment or fitting is relatively +_complete_ or _incomplete_, there is Evolution or Dissolution, survival +or extinction, of the thing (A) itself.[80] + +5. The process of Evolution or Survival is characterized by:-- + + + (_a_) _Integration_: grouping together of certain + _like_ units (such as atoms or molecules, + living cells or individuals) into + a whole, + + (_b_) _Differentiation_: certain parts (or functions) + of the aggregated whole becoming + _unlike_ each other or specialized, + and + + (_c_) _Adjustment_: fitting of the aggregated + and differentiated whole into its environment. + +6. In the opposite process of Dissolution or Extinction the thing +undergoes the same changes in the reverse order before it disappears as +such. + +In other words, given a thing and its environment, the one has to adapt +and adjust itself to the other, or cease to exist. Nothing survives, as +an individual, which does not change. Like a picture in its setting, a +thing has to _fit_ itself to its environment in order that it might +survive for the best advantage of itself and its kind. Thus, the _fit_ +lives and the _unfit_ dies[81]. As the Qur'an expresses it [Arabic: +ʾanna l-ʾarḍa yariṯuhā ʿibādiya ṣ-ṣālihūn] "the Earth is inherited by +only the fit among My creatures."[82] This applies not only to plants +and animals, man and society, but also to inanimate or inorganic things, +as the President of the British Association announced some years ago. + +A man, for example, has for his environment, the atmosphere of the place +he inhabits, the society he lives in, the occupation he follows, the +laws he obeys, etc. He can live long and happily only when the qualities +of his body and mind befit him to that environment, _i.e._, when they +enable him (to become [Arabic: salih]) to adapt himself continuously to +the circumstances of his position. What, then, is the general nature of +such qualities? + +You know that one of the best methods of Science is Measurement. No +scientific knowledge is exact unless it enables you not only to +distinguish one quality from another, but also to measure each quality +or determine its degrees in some way or other. It is not sufficient to +know hot from cold but the degrees of temperature must be measured by a +thermometer. + +The new methods of Statistics and graphic representation have been +applied to a large number of men and women for the purpose of finding +"the fittest" qualities or "characters" as they are technically called. +Professor Karl Pearson[83] and others have thus found that among a large +number of men and women in a given community any physical or mental +character which deviates largely, by excess or defect, from the mean or +average, renders them the less fit to survive the struggle for +existence. _Individuals possessing any character which deviates +extremely from the mean tend to disappear_. For example, the average +height of men has been found by measurement of a large number of people +to be (say) 5ft. 6in. and it has also been found by statistical methods +that men who are 7ft. or men who are only 3ft. are very rare. It is +therefore concluded that men who are too tall or too short _i.e._, who +deviate extremely from the mean, tend to disappear and are therefore +_unfit_ to survive. + +This is only a rough and ready example of what is called the Law of +Periodic Selection which has now superseded the Belgian philosopher's +Law of the Average (or "the Mean"). It applies to human conduct as well +as to human qualities. That conduct alone (_i.e._, only that particular +course of deliberate action) befits a man to his environment, which +deviates the least from a standard or average of such conduct. It is the +indispensable condition of his happiness and longevity. + +You thus see that the Islamic Maxim of the Mean is justified by +Science. + + + + ++Note 12.+ + +_Religion begins with the fear of the Lord and +ends in the love of Man.[84]_ + + +Let me devote this concluding Note to a few general remarks. The +meanings and definitions of certain words given below are somewhat +arbitrary, but I trust they will enable you to understand and remember +certain abstruse matters. + + +I. + +(_a_) Take the word "thing" to mean any object of thought, such as, for +example, a house, a labourer, redness, distance, home, charity, +eloquence, or the British Constitution. All these are _things_ which you +can think of. + +(_b_) You may then define a "fact" as a known or knowable thing or +relation between things; in other words, a _fact_ is any thing or +relation, which you know or can know if you take the necessary trouble. + +(_c_) The word "Nature", with a capital N, is but a name for the +sum-total of all facts known and knowable. Poets, philosophers, and even +some men of Science, personify this sum-total of facts known and +knowable, _i.e._, _Nature_ and refer to it as "she" or "her". It is but +a convenient way of saying, by implication, that there is the same +uniformity, continuity and unity in Nature as in our idea of a person. + +Now, all thinking men of all ages of history have ever tried to +understand Nature as a whole and to answer regarding her three important +questions represented by three interrogatives, what? how? and why? + + (1) _What_ is Nature? = What are the facts + which constitute Nature. (Knowledge + of Nature). + + (2) _How_ has Nature come to be what she is? + = How is it that facts constituting + Nature have become as we perceive + them? (Explanation of Nature). + + (3) _Why_ is Nature as she is and not otherwise? + = Why is it that facts constituting + Nature have a certain uniformity + (order) continuity and unity in spite of + changes that take place continuously? + (Reason of Nature). + +Broadly speaking, I may say that Science (with its various departments +called "Sciences") tries to answer the first question _what_, the +question as to _facts_ of Nature. Philosophy tries to answer the second +question _how_, the question as to the _explanation_ of Nature. Religion +or Theology (which includes highest Poetry) tries to answer the third +and last question _why_, the question as to the _reason_ of Nature. You +may thus clearly remember the respective provinces of Science, +Philosophy and Religion by remembering three words What, How and Why. +When you read a book which treats of facts or the _what_ of Nature; or +of the explanation or the _how_ of her; or of the reason or the _why_ of +her; you may be sure it is Science, Philosophy or Religion respectively +that you are reading, whatever be the name of the book itself. + +I have said that Science, Philosophy or Religion "_tries_ to answer" and +not "answers", because the answer of any of them can never be final or +immutable. None of them can ever reach finality. As the experience of +mankind grows continuously, new facts or new phases of old facts are +discovered in the course of time. Just as men have to adapt or adjust +themselves to new facts (or to changes in old facts) or else die; so +men's Science, Philosophy and Theology have to adjust themselves to new +facts or else become empty nothings.[85] + + +II. + +I have often said that I believe Islam to be the best religion because +(so far as I know) it accords best with the current ideas of Science. If +you accept my view of the respective provinces of Science, Philosophy, +and Religion, you can easily comprehend that a Religion like Islam +which purports to expound the reason _why_ of Nature must needs +correspond with the _what_ (Science) as well as with the _how_ +(Philosophy) of Nature. The three great divisions of Human Thought--I +mean, Science, Philosophy and Religion--are necessarily connected with +one another, as otherwise they cannot make up _the whole Universe of +Human Thought_ and cannot satisfy men's craving for complete and +consistent knowledge. + + +III. + +The Law of Evolution which I mentioned in the previous Note is but a +Theory of Creation, an explanation of _how_ Nature has come to be what +she is. New facts which future ages may discover may prove the theory to +be either right or wrong. At present it is the best hypothesis--the best +guess--because it accords best with known facts. It acts as a guide to +knowable facts as well. It has shown that men cannot progress, indeed +cannot long survive, if they fail to adapt themselves to the +circumstances of their position, if they fail to fit into their +environment which surrounds them like an envelope. Ceaseless change is +the order of Nature. Continuous adaptation is the law of life. +_Adaptability_ is therefore the _sine qua non_ of men's life and +existence. The religion which suits them must also have the quality of +adaptability. I hold Islam has this quality in an eminent degree and is +therefore the most suitable religion. + +Please remember that I speak of Islam as taught by the Qur'an itself and +not "Muhammadanism" as professed by _some_ so-called followers of the +Prophet. You have to interpret the Qur'an[86] quite naturally as any +other book or historic document, but not in the way in which _some_ +Muhammadans do it with the aid of marvellous fictions and miraculous +traditions. Islam has to resist (to use a big word) the +_anthropomorphic_ tendency of the human mind, _viz._, the tendency to +view abstract _qualities_ or agencies as persons having a separate +existence as individual beings. + + +IV. + +I have said that there is no inherent antagonism between Christianity +and Islam _if_ and _when_ the sayings and doings of the founders of each +are rightly viewed and understood in a simple and natural manner. +Muhammad never ceased saying that he had come to attest and complete the +mission of Jesus and his predecessors, who were God's messengers like +himself.[87] The greatest and the best rule of human conduct which Jesus +laid down was: "Love thy neighbour as thyself". + + +You remember the well-known lines of Burns: + + O wad some power the giftie gie us + To see oursels as others see us. + +The gift which the poet prays for is vouchsafed to very few mortals. +Almost all of us have naturally, and often unconsciously, such a high +opinion of ourselves that, even if we would, we could not see ourselves +as others see us. The next best thing that we can do is, therefore, _to +see others as we see ourselves_, to cherish the same regard for others +as we instinctively cherish for ourselves. If (to take an extreme case +for example) we cannot detest ourselves as others sometimes detest or +hate us, we can at least try to love others as we love ourselves, "try +to do unto others as we wish that others should do unto us". Thus the +rule: "Love thy neighbour as thyself", is quite consistent with human +nature and is the most comprehensive rule of conduct which has ever been +laid down for the guidance of mankind. To my mind there is no better +proof of the identity in spirit of Christianity and Islam than the +confirmation of Christ's command by Muhammad himself. + + No-one will be a faithful | + Muslim until he loves his | [Arabic: La yu'minu ahdakum hatta + neighbour as he loves himself. | yuhibbu li ma yajib nafsahu] + +For this reason, I believe that there is no difference between the two +religions _if_ the metaphysical doctrines engrafted on both be +eliminated. _True Islam is but true Christianity writ short._[88] Both +recognize that the source of virtue is love, + + For love is Heaven and Heaven is love. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +_We are indebted to Mr. J.C. Molony for the following illuminating +criticism which affords food for serious thought--Editor._ + +If we assume the existence of a God, interested in the governance of +this world, it becomes impossible to deny that Muhammad was God's +messenger, or, at least, God's prophet. It seems to me unlikely that a +man could change the belief of nations by chance, incredible that he +should do so were he an impostor. Muhammad was certainly honest; the +persistence of the faith called after him leads me to consider him as +inspired. Or, if "inspired" be objected to as a general religious term +of very indefinite meaning, let us say that he saw into the heart and +reality of life further and more clearly than any man has done since his +day. How then comes the fact, noted by Amjad and Mahmood and admitted by +you, that Islamic countries in the main have wretched governments, and +are crumbling away before Christian Powers? I do not think that you have +answered this question[89]. You have merely pointed out that Islam, if +rightly understood, is an excellent religion. + +The boys, I think, have stated their dilemma too sharply; the contrast +is not entirely between Islam and Christianity. India is for all +practical purposes a "Hindu" country, and the power of the old Indian +Kingdoms has faded before Christian invaders. In that section of the +world in which Christianity is the prevailing and accepted form of +religious belief, the temporal might of those nations professing one +great form of the Christian creed, the Roman Catholic, has undoubtedly +waned in comparison with that of the nations professing what is +generally called the Protestant faith. There are many varieties of +non-Roman Catholic Christianity, but Protestantism is a label +sufficiently comprehensive and sufficiently well understood for our +purposes. I speak without sectarian bitterness; I am not, I fear, a +convinced adherent of any particular form of religious faith. I have met +many good men, and have many friends, among Muhammadans, Hindus, and +Roman Catholics. But I think that the objective truth of what I say, +particularly in the Christian sphere, is indubitable. Compare for +instance the decay of Spain with the grandeur of England, the feebleness +of Austria with the strength and order (turned to ill uses though they +may be) of Germany.[90] The question at once arises whether religion +has anything to say to the matter. I think that it has. + +Muhammadanism, Hinduism, and Catholicism (I omit the prefix Roman) have +concerned themselves too much with Heaven and Hell, with the avoidance +of future damnation and the obtaining of future bliss. These religions +have afforded some justification for the gibe that Auguste Comte +levelled at Christianity; he said that it sprang from "a servile terror +and an immense cupidity." Religion should be rather _a guide of life +here_ than _a guide to a life to come_. Kant would have curtailed the +beatitude "blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God" into +"blessed are the pure in heart". It is good to be good; it is not good +to be good in the hope of some ultimate gain thereby.[91] The great +Catholic Bishop of Pondicherry, Monseigneur Bonnand, wrote to one of his +desponding priests: "Continue a missionary to the end, and you will +assuredly be saved". In my opinion he was wrong; I should think little +of a missionary, whether Christian or Muhammadan, who endured the trials +of a missionary life (and some of those old French priests did endure +abundantly) solely in the hope of making a personal, albeit spiritual +and eternal, profit at the end of it all. + +Now, "Bishop Blougram", a character created by the poet Browning, though +supposedly inspired by the personality of Cardinal Wiseman, says in his +"_Apology_": + + There's one great form of Christian faith + I happened to be born in--which to teach + Was given me as I grew up, on all hands + As best and readiest means of living by. + +The same, I fear, might now be said of Muhammadanism. But to my mind +there is no fixity, no absolute truth in any form of religious dogma. +Religion is a thing that must grow with man's intelligence; it is not a +box of spiritual truths packed once and for ever, and unpacked for the +gaze of successive generations. It is not enough to believe in certain +facts that happened long ago, or to obey certain injunctions given long +ago in a particular country; we must apply the spirit of a religion to +the circumstances in which we live. We shall never attain to final +absolute truth, "the end is not yet, and the purposes of God to man are +but half revealed" (Jowett). + +Unfortunately when any religion has taken itself as final it has +developed a priesthood, and that priesthood has been apt to lay down a +code of fixed rules wherewith alone compliance is required. It is a +fatally easy thing to live in conformity with any definite code of +rules. Muhammad himself, I imagine, was a singularly liberal +theologian. He laid down certain regulations for the conduct of life, +excellent considering his place and time; the modern Muhammadan has +accepted these as a maximum spiritual demand, ignoring the fact that +they probably represented the minimum demands of common sense in +Muhammad's time and country. + +Muhammad directed that a Muhammadan should not drink alcohol. This is a +maxim of excellent sense in Arabia; Haji Burton, who much appreciated +good wine, has told us that in the Arabian deserts wine is positively +distasteful as well as unwholesome. I have not the least desire that +Muhammadans should drink wine. I merely say that there is no _merit_, +other than that of common sense, in obeying this excellent instruction +in countries wherein circumstances render it excellent. I do not believe +that Muhammad would find the least fault with disregard of his maxim in +countries where the climate makes the _moderate_ drinking of wine both +pleasant and beneficial. + +Muhammad instituted the Ramzan fast, mainly, I am told, to harden his +soldiers. But the Muhammadan of to-day finds a positive merit in +fasting. There is none; else the jockey's profession comprises the most +virtuous men in the world. + +Muhammad permitted polygamy, and enjoined the practical seclusion of +women. This, as Sir Syed Ahmad has pointed out, was the counsel of +common sense in Arabia at the time of the Prophet. Apparently there were +more women than men, and if a woman was not under the protection of some +man, and was not under guard, she was very likely to come to harm. But I +do not think that this counsel holds good for all time. Polygamy among +Indian Muhammadans is dying out, but the general Muhammadan here still +imprisons his womankind in the comfortable assurance that he is thereby +paving his own way to salvation. I do not see much hope for the physical +and mental development of Muhammadans so long as one half of the people +remains in seclusion and ignorance, in a habit of life necessarily +unhealthy. If you observe that you thereby escape the evils that are +published to the world in European divorce courts, I would answer that +in the first place I doubt the completeness of your escape, (it is a +matter on which I have heard much sardonic comment from Muslim friends), +and that in the second place, even granting what you say, 80% of women +free, educated, virtuous and healthy, is a far better result than 100% +merely virtuous, and that by constraint. + +Muhammad laid down that a man should pray five times a day. To my mind +this was merely the Prophet's way of saying that man's whole life should +be a prayer: the modern Muhammadan too often "repeats prayers" five +times a day and is satisfied. He might as well repeat the multiplication +table five times a day. "Words without thoughts to Heaven never go" said +the king in _Hamlet_. I do not know if our friend D.B. prays ten times a +day, or five times, or not at all, and (candidly) I do not care. All I +know is that in his responsible position he would die rather than take a +bribe, tell a lie, intrigue against his master. And I fancy that the +Prophet, could he return to earth, would find this abundantly +sufficient. + +You mention a few other points of orthodoxy; the cut of one's hair, the +length of one's trousers. Dr. Khaja Hussain told me that he once saw a +Muhammadan Street aroused to frenzy and riot by the appearance of a true +believer in Feringhi (or Kafir) boots. It is all of a piece. Muhammadans +have concentrated their attention on these ready-made rules for getting +to heaven; their prophet found no such easy road to bliss. I do not +imagine that it would ever have occurred to his great soul to claim any +particular merit in that he did not drink wine, in that he repeated +prayers (he at least understood these prayers) five times a day, in that +he did not let his wives roam the country a prey to any marauder of +those wild times. After all any one can obey these regulations with very +little trouble to himself; it is not quite so easy to adopt the spirit +that guided Muhammad's life. Sir Afsur, I do not doubt, will tell you +that it is an advisable thing for a soldier to drill smartly, to keep +his arms and accoutrements clean, and that with a little trouble it is +not difficult for a soldier to do all this. But he will tell you, I feel +sure, that this is far from being all; the supreme duty of a soldier is +to be brave in battle--an affair of much more difficulty. A soldier may +be smart and clean, but if he fails in battle his smartness and +cleanness are worth nothing--he is a bad soldier. + +Muhammadanism has lost touch with life; it contents itself with the +letter of the Prophet's teaching and shuts its eyes to, does not search +for, the indwelling spirit. It is a small kernel rattling in a very big +shell, as Charles Kingsley said in "Yeast" of the Church service at St. +Paul's in the fifties of the last century. _Religion has been divorced +from life, and so the followers of Islam as nations have decayed._ + +It is the same with the other religions that I have mentioned. The old +time Brahmin called himself such because he was educated, intelligent, +sanitary in his habits, upright; he did not claim to be all this simply +because he was the son of his father. The great obstacle to progress +down here is the fact that people imagine it is sufficient to follow in +a mechanical unintelligent way the letter, while totally disregarding +the spirit, of some old and after all not very important rules. Ireland +is said to have been an "Isle of Saints", I have my doubts on the +subject, but suppose it so. It is now full of fine churches and +religious establishments; no people in the world go to church with +greater regularity, abstain more thoroughly from meat on Fridays, etc. +etc. But with the mechanical observances they are, I fear, too well +satisfied. Drunkenness, idleness, utter disregard for truth, are rampant +in Southern Ireland, and therefore Southern Ireland is what it is. +Formal devotion is no substitute whether in the daily battle of the +world, or (I believe) in the ultimate judgment of God, for the proper +ordering of one's every day actions. + +If Muhammadans breathe the breath of life on the dry bones of their +religion I see no reason why the temporal power of Islamic countries and +the spiritual strength of the Muhammadan Church should not revive. +Something of the kind has happened in France. Zola cried out against +"the nightmare of Catholicism"; antagonism to the Catholic Church had +been growing up long before M. Combes started to "strafe" the religious +establishments of the country. The orthodox imagined that France was +losing all religion: Auguste Comte, an unbeliever, proclaimed that +France was daily becoming more religious. Rènè Bazin, a Catholic writer, +implicitly admits that Comte was right. The people were sick of the dry, +lifeless, formal rules that were offered to them; the priesthood have +had this truth hammered into them, and they are quickening their formulæ +with life to fit the life of the people, not striving to dessicate the +people's life to fit their formulæ. + +J.C.M. + + +As a _socio-political institution_ Islam is, in the middle of its +fourteenth century (1340 A.H.), in the same vicissitudes of development, +as Christianity was in the middle of _its_ fourteenth century (1350 +A.D.)--an institution weakened by contending sects and rendered stagnant +by rigid formalism. "It is a dispensation of providence", says Syed +Ameer Ali, "that whenever a religion becomes reduced to formalism +cross-currents set in to restore spiritual vitality." As in Christianity +in its fourteenth century, so in Islam of our own times, the vitalising +cross-currents have set in and we are now witnessing a Muslim +Renaissance all over the world. Its pioneers in India were Sir Syed +Ahmad, Mowlana Shibli, and the poet Hali. The Rt. Hon. Ameer Ali, Dr. +Iqbal and a host of others bear aloft the New Light. The Muslim +Reformation is coming on as surely as the Christian Reformation came in +the wake of Patristicism and Formalism. It need not necessarily mean +Political Revolutions as in Europe. + +A.H. + + + + + OUR PRAYER. + + 1. + + All praise is due to Thee, O God! + None other than Thee we adore. + Thou art the Master of the Worlds, + Thine aid alone do we implore. + + + 2. + + Thou art Compassion; lead Thou on + To Thy right path our human race. + Thy Mercy floweth evermore, + Do guide us to the path of Grace. + + + 3. + + Thou art the Lord of Judgment-day, + For sure shall all be judged by Thee, + O keep us off the path of Sin + And Error's way. So mote it be! + + _Abdur Rahim._ + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + [1] Translated by Mushtari Begum of Bejnor and + published in the _Islamic Review_ April 1916. + + [2] This was written in 1917. + + [3] By the word "best" I mean "the most suitable + for both the spiritual and material needs of man." I do + not wish to cast any reflection on any other religion. See + Note 7. + + [4] I make a difference between Islam and Muhammadanism. + The latter is not pure Islam. It has forgotten the + _spirit_ of Islam and remembers only the _letter_ of its + law. "The dry bones of a religion are nothing; the spirit + that quickens the bones is all." See Note 5. + + [5] There is no place in Islam for either priests + or monks. Yet the Muhammadanism of to-day has both. There + are Tartuffes and Pecksniffs in this religion as well as + in any other religion. + + [6] This is the real reason of the political and + social weakness of most Islamic countries of our own + times. + + [7] The teaching of Muhammad has been admirably + summarised by a Christian writer as follows:-- + + "There is no deity but God. He created the Universe and + rules it with love and mercy. He alone is to be + worshipped; in Him confidence is to be placed in time of + adversity. There must be no murmurings at His decrees; + life--your own and others dearer than your own--must be + placed in His hands in trust and love." + + I do not believe that there is any monotheistic religion + in the world which will dissent from this teaching. The + writer (in the _Harmsworth Encyclopedia_) goes on to + say:-- + + "The fatalism which has come to be regarded as part of the + Moslem creed had no place in the system established by + Muhammad who again and again distinctly and emphatically + repudiated the idea. Muhammad taught _reform_, not + _revolution_." + + In these days of political unrest I cannot impress on you + too strongly the meaning of the last sentence in which I + have italicised two words. + + [8] See p. 33 para. 6. + + [9] The Author has not kept copies of these + letters.--_Ed._ + + [10] The Qur'an speaks very highly of Jesus:-- + + [Arabic: smuhu lmasīḥu ʾīsā bnu maryama waǧīhan fī d-dunyā + wa-l-ʾāḫirati wa-mina l-muqarrabīn] + + "His name is Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious + both in this and in the next world. He is one of those who + have near access to God."--iii. 40. + + [11] Published and sold by the Rationalistic Press, London + for 6d. + + [12] The translation of the Sura in this analysis is + slightly different from that given in the succeeding + page.--_Ed._ + + [13] "It is strange": says Havelock Ellis, "men seek to + be, or to seem, atheists, agnostics, cynics, pessimists; + at the core of all these things lurks religion.... The men + who have most finely felt the pulse of the world and have, + in their turn, most effectively stirred its pulse, are + religious men."--_New Spirit, 228._ + + [14] The word "religion" also means a system of beliefs + and rites pertaining to them. I do not use the word in + that sense here. + + [15] _i.e._, the world such as we perceive and conceive + it. + + [16] "I know that even the unaided reason, when correctly + exercised, leads to a belief in God, in the immortality of + the soul, and in a future retribution"--_Cardinal Newman._ + + [17] Prof. Scott Elliot at the end of his book, + _Prehistoric Man_ (p. 381) writes thus: "It seems true + that almost every race of man is not only capable of + believing in a Supreme God but, so far as the evidence + goes, did reverence one God who was often also thought of + as the Creator of the Sky or of the World.... There is a + very strong body of evidence showing that every race of + mankind possessed quite early in its development a feeling + of awe and reverence towards an Unknown God." + + [18] There are at present three missionary religions in + the world--religions which were intended and designed by + their respective founders to unite all men without any + distinction into a Universal Brotherhood. + + (1) Buddhism asserts that God is Law or Wisdom. + + (2) Islam teaches that God is Energy or Power. + + (3) Christianity says that God is Father or Love. + + But all these religions inculcate in fact one and the same + Truth in its three aspects, as Muslim Sufis would say. I + believe the gist of doctrines held by them is that God is + Omnipotent _Energy_ manifesting itself uniformly as _Law_ + and operating benevolently as _Love_. + + Wisdom = Power = Love. + + You should try to solve the equation for yourself. You + will not fail to understand it if you think hard. + + [19] Here again taking the three missionary religions + mentioned above, the Identity is:-- + + Creator = Preserver = Adjuster. + + God said unto Moses, _I am that I am_--_Exodus, iii, 14._ + + [20] Some Sufis define Nature as Individual _plus_ his + Environment. By _individual_ they mean any one capable of + thinking of himself as "I" or "Me" and every thing else as + "not I" or "not me" which is his _environment_. + + [21] It may be said that all the three ideas of God's + relation with Nature (the three "isms" I have mentioned in + brackets) are but different _degrees_ of a man's desire + for communion with his God. Says Rumi in his celebrated + _Masnavi_: "All religions are in substance one and the + same"--Bk. iii, story 12 (St. Daqúqi). + + [22] See last para. of Note 4 and also Note 10. [Arabic: + at ṭuruq li-llah-i bi ḥis-bil anfus] There are as many + ways leading to God as there are minds. + + [23] "Religion places the human soul in the presence of + its highest ideal (=God), it lifts it above the level of + ordinary goodness, and produces at least a yearning after + a higher and better life in the light of God."--_Max + Muller_. + + [24] Sura = Chapter. + + [25] Absolute = not conditioned by place time measure or + circumstances. Infinite = without beginning or end. + + [26] "The proper name of the religion preached by Muhammad + is Islam."--Sale + + [27] The word "Islam" means literally (1) resignation (2) + preservation and (3) peace. Lord Tennyson has most + admirably expressed the Islamic ideal of self-surrender to + the will of God and has incidentally decided the vexed + question of free-will in a single line:-- + + "_Our wills are ours to make them Thine._" + + [28] By Christians in European countries. + + [29] "The proper name of the religion preached by Muhammad + is Islam"--_Sale_. See p. 37. + + [30] I use the word in the restricted sense of "Islam as + taught by Muhammad." If you take Islam to mean belief in + one God and virtuous conduct in life, you may say that + there has not been and will never be any true religion + besides Islam. In this sense Islam is the only true + religion. See p. 27, last para. of Note 2 p. 19, and of + this Note pp. 33, 34. + + [31] "A man must not do reverence to his own sect or + disparage that of another man without reason. Deprecation + should be for specific reasons only, because the sects of + other people all deserve reverence for one reason or + other. By thus acting, a man exalts his own sect, and at + the same time does service to the sects of other people. + By acting contrariwise, a man hurts his own sect and does + disservice to the sects of other people."--King Asoka's + _Edict XII_. + + "Every sect favourably regards him who is faithful to its + precepts, and, in truth, he is to be commended."--Akbar, + (Ain Akbari III). + + [32] See p. 55. + + [33] Muslim = resigned and submissive, therefore, + _peaceful_. + + [34] See Foot note [30]. + + [35] Compare _the Bhagvat Gita_, iv. 7-8:-- + + "Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bharata, + and there is exaltation of unrighteousness, then + _I myself come forth_; + + For the protection of the good, for the destruction of + evil-doers, for the sake of firmly establishing + righteousness, _I am born_ from age to age." + + The words _italicised_ suggest the Hindu doctrine of + Incarnation and Metempsychosis. Orthodox Muslims do not + believe in any such doctrine ([Arabic: hulool wa + it-ti-had]) but would substitute for the italics the + words: _I send a messenger or reformer._ See, _e.g._, + Quran, xvi. 36. + + [36] To students of Islam and its history I cannot + recommend better and more useful books than the Rt. Hon. + Dr. Syed Ameer Ali's _Spirit of Islam_ and _History of the + Saracens_. New and revised editions have been recently + published. They present the various aspects of Islam in + their proper perspective. They are classics for English + readers. + + [37] "Grant the existence of God and it is impossible to + deny that Muhammad was His Messenger. A man does not + change the belief of half the world by chance." So wrote a + Christian friend of mine. + + [38] Muslim = resigned or submissive, therefore, peaceful. + + [39] I mean "goodness and greatness" as a _human being_, for + Muhammad never said or did anything to show that he was not + a human being. The Qur'an commanded him, "Say I am a man + like yourself." [Arabic: qul ʾana bašarun miṯlukum] He + therefore insisted that men should attach greater importance + to the nature of the message than to the character of the + messenger himself. "I am," said he "no more than a man: when + I order you anything with respect to religion, receive it, + and when I order you about the affairs of the world then I + am nothing more than a man." + + [40] "Ahmad" is another name of Muhammad. I have nothing + to say to those mystics, who, by a reasoning peculiar to + their doctrines, identify the Messenger (Prophet) with the + Master (God). + + [41] Nor indeed is Jesus answerable for the Inquisition + and _autos-da-fe_. + + [42] "These are parables which we have set forth for + men--Q. xxix. 43. + + [43] [Arabic: yow-mud-dīn] = the day of the Faith = the + time of Dissolution predicted by Islam as well as by + Science. Sir Syed Ahmad fully explains the meaning of + [Arabic: qiya mat-e-kubrā] = Universal Destruction and of + [Arabic: qiya mat-e-sughrā] = individual destruction, + (_i.e._, death) from the viewpoint of modern Science. + + [44] As regards miracles, the beliefs that are held do not + matter so much as the spirit in which they are held. If + the spirit is right and leads to virtuous conduct in life, + any reasonable belief will quite do. Here comes in the + Pragmatism of Islam. It does not object to anything which + has a _practical value_ unless it is unreasonable, + immoral, or inconsistent with the Islamic ideas of the + unity of God and the brotherhood of man. + + [45] "We will soon show them our sign in all horizons (= + regions) and in their own souls, until it shall become + quite clear to them that it is the Truth--Qur'an xli 53. + + [Arabic: sa-nurīhim ʾāyātinā fī l-ʾāfāqi wa-fī ʾanfusihim + ḥattā yatabayyana lahum ʾannahu l-ḥaqqu] + + [46] God's is the East and the West, therefore whichever + side you turn, you will see the face (= presence) of + God--Qur'an i. 115. + + [Arabic: wa-li-llāhi l-mašriqu wa-l-maġribu fa-ʾaynamā + tuwallū fa-ṯamma waǧhu llāhi] + + [47] And He is within you (= in your mind), why don't you + see Him?--Qur'an li. 21. [Arabic: wa-fī ʾanfusikum ʾa-fa-lā + tubṣirūna] + + [48] Islam must not be confounded with what is called + "Muhammadanism" which is but an ossified form of Islam, + clothed in Mediæval beliefs and disfigured by pagan + practices. See Mr. J.C. Molony's admirable report of the + Census of the Madras Presidency for 1911, where, quoting + from the poet Hali's famous _Musaddas_, he describes how + far Muhammadanism in Southern India has been influenced by + Hinduism. Read also Hali's excellent pamphlet called + [Arabic: al-dīnu sarih] "the Simplest Religion" which describes how + Islam has been "ossified," _i.e._, rendered rigid and + unprogressive. + + [49] I know of no religion which does not say, "Do good + and avoid evil" and I consider it no religion which does + not say, "Live well and happily." + + [50] Ghalib: + + [Urdu: * Hum ko ma'loom hai jannat ki haqiqat laikin + * dil kay khoosh rakhnay ko ghalib ye khiyal + achcha.] + + [51] See p. 24 above. + + [52] It supplies the best motive for overcoming the + perversity of human nature to which St. Paul directs our + attention in these beautiful words: "The good that I + would, I do not: and the evil which I would not, I + do."--Rom. vii. 19. + + [53] Read Draper's "Conflict between Science and Religion" + which is a historical account of how some scientific ideas + had to contend with religious prejudices--a book which, by + the way, disproves the charge that Caliph Omar destroyed + the great Library at Alexandria. + + [54] God reveals Himself to everybody at every instant of + his life. It depends entirely on the spirituality or + spiritual capacity of each individual to what extent he + knows God and God's ways. The "spiritual capacity" is + partly inherited from one's ancestors and partly acquired + by faith and devotion, as well as by right conduct and + good works. + + [55] [Persian: Neest bar lohe delam joz alefe ghamat yar + * che konam harf degar yaad nadad ostadam] The _Alif_ of + the Loved One's form is engraven on my heart, No other + letter did my Shaikh ever to me impart--_Hafiz_. + + [56] See Note 2. + + [57] I have neither time nor space to explain the full + significance of the Qur'anic verses I have quoted here. + + [58] Some would call this Reality, God; but others would + say that God is greater and higher than the Reality which + manifests itself in different forms. He is above all that + any man can think of or imagine. [Arabic: Au bar taraz + khiyal wa qiyas guman wo waham.] + + [59] Vol. ii. 748. You have to read the book itself to + understand this. I cannot explain it in a short note. + + [60] I have neither time nor space to explain the full + significance of the Qur'anic phrases I have mentioned + here. + + [61] "In the world there is nothing so great as man. In + man there is nothing so great as mind"--_Sir William + Hamilton_. + + "In the mind of man there is nothing so great as the idea + of God"--_Islam_. + + [62] This is quite different from the Christian doctrine + of Atonement. + + [63] It was the spirit of co-operation which Islam + engendered among wild and unruly Arabs, that enabled them + to put aside their tribal feuds, to unite and conquer more + than half the known world in the first century of the + Hijri era (= the 7th century of the Christian era). It was + the lack of that spirit in the next two centuries that + dismembered the Muslim Empire. + + [64] I say "_the_ Islam of our ancestors", because the + Islam of _some_ of our contemporaries, called + Muhammadanism, is not quite the same. + + Read Prof. Gregory's _Discovery or the Spirit and Service + of Science_. + + [65] "Sufis" are those Muslims who claim with Mowlana Rumi + + [Persian: maazey quraan ra badashtaim istekhwan beish + sagaan andakhtum] + + "We have taken the marrow out of the Qur'an and thrown the + bones to dogs," meaning by "dogs" those who quarrel over + words ([Arabic: mutakallimin]) of the sacred texts. + + [66] "Man" says Carlyle, "is a symbol of Eternity + imprisoned into Time." + + [67] This proviso defines also the Liberty of Subjects in + a State. Every man should be free to do whatever he wishes + provided that he does not thereby prevent others from + enjoying the _like_ liberty of action. It is the basis of + all good Laws which should provide _equal opportunities_ + to all subjects without distinction. + + [68] Muhammadans generally misunderstand and misapply the + doctrine of "Qismat" or Fate. The Prophet distinctly + taught that we should first of all do whatever lies in our + power and then leave the rest to God. We are apt to forget + the first part of his precept and cling to its second part + only which accords with our tropical laziness. See + footnote (7) on page 12. + + [69] [Arabic: ḏālika d-dīnu l-qayyim] = It (Islam) is the + standard religion.--Q. xii. 41. + + [70] Islam rejects some "previous revelations" not because + they are untrue but because their records that have come + down to us are not quite genuine and trustworthy. + + [71] The heading of all chapters except one of the Qur'an. + + [72] "Mankind comes to Me along many roads; and on + whatever road a man approaches Me on that road do I + welcome him, for all roads are Mine."--_Bhagawat Gita_. + [al turuk ila-allah bihasbi anf] See p. 24. + + [73] See Note 2 (concluding part) which mentions three + common factors in all religious systems of the world. + + "The city of the Hindu God is Benares and the city of the + Muslim God is Mecca. But search your hearts and there you + will find the God both of Hindus and Muslims. If the + Creator dwells in tabernacles only, whose dwelling is the + Universe?"--_Kabir_. + + [74] Some Muslims believe that Zoraster, Krishna, Buddha, + and Confucius were also prophets or messengers of God but + that they were no more than good and great men. They do + not attribute any divinity to them. + + "Religion", said Hitchcock, "implies Revelation". By + "Revelation" is meant a set of sublime (and therefore, + divine) truths revealed, _i.e._ communicated from time to + time to chosen men (= Prophets) who had the necessary + spirituality to comprehend them and to convey them, as + God's messages, to their fellow-men in the _human_ + language of themselves. The defects (if any) found in the + authoritative records (= Scriptures [Arabic: ṣaḥif]) are the + defects in the human language and not certainly in the + sacred and sublime truths revealed to the chosen men, the + Messengers of God. It is the defect of _human_ + understanding, no less than the poverty of _human_ + language, that has often prevented the full comprehension + of the divine dispensation and the sublime truths in the + messages of Prophets. It is _our_ comprehension of the + truth itself that has given rise to diversity in religious + beliefs and practices. + + [75] Provided they are authentic and genuine and not + altered by interpolations and omissions. + + [76] Neither the Bible nor the Qur'an is responsible for + the cruel excesses committed by Christians or Muhammadans + in the name of Religion. + + [77] "The best of things is the medium thing"--_Muhammad_. + + [78] Charles R. Gibson. + + [79] _Vide_ Note 12 para. marked (a) p. 79. + + [80] For the purpose of this Note it will be enough if you + understand the first four propositions. I am afraid you + will find some difficulty in understanding the remaining + two propositions without illustrative examples, for which + I have no space here. + + [81] "For _such as be_ blessed of him shall inherit the + earth, and _they that be_ cursed of him shall be cut + off."--Psalm 37th, 22. + + [82] Qur'an, xxi. 105. Following the late Mr. Justice + Karamat Hussain of Allahabad, I take the word [Arabic: + saleh] to mean "fit" in the evolutionary sense. See his + book [Arabic: ilm-ul-akhlakh]. + + [83] He edits a journal called "Biometrika" which is + devoted to the statistical study of biological problems. + + [84] Prof. Muirhead of the University of Burmingham, in + his kind letter to the author on these "Notes." + + [85] Hence Formalism creeps into every Religion and + renders it lifeless when its doctrines fail to adjust + themselves to new facts or to changes in old facts. See + _Appendix_. + + [86] It should be construed and applied to new ideas and + changed circumstances of each age in quite the same manner + as Judges in a Court of Law construe and apply old + Statutes to facts of cases that come before them. See + Hali's [Arabic: al-din yassin] + + [87] See the verse of the Qur'an quoted on p. 33. + + [88] Or say: True Christianity is but true Islam writ + large. "On the whole this religion of Mahomet's is a kind + of Christianity."--_Thomas Carlyle._ + + [89] See hints:--Para 3 of Note 5 pp. 31, 32; Footnote + (48) p. 43; Footnotes (4) and (5) page 12; Footnote + (85) p. 81. + + [90] Written in 1917. + + [91] Cp. Note 7. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes on Islam, by Ahmed Hussain + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES ON ISLAM *** + +***** This file should be named 25254-0.txt or 25254-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/2/5/25254/ + +Produced by Turgut Dincer, Michael Ciesielski and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes on Islam + +Author: Ahmed Hussain + +Editor: Khan Bahadur Hajee Khaja Muhamma Hussain + +Release Date: April 30, 2008 [EBook #25254] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES ON ISLAM *** + + + + +Produced by Turgut Dincer, Michael Ciesielski and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id= +"Page_1">1</a></span></p> + +<h1><b>NOTES ON ISLAM</b></h1> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h3>SIR AHMED HUSSAIN, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.<br /> +<small>(NAWAB AMIN JUNG BAHADUR)</small></h3> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<h4>Collected and Edited<br /> + <small>by</small><br /> + Khan Bahadur Hajee Khaja Muhammad Hussain</h4> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<h5>"<i>The fear of the Lord is the beginning<br /> +of knowledge.</i>"—<i>Proverb</i></h5> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<h4>HYDERABAD, DECCAN<br /> +GOVERNMENT CENTRAL PRESS<br /> +1922</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>2</span></p> + +<h5><i>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</i></h5> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>3</span></p> + +<h4><small>TO</small><br /> +THE MEMORY<br /> +<small>OF</small><br /> + <big>K. AMJUD HUSSAIN.</big><br /> + <i>One of the four for whom these Notes<br /> +were first written,<br /> +in 1917.</i></h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>4</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src= +"images/printers.png" width="200" height="97" alt= +"Printers mark" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id= +"Page_5">5</a></span></p> + +<h3>FOREWORD</h3> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p class="small">The following Notes were enclosed by the author in +his weekly letters to his brother and sons who were students in the +Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh and Birmingham. I persuaded +him to allow me to have them printed, as I thought they were +suggestive and useful. He has however desired me to say that they +should not be regarded as anything but concise memoranda jotted +down (at short intervals between the busy hours of his official +life) as general answers to questions put to him. They contain some +passages which are too concise or abstract, if not vague or +enigmatic. But, the author says, he left them designedly so in +order to induce his readers to try to understand them or at least +to seek explanation and illustration. Numerous foot-notes have been +added for the same purpose.</p> + +<p class="small">He frankly admits that his view of Islam is +neither quite orthodox nor quite heterodox but something midway +between the two. It was put forward in order to make his boys think +for themselves and argue with him. The first three Notes may be +'skipped' at the first reading.</p> + +<p class="small">Sincere acknowledgments are due to Nawab +Imad-ul-Mulk Bahadur Bilgrami, <span class="smcap">c.s.i.</span>, +Mr. J.C. Molony, <span class="smcap">i.c.s.</span>, Khan Bahadur +Abdur Rahim, <span class="smcap">b.a.</span>, <span class= +"smcap">b.l.</span>, Mr. Syed Ross Masood, <span class= +"smcap">m.a.</span>, and others who very kindly read the proofs and +favoured the author with valuable suggestions.</p> + +<table width="95%" summary="foreword"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_30right"> Banganapalle,</td> +<td class="cell_right" rowspan="2"><img src="images/005_para.png" +class="floatInsert4" alt="paranthesis" title="" /></td> +<td class="cell_65" rowspan="2">K.M.H.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_30right"><i>11th August 1922</i>.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>6</span></p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Duty is Deity</span> <span +class="i0">Work is Worship.—<i>Sanskrit +Proverb</i></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>7</span></p> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table width="100%" summary="CONTENTS" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_90"> </td> +<td class="cell_right"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left" colspan="2"><span class= +"smcap">Foreword</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left2" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Muslim +Prayer</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class="smcap">Note</span></td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 1. Introduction</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 2. The First Chapter of the +Qur'an</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 3. What is Religion?</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 4. What is true Islam?</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 5. What is not Islam</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 6. "Islam" and +"Not-Islam"</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 7. Why is Islam the Best +Religion?</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 8. Unity & Union</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class= +"smcap"> 9. Perfection & +Self-help</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class="smcap">10. Moderation +& via media</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"> +<p class="two"><span class="smcap">11. Evolution & +Survival</span></p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class= +"smcap"> " </span> </td> +<td class="cell_90"> +<p class="two"><span class="smcap">12. "Religion begins +with the Fear of the Lord and ends in the Love of Man"</span></p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left" colspan="2"><span class= +"smcap">APPENDIX</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class="smcap">Muslim +Reformation</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_90"><span class="smcap">Our Prayer</span></td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id= +"Page_8">8</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Worship Truth</span> <span +class="i0">Love Humanity.—<i>Islamic Maxim</i></span></div> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id= +"Page_9">9</a></span></p> + +<h4><b>THE MUSLIM PRAYER.</b><a name="FNanchor_1_2" id= +"FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class= +"fnanchor">1</a></h4> + +<h4><i>Surai Fatiha</i></h4> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Praise be to Thee my God, Lord +of the Worlds!</span> <span class="i0">O Merciful, Compassionate +art Thou!</span> <span class="i0">The King of all on Day of +Reckoning,</span> <span class="i0">Thee only do we worship and +adore,</span> <span class="i0">To Thee, most merciful, we cry for +help;</span> <span class="i0">O guide us ever more on the straight +path,</span> <span class="i0">The path of those to whom Thou +gracious art</span> <span class="i0">On whom Thine anger falls not +then nor now,</span> <span class="i0">The path of them that from +Thee go not stray.</span> <span class="i15">Amen.</span></div> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id= +"Page_10">10</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Grant that the knowledge I get +may be the</span> <span class="i0">knowledge worth +having.—<i>Thomas a Kempis.</i></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id= +"Page_11">11</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<h2>NOTES ON ISLAM</h2> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<div class="center"><b>Note +1.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Introduction.</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/t.png" class="floatLeft" alt="T" />WO of +you—Lateef and Altaf—will recollect that more than a +year ago you wrote to me saying that you were puzzled by certain +questions which a Missionary had put to you. I remember that Amjud +or Mahmood even went so far as to ask what was the good of Islam, +when countries and people professing that faith had weak +governments and were crumbling to pieces under the influence of +Christian Powers.<a name="FNanchor_2_3" id="FNanchor_2_3"></a><a +href="#Footnote_2_3" class="fnanchor">2</a> I answered your queries +only in a general way as your University education had not then +advanced far enough. But I think the time has now come when I +should try to explain to you what I conceive to be the true spirit +of the religion of our fore-fathers.</p> + +<p>I firmly believe that Islam is the best<a name="FNanchor_3_4" +id="FNanchor_3_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_4" class= +"fnanchor">3</a> religion in the world—I mean, Islam rightly +understood and interpreted and <i>not</i> the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id= +"Page_12">12</a></span>Muhammadanism<a name="FNanchor_4_5" id= +"FNanchor_4_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_5" class="fnanchor">4</a> +of some of our formularist Maulavies,<a name="FNanchor_5_6" id= +"FNanchor_5_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_6" class="fnanchor">5</a> +who say that a man goes to Hell or Heaven according as he wears his +trousers lower or higher than his ankles! They have degraded our +religion by paying undue attention to formulas and forms to the +exclusion and neglect of its living spirit and reality<a name= +"FNanchor_6_7" id="FNanchor_6_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_7" class= +"fnanchor">6</a>. The poet Hafiz rightly stigmatised their vain +controversies when he said that +چون نديدند حقيقت ره افسانه زدند +"since they did not see the fact, they ran after fiction."</p> + +<p>I am more than ever convinced of two characteristics of +Islam:—</p> + +<p><i>1st.</i>—It is not inconsistent with <i>true</i> +Christianity, or with any other <i>true</i> religion<a name= +"FNanchor_7_8" id="FNanchor_7_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_8" class= +"fnanchor">7</a> of which the fundamental principle is +توحيد One God +لا شريك له و حده +"the Peerless One."<a name="FNanchor_8_9" id="FNanchor_8_9"></a><a +href="#Footnote_8_9" class="fnanchor">8</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id= +"Page_13">13</a></span><i>2nd.</i>—It conforms to modern +scientific ideas better than any other religion.</p> + +<p>I have already explained, in some of my letters<a name= +"FNanchor_9_10" id="FNanchor_9_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_10" +class="fnanchor">9</a> to you, why I believe that Islam is but a +continuation and consummation of Christianity as taught by Jesus +himself in <i>his own speeches</i> which are reported in the +Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament. We have nothing to do with +the interpretation of his words by his Apostles and others after +them. If we take the plain words and the plain meaning of those +words reported to have proceeded from his own blessed mouth,<a +name="FNanchor_10_11" id="FNanchor_10_11"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_10_11" class="fnanchor">10</a> we clearly see that they +teach the same sublime truths as our Prophet himself inculcated. +Jesus did not live long to complete his mission, Muhammad completed +it. Both were God's holy messengers +رسل ال. Says the Qur'an: "This +day I have completed your religion for you." +اليوم اكملت اكم دينكم</p> + +<p>I need not now go into details, or refer to other religions, to +shew that the spirit of Islam is not inconsistent with their true +spirit, if rightly conceived and interpreted in the light of modern +science. I hope I shall be able some day to write down the result +of my own thought and investigation in the matter. I <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span>content +myself at present with drawing your attention to the first +characteristic of Islam, and I propose to write a few Notes to draw +your special attention to its second characteristic which is the +more remarkable—the characteristic that it is quite +consistent with modern ideas of science.</p> + +<p>No scientific idea influenced the thought of the last century +more profoundly than the idea of progress or development embodied +in what is called the Law of Evolution. It is now widely accepted. +You will be surprised to know that many an Islamic tenet is +entirely in accord with it. Indeed Maulana Rumi outlined it +poetically in his famous <i>Masnavi</i> in the thirteenth century, +in the same manner as Lord Tennyson did in his <i>Princess</i> in +the nineteenth. I desire that you should try to understand it in +its modern form. I strongly recommend that you should read an +admirable book by Edward Clodd called <i>The Story of +Creation</i><a name="FNanchor_11_12" id="FNanchor_11_12"></a><a +href="#Footnote_11_12" class="fnanchor">11</a>. When I first read +it, some years ago, I felt it was as pleasant and interesting as a +novel. Its introduction and Part II are quite easy to read. They +will give you a very good idea of the great revolution which Darwin +and Wallace, Huxley and Spencer have wrought in the thought of our +own times.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id= +"Page_15">15</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 2.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>The First Chapter of the Qur'an.</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/t.png" class="floatLeft" alt="T" />HE following +is a translation of the "Opening Chapter" of our Holy Qur'an. I +have analysed it by placing Roman and Arabic numerals, the first +indicating verses آيات and the second +indicating sub-divisions of verses.</p> + +<table width="100%" summary="first sura" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1a"><i>Opening Chapter.</i></td> +<td class="cell_center1a"> +سورة فاتحة</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1a">In the Name of God<br /> +Compassionate, the<br /> +Merciful.</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left">I.</td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two">Praise be to God,</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">الحمد +لله</td> +<td class="cell_right">.I</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (1) Lord (Nourisher)<br /> +of the Worlds,</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">١) رب +العا لمين)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (2) the Compassionate,<br /> +the Merciful</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +٢) الرحمن +الرحيم)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (3) King of the Day<br /> +of Reckoning (= day<br /> +of judgment.)</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +٣) مالك +يوم الدين)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left">II.</td> +<td class="cell_center1"> </td> +<td class="cell_center2"> </td> +<td class="cell_right">.II</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (1) Thee only do we<br /> +worship,</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +١) اياك +نعبد)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (2) and Thee only do<br /> +we ask for aid.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">٢) و +مالك يوم +الدين)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (3) Guide us in the<br /> +right Path (that is)</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +٣) اهدنا +الصراط +المستقيم)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id= +"Page_16">16</a></span>III.</td> +<td class="cell_center1">the Path of those</td> +<td class="cell_center2">صراط +الذين</td> +<td class="cell_right">.III</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (1) to whom Thou<br /> +art gracious,</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +١) انعمت +عليهم)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (2) who are not objects<br /> +of wrath,</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +٢) غير +تامغضوب +عايهم)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (3) and who go not<br /> +astray.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">٣) و +لا +الضالين)</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1a"><i>Amen</i><a name="FNanchor_12_13" id= +"FNanchor_12_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_13" class= +"fnanchor">12</a></td> +<td class="cell_center1a">آمين</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The whole Sura divides itself into three parts and each part +into three divisions thus:—</p> + +<table width="100%" summary="first sura" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Part +I.</span>—<i>Nature of God</i>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="3"> +<p class="two">Three principal attributes of God:—</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (1) Creator or Nourisher</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">رب</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (2) Protector</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">رحمن و +رحيم</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (3) Adjuster</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">مالك +يوم الدين</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="3"> +<p class="two"><span class="smcap">Part II.</span>—<i>Man's +duty to God</i> lies in,</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (1) Worship</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">عبادت</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (2) Seeking His Protection</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2">استعا +نت</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1"> +<p class="two"> (3) Seeking His Guidance</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center2"> +استهدا</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="3">Part III.—<i>The +Straight Path</i> اسلام = +مذهب <i>for Man</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="2"> +<p class="two"> (1) the path of Grace (= path of +those who obtain Grace)</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="2"> +<p class="two"> (2) not the Path of Sin (=path of +those who deliberately go wrong).</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="2"><span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> +<p class="two"> (3) nor the Path of Error (=path +of those who by mistake go astray).</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left" colspan="4">Observe:—</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="3"> +<p class="one">(<i>a</i>) Each of the three duties in the second +part corresponds with the three attributes mentioned in the first +part.</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="3"> +<p class="one">(<i>b</i>) The third part, the Path of Grace, +<i>i.e.</i>, the straight path, is <i>the mean between two +extremes</i>—the path of deliberate sinners on the one hand +and the path of unwitting stragglers on the other.</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left"> </td> +<td class="cell_center1" colspan="3"> +<p class="one">(<i>c</i>) The Islamic prayer is simpler than the +Christian prayer. I do not say the one is good and the other is +bad. No; <i>both</i> are <i>very</i> good indeed, but the one +<i>seems simpler</i> than the other. Compare them.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table width="100%" summary="first sura" cellpadding="5" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50"><i>The Christian Prayer.</i></td> +<td class="cell_center50"><i>The Muslim Prayer.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50">THE LORD'S PRAYER.</td> +<td class="cell_center50">THE FATIHA.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50"><i>Adoration.</i></td> +<td class="cell_center50"><i>Adoration.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50"> +<p class="one">(<i>a</i>) Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed +be thy name. Thy Kingdom come.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center50"> +<p class="one">(<i>a</i>) Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, the +compassionate, the merciful, King of the day of reckoning.</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50"><i>Submission.</i></td> +<td class="cell_center50"><i>Submission.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50"> +<p class="one">(<i>b</i>) Thy will be done in earth<br /> +as it is in heaven.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center50"> +<p class="one">(<i>b</i>) Thee only do we worship and of Thee only +do we ask aid.</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" +id="Page_18">18</a></span><i>Supplication.</i></td> +<td class="cell_center50"><i>Supplication.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50"> +<p class="one">(<i>c</i>) Give us this day our daily bread. And +forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not +into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for Thine is the +Kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_center50"> +<p class="one">(<i>c</i>) Guide us into the right path—the +path of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, not the path of +those who are the objects of wrath nor of those who have gone +astray. Amen.</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center50r"><i>St. Matthew</i>, vi 9-13.</td> +<td class="cell_center50r"><i>The Qur'an</i>, i.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>If you will carefully compare the parts of each Prayer which I +have written as separate paragraphs marked (<i>a</i>), (<i>b</i>) +and (<i>c</i>), you will observe that there is difference only in +the language, but no difference whatever in the real meaning. There +is in both Prayers absolutely the same spirit of</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i>a</i>) Adoration,<br /> +(<i>b</i>) Submission, and<br /> +(<i>c</i>) Supplication.</p> +</div> + +<p>Both begin with the <i>praise</i> of the Lord to whom all praise +is due. This is followed in both by an expression of our <i>entire +dependence</i> on Him and submission to His will. Lastly, there is +<i>solicitation for guidance</i>, positive and negative, +<i>viz.</i>, guidance towards right action and guidance for +avoiding temptation.</p> + +<p>The three parts (<i>a</i>), (<i>b</i>) and (<i>c</i>) of the +Christian as well as of the Muslim Prayer are in<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> perfect +accord with the results of a comparative study of the religious +systems of the world. They correspond to three essential elements +in <i>all</i> religions, <i>viz.</i>,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(<i>a</i>) <i>Belief</i> in the existence of a +Supreme Power which is Infinite and Absolute,</p> + +<p class="two">(<i>b</i>) <i>Feeling</i> of man's entire dependence +on that Power, and</p> + +<p class="two">(<i>c</i>) <i>Desire</i> to seek or solicit guidance +of that Power in the daily life of man.</p> +</div> + +<p>You will thus see that both the Lord's Prayer in the Bible and +the Opening Chapter of the Qur'an go to the roots of all religions +ever professed by man. They are truly Universal Prayers. No man +need hesitate to join in the solemn recitation of either.</p> + +<p>We ought to view all monotheistic religions—religions +which enjoin belief in one God—in the spirit in which St. +Peter viewed them when he said (<i>Acts</i> x. 34-5): "Of a truth I +perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation +he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with +Him." The same is the spirit of the oft-repeated definition of +'Muslims' in the Qur'an: الذين +آمتواوعملوا +الصلحت "those who believe and +work righteousness." "Trust in the Lord and do good," as the Psalm +says.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id= +"Page_20">20</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<div class="center"><b>Note 3.</b></div> + +<div class="center">I.—<i>What is Religion?</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/i.png" class="floatLeft" alt="I" />have said +that <i>true</i> Islam is the <i>best</i> religion in the world. I +must prove my assertion. In order to do so I have to +explain:—</p> + +<table width="80%" summary="Religion"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_right">I.</td> +<td class="cell_90"> +<p class="two">What do I mean by religion?</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right">II.</td> +<td class="cell_90"> +<p class="two">What is true Islam?</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right">III.</td> +<td class="cell_90"> +<p class="two">Why is it the best religion?</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="center">I.—<i>Religion, God and Nature.</i></div> + +<p><i>Religion.</i>—No thinking man can help asking himself +the questions: "Whence has this world come? Whither is it bound to +go?" in other words, "What was the <i>origin</i> +مبداٌ and what will be the <i>end</i> +معاد of the world of men, animals, plants +and things that I perceive?" The answers which each man gives to +these questions constitute his <i>religion</i>. A few earnest +persons (poets, philosophers and theologians) try to answer these +questions for themselves by patient study and earnest thought<a +name="FNanchor_13_14" id="FNanchor_13_14"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_13_14" class="fnanchor">13</a>. But a large majority of +men and women merely take the answers taught them by their parents, +teachers or priests. There may possibly be a small number of men +who do not trouble themselves about these questions. These are not +"thinking men" and may therefore be left out of account.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id= +"Page_21">21</a></span></p> + +<p>Religion is a silent and subtle power that works in the heart of +man and makes for righteousness. It is generated by his conviction +as to the beginning and end of himself and the world in which he +lives and moves<a name="FNanchor_14_15" id="FNanchor_14_15"></a><a +href="#Footnote_14_15" class="fnanchor">14</a>.</p> + +<p><i>God.</i>—No intelligent and intelligible answers can be +given to questions as to the origin and the end or the government +of <i>Nature</i><a name="FNanchor_15_16" id="FNanchor_15_16"></a><a +href="#Footnote_15_16" class="fnanchor">15</a> without assuming the +existence of the <i>One and only one God</i> who is <i>Infinite</i> +and <i>Absolute</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, One who hath neither beginning +nor end and who is not conditioned or limited by anything +whatever<a name="FNanchor_16_17" id="FNanchor_16_17"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_16_17" class="fnanchor">16</a>. The Infinite and +Absolute One has been called by different names by different people +at different times<a name="FNanchor_17_18" id= +"FNanchor_17_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_18" class= +"fnanchor">17</a>. Yezdan, Ishwara, Jehovah, God, and Allah are the +names, in different languages, of the same <i>Infinite and Absolute +God</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">God of the Granite and the +Rose</span> <span class="i2">Soul of the Sparrow and the +Bee!</span> <span class="i0">The mighty tide of being flows</span> +<span class="i2">Through countless channels, Lord, from +Thee.</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id= +"Page_22">22</a></span><a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a +href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">*</a> <i>Conceptions of God, +His attributes, and His relation to Nature.</i>—These have +been and will ever be many and various. But I summarise three +principal conceptions under each head, for I believe that other +ideas, notions or conceptions are but combinations of two or more +of these:—</p> + +<p>I. Conceptions of God:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot">1. God as the Ultimate <i>Law</i>.<br /> +2. God as the Omnipotent Energy or <i>Power</i>.<br /> +3. God as the Supreme Being or <i>Person</i><a name= +"FNanchor_18_19" id="FNanchor_18_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_19" +class="fnanchor">18</a>.</div> + +<p>II. Notions of God's principal attributes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot">1. God as Creator or Nourisher.<br /> +2. God as Preserver or Protector.<br /> +3. God as Adjuster or Judge<a name="FNanchor_19_20" id= +"FNanchor_19_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_20" class= +"fnanchor">19</a>.</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">*</span></a><i>Paragraphs marked +with asterisks and their footnotes may be omitted at the first +reading.</i></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id= +"Page_23">23</a></span></p> + +<p>III. Ideas of God's relation with Nature<a name="FNanchor_20_21" +id="FNanchor_20_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_21" class= +"fnanchor">20</a> (<i>i.e.</i>, with the world of men, animals, +plants and other objects, and their inter-relations, of which men +are aware):—</p> + +<table width="80%" summary="God and Nature"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_left50">1. All is <i>from</i> God</td> +<td class="cell_left50"> +<p class="one">= God is <i>above</i> Nature which He created +and governs (Theism).</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left50">2. God is <i>in</i> All</td> +<td class="cell_left50"> +<p class="one">= God is <i>in</i> Nature although Nature is +not God (Panentheism).</p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left50">3. God <i>is</i> All</td> +<td class="cell_left50"> +<p class="one">= God <i>is</i> Nature and Nature is God +(Pantheism)<a name="FNanchor_21_22" id="FNanchor_21_22"></a><a +href="#Footnote_21_22" class="fnanchor">21</a>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>* The above is but a rough summary. I have neither time nor +space to explain and illustrate it. I have ventured to give some +hints—imperfect hints, I fear—in the footnotes. I may +however state here that, of the above three conceptions, notions or +ideas Islam accepts the medium or the middle one which, as a little +thought will show, includes the other two conceptions also. You +need not at present try to understand the summary or the words +given in brackets. My subsequent Notes will explain it to some +extent. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id= +"Page_24">24</a></span>Please remember that there are many men and +many minds, and that there are likely to be as many religions, as +many conceptions of God, as many notions of His attributes, and as +many ideas of the beginning or end of things, +(مبد اٌو +معاد) as there are <i>thinking</i> minds<a +name="FNanchor_22_23" id="FNanchor_22_23"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_22_23" class="fnanchor">22</a>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p>Let me conclude this Note with a short answer to the question +why religion is necessary to Man<a name="FNanchor_23_24" id= +"FNanchor_23_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_24" class= +"fnanchor">23</a>. No society is possible without religion, because +of the dual nature of Man. As our poet says, با +بها ئم بهره +داري با +ملائك +نيزهم and as all modern men of +science (such as Sir Oliver Lodge and others) admit, there is a +higher and a lower in every man's nature, the one lifts him up and +the other pulls him down in the scale of animal and social +existence. Religion is necessary in order that every man's higher +nature may conquer his lower nature in order that he may become a +social being who is virtuous and does good of his own accord, and +may not remain a mere beast whom the whip alone prevents from doing +mischief. It is religion that fosters high-thinking and +holy-living, so necessary for the advancement of the human +race.</p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id= +"Page_25">25</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 4.</b></div> + +<div class="center">II.—<i>What is true Islam?</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/t.png" class="floatLeft" alt="T" />HE answer to +this question is contained within the four corners, as it were, of +the Opening Sura<a name="FNanchor_24_25" id="FNanchor_24_25"></a><a +href="#Footnote_24_25" class="fnanchor">24</a> +سورة فاتحة +which is a general summary of the whole Qur'an. I have already +analysed it and asked you to compare it with the Christian prayer +called the Lord's prayer. I am sure you have noted and admired its +simplicity and clearness and its almost scientific precision and +comprehensiveness. I am only amplifying what I have already said +when I say that the Sura teaches three cardinal and eternal +truths:—</p> + +<p><i>1st.</i>—There is but One God who has created the +worlds, maintains them, and rules them. In the inimitable words of +the Sura of Purity.</p> + +<table width="100%" summary="Purity"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_25left"> </td> +<td class="cell_25middle"> </td> +<td class="cell_25middle2"> </td> +<td class="cell_25left">سورة +اخلاص</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25left">قل هو +الله احد</td> +<td class="cell_25middle"> Say, God is one.</td> +<td class="cell_25middle2"> </td> +<td class="cell_25right">= One.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25left">الله +الصمد</td> +<td class="cell_25middle"> God is Eternal.</td> +<td class="cell_25middle2"> </td> +<td class="cell_25right">= Infinite.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25left_m" rowspan="4">لم +يلد و لم +يولد<br /> +و لم يكن له<br /> +كفواً احد</td> +<td class="cell_25middle3"> He does not beget</td> +<td class="cell_25middle2" rowspan="4"><img src= +"images/025_para.png" class="floatInsert2" alt="paranthesis" title= +"para" /></td> +<td class="cell_25right2" rowspan="4">= Absolute.<a name= +"FNanchor_25_26" id="FNanchor_25_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_26" +class="fnanchor">25</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25middle3"> nor is He begotten.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25middle3"> And He hath no</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25middle3"> kith or kin.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><i>2ndly.</i>—(<i>a</i>) God being our Creator, we have to +<i>worship</i>, adore and love Him and Him alone. This is the duty +we owe to God. (<i>b</i>) Again, God being our merciful Preserver, +we have to seek the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id= +"Page_26">26</a></span>protection of Him and Him alone. This is the +duty we owe to ourselves. (<i>c</i>) Finally, God being our Judge +or Ruler, we have to solicit guidance of Him and Him alone. This is +the duty we owe to our fellow-creatures (including lower animals) +in the world we live in.</p> + +<p>You must not fall into the error of believing that God is +Creator at one time or place, that He is Maintainer or Preserver at +another time or place, and that He is Judge or Ruler at a third +time or place. No, no; He, being the One and only God, is all the +three together, Creator, Preserver and Ruler, at all times and in +all places. It is we who, in order to understand Him properly and +adore Him rightly, separate in our minds His three principal +attributes, and think of Him as our Creator <i>when</i> we worship +Him, think of Him as our Preserver <i>when</i> we seek His +protection, and think of Him as our Ruler or Judge <i>when</i> we +solicit His guidance. It is only we, finite and conditioned +creatures, that are tied down to and limited by time, place and +circumstances. To God there are none such. He is the One Infinite +and Absolute, the One who hath neither beginning nor end—the +One who is absolutely unlimited and unconditioned by time, place, +circumstances, or anything else. This is the Islamic conception or +idea of God.</p> + +<p><i>3rdly</i>.—What does the Sura teach us as to the +guidance which we have to ask of God in our dealings with our +fellow-creatures? It is guidance<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> into the straight path. What +is the straight path? It is the path of righteousness or the path +of <i>Grace</i> which is between two extremes, the path of +<i>Sin</i> and the path of <i>Error</i>. A Muslim's right path, +<i>i.e.</i>, his right course of conduct, lies between two extreme +paths or courses of conduct, <i>viz.</i>, on the one hand, the path +of those who sin, who knowingly and deliberately go against the +will of God, which is manifest in Nature, and on the other hand, +the path of those who unwittingly, through ignorance, go against +His will. The right path lies thus:—</p> + +<table width="100%" summary="the right path" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_32"><i>Path of Sin</i></td> +<td class="cell_2" rowspan="6"><img src="images/025_para.png" +class="floatInsert6" alt="paranthesis" title="" /></td> +<td class="cell_32"><i>Path of Grace</i></td> +<td class="cell_2" rowspan="6"><img src="images/025_para2.png" +class="floatInsert6" alt="paranthesis" title="" /></td> +<td class="cell_32"><i>Path of Error</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_32">which leads</td> +<td class="cell_32">which leads to</td> +<td class="cell_32">which leads to</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_32">to ruin or</td> +<td class="cell_32">eternal bliss.</td> +<td class="cell_32">confusion worse</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_32">destruction.</td> +<td class="cell_32"> </td> +<td class="cell_32">confounded.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>You thus see that <i>true</i> Islam consists in a threefold duty +to God, to oneself, and to others, and this duty is to be +discharged by simply adopting, under God's guidance, <i>the mean +between two extremes</i>. As our Prophet has pithily expressed it +خير الامور +اوسطها "the best of things is +the medium thing." This is the fundamental principle which +underlies everything which is Islamic or Muslim.<a name= +"FNanchor_26_27" id="FNanchor_26_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_27" +class="fnanchor">26</a> Please remember it, as also the three-fold +Islamic Duty:—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id= +"Page_28">28</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(<i>a</i>) Duty to God, which is Worship or +Adoration implying, as it does, complete submission to His will += اسلام</p> + +<p class="two">(<i>b</i>) Duty to yourself, which is +self-preservation or self-perfection += اسلام</p> + +<p class="two">(<i>c</i>) Duty to others, which is peace and good +will towards them = اسلام</p> +</div> + +<p>"Islam"<a name="FNanchor_27_28" id="FNanchor_27_28"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_27_28" class="fnanchor">27</a> as a religion means +nothing more nor less than those three duties.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_28a" id="Page_28a" />Islam is not Philosophy, much +less is it Science. It is but a Religion, <i>an attitude of man's +mind towards his environment</i>—the attitude of self towards +others and God. Both Philosophy and Science influence one's +attitude of mind. To that extent Islam has to reckon with both. It +is therefore that Sufis and other philosophic sects have risen in +Islam from time to time. The sphere of Islam is Faith manifesting +itself in good works; and the spheres of Science and Philosophy are +Knowledge and Reason. The latter often come into contact with the +former, but can never be identified with it.</p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id= +"Page_29">29</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 5.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>What is not Islam.</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/i.png" class="floatLeft" alt="I" />N my +previous Note I tried to sketch briefly what is true Islam. I now +offer a few observations on, or illustrations of, what is +<i>not</i> Islam. In order to know anything quite well, it is +desirable not only to know <i>what it is</i> but also to know +<i>what it is not</i>.</p> + +<p>1. The religion taught by the Qur'an and the Traditions +احاديث of our Prophet is +<i>Islam</i> and not "Muhammadanism," as it is often named. Those +who profess Islam are <i>Muslims</i> and not "Muhammadans," as they +are called. The word "Musalman" is but a corruption of the Arabic +plural مسلمون +مسلمين of the singular +مسلم. We and our religion have been +called<a name="FNanchor_28_29" id="FNanchor_28_29"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_28_29" class="fnanchor">28</a> after the name of +Muhammad just as the terms Christians and Christianity have been +derived from the name Christ. But "Muhammadanism" and "Muhammadans" +are not at all the correct names of "Islam" and "Muslims" as you +will presently see.<a name="FNanchor_29_30" id= +"FNanchor_29_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_30" class= +"fnanchor">29</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id= +"Page_30">30</a></span></p> + +<p>2. From the point of view of Islam, all religions may be divided +thus:</p> + +<div class="center">Religions are either,</div> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/030_line1.png" class= +"floatInsert" title="" alt="line" /></div> + +<table width="75%" summary="Religions" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_25middle"><i>False</i>: being beliefs<br /> +in more gods than<br /> +one,<br /> + (Paths of Sin)</td> +<td class="cell_2"><img src="images/025_para.png" +class="floatInsert6" title="" alt="paranthesis" /></td> +<td class="cell_2">or</td> +<td class="cell_2"><img src="images/025_para2.png" +class="floatInsert6" title="" alt="paranthesis" /></td> +<td class="cell_25middle"><i>True</i>: being beliefs<br /> +in one and only God;<br /> +and True Religions<br /> + are either,</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="center3"><img src="images/030_line1.png" class= +"floatInsert" title="" alt="line" /></div> + +<table width="100%" summary="Religions" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_30"> </td> +<td class="cell_30"><i>Pure</i>, such as<br /> +true Islam unmixed<br /> +with any<br /> +inconsistent<br /> +ideas.<br /> +(Paths of Grace)</td> +<td class="cell_2"><img src="images/025_para.png" +class="floatInsert12" title="" alt="paranthesis" /></td> +<td class="cell_2">or</td> +<td class="cell_2"><img src="images/025_para2.png" +class="floatInsert12" title="" alt="paranthesis" /></td> +<td class="cell_30"><i>Mixed</i>, such as<br /> +religions which<br /> +mix up inconsistent<br /> +ideas with the<br /> +idea of one God.<br /> +(paths of Error)</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Observe that a pure Religion, such as true Islam, comes in +between false Religions and mistaken or mixed Religions, just as +the Quranic Path of Grace lies between the Path of Sin and the Path +of Error. It is the mean between two extremes.</p> + +<p>3. It is not Islam to believe that there has been no true +religion besides Islam.<a name="FNanchor_30_31" id= +"FNanchor_30_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_31" class= +"fnanchor">30</a> Such an erroneous belief leads to intolerance, +thereby begetting bigotry and fanaticism +تعصب. It is <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>contrary to the teaching of the +Qur'an and the Prophet. The first verse of the second Sura +الم = سورة +بقرة commands us to believe in not only +what was revealed to Muhammad but also in what was revealed to +those who went before him. It clearly indicates that there are, and +will ever be, many true religions of which Islam is one. Almost the +first saying of our Prophet reported in collections of his +traditions احاديث is "whoever +says 'there is no god but God,' will attain Salvation" <i>i.e.</i>, +will obtain eternal bliss. This shews clearly that all religions +which inculcate belief in one God are true religions—are +right Paths of Grace which lead to eternal bliss. Observe that most +Muhammadans (not Muslims) of to-day have forgotten this principle +and have therefore become intolerant fanatics,<a name= +"FNanchor_31_32" id="FNanchor_31_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_32" +class="fnanchor">31</a> which accounts largely for the loss of +political power of most Muhammadan Governments of modern times.</p> + +<p>4. Neither is it Islam to believe that all religions are true. +Such an erroneous belief leads to indifference, thereby begetting +caprice and impiety. It is obviously contrary to the teaching of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id= +"Page_32">32</a></span>the Qur'an and the Prophet, for they both +denounce many a false religion. If everybody thinks that every +religion is true, there will be no two men professing the same +religion, and there will be no real agreement between their +thoughts and actions. Co-operation<a name="FNanchor_32_33" id= +"FNanchor_32_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_33" class= +"fnanchor">32</a> اتفاق و +ايحاد among men (which is the root of +Family, Society and State) would tend to become impossible. Note +that it is the indifference to religion and the consequent impiety +of some of the Muhammadans of to-day that accounts mostly for their +lack of co-operation, and for their loss of political power in +modern times. Degradation is the lot of <i>faithless</i> Muslims, +for as the Qur'an says, "Ye will be exalted only if ye be faithful +Muslims."</p> + +<p>From what has been said you can easily infer that we should +adopt the mean between two extremes and must therefore believe that +neither are all religions true nor are they all false, but that +<i>some religions</i> are true and that Islam is one of them. The +characteristic mark of true religions is belief in one God; and +this indeed is the reason why Muslims are permitted to eat and live +with, and even marry, Jewesses, Christians and others who believe +in one God and possess sacred Scriptures.</p> + +<p>5. I, for one, would not hesitate to call all Monotheists (Jews, +Christians, and other Unitarians +موحدين) <i>Muslims</i>, because +they believe in one God: but I would not call them <i>Momins</i> +مومن, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span>because they do not believe in +one God in accordance with the teaching of our Prophet. You know +that our Creed كلمة consists of two +parts:—</p> + +<p>(i) There is no god but God,<br /> +(ii) And Muhammad is His Messenger.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Those who believe in the first part are Muslims +(مسلم = the peaceful)<a name= +"FNanchor_33_34" id="FNanchor_33_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_34" +class="fnanchor">33</a> and those who believe in the first as well +as the second part of the Creed are Momins +(مومن = the faithful). Both Muslims and +Momins are believers in one God; the only difference between them +is that Muslims may not (like Momins) accept Muhammad as their +guide in the belief. The Qur'an (iii. 83) defines Islam +thus:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Say ye; We believe in God, and that which hath been sent down +(revealed) to us, and that which hath been sent down to Abraham and +Ismail and Issac and Jacob and the tribes; and that which hath been +given to Moses and to Jesus and that which was given to the +Prophets from their Lord. No difference do we make between +them—and to God we are resigned (Muslims).</p> +</div> + +<p><a name="Page_33_6" id="Page_33_6">6.</a> "There is no deity but +God." Since God is One, His Revelation to Man cannot be other than +one and the same for all time. There has therefore been and will +ever be but one true religion. That religion is Islam. +إن الدين +عند الله +الاسلام "Verily the +(only) religion with God is Islam" (Q. iii 17). All the prophets +from Adam to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id= +"Page_34">34</a></span>Muhammad received but one and the same +Revelation and therefore preached Islam and Islam only. +ذالك الدين +اقيم "It was (and is) the standard +religion"—Q. xii. 41.<a name="FNanchor_34_35" id= +"FNanchor_34_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_35" class= +"fnanchor">34</a></p> + +<p>Whenever any people went astray and deserted Islam for idolatry +a prophet arose among them to preach Islam and bring them back to +righteousness.<a name="FNanchor_35_36" id="FNanchor_35_36"></a><a +href="#Footnote_35_36" class="fnanchor">35</a> Each prophet or +messenger of God did nothing but try to restore the universal +religion to its pristine simplicity and purity.</p> + +<p>It was only in interpreting the Revelation and applying it to +the practical needs of their age, that successive prophets and +their followers differed; and the differences gave rise to the +so-called <i>religions</i> and religious systems of the world.</p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id= +"Page_35">35</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 6.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>"Islam" and "not-Islam".</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/i.png" class="floatLeft" alt="I" /> must devote +this Note also to my observations on "Islam" and "not-Islam" in +order to prepare you for a just appreciation of my contention that +there are many good religions in the world but Islam is the best of +them<a name="FNanchor_36_37" id="FNanchor_36_37"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_36_37" class="fnanchor">36</a>.</p> + +<p>1. The Prophet Muhammad lived and died more than thirteen +hundred years ago. There are now on the face of the earth no less +than 250 millions (= 25 crores) of human beings who profess his +religion, and who love and respect him just as his own immediate +followers loved and respected him. These two simple facts are +enough to prove—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(1) that there must be something real and true in the religion +professed by so many people, and</p> + +<p>(2) that the man who preached and established it must have been +both great and good to an extraordinary degree;</p> +</div> + +<p>for common experience leads us to conclude (<i>a</i>) that +nothing which is false or unreal can survive centuries of change +and (<i>b</i>) that none who <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span>is not good and great can be +loved and respected by millions of men. No Muslim or Momin need +therefore believe in any thing more than:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(i) that Islam is a real and true religion, and</p> + +<p>(ii) that Muhammad was a very great and good man.<a name= +"FNanchor_37_38" id="FNanchor_37_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_38" +class="fnanchor">37</a></p> +</div> + +<p>Thus, your belief in one God لا +اله الالله +makes you a Muslim<a name="FNanchor_38_39" id= +"FNanchor_38_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_39" class= +"fnanchor">38</a> (= <i>peaceful</i>), no matter by what other name +you call yourself; and your belief in the goodness and greatness<a +name="FNanchor_39_40" id="FNanchor_39_40"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_39_40" class="fnanchor">39</a> of Muhammad +محمد رسول +الله makes you a Momin (= <i>faithful</i>), +no matter by what name others may call you. Let me quote here a +passage from Sir Edwin Arnold's Preface to his beautiful poem "The +Pearls of Faith: the Ninety-Nine Names of Allah:" +اسماء +حسنى</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"The soul of Islam is its declaration of the <i>unity</i> of +God: its heart is the inculcation of an absolute <i>resignation</i> +to His will. Not more sublime, in religious history appears the +figure of Paul the tent-maker, proclaiming 'the</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id= +"Page_37">37</a></span></p> + +<p>Unknown God' at Athens, than that of the camel-driver Muhammad, +son of Abdullah and Amina, abolishing all the idols of the Arabian +Pantheon, except their chief—Allahu ta 'Ala, God the Most +High—and under that ancient and well-received appellation +establishing <i>the one-ness of the origin, government, and life of +the Universe</i>. Thereby that marvellous and gifted Teacher +created a vast empire of new belief and new civilization, and +prepared a sixth part of humanity for the <i>developments and +reconciliations</i> which later times will bring. For Islam must be +conciliated; it cannot be thrust scornfully aside or rooted out. It +shares the task of the education of the world with its sister +religions, and it will contribute its eventual portion to</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>—"that far-off divine event Towards which the whole +creation moves."</p> +</div> + +<p>The <i>italics</i> are mine. I shall have to refer to them in my +subsequent Notes. Observe, the cosmopolitan poet uses only the word +"Islam" and not "Muhammadanism".</p> + +<p>2. It is not Islam or Eman ايمان +to deify Muhammad or to represent him to be akin to God, as +sometimes some Moulvies represent him and call him "the One (Ahad) +in the guise of Ahmad<a name="FNanchor_40_41" id= +"FNanchor_40_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_41" class= +"fnanchor">40</a>." Our Prophet himself never claimed <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> that he was +anything more than a mere man. Indeed, he taught us all to say +اثهد ان لا +اله الا +الله و اثهد +ان محمداً +عبده و +رسوله that he was but "a servant and +messenger of God." The only thing he ever claimed for himself was +that God had chosen him to be a messenger +رسول to convey His messages to men. "That +an immense mass of fable and silly legend," says Rodwell, "has been +built up upon the basis of the Qur'an, is beyond a doubt; but for +this Muhammad is not answerable,<a name="FNanchor_41_42" id= +"FNanchor_41_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_42" class= +"fnanchor">41</a> any more than he is for the wild and bloodthirsty +excesses of his followers in after ages."</p> + +<p>3. God's messages which Muhammad delivered to men were all +collected soon after his death and are preserved intact in a +remarkable book called the <span class= +"smcap">Qur'an</span>—a book which has lived through no less +than thirteen centuries without undergoing the least alteration in +a single word or even a dot! The difference in the messages +contained in the Qur'an and the ordinary sayings of the Prophet +reported in books on Hadis حديث is simply +this:—that when delivering God's messages Muhammad himself +felt, and those who were in his company witnessed, that he was +inspired by some divine energy or power which impelled him to say +what he said; whereas at other times, when he was talking like an +ordinary man, no signs of divine energy or inspiration were +visible. It will carry me too <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span>far if I endeavour to explain +here the real nature of "the divine inspiration" under which he +delivered what he and others believed to be "divine messages". You +will understand it if you read such books as Professor James's +<i>Varieties of Religious Experience</i>. Let us, like good Momins, +take it as a <i>fact</i>, what our Prophet's intimate companions +صحابة vouched, that he appeared to be +quite a different man when he uttered such messages. Their style or +matter itself even to this day proves to all unbiassed minds that +they are no ordinary sayings of an ordinary man. There is something +unique in them which we can only feel but cannot define or express +in words. Even historians and biographers like Gibbon and Muir and +translators like Rodwell, Palmer and Lane-Poole are obliged, in +spite of themselves, to admit and admire, what some of them call, +the rugged grandeur and eloquence of the Qur'an. Even Sale says +that some passages are really sublime.</p> + +<p>4. We call the Qur'an <i>the word of God</i>, chiefly because it +contains messages of high spiritual value delivered by <i>an +illiterate man</i> like Muhammad. It is neither a history like some +of the books of the Old Testament, nor a biography like the four +Gospels of the Bible. It is only a collection of sermons, commands, +and instructions delivered and issued from time to time as +occasions required. It contains, indeed, references to stories of +older Prophets and previous events well known<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> to the +people of Arabia. But they are less by way of narration than by way +of illustration. They are parables more or less <a name= +"FNanchor_42_43" id="FNanchor_42_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_43" +class="fnanchor">42</a> (تلك +الامثال +نضر بها +لناس). Commentators like Zamakh-shari +(تفسير كشاف) +and Imam Razi (تفسير +كبير) whose learning and authority cannot +be questioned, have clearly proved that there is nothing in the +Qur'an which is improbable or cannot be rationally explained to be +quite in accordance with the laws of Nature +قانون قدرت. +If you read Sir Syed Ahmad's Commentary +تفسير +احمدى or his Essays +خطبات you will find rational +explanations of the ideas of Paradise and Hell, the Day of +Judgment,<a name="FNanchor_43_44" id="FNanchor_43_44"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_43_44" class="fnanchor">43</a> etc. I need not dwell on +them here. I would however draw your attention to what is called +the rule of "Parsimony in Thought" which is in vogue among men of +Science. It is that if and when you can explain anything by what is +well-known and understood by every one, you should not believe in +the existence of "supermen" or assume the occurrence of +supernatural events. When, for example, we can explain any action +of Muhammad as an ordinary action of a reasonable man, we should +not assume or believe that he performed a miracle. If we can <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span>explain +the defeat and discomfiture of Abraham's Army by natural causes, +such as an epidemic, we ought not to assume the occurrence of any +supernatural event<a name="FNanchor_44_45" id= +"FNanchor_44_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_45" class= +"fnanchor">44</a>.</p> + +<p>5. The Qur'an does not favour any particular system of +Philosophy. It leaves Muslims free to adopt any system of thought +that commends itself to them, provided that it is not inconsistent +with the (توحيد) idea of the one +eternal and absolute God. Thus the Qur'an confines itself to the +sphere of religion—the sphere where man is brought face to +face with his God.</p> + +<p>(a) <i>What, then, is the object or aim of the Qur'an?</i></p> + +<p>من عرف +نفسه فقد +عرف ربه (He who has understood +himself has understood his God.)</p> + +<p>(b) <i>Why should a man be revealed unto himself?</i></p> + +<p>In order that he might know his true relation with the rest of +the world so that he might shape his conduct accordingly +<i>i.e.</i>, be true to himself, true to others, and true to his +God in thoughts, words, and deeds.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id= +"Page_42">42</a></span></p> + +<p>(c) <i>How does the Qur'an reveal a man unto himself?</i></p> + +<p>By showing him:—</p> + +<p>(1) God in History<a name="FNanchor_45_46" id= +"FNanchor_45_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_46" class= +"fnanchor">45</a> (هوا لا +ول و الاخر He is +the First and the Last.)</p> + +<p>(2) God in Nature<a name="FNanchor_46_47" id= +"FNanchor_46_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_47" class= +"fnanchor">46</a> (و الظا +هر He is the Manifest.)</p> + +<p>(3) God in Man's Conscience<a name="FNanchor_47_48" id= +"FNanchor_47_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_48" class= +"fnanchor">47</a> +(والباطن and He is the +Hidden—Qur'an lvii. 3.)</p> + +<p>In this sense the Qur'an is truly a revelation!</p> + +<table width="80%" summary="Verses"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_center1"><small>His sign is in all +things,</small></td> +<td class="cell_left" rowspan="2"><img src="images/042_sign.png" +class="floatInsert4" title="" alt="line" /></td> +<td class="cell_center1">* ففى كل +شى له آية</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_center1"><small>Indicating that He is +One.</small></td> +<td class="cell_center1">* تدل +علىا انه و +احد</td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id= +"Page_43">43</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 7.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>III.—Why is Islam the best +religion?</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/m.png" class="floatLeft" alt="M" />Y real task +begins with this Note. I have to explain to you why I consider +Islam<a name="FNanchor_48_49" id="FNanchor_48_49"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_48_49" class="fnanchor">48</a> the best of the religions +that are now professed by men all over the world. Mark, I do not +say that other religions are not good, but I only say that Islam is +the best religion of all those I know. Why do I say so? Because no +other religion accords so well as Islam with the modern ideas of +Science.</p> + +<p>By applying the adjectives "good," "better" and "best" to +religions, I indicate the <i>degree</i> to which each religion, by +its tenets and teaching, induces men to seek their welfare +فلاح: and by the word "Science" +علم I mean simply the systematised knowledge of +things known and knowable.</p> + +<p><i>Science</i> discovers things that are necessary or desirable +for human welfare. <i>Arts</i> generally show the way in which +those things can be obtained or manufactured. <i>Governments</i> +provide, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id= +"Page_44">44</a></span>or ought to provide, facilities for +scientific investigation and for improvement in arts. And it is +<i>Religion</i> that should move men to take the fullest advantage +of the science and arts of the time. You may take a horse to a +river but you cannot make him drink unless he is thirsty. If he is +thirsty he will drink of his own accord; but if he is not, neither +the appearance of clear water, nor the easy way to get at it, nor +indeed your whip or coaxing can ever induce him to drink. In the +same way Science may show you water or anything that is useful, +Arts may show you different ways of getting it, the Government of +your State may offer rewards or even threaten punishment; but you +will not drink, that is to say, you will not take advantage of the +good things shown you and placed at your disposal, unless you are +thirsty, unless there is something in you which impels you to it. +This thirst, this something that is the moving force or +<i>motive</i>, is created or furnished by Religion.</p> + +<p>The chief use of religion lies in the desire that it fosters in +men to live well, and virtuously.<a name="FNanchor_49_50" id= +"FNanchor_49_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_50" class= +"fnanchor">49</a> It is true that for most men the fear of +punishment and the hope of reward, either here or hereafter, are +motives for right conduct: and some religions (and even Islam as +taught by some Moulvies) give glowing pictures of Heaven <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span>and +Hell awaiting good and bad people after death.<a name= +"FNanchor_50_51" id="FNanchor_50_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_51" +class="fnanchor">50</a> But these motives are unworthy of the +higher nature قوا ئى +ملكو تى of man. They are like +the crack of a whip or the show of green grass to a horse that will +not run. They are not so effective and lasting as the high +spiritual motive for a virtuous life furnished by true religion. I +cannot dwell further on this point without entering upon a +philosophical or metaphysical discussion which is foreign to the +purpose of these Notes. Suffice it to say that the spiritual or +religious motive for virtuous conduct is the best of all motives, +as it conforms to the higher or angelic +ماكو تى nature of man and +assists him in subduing his lower or animal بها +ئمى nature.<a name="FNanchor_51_52" id= +"FNanchor_51_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_52" class= +"fnanchor">51</a></p> + +<table width="100%" summary="Verses"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_center1"><small>"The son of man is a unique and +complex product (of Evolution) which has combined in him the +natures of both the angel and the beast. If he leans towards the +latter, his animal nature, he falls lower than the beast itself, +but if he turns his attention to the former, his angelic nature, he +rises higher than the angel himself."</small></td> +<td class="cell_leftc" rowspan="2"><img src="images/042_sign.png" +class="floatInsert13" title="" alt="vertical line" /></td> +<td class="cell_center1b">آدمى +زاده طرفى +معجو +نےاست<br /> +از فر شتى سر +شتى وز +حيوان<br /> +گر كند ميل +اين شود كم +ازين<br /> +ور كند قصد +آن شود بى +ازان</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>It is but religion, true Religion, that enables the "son of man" +<i>i.e.</i>, mankind to surpass angels in godliness. Note, this is +exactly what Sir Oliver Lodge says in his book, <i>The Substance of +Faith allied with Science</i>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id= +"Page_46">46</a></span></p> + +<p>There is another use of Religion to which I should refer briefly +before I pass on to the main argument. You always intend doing many +things but never succeed in doing them <i>all</i>, either because +you change your mind or because somebody or something prevents you +from carrying them out. It is nevertheless important to yourself +and society that your wishes, which are naturally more numerous +than your actions, should be as good as the actions themselves. +Laws and social conventions cannot adequately control them, for +they take account of only outward manifestations, that is, actions +which flow or result from your inward desires, passions and +prejudices. These are controlled by such religions as true +Christianity and true Islam which take that as done which was +merely intended to be done, and inhibit bad intentions even before +they appear in action.</p> + +<p>Now, whatever religion supplies the best motives for virtuous +conduct and most effectively prevents mischievous intentions, must +necessarily be one which conforms best with the most approved ideas +of the science and arts of the time. I hold that Islam is such a +religion.<a name="FNanchor_52_53" id="FNanchor_52_53"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_52_53" class="fnanchor">52</a></p> + +<p>Let me begin by showing a conformity of Islam to a modern idea, +that there are more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id= +"Page_47">47</a></span>worlds than one.<a name="FNanchor_53_54" id= +"FNanchor_53_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_54" class= +"fnanchor">53</a> There are still some religions which assume that +there is no other world than the world we live in, and that God +created and maintains it for men only. Science has proved that such +assumptions are unwarranted, and has even suggested grounds for +believing that there are beings in the innumerable worlds of stars. +This world of ours with its inhabitants has therefore no right to +monopolise God to itself. Nor indeed have we, human beings, any +right to consider ourselves as its superior inhabitants. Science is +now-a-days on the track of finding out beings who are or who may be +superior to man. Note that all this is implied in the expression +رب العا +لمين "the Lord of the <i>worlds</i>" +contained in the Sura and other parts of the Qur'an. It does not +say "the king of the <i>world</i>" (رب +العالمين) or of +<i>men</i> رب +العالم but says generally and +truly that God is the King or Lord of great or grand <i>worlds</i>: +رب الانسان, +the definite article رب +العالمين in Arabic +is often used to express greatness or grandeur as in the word +ال which means the Most High God.</p> + +<p>According to Islam there are two sources of knowledge, +<i>Science</i> and <i>Revelation</i>: the one represents man's +effort to learn God's ways, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span>other represents God's grace to +discover His ways to man.<a name="FNanchor_54_55" id= +"FNanchor_54_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_55" class= +"fnanchor">54</a> I for one believe that the difference between the +two sources of knowledge corresponds to the difference between +"Experience" and "Intuition," between Acquired Ideas and Innate +Ideas—a difference which modern philosophers (Spencer and +Bergson) consider to be one of degree only and not of kind.</p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id= +"Page_49">49</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 8.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Unity</i><a name="FNanchor_55_56" id= +"FNanchor_55_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_56" class= +"fnanchor">55</a> <i>and Union.</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/i.png" class="floatLeft" alt="I" /> cannot go +over the whole field of Muslim theology to show how its ideas are +in accord with the scientific thought of our days. I will confine +myself to three principles and three maxims implied in the analysis +of the Opening Sura سورة +فتحة given in one of my previous Notes<a +name="FNanchor_56_57" id="FNanchor_56_57"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_56_57" class="fnanchor">56</a>.</p> + +<p>I. The verse الحمد +لله رب +العالمين +الرحمن +الرحيم +مالك يوم +الدين points to <i>the Principle of +Unity</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>There is but one God who created the worlds, maintains and rules +them.</p> +</div> + +<p>From this results the <i>Maxim of Union & Loyalty</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Union is strength = Be loyal to your King.</p> +</div> + +<p>II. The verse اياك +نعبد و اياك +نستعين +اهدنا +الصراط +المستقيم points to +<i>the Principle of Perfection</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Worship of God, His protection, and guidance are necessary for +the perfection of our mind and body.</p> +</div> + +<p>From this results the <i>Maxim of Self-help</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>God helps those who help themselves = Be true to yourself.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id= +"Page_50">50</a></span></p> + +<p>III. The verse صراط +الذين +انعمت +عليهم غير +المغضوب +عليهم و لا +الضالين points to <i>the +Principle of Moderation</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>It is the straight path of righteousness that enables you to +avoid crooked paths of sin and error and leads you to +happiness.</p> +</div> + +<p>From this results the <i>Maxim of the Average</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Adopt the mean of two extremes = Be moderate in everything.</p> +</div> + +<p>I will now endeavour to shew, as briefly and as simply as +possible, how the principles and maxims I have stated correspond +with the best scientific ideas of the present age. By "the best +scientific ideas," I mean nothing more than <i>conclusions</i> +arrived at by eminent men of science after severe study and +prolonged investigation. I can only refer to the conclusions as +such without attempting to summarise the reasoning, etc. by which +they have been reached. You may read the works of authors I shall +name, if you wish to learn more of their thoughts.</p> + +<div class="center">I.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Principle of Unity.</i></div> + +<p>1. The first Principle of Unity +توحيد implies that there is but one +Energy or Force whose different transformations we call +<i>forces</i>, but one Life whose appearance in different shapes we +call <i>lives</i>, and but one Mind whose different manifestations +we call <i>minds</i>. But the universal Energy, the<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> universal +Life, and the universal Mind<a name="FNanchor_57_58" id= +"FNanchor_57_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_58" class= +"fnanchor">57</a> الرحمن +الرحيم +مالك يوم +الدين رب +العالمين are +themselves but so many forms, appearances or manifestations of the +one Being الله who is Infinite +الصمد and Absolute لم +يلد و لم +يولد و لم +يكن له كفوا +احد. This is exactly what scientific men and +philosophers have said and are saying to-day. Read the works of any +of the eminent men mentioned in the margin, <span class= +"sidenote">1. Herbert Spencer.<br /> +2. Dr. A.R. Wallace.<br /> +3. Prof. James.<br /> +4. Sir Oliver Lodge.<br /> +5. Dr. Theodore Merz.</span> and you will find that the conclusion +they have reached after life-long investigations, tallies +remarkably with the conception of God which Islam formulated +centuries ago.</p> + +<p>Every child begins with the experience of 'This is <i>mine</i>' +and 'That is <i>not mine</i>.' This experience matures in the adult +into "I" and "not-I"—the <i>subject</i> that knows and the +<i>object</i> that is known. We call the <i>knower</i> or subject, +Mind; and the <i>known</i> or object, Matter. Most modern +Philosophers agree in believing that Mind and Matter are but two +aspects of One Reality underlying All. Just as a big building like +the Falaknuma Palace presents different aspects when viewed from +different directions, and yet is one and the same building; so the +Reality of Existence <i>appears to us</i> in different <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>aspects as +Mind and Matter, and yet is one and the same Reality<a name= +"FNanchor_58_59" id="FNanchor_58_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_59" +class="fnanchor">58</a>.</p> + +<p>Dr. Theodore Merz of the Durham University, at the end of his +grand survey of the Scientific Thought of Europe in the 19th +Century,<a name="FNanchor_59_60" id="FNanchor_59_60"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_59_60" class="fnanchor">59</a> says: "The scientific +mind advances from the idea of Order or arrangement to that of +Unity through the idea of Continuity."</p> + +<p>The process adopted by Science of arriving at Unity is only the +reverse of what Islam adopted: the former begins <i>a +posteriori</i> with Order, finds Continuity and arrives at Unity, +but the latter started <i>a priori</i> with Unity, passed over +Continuity, and found Order, thus:—</p> + +<table width="100%" summary="Unity"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_25"><i>Science.</i></td> +<td class="cell_75"><i>Islam.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25"><i>1. Order</i><span class="fnanchor"> </span></td> +<td class="cell_75">1. Order 1. Unity = +الله = رب +العالمين The +Reality<a href= +"#Footnote_58_59" class="fnanchor">58</a> of which both Mind and +Matter are different aspects.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25">2. Continuity</td> +<td class="cell_75">2. Continuity = +الرحمن +الرحيم = Force or Energy.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_25">3. Unity<span class="fnanchor"> </span></td> +<td class="cell_75">3. Order<a name="FNanchor_60_61" id= +"FNanchor_60_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_61" class= +"fnanchor">60</a> = ملك يوم +الدين = Order or Process.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>What Sir Edwin Arnold calls the soul of Islam, <i>i.e.</i>, the +Principle of Unity, so patently <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span>corresponds with the ultimate +results of modern Science and Philosophy, that I need not dwell on +it at any great length. It is sufficient to point out that Science +has now proved three Unities, the Unity of <i>Substance</i>, the +Unity of <i>Force</i>, and the Unity of <i>Process</i>; and +Philosophy has shown that the three Unities resolve themselves into +One Infinite Power.<a name="FNanchor_61_62" id= +"FNanchor_61_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_62" class= +"fnanchor">61</a></p> + +<table width="90%" summary="Verses"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_center1"><small>"There is no strength (to avoid +evil) nor ability (to do good)except through God who is great and +supreme."</small></td> +<td class="cell_leftc" rowspan="2"><img src="images/005_para.png" +class="floatInsert7" title="" alt="paranthesis" /></td> +<td class="cell_center1b">لا حول +و لا قوة الا +با لله +العلى +العظيم</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><i>Maxim of Union and Loyalty.</i></p> + +<p>2. How is the Maxim of Union and Loyalty inferred from the +principle of Unity? Man, being a creature of God, should try to be +godly and godlike, try to imitate God in actions, try to co-operate +with his fellow creatures for the good of all, and should thus +attain the ideal: "Union is Strength." This is the Islamic doctrine +of Atonement<a name="FNanchor_62_63" id="FNanchor_62_63"></a><a +href="#Footnote_62_63" class="fnanchor">62</a> (= at-one-ment +فنا فى الله): +to be <i>at one</i> with God by <i>union</i> and +<i>co-operation</i> with God's creatures so far as your and their +constitutions and environments allow. But you need not bother +yourself with theories at present. It <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>will be enough if you +remember that the ultimate aim or the sole object of the Prophet's +mission was to establish the universal union and brotherhood of +mankind by means of a firm belief in the eternal truth of God's +unity. He preached the Unity of God and worked all his life for the +union of men into a universal Brotherhood.</p> + +<p>In order that you should <i>co-operate</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, work +together with your fellow-men for the good of all, your work must +needs be <i>co-ordinated</i>. It must be guided and directed so +that it tallies with the work of others. This guidance and +direction comes from your leader, whom you and your fellow-workers +must obey, in order to attain the best results. Co-operation thus +implies Co-ordination which requires a leader—Caliph or +King—whom you ought to follow loyally. <i>Loyalty to your +leader</i> is therefore the gist of co-operation. The Qur'an and +the Traditions are full of injunctions for obedience to "those in +authority among you" <a name="FNanchor_63_64" id= +"FNanchor_63_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_64" class= +"fnanchor">63</a> اولوا +الامر منكم +"The surest way of pleasing God is to obey the King."</p> + +<p>Modern Science teaches exactly the same thing. I have a series +of little books in my Library called "People's Books" published at +6d. each by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id= +"Page_55">55</a></span>Messrs. Jack, London. One of them on +"Zoology" is written by Professor MacBride, F.R.S. He traces the +development of Man from Protozoa,—little specks of +animalculæ—and points out how each species of animals +has risen higher than another by (i) greater "inventive capacity", +the capacity of adopting new means to an old end and old means to a +new end: and (ii) higher "tribal morality" implied in co-operation +and loyalty to leaders. He says: "Mankind progresses by the +appearance of individuals in whom (besides the inventive genius) +the instincts of co-operation and loyalty are more strongly +developed". It is precisely those instincts that Islam fosters by +its doctrine of the universal brotherhood of Muslims—a +doctrine which implies primarily loyalty to your King. Just as the +affairs of a family like yours, consisting of a dozen members, +cannot prosper unless each follows loyally the lead of the eldest, +or the wisest among you; so the affairs of a nation can never be in +a satisfactory condition unless each individual is loyal to his +King and country, and co-operates with his Government by willingly +doing what is required of him.</p> + +<p>Muhammad enjoined اطلب +العلم و لو +كان بالضين +"Seek knowledge even if thou hast to go for it to China"—(the +farthest country known in his days).</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Delve gems of Science +divine</span> <span class="i0">Ev'n unto Cathay's +mine.</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id= +"Page_56">56</a></span></p> + +<p>He said that wisdom was the birthright of every Muslim who +should seize it wherever he found it. He thus encouraged the +learning of Science and the consequent acquirement of inventive +capacity which is biologically as essential for human progress as +co-operation and loyalty.</p> + +<p>A study of animal life from the lowest animalcule to the highly +civilized man, teaches us to know, feel and act, in a particular +manner, <i>viz.</i>,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(<i>a</i>) to <i>know</i> our environment, <i>i.e.</i>, to know +the Laws of Nature in order to improve our general capacity for +invention, manufacture and commerce, (Knowledge)</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) to <i>feel</i> for our fellow-men in order to +increase mutual good-will so necessary for co-operation, +(Sympathy)</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) and to <i>act</i> for the general good of our race +under the guidance of our political and social leaders, +(Loyalty).</p> +</div> + +<p>"Knowledge, Sympathy and Loyalty" are thus the watchwords of the +Science of to-day no less than of the Islam of our ancestors.<a +name="FNanchor_64_65" id="FNanchor_64_65"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_64_65" class="fnanchor">64</a></p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id= +"Page_57">57</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 9.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Perfection and Self-help.</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/a.png" class="floatLeft" alt="A" />LLOW me to +explain here that my object is not to persuade you to believe what +I say but only to make you think for yourself. I will therefore +avoid arguments and discussions as much as possible and content +myself with bare outlines of certain Islamic doctrines and brief +references to the corresponding ideas of modern Science. I shall be +very pleased if they serve to excite your curiosity and stimulate +your thought.</p> + +<div class="center">II.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Principle of Perfection.</i></div> + +<p>1. The second Muslim doctrine which I have called the Principle +of Perfection may be inferred from the second part of the +Sura:—It is essential for our perfect development that we +should worship God and implore Him for help and guidance in the +discharge of the three-fold duty of our life.</p> + +<p>No sane man thinks that he is perfect as he is. There is always +a feeling of some sort in our mind that somehow, and in some +respect or other, we are not as perfect as we should be. It is to +remove this feeling of imperfection inherent in us that we have to +worship God and supplicate His help and guidance. If you ask: "Why +should I worship God?" Islam answers your question by asking +another: "Why should you admire beauty in Nature and Art?" You +can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id= +"Page_58">58</a></span> answer only: "Because it is beautiful. I am +so constituted that I cannot do otherwise than admire a beautiful +object when I see it". You are unable to give any other reason +satisfactorily accounting for your admiration of the beautiful. +Islam returns a similar answer to your question: <i>"You should +worship God because He is God".</i> You, as one of His creatures, +cannot help worshipping or reverently adoring Him when you see, at +every instant of your life, manifold manifestations of His divine +Goodness and Beauty. Some Sufis<a name="FNanchor_65_66" id= +"FNanchor_65_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_66" class= +"fnanchor">65</a> even go to the extent of identifying God with +"Infinite Beauty" حسن +ازلى which is the object of their love +عشق and ecstacy وجد.</p> + +<p>You remember the verse which every devout Muslim recites when he +hears the news of the death of any one: انا +لله و انا +اليه +راجعون</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"Verily we are God's and to Him we shall return".</p> +</div> + +<p>This as well as some other verses support the Islamic belief in +the re-union of a man's soul with God. As I have mentioned in my +previous Note, Islam conceives that there is but one Universal +Soul. Small parts—infinitesimal fractions—of the +Universal Soul are confined in men's bodies and break free at death +to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id= +"Page_59">59</a></span>re-join the Whole<a name="FNanchor_66_67" +id="FNanchor_66_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_67" class= +"fnanchor">66</a>. This belief is in entire accord with Sir Oliver +Lodge's theory (or "speculation", as he calls it) put forward in +his book, <i>Faith allied to Science</i>. Without stopping to +enquire how far the belief indicated by Qur'anic verses, or the +theory advanced by a man of science, is supported by scientific +facts, I would only point out that it gives a clear and +intelligible meaning to the word "worship" +عبادت. It is the communion of the +fractional soul, which is somehow confined in a man's living body, +with the Whole Soul, the Soul of the Universe, to which +it—the fractional soul—shall return some day freed from +the trammels of the flesh. This "communion" +عبادت includes Adoration +تسبيح و +تهليل and Prayer +دعا.</p> + +<p>I cannot do better than quote Sir Oliver Lodge's admirable +description of the meaning and object of Prayer:—</p> + +<p>"In prayer we come into close communion with a Higher than we +know, and seek to contemplate Divine perfection. Its climax and +consummation is attained when we realize the universal Permeance, +the entire Goodness and the Fatherly Love of the Divine Being."</p> + +<p>[الحد لله +رب العالمن +الرحمن +مالك يم +الدين</p> + +<p><small>Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, compassionate and +merciful, King of the day of Reckoning.]</small></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id= +"Page_60">60</a></span></p> + +<p>"Through prayer we admit our dependance on a Higher Power, for +existence and health and everything we possess; we are encouraged +to ask for whatever we need as children ask parents; +[ادعونى +استجب +لكم<small> Call upon me—I will hearken +unto you</small>] and we inevitably cry for mercy and comfort in +times of tribulation and anguish."</p> + +<p>"The spirit of simple supplication may desire +chiefly:—</p> + +<p>"1. Insight and receptiveness to truth and knowledge.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>[ايم نعبد <small>We +worship Thee alone.</small>]</p> +</div> + +<p>"2. Help and guidance in the practical management of life.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>[واياك +نستعين <small>We seek help from +Thee alone.</small>]</p> +</div> + +<p>"3. Ability and willingness to follow the light withersoever it +leads."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>[اهدنا +الصراط +المستقيم +<small>Guide us into the right path</small>]</p> +</div> + +<p>Compare the verses I have placed in brackets with what Sir +Oliver says, and you will observe how well he has interpreted the +Qur'an. It looks as if he had the Opening Sura +سورة فاتحة +before him when he wrote. Even the sequence of his ideas +corresponds <i>practically</i> with the order of the verses. But +you may be quite sure that he never thought of the Qur'an at all. +He evolved it all from his own inner consciousness well trained by +scientific studies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id= +"Page_61">61</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Maxim of Self-help.</i></p> + +<p>2. There are numerous verses in the Qur'an which enjoin +"purification تز كيم of one's self" +and prohibit "cruelty ظلم to one's own mind". +They obviously imply the rule of conduct which I have called the +Maxim of Self-help. No one has expressed it more beautifully and +truthfully than Shakespeare in the well-known speech of +Polonius.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">This above all: to thine own +self be true,</span> <span class="i0">And it must follow, as the +night the day,</span> <span class="i0">Thou canst not then be false +to any man.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">Herbert Spencer, Prof. T.H. Green, Lecky +(Historian), Profs. Muirhead, Mackenzie, and Sen.</div> + +<p>It is the basis of the ethical system advocated by authors +mentioned in the margin. There are at present two contending +schools of Morality. Each tries to determine what is 'good' or +'bad', and sets up a 'standard' or test by which men's actions +should be judged as 'right' or 'wrong'. The standard according to +the one school is Happiness (the surplus of pleasure over pain); +according to the other it is Perfection (the fullest development of +men as social beings). I think the latter school is more in favour +now than it was at the end of the last century. Men of science +now-a-days realize with Herbert Spencer that every one ought to +develop himself by freely exercising all the powers of his mind and +body to the fullest extent consistent with, and limited by, the +<i>like</i> exercise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id= +"Page_62">62</a></span> by his fellow men.<a name="FNanchor_67_68" +id="FNanchor_67_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_68" class= +"fnanchor">67</a> I cannot expatiate on this subject without +entering into the realms of philosophy and metaphysics. I have only +to say that the teaching of Islam as regards self-development is in +entire accord with the views of latter-day moralists.</p> + +<p>If you are a student of Ethics you will observe that the +doctrine of "making the most of oneself" (Perfection) is, in +accordance with the Islamic principle of Moderation, the mean of +two extreme doctrines:—the doctrine of "duty for duty's sake" +(Rigourism) on the one hand, and the doctrine of "the greatest +happiness of the greatest number" (Utilitarianism) on the +other.</p> + +<div class="center">Duty—Perfection—Utility.</div> + +<p>I have to add that "self-perfection" really means "self-help," = +due exercise of one's faculties with patience and perseverance. If +you have not read Dr. Smiles' book on Self-help, you had better +read it at your earliest convenience. I can recommend no better +commentary on the saying: "God helps those who help themselves."<a +name="FNanchor_68_69" id="FNanchor_68_69"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_68_69" class="fnanchor">68</a></p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id= +"Page_63">63</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 10.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Moderation and Via Media.</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/i2.png" class="floatLeft" alt="I" />slam<a +name="FNanchor_69_70" id="FNanchor_69_70"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_69_70" class="fnanchor"><small>69</small></a> is, so to +speak, the youngest of all the great religions that are now +professed by millions of people. Like a child who is heir to all +the mental and physical tendencies inherited and acquired by his +ancestors, Islam inherited all the revelations which "one hundred +and eighty thousand" (<i>i.e.</i> innumerable) prophets had +communicated to the world before the advent of Muhammad. I have +already referred to the injunction, contained in the Qur'an, that +we should believe not only what was revealed to Muhammad himself, +but also what was revealed to all "Messengers of God" who had come +before him; provided always that we have authentic records of those +revelations.<a name="FNanchor_70_71" id="FNanchor_70_71"></a><a +href="#Footnote_70_71" class="fnanchor">70</a> (This proviso is +very important.) It is therefore no detraction from the merits of +Islam that some of its doctrines resemble those of other revealed +religions. Parsis say that Islam borrowed: بسم +الله +الرحمن +الرحيم "In the name of God the +most merciful and most compassionate"<a name="FNanchor_71_72" id= +"FNanchor_71_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_72" class= +"fnanchor">71</a> from their <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>holy scripture, Zendavesta, +which begins with the words بنام +ايزد بخشا +ئنده بخشا +يشگر +مهربان داد +گر. Some Christian writers on Islam seem to take +delight in pointing out that the Prophet of Arabia borrowed this, +that, and the other doctrine from certain Christians and Jews whom +he had met in his earlier life. It is very doubtful whether he had +ever met such people. But it is certain that he was too illiterate +امى to understand their recondite doctrines if +they had condescended to teach him. Even if we admit that he +borrowed doctrines from other religions, his own religion is not +thereby rendered the less valuable; for there is no religion which +is <i>absolutely</i> original. He never denounced former religions +but only claimed to have confirmed and supplemented them by the +religion revealed to him. He always referred to "former +revelations" with great respect.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p>Muslims picture the Supreme Truth as a beautiful citadel built +on the top of a steep mountain. Different religions are but so many +paths مذا هب leading to it from +different directions. In their estimation Islam is the best and the +easiest path of all. This fanciful idea implies that some of the +paths might cross each other at different parts of their course, +and others might run parallel to one another or even run together +for a considerable distance. Many religions may therefore have +certain doctrines bearing close resemblance to each<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> other like +parallel paths. Some religions may even have certain doctrines in +common, like paths running together. All religions are, and purport +to be, paths leading to one and the same citadel of Truth.<a name= +"FNanchor_72_73" id="FNanchor_72_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_73" +class="fnanchor">72</a> None the less has each of them an +individuality of its own and a claim that it is better and easier +than all others.<a name="FNanchor_73_74" id="FNanchor_73_74"></a><a +href="#Footnote_73_74" class="fnanchor">73</a></p> + +<div class="center">III.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Principle of Moderation.</i></div> + +<p>I have prefaced this Note with the above remarks because the +Principle of Moderation and the connected Maxim of the Mean, which +are indicated in the third and last part of the Sura, were +enunciated by Plato فلا طون and +his disciple Aristotle ارسطو who +lived more than 1,000 years before Muhammad. Some Muslims count +those great sages of ancient Greece among the innumerable +(1,800,000) Messengers of God who preceded <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>our Prophet.<a name= +"FNanchor_74_75" id="FNanchor_74_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_75" +class="fnanchor">74</a> The records<a name="FNanchor_75_76" id= +"FNanchor_75_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_76" class= +"fnanchor">75</a> صحايف possess an +authority second only to that of the Qur'an itself, being in fact +revelations which God vouchsafed from time to time for the benefit +and guidance of mankind.</p> + +<p>1. I need not repeat what I have already said as to 'the Path of +Grace' صراط +الذين +انعمت +عليهم being the <i>mean</i> between +two <i>extremes</i>, 'the Path of Sin' غير +المغضوب +عليهم and 'the Path of Error' و +لا الضالين. I +may however explain that the pursuit of the Path of Grace implies +the Principle of Moderation in the sense that we should fully and +freely exercise all our mental and physical powers <i>with due +regard to their respective limitations</i>. For all practical +purposes, you may take Reason, Passion and Action as the principal +representatives of a man's powers, and view Reason as the guiding +force in his constitution,</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id= +"Page_67">67</a></span></p> + +<p>Passion as the moving force, and Action (voluntary acts and +omissions) as the resultant of the guiding and moving forces +thus:—</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src= +"images/067_01.png" width="400" height="160" alt= +"Illustration" /></div> + +<p>Now, the Principle of Moderation means simply that you should +not allow your passions to influence your actions unduly, nor +should you allow your reason to control your passions unduly; but +you should ever try to hold the balance even between them in order +that the resultant action might be quite right—might +discharge the three-fold duty of man,—and might thereby tend +(be it in ever so small a degree) to the perfection of the +individual and the race. If at any time your passion over-rides +your reason, you commit Sin; and on the contrary, if you exercise +your reason so much as to stifle your passion altogether, you fall +into Error. If you permit neither reason, nor passion to discharge +their respective functions, you lapse into Inaction which is again +an Error. Undue suppression of Passion, and over-exercise of +Reason, as well as non-exercise of both—militate against the +Principle of Moderation, the essence of which is (as Aristotle +pointed out) that no power should tyrannize over any other in our +constitution.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id= +"Page_68">68</a></span></p> + +<p>What is "due" or "undue" exercise of a power, is a question +which your common sense should decide in each case with reference +to the person acting and the circumstances under which he acts. The +only general rule that can be laid down is implied in the ideal of +perfection explained in the previous Notes. Every exercise of any +of your mental or bodily power is right or wrong according as it +does, or does not, tend to the perfection of yourselves or your +offspring, and your community or race.</p> + +<p>I have only to add that the Principle of Moderation, in the form +in which I have roughly described it, is fully recognized by such +up-to-date writers on the Science of Ethics as Sir Leslie Stephen, +one of the two talented Editors of the Dictionary of National +Biography.</p> + +<div class="center"><i>Maxim of the Mean or Average.</i></div> + +<p>2. Addressing Muslims the Qur'an says:—<br /> + كذا لك +جعلناكم +امة وسطا +لتكونوا +شهداء على +الناس<br /> +<small>"We have thus made you a middle nation (= a moderate people) +in order that you should be an example to mankind."—i. +137.</small></p> + +<p>One of the ways in which God has made Muslims a moderate people +is by enjoining them to avoid extreme courses of action and to +adopt the middle or the mean course whenever and wherever it is +possible<a name="FNanchor_76_77" id="FNanchor_76_77"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_76_77" class="fnanchor">76</a>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id= +"Page_69">69</a></span></p> + +<p>The Maxim of the Mean is the objective counter-part of the +subjective Principle of Moderation. The latter says: Don't over-, +or under-exercise any of your faculties; and the former says: Don't +have too much or too little of any thing. Too much of any thing is +good for nothing. Too little of it is worse than nothing. "Too +much" and "too little" are relative terms and signify nothing by +themselves. It is only with reference to oneself and one's +environment at any particular time and place that they acquire a +meaning as "excess" and "defect" respectively. I cannot explain it +better than give a few instances in a tabular form where the "mean" +comes between the "excess" and the "defect" of a quality of the +head or heart, or a course of action.</p> + +<p>(1) Qualities of the Head (Reason):—</p> + +<table width="80%" summary="Reason"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_33"><i>Excess.</i></td> +<td class="cell_33"><i>Mean.</i></td> +<td class="cell_33"><i>Defect.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33"> </td> +<td class="cell_33"> </td> +<td class="cell_33"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Caution</td> +<td class="cell_33">Prudence</td> +<td class="cell_33">Neglect</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Doubt</td> +<td class="cell_33">Conviction</td> +<td class="cell_33">Uncertainty</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Conceit</td> +<td class="cell_33">Modesty</td> +<td class="cell_33">Diffidence</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Sensitive</td> +<td class="cell_33">Attentive</td> +<td class="cell_33">Indifferent</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>(2) Qualities of the Heart (Passions):—</p> + +<table width="80%" summary="Passions"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Cowardice</td> +<td class="cell_33">Courage</td> +<td class="cell_33">Rashness</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Sensuality</td> +<td class="cell_33">Temperance</td> +<td class="cell_33">Abstinence</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Bigot</td> +<td class="cell_33">Enthusiastic</td> +<td class="cell_33">Lukewarm</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>(3) Courses of Action:—</p> + +<table width="80%" summary="Passions"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Restriction</td> +<td class="cell_33">Liberty</td> +<td class="cell_33">Licence</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Favouritism</td> +<td class="cell_33">Justice</td> +<td class="cell_33">Injustice</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_33">Prodigal</td> +<td class="cell_33">Generous</td> +<td class="cell_33">Miserly</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id= +"Page_70">70</a></span></p> + +<p>You will find out for yourself what are the appropriate +qualities or courses of conduct, of which the excess, mean and +defect are expressed by the words given above. Fear, for example, +is the feeling of which excess is Cowardice and defect is Rashness, +while the mean is Courage. Similarly as regards one's own opinion +of one's powers, excess is Conceit and defect is Diffidence, while +the mean is Modesty. Again too much or too little restraint on +action is Restriction or Licence while the mean is Liberty.</p> + +<p>It will be a useful exercise to make a long list of such words +as express the difference of <i>degrees</i> of the various +qualities or functions of Reason, Passion and Action (= Knowledge, +Feeling and Will.) But it will <i>not</i> always be possible to +find three contrasted words, like those in the table, for every +quality or action; because no language is so perfect as to have +separate and single words to express the immense number and +manifold shades of ideas which our mind is capable of entertaining. +Still the fact is duly recognized by modern Science that there are +differences not only of kind but also of degree in +everything—ideas, feelings, desires, actions, objects and +attributes of objects—with which we are concerned. Although +you may not have a word expressive of degree in every case, yet you +can <i>practically</i> ascertain the extremes and the mean in all +cases without exception, and can so order<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> your conduct as to avoid +the one and adopt the other in all cases. I may point out here that +"<i>the Mean</i>" is not the "arithmetical mean" (like 6½ +which is the arithmetical mean of 5 and 8) but only <i>an +approximately medium or middle course of conduct—via +media</i>.<a name="FNanchor_77_78" id="FNanchor_77_78"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_77_78" class="fnanchor">77</a> +خيرا لا مو ر +ا و سطا</p> + +<p>You may object that, since the ascertainment of the mean in each +case requires calm thought with reference to yourself and your +environment, the rule is too difficult to follow in these days of +quick communication, speedy locomotion, and urgent action. I answer +that it is but an <i>ideal</i> rule of conduct. Like all rules of +Logic (Thought), Æsthetics (Beauty), or Ethics (Conduct), it +sets before you an ideal which you should ever strive to attain +though you may not attain it fully at any time. No thinker may have +been absolutely logical, no Artist may have wrought a perfect work +of beauty, and no man may have ever been quite moral. But that is +no reason why thinkers, artists, and men generally, should not +endeavour to attain perfection in their respective spheres of +thought and action.</p> + +<p>There is a further and greater objection to the rule of the +middle course, <i>viz.</i>, that, if followed strictly, it will +reduce all men to a dead level of mediocrity, and will not foster +the development of men of genius. I have to admit regretfully <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>that +such will be the case, and, as my next Note will show, it will be +in accordance with a Law of Nature recently discovered. Some +writers have even attempted to prove that <i>genius</i> or +excessive intelligence is a form of madness as bad as its opposite +form, <i>imbecility</i> or defective intelligence. They seem to +believe that only the men of average intelligence are quite +sane.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Great wits are sure to madness +near allied</span> <span class="i0">And thin partitions do their +bounds divide.—<i>Dryden</i>.</span></div> +</div> + +<p>The late Sir John Gorst created a sensation when he declared in +the House of Commons that great countries were governed by +mediocrities only.</p> + +<div class="blockquot2"> +<p>The world knows nothing of its greatest men.—<i>Sir H. +Taylor.</i></p> +</div> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id= +"Page_73">73</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 11.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Evolution and Survival.</i></div> + +<p><img src="images/i.png" class="floatLeft" alt="I" />T was +Adolphe Quetelet, Astronomer-Royal of Belgium, who in the seventies +of the last century attempted to prove that "<i>the average man is +to a nation what the centre of gravity is to a body</i>." A +similar, if not quite the same, conclusion has since been reached +by Sir Francis Galton and Professor Karl Pearson in their +researches into men's physical and intellectual qualities in the +light of Darwin's theory of Natural Selection or Survival of the +Fittest. This theory which, in its more extended form, is called +the Law of Evolution, has profoundly influenced, if not entirely +revolutionized, the Science and Philosophy of our own times. It has +<i>not</i> however succeeded, as was at first feared, in destroying +men's belief in God, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. For it +has done no more than disclose but a few of the numerous ways in +which He creates and rules.</p> + +<p>I have been a student of Evolution Literature ever since I left +College. Speaking for myself I can say that my study of it has not +in the least shaken my belief in God, but has rather<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> strengthened +it. I entirely agree with a popular writer<a name="FNanchor_78_79" +id="FNanchor_78_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_79" class= +"fnanchor">78</a> on "the Scientific Ideas of To-day," who +says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot2"> +<p>"True Science does not seek to deprive man of his Soul or to +drive the Creator from his Universe, but it honestly endeavours to +study His marvellous works ... to see the manner in which He has +caused Nature to work out His design."</p> +</div> + +<p>The Law of Evolution or the Development Hypothesis, as it has +been called, is in fact a clever guess at truth—very valuable +as a formula which enables us not only to remember the result of +numerous observations and experiments, but also to predict certain +events to be verified by subsequent observations and experiments. +It is impossible to convey a clear idea of it in a few sentences. A +great man like Herbert Spencer spent 50 years of his life in +explaining and illustrating it in no less than ten stout volumes of +his "Synthetic Philosophy." The central idea may however be +expressed in the following propositions, using the word +"<i>thing</i>" in its widest sense as any object of perception, or +knowable objects<a name="FNanchor_79_80" id="FNanchor_79_80"></a><a +href="#Footnote_79_80" class="fnanchor">79</a>.</p> + +<p>1. Nothing exists absolutely by itself; everything exists in +relation with something else which is its "environment."</p> + +<p>2. A thing and its environment cannot exist side by side for any +considerable time without each affecting or influencing the other +in some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id= +"Page_75">75</a></span>respects at least: a thing A and its +environment B, which cannot but exist together, must needs act and +re-act on each other.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src= +"images/075_01.png" width="400" height="113" alt= +"Illustration" /></div> + +<p>3. The action and re-action of the thing A and its environment B +on each other, brings about mutual adjustment, the fitting of each +into the other.</p> + +<p>4. According as this mutual adjustment or fitting is relatively +<i>complete</i> or <i>incomplete</i>, there is Evolution or +Dissolution, survival or extinction, of the thing (A) itself.<a +name="FNanchor_80_81" id="FNanchor_80_81"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_80_81" class="fnanchor">80</a></p> + +<p>5. The process of Evolution or Survival is characterized +by:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(<i>a</i>) <i>Integration</i>: grouping together of +certain <i>like</i> units (such as atoms or molecules, living cells +or individuals) into a whole,</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id= +"Page_76">76</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(<i>b</i>) <i>Differentiation</i>: certain parts (or +functions) of the aggregated whole becoming <i>unlike</i> each +other or specialized, and</p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(<i>c</i>) <i>Adjustment</i>: fitting of the +aggregated and differentiated whole into its environment.</p> +</div> + +<p>6. In the opposite process of Dissolution or Extinction the +thing undergoes the same changes in the reverse order before it +disappears as such.</p> + +<p>In other words, given a thing and its environment, the one has +to adapt and adjust itself to the other, or cease to exist. Nothing +survives, as an individual, which does not change. Like a picture +in its setting, a thing has to <i>fit</i> itself to its environment +in order that it might survive for the best advantage of itself and +its kind. Thus, the <i>fit</i> lives and the <i>unfit</i> dies<a +name="FNanchor_81_82" id="FNanchor_81_82"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_81_82" class="fnanchor">81</a>. As the Qur'an expresses +it ان الارض +ير "the Earth is inherited by only the fit among My +creatures."<a name="FNanchor_82_83" id="FNanchor_82_83"></a><a +href="#Footnote_82_83" class="fnanchor">82</a> This applies not +only to plants and animals, man and society, but also to inanimate +or inorganic things, as the President of the British Association +announced some years ago.</p> + +<p>A man, for example, has for his environment, the atmosphere of +the place he inhabits, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" +id="Page_77">77</a></span>society he lives in, the occupation he +follows, the laws he obeys, etc. He can live long and happily only +when the qualities of his body and mind befit him to that +environment, <i>i.e.</i>, when they enable him (to become +صا لح) to adapt himself continuously to the +circumstances of his position. What, then, is the general nature of +such qualities?</p> + +<p>You know that one of the best methods of Science is Measurement. +No scientific knowledge is exact unless it enables you not only to +distinguish one quality from another, but also to measure each +quality or determine its degrees in some way or other. It is not +sufficient to know hot from cold but the degrees of temperature +must be measured by a thermometer.</p> + +<p>The new methods of Statistics and graphic representation have +been applied to a large number of men and women for the purpose of +finding "the fittest" qualities or "characters" as they are +technically called. Professor Karl Pearson<a name="FNanchor_83_84" +id="FNanchor_83_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_84" class= +"fnanchor">83</a> and others have thus found that among a large +number of men and women in a given community any physical or mental +character which deviates largely, by excess or defect, from the +mean or average, renders them the less fit to survive the struggle +for existence. <i>Individuals possessing</i> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> <i>any +character which deviates extremely from the mean tend to +disappear</i>. For example, the average height of men has been +found by measurement of a large number of people to be (say) 5ft. +6in. and it has also been found by statistical methods that men who +are 7ft. or men who are only 3ft. are very rare. It is therefore +concluded that men who are too tall or too short <i>i.e.</i>, who +deviate extremely from the mean, tend to disappear and are +therefore <i>unfit</i> to survive.</p> + +<p>This is only a rough and ready example of what is called the Law +of Periodic Selection which has now superseded the Belgian +philosopher's Law of the Average (or "the Mean"). It applies to +human conduct as well as to human qualities. That conduct alone +(<i>i.e.</i>, only that particular course of deliberate action) +befits a man to his environment, which deviates the least from a +standard or average of such conduct. It is the indispensable +condition of his happiness and longevity.</p> + +<p>You thus see that the Islamic Maxim of the Mean is justified by +Science.</p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id= +"Page_79">79</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><b>Note 12.</b></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Religion begins with the fear of the Lord +and ends in the love of Man.</i><a name="FNanchor_84_85" id= +"FNanchor_84_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_85" class= +"fnanchor">84</a></div> + +<p><img src="images/l.png" class="floatLeft" alt="L" />ET me devote +this concluding Note to a few general remarks. The meanings and +definitions of certain words given below are somewhat arbitrary, +but I trust they will enable you to understand and remember certain +abstruse matters.</p> + +<div class="center">I.</div> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Take the word "thing" to mean any object of thought, +such as, for example, a house, a labourer, redness, distance, home, +charity, eloquence, or the British Constitution. All these are +<i>things</i> which you can think of.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) You may then define a "fact" as a known or knowable +thing or relation between things; in other words, a <i>fact</i> is +any thing or relation, which you know or can know if you take the +necessary trouble.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) The word "Nature", with a capital N, is but a name +for the sum-total of all facts known and knowable. Poets, +philosophers, and even some men of Science, personify this +sum-total of facts known and knowable, <i>i.e.</i>, <i>Nature</i> +and refer to it as "she" or "her". It is but a convenient way of +saying, by implication, that <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span>there is the same uniformity, +continuity and unity in Nature as in our idea of a person.</p> + +<p>Now, all thinking men of all ages of history have ever tried to +understand Nature as a whole and to answer regarding her three +important questions represented by three interrogatives, what? how? +and why?</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(1) <i>What</i> is Nature? = What are the facts +which constitute Nature. (Knowledge of Nature).</p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(2) <i>How</i> has Nature come to be what she is? = +How is it that facts constituting Nature have become as we perceive +them? (Explanation of Nature).</p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="two">(3) <i>Why</i> is Nature as she is and not +otherwise? = Why is it that facts constituting Nature have a +certain uniformity (order) continuity and unity in spite of changes +that take place continuously? (Reason of Nature).</p> +</div> + +<p>Broadly speaking, I may say that Science (with its various +departments called "Sciences") tries to answer the first question +<i>what</i>, the question as to <i>facts</i> of Nature. Philosophy +tries to answer the second question <i>how</i>, the question as to +the <i>explanation</i> of Nature. Religion or Theology (which +includes highest Poetry) tries to answer the third and last +question <i>why</i>, the question as to the <i>reason</i> of +Nature. You may thus clearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" +id="Page_81">81</a></span> remember the respective provinces of +Science, Philosophy and Religion by remembering three words What, +How and Why. When you read a book which treats of facts or the +<i>what</i> of Nature; or of the explanation or the <i>how</i> of +her; or of the reason or the <i>why</i> of her; you may be sure it +is Science, Philosophy or Religion respectively that you are +reading, whatever be the name of the book itself.</p> + +<p>I have said that Science, Philosophy or Religion "<i>tries</i> +to answer" and not "answers", because the answer of any of them can +never be final or immutable. None of them can ever reach finality. +As the experience of mankind grows continuously, new facts or new +phases of old facts are discovered in the course of time. Just as +men have to adapt or adjust themselves to new facts (or to changes +in old facts) or else die; so men's Science, Philosophy and +Theology have to adjust themselves to new facts or else become +empty nothings.<a name="FNanchor_85_86" id="FNanchor_85_86"></a><a +href="#Footnote_85_86" class="fnanchor">85</a></p> + +<div class="center">II.</div> + +<p>I have often said that I believe Islam to be the best religion +because (so far as I know) it accords best with the current ideas +of Science. If you accept my view of the respective provinces of +Science, Philosophy, and Religion, you can easily comprehend that a +Religion like Islam <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id= +"Page_82">82</a></span>which purports to expound the reason +<i>why</i> of Nature must needs correspond with the <i>what</i> +(Science) as well as with the <i>how</i> (Philosophy) of Nature. +The three great divisions of Human Thought—I mean, Science, +Philosophy and Religion—are necessarily connected with one +another, as otherwise they cannot make up <i>the whole Universe of +Human Thought</i> and cannot satisfy men's craving for complete and +consistent knowledge.</p> + +<div class="center">III.</div> + +<p>The Law of Evolution which I mentioned in the previous Note is +but a Theory of Creation, an explanation of <i>how</i> Nature has +come to be what she is. New facts which future ages may discover +may prove the theory to be either right or wrong. At present it is +the best hypothesis—the best guess—because it accords +best with known facts. It acts as a guide to knowable facts as +well. It has shown that men cannot progress, indeed cannot long +survive, if they fail to adapt themselves to the circumstances of +their position, if they fail to fit into their environment which +surrounds them like an envelope. Ceaseless change is the order of +Nature. Continuous adaptation is the law of life. +<i>Adaptability</i> is therefore the <i>sine qua non</i> of men's +life and existence. The religion which suits them must also have +the quality of adaptability. I hold Islam has this quality in an +eminent degree and is therefore the most suitable religion.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[ 83</a></span></p> + +<p>Please remember that I speak of Islam as taught by the Qur'an +itself and not "Muhammadanism" as professed by <i>some</i> +so-called followers of the Prophet. You have to interpret the +Qur'an<a name="FNanchor_86_87" id="FNanchor_86_87"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_86_87" class="fnanchor">86</a> quite naturally as any +other book or historic document, but not in the way in which +<i>some</i> Muhammadans do it with the aid of marvellous fictions +and miraculous traditions. Islam has to resist (to use a big word) +the <i>anthropomorphic</i> tendency of the human mind, <i>viz.</i>, +the tendency to view abstract <i>qualities</i> or agencies as +persons having a separate existence as individual beings.</p> + +<div class="center">IV.</div> + +<p>I have said that there is no inherent antagonism between +Christianity and Islam <i>if</i> and <i>when</i> the sayings and +doings of the founders of each are rightly viewed and understood in +a simple and natural manner. Muhammad never ceased saying that he +had come to attest and complete the mission of Jesus and his +predecessors, who were God's messengers like himself.<a name= +"FNanchor_87_88" id="FNanchor_87_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_88" +class="fnanchor">87</a> The greatest and the best rule of human +conduct which Jesus laid down was: "Love thy neighbour as +thyself".</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id= +"Page_84">84</a></span></p> + +<p>You remember the well-known lines of Burns:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">O wad some power the giftie +gie us</span> <span class="i0">To see oursels as others see +us.</span></div> +</div> + +<p>The gift which the poet prays for is vouchsafed to very few +mortals. Almost all of us have naturally, and often unconsciously, +such a high opinion of ourselves that, even if we would, we could +not see ourselves as others see us. The next best thing that we can +do is, therefore, <i>to see others as we see ourselves</i>, to +cherish the same regard for others as we instinctively cherish for +ourselves. If (to take an extreme case for example) we cannot +detest ourselves as others sometimes detest or hate us, we can at +least try to love others as we love ourselves, "try to do unto +others as we wish that others should do unto us". Thus the rule: +"Love thy neighbour as thyself", is quite consistent with human +nature and is the most comprehensive rule of conduct which has ever +been laid down for the guidance of mankind. To my mind there is no +better proof of the identity in spirit of Christianity and Islam +than the confirmation of Christ's command by Muhammad himself.</p> + +<table width="80%" summary="Verses"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_center1"><small>No-one will be a faithful Muslim +until he loves his neighbour as he loves himself.</small></td> +<td class="cell_2"><img src="images/042_sign.png" class= +"floatInsert4" title="" alt="line" /></td> +<td class="cell_center1">لا يو +من احد كم +حتىا حتلىا +يحب اجا ره +ما يوحب +لنفس</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>For this reason, I believe that there is no difference between +the two religions <i>if</i> the metaphysical<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> doctrines +engrafted on both be eliminated. <i>True Islam is but true +Christianity writ short.</i><a name="FNanchor_88_89" id= +"FNanchor_88_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_89" class= +"fnanchor">88</a> Both recognize that the source of virtue is +love,</p> + +<p>For love is Heaven and Heaven is love.<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id= +"Page_87">86-87</a></span></p> +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<div class="center">APPENDIX.</div> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p><i>We are indebted to Mr. J.C. Molony for the following +illuminating criticism which affords food for serious +thought—Editor.</i></p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/086_tb.png" class= +"floatInsert" title="" alt="ornament" /></div> + +<p>If we assume the existence of a God, interested in the +governance of this world, it becomes impossible to deny that +Muhammad was God's messenger, or, at least, God's prophet. It seems +to me unlikely that a man could change the belief of nations by +chance, incredible that he should do so were he an impostor. +Muhammad was certainly honest; the persistence of the faith called +after him leads me to consider him as inspired. Or, if "inspired" +be objected to as a general religious term of very indefinite +meaning, let us say that he saw into the heart and reality of life +further and more clearly than any man has done since his day. How +then comes the fact, noted by Amjad and Mahmood and admitted by +you, that Islamic countries in the main have wretched governments, +and are crumbling away before Christian Powers? I do not think that +you have answered this question<a name="FNanchor_89_90" id= +"FNanchor_89_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_90" class= +"fnanchor">89</a>. You <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id= +"Page_88">88</a></span>have merely pointed out that Islam, if +rightly understood, is an excellent religion.</p> + +<p>The boys, I think, have stated their dilemma too sharply; the +contrast is not entirely between Islam and Christianity. India is +for all practical purposes a "Hindu" country, and the power of the +old Indian Kingdoms has faded before Christian invaders. In that +section of the world in which Christianity is the prevailing and +accepted form of religious belief, the temporal might of those +nations professing one great form of the Christian creed, the Roman +Catholic, has undoubtedly waned in comparison with that of the +nations professing what is generally called the Protestant faith. +There are many varieties of non-Roman Catholic Christianity, but +Protestantism is a label sufficiently comprehensive and +sufficiently well understood for our purposes. I speak without +sectarian bitterness; I am not, I fear, a convinced adherent of any +particular form of religious faith. I have met many good men, and +have many friends, among Muhammadans, Hindus, and Roman Catholics. +But I think that the objective truth of what I say, particularly in +the Christian sphere, is indubitable. Compare for instance the +decay of Spain with the grandeur of England, the feebleness of +Austria with the strength and order (turned to ill uses though they +may be) of Germany.<a name="FNanchor_90_91" id= +"FNanchor_90_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_91" class= +"fnanchor">90</a> The question at once <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span>arises whether religion +has anything to say to the matter. I think that it has.</p> + +<p>Muhammadanism, Hinduism, and Catholicism (I omit the prefix +Roman) have concerned themselves too much with Heaven and Hell, +with the avoidance of future damnation and the obtaining of future +bliss. These religions have afforded some justification for the +gibe that Auguste Comte levelled at Christianity; he said that it +sprang from "a servile terror and an immense cupidity." Religion +should be rather <i>a guide of life here</i> than <i>a guide to a +life to come</i>. Kant would have curtailed the beatitude "blessed +are the pure in heart for they shall see God" into "blessed are the +pure in heart". It is good to be good; it is not good to be good in +the hope of some ultimate gain thereby.<a name="FNanchor_91_92" id= +"FNanchor_91_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_92" class= +"fnanchor">91</a> The great Catholic Bishop of Pondicherry, +Monseigneur Bonnand, wrote to one of his desponding priests: +"Continue a missionary to the end, and you will assuredly be +saved". In my opinion he was wrong; I should think little of a +missionary, whether Christian or Muhammadan, who endured the trials +of a missionary life (and some of those old French priests did +endure abundantly) solely in the hope of making a personal, albeit +spiritual and eternal, profit at the end of it all.</p> + +<p>Now, "Bishop Blougram", a character created by the poet +Browning, though supposedly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" +id="Page_90">90</a></span>inspired by the personality of Cardinal +Wiseman, says in his "<i>Apology</i>":</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">There's one great form of +Christian faith</span> <span class="i0">I happened to be born +in—which to teach</span> <span class="i0">Was given me as I +grew up, on all hands</span> <span class="i0">As best and readiest +means of living by.</span></div> +</div> + +<p>The same, I fear, might now be said of Muhammadanism. But to my +mind there is no fixity, no absolute truth in any form of religious +dogma. Religion is a thing that must grow with man's intelligence; +it is not a box of spiritual truths packed once and for ever, and +unpacked for the gaze of successive generations. It is not enough +to believe in certain facts that happened long ago, or to obey +certain injunctions given long ago in a particular country; we must +apply the spirit of a religion to the circumstances in which we +live. We shall never attain to final absolute truth, "the end is +not yet, and the purposes of God to man are but half revealed" +(Jowett).</p> + +<p>Unfortunately when any religion has taken itself as final it has +developed a priesthood, and that priesthood has been apt to lay +down a code of fixed rules wherewith alone compliance is required. +It is a fatally easy thing to live in conformity with any definite +code of rules. Muhammad himself, I imagine, was a singularly<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> +liberal theologian. He laid down certain regulations for the +conduct of life, excellent considering his place and time; the +modern Muhammadan has accepted these as a maximum spiritual demand, +ignoring the fact that they probably represented the minimum +demands of common sense in Muhammad's time and country.</p> + +<p>Muhammad directed that a Muhammadan should not drink alcohol. +This is a maxim of excellent sense in Arabia; Haji Burton, who much +appreciated good wine, has told us that in the Arabian deserts wine +is positively distasteful as well as unwholesome. I have not the +least desire that Muhammadans should drink wine. I merely say that +there is no <i>merit</i>, other than that of common sense, in +obeying this excellent instruction in countries wherein +circumstances render it excellent. I do not believe that Muhammad +would find the least fault with disregard of his maxim in countries +where the climate makes the <i>moderate</i> drinking of wine both +pleasant and beneficial.</p> + +<p>Muhammad instituted the Ramzan fast, mainly, I am told, to +harden his soldiers. But the Muhammadan of to-day finds a positive +merit in fasting. There is none; else the jockey's profession +comprises the most virtuous men in the world.</p> + +<p>Muhammad permitted polygamy, and enjoined the practical +seclusion of women. This, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" +id="Page_92">92</a></span> Sir Syed Ahmad has pointed out, was the +counsel of common sense in Arabia at the time of the Prophet. +Apparently there were more women than men, and if a woman was not +under the protection of some man, and was not under guard, she was +very likely to come to harm. But I do not think that this counsel +holds good for all time. Polygamy among Indian Muhammadans is dying +out, but the general Muhammadan here still imprisons his womankind +in the comfortable assurance that he is thereby paving his own way +to salvation. I do not see much hope for the physical and mental +development of Muhammadans so long as one half of the people +remains in seclusion and ignorance, in a habit of life necessarily +unhealthy. If you observe that you thereby escape the evils that +are published to the world in European divorce courts, I would +answer that in the first place I doubt the completeness of your +escape, (it is a matter on which I have heard much sardonic comment +from Muslim friends), and that in the second place, even granting +what you say, 80% of women free, educated, virtuous and healthy, is +a far better result than 100% merely virtuous, and that by +constraint.</p> + +<p>Muhammad laid down that a man should pray five times a day. To +my mind this was merely the Prophet's way of saying that man's +whole life should be a prayer: the modern <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span>Muhammadan too often +"repeats prayers" five times a day and is satisfied. He might as +well repeat the multiplication table five times a day. "Words +without thoughts to Heaven never go" said the king in +<i>Hamlet</i>. I do not know if our friend D.B. prays ten times a +day, or five times, or not at all, and (candidly) I do not care. +All I know is that in his responsible position he would die rather +than take a bribe, tell a lie, intrigue against his master. And I +fancy that the Prophet, could he return to earth, would find this +abundantly sufficient.</p> + +<p>You mention a few other points of orthodoxy; the cut of one's +hair, the length of one's trousers. Dr. Khaja Hussain told me that +he once saw a Muhammadan Street aroused to frenzy and riot by the +appearance of a true believer in Feringhi (or Kafir) boots. It is +all of a piece. Muhammadans have concentrated their attention on +these ready-made rules for getting to heaven; their prophet found +no such easy road to bliss. I do not imagine that it would ever +have occurred to his great soul to claim any particular merit in +that he did not drink wine, in that he repeated prayers (he at +least understood these prayers) five times a day, in that he did +not let his wives roam the country a prey to any marauder of those +wild times. After all any one can obey these regulations with very +little trouble to himself; it is not quite so easy to adopt the +spirit that guided<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id= +"Page_94">94</a></span> Muhammad's life. Sir Afsur, I do not doubt, +will tell you that it is an advisable thing for a soldier to drill +smartly, to keep his arms and accoutrements clean, and that with a +little trouble it is not difficult for a soldier to do all this. +But he will tell you, I feel sure, that this is far from being all; +the supreme duty of a soldier is to be brave in battle—an +affair of much more difficulty. A soldier may be smart and clean, +but if he fails in battle his smartness and cleanness are worth +nothing—he is a bad soldier.</p> + +<p>Muhammadanism has lost touch with life; it contents itself with +the letter of the Prophet's teaching and shuts its eyes to, does +not search for, the indwelling spirit. It is a small kernel +rattling in a very big shell, as Charles Kingsley said in "Yeast" +of the Church service at St. Paul's in the fifties of the last +century. <i>Religion has been divorced from life, and so the +followers of Islam as nations have decayed.</i></p> + +<p>It is the same with the other religions that I have mentioned. +The old time Brahmin called himself such because he was educated, +intelligent, sanitary in his habits, upright; he did not claim to +be all this simply because he was the son of his father. The great +obstacle to progress down here is the fact that people imagine it +is sufficient to follow in a mechanical unintelligent way the +letter, while totally disregarding the spirit, of some old and +after all not very import<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" +id="Page_95">95</a></span>ant rules. Ireland is said to have been +an "Isle of Saints", I have my doubts on the subject, but suppose +it so. It is now full of fine churches and religious +establishments; no people in the world go to church with greater +regularity, abstain more thoroughly from meat on Fridays, etc. etc. +But with the mechanical observances they are, I fear, too well +satisfied. Drunkenness, idleness, utter disregard for truth, are +rampant in Southern Ireland, and therefore Southern Ireland is what +it is. Formal devotion is no substitute whether in the daily battle +of the world, or (I believe) in the ultimate judgment of God, for +the proper ordering of one's every day actions.</p> + +<p>If Muhammadans breathe the breath of life on the dry bones of +their religion I see no reason why the temporal power of Islamic +countries and the spiritual strength of the Muhammadan Church +should not revive. Something of the kind has happened in France. +Zola cried out against "the nightmare of Catholicism"; antagonism +to the Catholic Church had been growing up long before M. Combes +started to "strafe" the religious establishments of the country. +The orthodox imagined that France was losing all religion: Auguste +Comte, an unbeliever, proclaimed that France was daily becoming +more religious. Rènè Bazin, a Catholic writer, +implicitly admits that Comte was right. The people were sick of the +dry, lifeless, formal rules that were offered to<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> them; the +priesthood have had this truth hammered into them, and they are +quickening their formulæ with life to fit the life of the +people, not striving to dessicate the people's life to fit their +formulæ.</p> + +<div class="quotsig">J.C.M.</div> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p>As a <i>socio-political institution</i> Islam is, in the middle +of its fourteenth century (1340 A.H.), in the same vicissitudes of +development, as Christianity was in the middle of <i>its</i> +fourteenth century (1350 A.D.)—an institution weakened by +contending sects and rendered stagnant by rigid formalism. "It is a +dispensation of providence", says Syed Ameer Ali, "that whenever a +religion becomes reduced to formalism cross-currents set in to +restore spiritual vitality." As in Christianity in its fourteenth +century, so in Islam of our own times, the vitalising +cross-currents have set in and we are now witnessing a Muslim +Renaissance all over the world. Its pioneers in India were Sir Syed +Ahmad, Mowlana Shibli, and the poet Hali. The Rt. Hon. Ameer Ali, +Dr. Iqbal and a host of others bear aloft the New Light. The Muslim +Reformation is coming on as surely as the Christian Reformation +came in the wake of Patristicism and Formalism. It need not +necessarily mean Political Revolutions as in Europe.</p> + +<div class="quotsig">A.H.</div> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id= +"Page_97">97</a></span></p> + +<div class="center">OUR PRAYER.</div> + +<div class="center">1.</div> + +<table width="70%" summary="prayer"> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">All praise is due to Thee, O +God!</span> <span class="i0">None other than Thee we adore.</span> +<span class="i0">Thou art the Master of the Worlds,</span> <span +class="i0">Thine aid alone do we implore.</span></div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="center">2.</div> + +<table width="70%" summary="prayer"> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Thou art Compassion; lead Thou +on</span> <span class="i0">To Thy right path our human race.</span> +<span class="i0">Thy Mercy floweth evermore,</span> <span class= +"i0">Do guide us to the path of Grace.</span></div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="center">3.</div> + +<table width="70%" summary="prayer"> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Thou art the Lord of +Judgment-day,</span> <span class="i0">For sure shall all be judged +by Thee,</span> <span class="i0">O keep us off the path of +Sin</span> <span class="i0">And Error's way. So mote it +be!</span></div> +</div> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="quotsig2"><i>Abdur Rahim.</i></div> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<div class="center">FOOTNOTES</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">1</span></a> Translated by +Mushtari Begum of Bejnor and published in the <i>Islamic Review</i> +April 1916.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_3" id="Footnote_2_3"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_2_3"><span class="label">2</span></a> This was written +in 1917.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_4" id="Footnote_3_4"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_3_4"><span class="label">3</span></a> By the word "best" +I mean "the most suitable for both the spiritual and material needs +of man." I do not wish to cast any reflection on any other +religion. See <a href="#Page_43">Note 7.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_5" id="Footnote_4_5"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_4_5"><span class="label">4</span></a> I make a +difference between Islam and Muhammadanism. The latter is not pure +Islam. It has forgotten the <i>spirit</i> of Islam and remembers +only the <i>letter</i> of its law. "The dry bones of a religion are +nothing; the spirit that quickens the bones is all." See Note +5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5_6" id="Footnote_5_6"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_5_6"><span class="label">5</span></a> There is no place +in Islam for either priests or monks. Yet the Muhammadanism of +to-day has both. There are Tartuffes and Pecksniffs in this +religion as well as in any other religion.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6_7" id="Footnote_6_7"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_6_7"><span class="label">6</span></a> This is the real +reason of the political and social weakness of most Islamic +countries of our own times.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_7_8" id="Footnote_7_8"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_7_8"><span class="label">7</span></a> The teaching of +Muhammad has been admirably summarised by a Christian writer as +follows:—</p> +<div class="blockquot3"> +<p>"There is no deity but God. He created the Universe and rules it +with love and mercy. He alone is to be worshipped; in Him +confidence is to be placed in time of adversity. There must be no +murmurings at His decrees; life—your own and others dearer +than your own—must be placed in His hands in trust and +love."</p></div> + +<p>I do not believe that there is any monotheistic religion in the +world which will dissent from this teaching. The writer (in the +<i>Harmsworth Encyclopedia</i>) goes on to say:—</p> +<div class="blockquot3"> +<p>"The fatalism which has come to be regarded as part of the +Moslem creed had no place in the system established by Muhammad who +again and again distinctly and emphatically repudiated the idea. +Muhammad taught <i>reform</i>, not <i>revolution</i>."</p></div> + +<p>In these days of political unrest I cannot impress on you too +strongly the meaning of the last sentence in which I have +italicised two words.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8_9" id="Footnote_8_9"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_8_9"><span class="label">8</span></a> See <a href= +"#Page_33_6">p. 33 para. 6.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_9_10" id="Footnote_9_10"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_9_10"><span class="label">9</span></a> The Author has +not kept copies of these letters.—<i>Ed.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10_11" id="Footnote_10_11"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_10_11"><span class="label">10</span></a> The Qur'an +speaks very highly of Jesus:—</p> + +<p>اسمه مسيح +عيسى بن +مريم +وجيهاً فى +الدنيا و +الا خره و من +المقربين</p> + +<p>"His name is Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious both in +this and in the next world. He is one of those who have near access +to God."—iii. 40.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11_12" id="Footnote_11_12"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_11_12"><span class="label">11</span></a> Published and +sold by the Rationalistic Press, London for 6d.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12_13" id="Footnote_12_13"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_12_13"><span class="label">12</span></a> The translation +of the Sura in this analysis is slightly different from that given +in the succeeding page.—<i>Ed.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13_14" id="Footnote_13_14"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_13_14"><span class="label">13</span></a> "It is +strange": says Havelock Ellis, "men seek to be, or to seem, +atheists, agnostics, cynics, pessimists; at the core of all these +things lurks religion.... The men who have most finely felt the +pulse of the world and have, in their turn, most effectively +stirred its pulse, are religious men."—<i>New Spirit, +228.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14_15" id="Footnote_14_15"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_14_15"><span class="label">14</span></a> The word +"religion" also means a system of beliefs and rites pertaining to +them. I do not use the word in that sense here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15_16" id="Footnote_15_16"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_15_16"><span class="label">15</span></a> <i>i.e.</i>, +the world such as we perceive and conceive it.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16_17" id="Footnote_16_17"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_16_17"><span class="label">16</span></a> "I know that +even the unaided reason, when correctly exercised, leads to a +belief in God, in the immortality of the soul, and in a future +retribution"—<i>Cardinal Newman.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17_18" id="Footnote_17_18"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_17_18"><span class="label">17</span></a> Prof. Scott +Elliot at the end of his book, <i>Prehistoric Man</i> (p. 381) +writes thus: "It seems true that almost every race of man is not +only capable of believing in a Supreme God but, so far as the +evidence goes, did reverence one God who was often also thought of +as the Creator of the Sky or of the World.... There is a very +strong body of evidence showing that every race of mankind +possessed quite early in its development a feeling of awe and +reverence towards an Unknown God."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_18_19" id="Footnote_18_19"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_18_19"><span class="label">18</span></a> There are at +present three missionary religions in the world—religions +which were intended and designed by their respective founders to +unite all men without any distinction into a Universal +Brotherhood.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>(1) Buddhism asserts that God is Law or Wisdom.<br /> +(2) Islam teaches that God is Energy or Power.<br /> +(3) Christianity says that God is Father or Love.</p> +</div> + +<p>But all these religions inculcate in fact one and the same Truth +in its three aspects, as Muslim Sufis would say. I believe the gist +of doctrines held by them is that God is Omnipotent <i>Energy</i> +manifesting itself uniformly as <i>Law</i> and operating +benevolently as <i>Love</i>.</p> + +<div class="center">Wisdom = Power = Love.</div> + +<p>You should try to solve the equation for yourself. You will not +fail to understand it if you think hard.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_19_20" id="Footnote_19_20"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_19_20"><span class="label">19</span></a> Here again +taking the three missionary religions mentioned above, the Identity +is:—</p> + +<div class="center">Creator = Preserver = Adjuster.</div> + +<p>God said unto Moses, <i>I am that I am</i>—<i>Exodus, iii, +14.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_20_21" id="Footnote_20_21"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_20_21"><span class="label">20</span></a> Some Sufis +define Nature as Individual <i>plus</i> his Environment. By +<i>individual</i> they mean any one capable of thinking of himself +as "I" or "Me" and every thing else as "not I" or "not me" which is +his <i>environment</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21_22" id="Footnote_21_22"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_21_22"><span class="label">21</span></a> It may be said +that all the three ideas of God's relation with Nature (the three +"isms" I have mentioned in brackets) are but different +<i>degrees</i> of a man's desire for communion with his God. Says +Rumi in his celebrated <i>Masnavi</i>: "All religions are in +substance one and the same"—Bk. iii, story 12 (St. +Daqúqi).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22_23" id="Footnote_22_23"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_22_23"><span class="label">22</span></a> See last para. +of <a href="#Page_28a">Note 4</a> and also <a href="#Page_63">Note +10.</a> الطرق الى +الله بحسب +الانفس There are as many ways +leading to God as thereThere are as many ways leading to God as +there are minds.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_23_24" id="Footnote_23_24"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_23_24"><span class="label">23</span></a> "Religion +places the human soul in the presence of its highest ideal (=God), +it lifts it above the level of ordinary goodness, and produces at +least a yearning after a higher and better life in the light of +God."—<i>Max Muller</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_24_25" id="Footnote_24_25"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_24_25"><span class="label">24</span></a> Sura = +Chapter.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_25_26" id="Footnote_25_26"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_25_26"><span class="label">25</span></a> Absolute = not +conditioned by place time measure or circumstances. Infinite = +without beginning or end.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_26_27" id= +"Footnote_26_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_27"><span class= +"label">26</span></a> +<p>"The proper name of the religion preached by Muhammad is +Islam."--Sale</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_27_28" id= +"Footnote_27_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_28"><span class= +"label">27</span></a> +<p>The word "Islam" means literally (1) resignation (2) +preservation and (3) peace. Lord Tennyson has most admirably +expressed the Islamic ideal of self-surrender to the will of God +and has incidentally decided the vexed question of free-will in a +single line:—</p> + +<div class="center">"<i>Our wills are ours to make them +Thine.</i>"</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_28_29" id= +"Footnote_28_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_29"><span class= +"label">28</span></a> +<p>By Christians in European countries.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_29_30" id= +"Footnote_29_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_30"><span class= +"label">29</span></a> +<p>"The proper name of the religion preached by Muhammad is +Islam"—<i>Sale</i>. See p. 37.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_30_31" id= +"Footnote_30_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_31"><span class= +"label">30</span></a> +<p>I use the word in the restricted sense of "Islam as taught by +Muhammad." If you take Islam to mean belief in one God and virtuous +conduct in life, you may say that there has not been and will never +be any true religion besides Islam. In this sense Islam is the only +true religion. See p. 27, last para. of Note 2 p. 19, and of this +Note pp. 33, 34.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_31_32" id= +"Footnote_31_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_32"><span class= +"label">31</span></a> +<p>"A man must not do reverence to his own sect or disparage that +of another man without reason. Deprecation should be for specific +reasons only, because the sects of other people all deserve +reverence for one reason or other. By thus acting, a man exalts his +own sect, and at the same time does service to the sects of other +people. By acting contrariwise, a man hurts his own sect and does +disservice to the sects of other people."—King Asoka's +<i>Edict XII</i>.</p> + +<p>"Every sect favourably regards him who is faithful to its +precepts, and, in truth, he is to be commended."—Akbar, (Ain +Akbari III).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_32_33" id= +"Footnote_32_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_33"><span class= +"label">32</span></a> +<p>See p. 55.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_33_34" id= +"Footnote_33_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_34"><span class= +"label">33</span></a> +<p>Muslim = resigned and submissive, therefore, +<i>peaceful</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_34_35" id= +"Footnote_34_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_35"><span class= +"label">34</span></a> +<p>See Foot note <a href="#Footnote_30_31">(<i>30</i>)</a> p. +30.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_35_36" id= +"Footnote_35_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_36"><span class= +"label">35</span></a> +<p>Compare <i>the Bhagvat Gita</i>, iv. 7-8:—</p> +<div class="blockquot3"> +<p>"Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bharata, and there +is exaltation of unrighteousness, then <i>I myself come +forth</i>;</p> + +<p>For the protection of the good, for the destruction of +evil-doers, for the sake of firmly establishing righteousness, <i>I +am born</i> from age to age."</p> +</div> +<p>The words <i>italicised</i> suggest the Hindu doctrine of +Incarnation and Metempsychosis. Orthodox Muslims do not believe in +any such doctrine (حلول و +اتحاد) but would substitute for the +italics the words: <i>I send a messenger or reformer.</i> See, +<i>e.g.</i>, Quran, xvi. 36.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_36_37" id= +"Footnote_36_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_37"><span class= +"label">36</span></a> +<p>To students of Islam and its history I cannot recommend better +and more useful books than the Rt. Hon. Dr. Syed Ameer Ali's +<i>Spirit of Islam</i> and <i>History of the Saracens</i>. New and +revised editions have been recently published. They present the +various aspects of Islam in their proper perspective. They are +classics for English readers.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_37_38" id= +"Footnote_37_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_38"><span class= +"label">37</span></a> +<p>"Grant the existence of God and it is impossible to deny that +Muhammad was His Messenger. A man does not change the belief of +half the world by chance." So wrote a Christian friend of mine.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_38_39" id= +"Footnote_38_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_39"><span class= +"label">38</span></a> +<p>Muslim = resigned or submissive, therefore, peaceful.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_39_40" id= +"Footnote_39_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_40"><span class= +"label">39</span></a> +<p>I mean "goodness and greatness" as a <i>human being</i>, for +Muhammad never said or did anything to show that he was not a human +being. The Qur'an commanded him, "Say I am a man like yourself." +قل انا بشر +مثلكم He therefore insisted that men +should attach greater importance to the nature of the message than +to the character of the messenger himself. "I am," said he "no more +than a man: when I order you anything with respect to religion, +receive it, and when I order you about the affairs of the world +then I am nothing more than a man."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_40_41" id= +"Footnote_40_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_41"><span class= +"label">40</span></a> +<p>"Ahmad" is another name of Muhammad. I have nothing to say to +those mystics, who, by a reasoning peculiar to their doctrines, +identify the Messenger (Prophet) with the Master (God).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_41_42" id= +"Footnote_41_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_42"><span class= +"label">41</span></a> +<p>Nor indeed is Jesus answerable for the Inquisition and +<i>autos-da-fe</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_42_43" id= +"Footnote_42_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_43"><span class= +"label">42</span></a> +<p>"These are parables which we have set forth for men—Q. +xxix. 43.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_43_44" id= +"Footnote_43_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_44"><span class= +"label">43</span></a> +<p>يوم الدين = the +day of the Faith = the time of Dissolution predicted by Islam as +well as by Science. Sir Syed Ahmad fully explains the meaning of +يوم الدين = +Universal Destruction and of قيامت +صغرى = individual destruction, +(<i>i.e.</i>, death) from the viewpoint of modern Science.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_44_45" id= +"Footnote_44_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_45"><span class= +"label">44</span></a> +<p>As regards miracles, the beliefs that are held do not matter so +much as the spirit in which they are held. If the spirit is right +and leads to virtuous conduct in life, any reasonable belief will +quite do. Here comes in the Pragmatism of Islam. It does not object +to anything which has a <i>practical value</i> unless it is +unreasonable, immoral, or inconsistent with the Islamic ideas of +the unity of God and the brotherhood of man.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_45_46" id= +"Footnote_45_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_46"><span class= +"label">45</span></a> +<p>"We will soon show them our sign in all horizons (= regions) and +in their own souls, until it shall become quite clear to them that +it is the Truth—Qur'an xli 53. +سنريهم آيا +تنا فى الا +فاق و فى +انفسهم +حتىا يتبين +لهم انه +الحق</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_46_47" id= +"Footnote_46_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_47"><span class= +"label">46</span></a> +<p>God's is the East and the West, therefore whichever side you +turn, you will see the face (= presence) of +God—Qur'an i. 115.<br /> + ولله المشر +و المغرب فا +ينما تولو +فثم و جه +الله</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_47_48" id= +"Footnote_47_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_48"><span class= +"label">47</span></a> +<p>And He is within you (= in your mind), why don't you see +Him?—Qur'an li. 21. و فى +انفسهم +افلا +تبصرون</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_48_49" id= +"Footnote_48_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_49"><span class= +"label">48</span></a> +<p>Islam must not be confounded with what is called "Muhammadanism" +which is but an ossified form of Islam, clothed in Mediæval +beliefs and disfigured by pagan practices. See Mr. J.C. Molony's +admirable report of the Census of the Madras Presidency for 1911, +where, quoting from the poet Hali's famous <i>Musaddas</i>, he +describes how far Muhammadanism in Southern India has been +influenced by Hinduism. Read also Hali's excellent pamphlet called +الدين يسر "the +Simplest Religion" which describes how Islam has been "ossified," +<i>i.e.</i>, rendered rigid and unprogressive.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_49_50" id= +"Footnote_49_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_50"><span class= +"label">49</span></a> +<p>I know of no religion which does not say, "Do good and avoid +evil" and I consider it no religion which does not say, "Live well +and happily."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_50_51" id= +"Footnote_50_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_51"><span class= +"label">50</span></a> + +<table summary="Galib"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_left" colspan="2">Ghalib:</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left">*</td> +<td class="cell_95">همكو +معلوم هے +جنت كى +حقيقت +ليكن</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_left">*</td> +<td class="cell_95">دلكے +خوش ر كهنے +كو غالب ۑ +خنال اچها +هے</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_51_52" id= +"Footnote_51_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_52"><span class= +"label">51</span></a> +<p>See p. 24 above.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_52_53" id= +"Footnote_52_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_53"><span class= +"label">52</span></a> +<p>It supplies the best motive for overcoming the perversity of +human nature to which St. Paul directs our attention in these +beautiful words: "The good that I would, I do not: and the evil +which I would not, I do."—Rom. vii. 19.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_53_54" id= +"Footnote_53_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_54"><span class= +"label">53</span></a> +<p>Read Draper's "Conflict between Science and Religion" which is a +historical account of how some scientific ideas had to contend with +religious prejudices—a book which, by the way, disproves the +charge that Caliph Omar destroyed the great Library at +Alexandria.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_54_55" id= +"Footnote_54_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_55"><span class= +"label">54</span></a> +<p>God reveals Himself to everybody at every instant of his life. +It depends entirely on the spirituality or spiritual capacity of +each individual to what extent he knows God and God's ways. The +"spiritual capacity" is partly inherited from one's ancestors and +partly acquired by faith and devotion, as well as by right conduct +and good works.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_55_56" id= +"Footnote_55_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_56"><span class= +"label">55</span></a> + +<div class="poem0"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">نيست +برلوح دلم +جز الف قا +متيار * چكنم +حرف دگرياد +نداد +استادم</span> <span class= +"i0">The <i>Alif</i> of the Loved One's form is engraven on my +heart,</span> <span class="i0">No other letter did my Shaikh ever +to me impart—<i>Hafiz</i>.</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_56_57" id= +"Footnote_56_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_57"><span class= +"label">56</span></a> +<p>See Note 2.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_57_58" id= +"Footnote_57_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_58"><span class= +"label">57</span></a> +<p>I have neither time nor space to explain the full significance +of the Qur'anic verses I have quoted here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_58_59" id= +"Footnote_58_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_59"><span class= +"label">58</span></a> +<p>Some would call this Reality, God; but others would say that God +is greater and higher than the Reality which manifests itself in +different forms. He is above all that any man can think of or +imagine. اے برتراز +خيل وقياس +وگمان +ووهم</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_59_60" id= +"Footnote_59_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_60"><span class= +"label">59</span></a> +<p>Vol. ii. 748. You have to read the book itself to understand +this. I cannot explain it in a short note.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_60_61" id= +"Footnote_60_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_61"><span class= +"label">60</span></a> +<p>I have neither time nor space to explain the full significance +of the Qur'anic phrases I have mentioned here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_61_62" id= +"Footnote_61_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_62"><span class= +"label">61</span></a> +<p>"In the world there is nothing so great as man. In man there is +nothing so great as mind"—<i>Sir William Hamilton</i>.</p> + +<p>"In the mind of man there is nothing so great as the idea of +God"—<i>Islam</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_62_63" id= +"Footnote_62_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_63"><span class= +"label">62</span></a> +<p>This is quite different from the Christian doctrine of +Atonement.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_63_64" id= +"Footnote_63_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_64"><span class= +"label">63</span></a> +<p>It was the spirit of co-operation which Islam engendered among +wild and unruly Arabs, that enabled them to put aside their tribal +feuds, to unite and conquer more than half the known world in the +first century of the Hijri era (= the 7th century of the Christian +era). It was the lack of that spirit in the next two centuries that +dismembered the Muslim Empire.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_64_65" id= +"Footnote_64_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_65"><span class= +"label">64</span></a> +<p>I say "<i>the</i> Islam of our ancestors", because the Islam of +<i>some</i> of our contemporaries, called Muhammadanism, is not +quite the same.</p> + +<p>Read Prof. Gregory's <i>Discovery or the Spirit and Service of +Science</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_65_66" id= +"Footnote_65_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_66"><span class= +"label">65</span></a> +<p>"Sufis" are those Muslims who claim with Mowlana Rumi</p> + +<p>ماز قرآن +مغزرابرد +اشتيم * +استخوان +پيش سگان +انادا +ختيم</p> + +<p>"We have taken the marrow out of the Qur'an and thrown the bones +to dogs," meaning by "dogs" those who quarrel over words +(متكلمين) of the sacred +texts.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_66_67" id= +"Footnote_66_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_67"><span class= +"label">66</span></a> +<p>"Man" says Carlyle, "is a symbol of Eternity imprisoned into +Time."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_67_68" id= +"Footnote_67_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_68"><span class= +"label">67</span></a> +<p>This proviso defines also the Liberty of Subjects in a State. +Every man should be free to do whatever he wishes provided that he +does not thereby prevent others from enjoying the <i>like</i> +liberty of action. It is the basis of all good Laws which should +provide <i>equal opportunities</i> to all subjects without +distinction.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_68_69" id= +"Footnote_68_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_69"><span class= +"label">68</span></a> +<p>Muhammadans generally misunderstand and misapply the doctrine of +"Qismat" or Fate. The Prophet distinctly taught that we should +first of all do whatever lies in our power and then leave the rest +to God. We are apt to forget the first part of his precept and +cling to its second part only which accords with our tropical +laziness. See footnote <a href="#Footnote_7_8">7</a> on page +12.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_69_70" id= +"Footnote_69_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_70"><span class= +"label">69</span></a> +<p>ذا لك +الدين +القيم = It (Islam) is the standard +religion.—Q. xii. 41.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_70_71" id= +"Footnote_70_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_71"><span class= +"label">70</span></a> +<p>Islam rejects some "previous revelations" not because they are +untrue but because their records that have come down to us are not +quite genuine and trustworthy.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_71_72" id= +"Footnote_71_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_72"><span class= +"label">71</span></a> +<p>The heading of all chapters except one of the Qur'an.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_72_73" id= +"Footnote_72_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_73"><span class= +"label">72</span></a> +<p>"Mankind comes to Me along many roads; and on whatever road a +man approaches Me on that road do I welcome him, for all roads are +Mine."—<i>Bhagawat Gita</i>. +الطرق الى +الله بحسب +الانفس See p. 24.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_73_74" id= +"Footnote_73_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_74"><span class= +"label">73</span></a> +<p>See Note 2 (concluding part) which mentions three common factors +in all religious systems of the world.</p> + +<p>"The city of the Hindu God is Benares and the city of the Muslim +God is Mecca. But search your hearts and there you will find the +God both of Hindus and Muslims. If the Creator dwells in +tabernacles only, whose dwelling is the +Universe?"—<i>Kabir</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_74_75" id= +"Footnote_74_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_75"><span class= +"label">74</span></a> +<p>Some Muslims believe that Zoraster, Krishna, Buddha, and +Confucius were also prophets or messengers of God but that they +were no more than good and great men. They do not attribute any +divinity to them.</p> + +<p>"Religion", said Hitchcock, "implies Revelation". By +"Revelation" is meant a set of sublime (and therefore, divine) +truths revealed, <i>i.e.</i> communicated from time to time to +chosen men (= Prophets) who had the necessary spirituality to +comprehend them and to convey them, as God's messages, to their +fellow-men in the <i>human</i> language of themselves. The defects +(if any) found in the authoritative records (= Scriptures +صحف) are the defects in the human language and +not certainly in the sacred and sublime truths revealed to the +chosen men, the Messengers of God. It is the defect of <i>human</i> +understanding, no less than the poverty of <i>human</i> language, +that has often prevented the full comprehension of the divine +dispensation and the sublime truths in the messages of Prophets. It +is <i>our</i> comprehension of the truth itself that has given rise +to diversity in religious beliefs and practices.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_75_76" id= +"Footnote_75_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_76"><span class= +"label">75</span></a> +<p>Provided they are authentic and genuine and not altered by +interpolations and omissions.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_76_77" id= +"Footnote_76_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_77"><span class= +"label">76</span></a> +<p>Neither the Bible nor the Qur'an is responsible for the cruel +excesses committed by Christians or Muhammadans in the name of +Religion.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_77_78" id= +"Footnote_77_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_78"><span class= +"label">77</span></a> +<p>"The best of things is the medium +thing"—<i>Muhammad</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_78_79" id= +"Footnote_78_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_79"><span class= +"label">78</span></a> +<p>Charles R. Gibson.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_79_80" id= +"Footnote_79_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_80"><span class= +"label">79</span></a> +<p><i>Vide</i> Note 12 para. marked (a) <a href="#Page_79">p. +79.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_80_81" id= +"Footnote_80_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_81"><span class= +"label">80</span></a> +<p>For the purpose of this Note it will be enough if you understand +the first four propositions. I am afraid you will find some +difficulty in understanding the remaining two propositions without +illustrative examples, for which I have no space here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_81_82" id= +"Footnote_81_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_82"><span class= +"label">81</span></a> +<p>"For <i>such as be</i> blessed of him shall inherit the earth, +and <i>they that be</i> cursed of him shall be cut +off."—Psalm 37th, 22.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_82_83" id= +"Footnote_82_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_83"><span class= +"label">82</span></a> +<p>Qur'an, xxi. 105. Following the late Mr. Justice Karamat Hussain +of Allahabad, I take the word صا لح to mean +"fit" in the evolutionary sense. See his book عام +الاخلاق.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_83_84" id= +"Footnote_83_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_84"><span class= +"label">83</span></a> +<p>He edits a journal called "Biometrika" which is devoted to the +statistical study of biological problems.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_84_85" id= +"Footnote_84_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_85"><span class= +"label">84</span></a> +<p>Prof. Muirhead of the University of Burmingham, in his kind +letter to the author on these "Notes."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_85_86" id= +"Footnote_85_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_86"><span class= +"label">85</span></a> +<p>Hence Formalism creeps into every Religion and renders it +lifeless when its doctrines fail to adjust themselves to new facts +or to changes in old facts. See <i>Appendix</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_86_87" id= +"Footnote_86_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_87"><span class= +"label">86</span></a> +<p>It should be construed and applied to new ideas and changed +circumstances of each age in quite the same manner as Judges in a +Court of Law construe and apply old Statutes to facts of cases that +come before them. See Hali's الدين +يسر</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_87_88" id= +"Footnote_87_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_88"><span class= +"label">87</span></a> +<p>See the verse of the Qur'an quoted on <a href="#Page_33">p. +33.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_88_89" id= +"Footnote_88_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_89"><span class= +"label">88</span></a> +<p>Or say: True Christianity is but true Islam writ large. "On the +whole this religion of Mahomet's is a kind of +Christianity."—<i>Thomas Carlyle.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_89_90" id= +"Footnote_89_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_90"><span class= +"label">89</span></a> +<p>See hints:—Para 3 of Note 5 pp. <a href="#Page_31">31, +32;</a> Footnote <a href="#Footnote_48_49">(<i>48</i>)</a> p. 43; +Footnotes <a href="#Footnote_4_5">(<i>4</i>)</a> and <a href= +"#Footnote_5_6">(<i>5</i>)</a> page 12; Footnote <a href= +"#Footnote_85_86">(<i>85</i>)</a> p. 81.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_90_91" id= +"Footnote_90_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_91"><span class= +"label">90</span></a> +<p>Written in 1917.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_91_92" id= +"Footnote_91_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_92"><span class= +"label">91</span></a> +<p>Cp. Note 7.</p> +</div> + +<table width="70%" summary="TN" border="1"> +<tr> +<td>Transcriber's note:<br /> +Arabic names are kept as in the original text. Arabic +transliterations are according to ISO 233 system in most cases and +from the version by the CANADIAN SOCIETY OF MUSLIMS with their kind +permission.</td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes on Islam, by Ahmed Hussain + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES ON ISLAM *** + +***** This file should be named 25254-h.htm or 25254-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/2/5/25254/ + +Produced by Turgut Dincer, Michael Ciesielski and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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