Real Revolution

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Real. Revolution by. Hazrat Mirza. BASHIR-UD-DIN MAHMOOD AHMAD. Khalifatul Masih II

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Real Revolution by. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad,. Khalifatul Masik II,. Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam.. PUBLISHERS. The Oriental & Religious Publishing. Corporation Ltd., Rabwah (Pakistan)

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PUBLISHERS' NOTE. This is a translation of a lecture delivered by. Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad Khalifatul Masih II at the Annual Gathering of the Ahmadiyya Movement at Qadian on December 28, 1937.. In Urdu this lecture was published in book form in 1938 under the title Inqilab-i-Haqiqi. To reach a wider circle of readers, especially in foreign lands, it is now published in English, for it deals with questions of which the importance for Muslims all over the world, and for others interested in philosophy and religion, remains undiminished.. Islam is the REAL REVOLUTION that will solve the baffling problems which confront mankind today, more acutely perhaps than ever before in human history. The mission of the Ahmadiyya Movement is to present this solution before the whole world in its proper perspective; and while putting this book in the hands of readers accessible through the medium of English, we pray that Allah, in His unbounded grace and mercy, may give us the strength to fulfil this mission.. We feel grateful to Sufi A. Q. NIAZ who translated this book from Urdu into English and our thanks are due to him for this labour.. E

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THE REAL REVOLUTION. The subject I propose to discuss today is of a peenliar nature. On the one hand, if I were to speak just one sentence about it and resume my seat, in a way I shall have said all that needs to be said. On the other, if I wished, and God gave me the power to do so, I could dwell on it for many days, speaking continually for as many as twelve hours every day, and still the subject may not be fully covered. And it is also possible that in the course of the next four or five hours I should press it into a brief but full discussion, in all its main aspects. Keeping in view, however, the limitations imposed by the time factor, I intend to pursue the last named course which represents the middle way; may Allah give me the strength and the power to do so!

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2. BASIC PRINCIPLES. OF CORPORATE OR NATIONAL LIFE. It should be very clearly borne in mind that two principles are constantly at work in human affairs; principles without which corporate or national life cannot stand on any permanent, lasting basis. From the earliest days of Adam, there has been no movement-religious, secular, rational, intellectual, academic or practical-that has ever attained any lasting measure of success without operating on the basis of these two principles.. Need for a Message. The first of these principles is that no movement can be really successful unless it contains a new message-unless it puts before the world something which was not known to any one before. Or, at least, it should comprise something which the people in general had forgotten. For instance, associations operate successfully in this country of which the aim is to persuade people to send children to school; because in a large number of cases, here, children are not sent to school. But if an association were to be formed in. London or Berlin for this purpose, it would not prosper, since people would say that they were already sending their children to school in any case and an association for this purpose was not needed. However, if an association were to be formed in those places which emphasised the need for concentration on any parti-

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cular type of study, it would prosper, for it would have a new purpose.. This new purpose, or an old purpose re-emphasised, which the people in time had come to overlook, is often referred to as the Message of a movement. 3. During my first visit to Europe (1924), the question I was frequently called upon to answer was:. What is the message of Ahmadiyyat for the world?. In other words, what was there in its teachings which was not known to the world before, or which the world had tended to overlook?. The Holy Quran also recognises the validity of this principle. It says: 13/15 19 فَامَّا الزَّبَدُ فَيَذْهَبُ جُفَاء وَأَمَّا مَا يَنْفَعُ النَّاسَ كذلكَ يَضْرِبُ اللهُ الأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ يمْكُتُ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَذلِكَ يَضْرِبُ الله i.e. Foam and filth, being useless, are thrown away to be destroyed, while things beneficial and necessary for man, like water for instance, endure upon this earth. This is how Allah propounds parableg to explain the truth for the people. (13:18). The Criterion for a Divine Mission. It was on this verse of the Holy Quran that the. Promised Messiah based his argument that every claimant to a Divine mission whose teaching came to be accepted, and it moulded and controlled the lives of various people over long periods of history, was indeed from God.

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Some ignorant maulavees have been known to ask wherefrom the Promised Messiah deduced this principle: but people of this type do not really give any deep thought to the Holy Quran. This principle is clearly laid down in the verse quoted above, and in a number of others to the same effect, that a religion which claims to have originated from God, and then ' for hundreds of years endures in the world, giving light to thousands, cannot, in reason, be adjudged false; and it was on this basis that the Promised Messiah held that Krishna, Ramachandara, and Budha were in truth the Prophets of God.. No one would venture to say that to speak falsehood in regard to God can be held to be a beneficial course. Falsehood is undoubtedly injurious for man, and it is out of the question that it should be allowed to take firm ron this world. Allah never leaves a false claimant without due punishment.. Therefore, if there is a successful movement which endures in the world, it will be taken to mean that it brought for mankind a beneficial message.. Only a fool would think that even a false person and a liar could bring a message of spiritual benefit, to last in the world: no sane man would care to put up this assumption.. The Two Ways of Reform: War and Peace. The other principle found operating in the world is that reform or reconstuction takes place either through or peaceful penetration and replacement. Either war.

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5 the new ideas go out to catch the minds of the people, are discussed, often with great heat, and come to be accepted. For instance there was a time when it was believed that the earth was flat. In fact even at this late day one sometimes comes across people who still believe that the earth is really flat. Once in Labore where. I was invited to speak in the Islamia College Hall, my discourse was interrupted by a man from the audience who asked if there would be time for questions. The chairman inquired what he desired to ask. He replied that he wished to say that the earth was flat and wanted a discussion on the question. The chairman said that this was entirely irrelevent to the discourse in hand, but the man obstinately insisted that the question was of such basic importance that it deserved to be discussed in any case.. This means that even now there are people who believe that the earth is flat, though their number is small; but in the earlier eras all except the Muslims held that the earth was flat. Among the Muslims of course the view prevailed that the earth was round; but the people of Europe held the opposite view, and later when the question of the earth being round came to the forefront, the Europeans stoutly repudiated the theory.. When Columbus thought of going in search of America, he had picked up that idea in the course of his contact with the Muslims. He had studied with a Muslim scholar who was a disciple of Hazrat Mohy-ud-Deen. Ibn-'Arabee. on the basis of some of his dreams and

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6 visions, who had written in his books that across the sea opposite to Spain there was a large land mass; and since the idea that the earth was round was spreading among Muslim scholars and scientists, the disciples of. Hazrat Mohy-ud-Deen Ibn-'Arabee were inclined to believe these visions of the saint referred to India. When. Columbus heard about these things he was fired hy a desire to discover a sea route to India. Lacking, however, the means to finance such a venture, he put his idea before the king.. and managed to impress some nobles at the court, and the queen herself, in his favour.. But when the king called his advisors into council, the repesentative of the Pope ridiculed the idea of the earth being round as extremely foolish, even anti-religious.. He made a powerful speech. "Either Columbus really is mad or he wants to make fools of us all," he said. "If the earth really is round, then India lies at the opposite side, which would mean that the people on that side of the earth are hanging downward in the air. He expects us to believe that there are parts of the earth where the people live with their teet up and heads down, where the trees grow from roots in the earth hanging downward in the air, where the rain spouts up instead of falling down, where the sun does not rise upon the earth but peeps up from down below." That ecclesiastic expressed his ignorant, hide-bound ideas with such dramatic vehemence that he carried the council into holding that Columbus was a fraud; that no financial help should be extended to him; and for a long time

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7 the project remaind in abeyance; until the queen found means to support it out of her own personal resources.. The New World was then discovered from which the. Spain of those days derived immense benefit.. In short, there was once a time when even welleducated and learned people laughed at the idea that the earth was round; but today even little children at school can reel off argument after argument to establish that the earth has the form of a globe. The whole world has now come to accept the theory.. Thus, there are things which take time to become popular in the world: sometimes they replace things which had occupied the field before; but often they do not replace them completely. Winning a place for themselves, they begin thenceforth to exist side by side with the others, as for instance we find that locomotion has come to exist side by side with the old means of transport. When railway transport was first adopted in Britain, people, it is said, used to lie down on the track, vowing they would rather die than let the new mode of transport come into vogue; but soon the railways spread all over the country in a net-work.. When the telephone was first introduced into Mecca, many Arabs said that Shaitan (Satan) was being brought into the country, and Ibn-Saud began to be so unpopular that a spirit of revolt started to simmer in his army.. When Ibn-Saud realised the seriousness of the matter and decided to tackle it firmly, he asked why they called it a "thing of Satan". The reply was: "What

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8 else can it be? A man sitting miles and miles away across the desert in Jeddah says something, and his voice reaches Mecca. How can such a thing be possible except through some trick of the Devil?" To answer this question and to explain the matter to absolutely uneducated people, who knew nothing about the modern sciences, was not easy. But luckily a tactful Arab chief came forward to help the king out of the difficult situation. He gave the telephone receiver at one end to the chief who propagated the view that it was Satan, who spoke in these instruments, while on the other side he took it himself. Over the wires he asked if it was correct that according to authentic traditions of the Holy Prophet, Satan always fled from the place where La Haul was recited. The reply was that of course it was correct. "Suppose someone denied the truth of this tradition, what would be your opinion about such a man?" And the prompt reply was that such a man would undoubtedly be a Kafir (Unbeliever). Then he said: "Now listen carefully.. I am going to recite the La Haul. Tell me if my vioce carries to you clearly". When the reply came that. La Hual had been heard very clearly, he said: "You see, it is not Satan carrying my voice over the wires, for had it been the Devil, he at once would have run away from it, not carried it over to the receiver at the other end. there is no ... لاحول ولا قوة الا بالله العلى العظيم The prayer .1 power nor might save in Allah, the High, the Great.

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9. In short, there are many movements in this world which people oppose at first, but slowly they get established and make room for themselves in the prevailing orders. There are other movements, however, which totally change an old order. They do not adjust themselves to become part of what had gone before, but create a new order of their own, for which purpose they have to destroy the old one as a matter of necessity, the process always involving a sanguine struggle, sometimes only on the mental plane, but not infrequently on the physical plane as well, so that it begins to appear that it had put an end to peace and tranquility in the world.. But after this conflict they establish themselves and become the basis for a new period of peace.. Thus there are two ways for reforming and remoulding things: through peace or through war. Either a new movement is mixed into the existing order, to create a new system from á combination of the two, so that both grow into each other and become one; or there is a war between the old order and the new movement, which uproots the old system, itself taking its place. Reformations and changes brought about in the former way are called Evolution; they involve, changes which come gradually, by easy stages, without any kind of sudden jerks or violence. But the second kind which involves wars and bloodshed is called. Inqilab in Arabic. For instance, in meetings addressed by Pundit Nehru are heard shouts of "long live

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• 10. Revolution." This is what is meant by Inqilab, which implies, in the case of the Indian National Congress politics, that the difference between this political organisation and the Government of India is so basic, and so acute, that for the Congress there can be no question of any compromise; that the Congress needs must break the present system of government and create a new one, along original lines of its own.. It has, however, to be mentioned in passing that the claim of the Congress to a policy of Revolution is only an empty claim, since, for all practical purposes, this political body seems to have come to a satisfactory arrangement with the Government, for it has accepted office in many provinces, and revolutionary slogans are now uttere l as little more than a parrot cry. (The subsequent course of events too has belied the Congress claim to be a Revolutionary movement for it has so far made no radical change in the system of government. All that it has done is to change the personnel controlling the administration; the machinery of government has been left entirely intact.). A Revolution, in any case, means that an existing system will no longer be acceptable even if certain adjustments were made in it: that it will have to be totally thrown aside, broken to pieces and destroyed, and a new order created to take its place.. Some other Names for a Revolution. When a Revolution occurs in religious sphere, in. Islamic terminology it is called Qiyamah(). Another

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11 expression used for it is Khalq-us Samawat-i-wal. Ardhi.e. the creation of a new earth and a new heaven. Still another name for it in the language of the Holy Quran is Al-Sa'ah (l). ·. All changes that have taken place in the world, and all successful movements have followed this course there can be no universal and abiding movement without a fresh message for mankind, and a call for a Revolution.. Evolutionary movements do not partake of the nature of major movements. Whenever a major movement has taken place, it has always involved a Revolution. From this point of view, we, the. Abmadees, are entitled to cry "Long live Revolution", with greater fervour and justification than the Congress, though of course the substance of the Revolution as visualised by us is radically different from what is visualised by that body.. FIVE MAJOR SECULAR MOVEMENTS. If we study the history of political movements we find that the conquests of only such movements spread their influence wide, and lasted for any length of time, as sprang from the kernel of a new message, and were of a revolutionary nature, namely those which differed basically from an existing order of things and organised life on altogether a new basis. Their number is

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12 strictly limited. One of these, which sprang up in India, is called the Aryan Movement. It did not remain confined to India alone, but also threw its influence over Europe. The second, which rose in the West, was the movement of the Roman civilization. The third, born in Central Asia and parts of China, was the Iranian Movement, as I call it. The fourth, which rose in Western Asia and Africa, I call the Babylonian Movement; and the fifth is that of the modern civilization, the most universal of all, generally known as Western. culture. new civilizaFrom world history it appears that in the field of secular progress these are the most imp tant and universal movements. At the back of all was a new philosophy of life, a tion. They by no means meant only this that certain nations, at one period of their history, just took up the sword and conquered adjoining countries: the founders of these movements destroyed the existing orders and replaced them with new ones, or they opened the door to new branches of knowledge. Though the founders of these movements lost their political power after a time, and their place was taken by some other nations, but even those who defeated and destroyed them could by no means free themselves from the influence of their ideas and their philosophy. Their political power was broken, but their intellectual

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13 supremacy remained undisputed. On the surface, the. Aryan, Ancient Iranian, Roman, and Babylonian governments were destroyed: but the fact remains that some of them are to be met with, in some form or other, to this very day, and even those who profess to hate them still carry the yoke of their dominance. Goverments which came after them represented, in greater part, only a change in personnel, while principles which underlay the systems remained unaltered. The revolt against them was no more than a revolt against the last representatives of these movements; it was not directed against the movements or cultures themselves. All that happened was that the flag of these cultures passed into other hands; the colour was given a lighter or a darker shade; the size of the flag was reduced or enlarged, but the essence behind the flag remained the same as before.. Changes which came in Europe in the wake of the Roman civilization were, really speaking, no more than an altered form of the Roman culture; while in the governments which took the place of the Iranian culture, glimpses of the early Iranain civilization are unmistakably clear. Founders of the. Aryan civilization were followed by the Budhists and the Jainees, but the Aryan stamp remained on them, deep and everlasting. Following the decline of the Babylonian empire, a succession of governments took over, one from the other. in Arabia, Syria, Egypt,

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14 etc., but the Babylonian influence was never completely destroyed.. What is called the Western type of culture now stands dominant in the world everywhere. Asia and Africa are trying hard to throw off its yoke, while the two Americas made a similar effort earlier and succeeded to a large extent. Japan on one side of Asia and Turkey on the other are two more countries which have become independent. But when we come to study the present state of their political institutions and their machinery of administration, we find that only the personnel of government has changed-nothing more. In fact the Turks and the Japanese, since independence, have become all the more enamoured of Western culture.. India is very restless for freedom these days.. Its youngmen are carrying their lives on the plams of their brands, fully determined to liberate their country. But their struggle amounts to no more than this that instead of the British running the machinery of Administration, the Indians themselves should sit at the helm: that is all the meaning of the struggle. By taking to Khadi, Gandhiji has tried to give the impression that he has freed himself from the. Western influence; but those who can see the reality behind the outward look of things know perfectly well that the inner frame remains the same that all that has happened amounts only to this

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15 that Scotch worsted has been replaced by Khaddar.. In the words of Jesus Christ, the old wine has been put into some new bottles.. But what was the inner essence of these. Movements? Let us now take this question in detail, so that we should be in a position to understand the extraordinary vitality of these cultures.. Message of the Aryan Culture: Racial Superiority. The Aryan civilization was founded on the basis of Eugenics. The central idea in it was that all men are not equal, some being superior and others inferior, just as some are rich, others poor, some weak, others strong and healthy, some mentally brilliant, others dull. The second important point in this culture was that the difference between the capacities and conditions of different people could be given permanence under certain conditions; and that this was what was needed to be done in human interest, so that the human race should progress all the more smoothly and quickly.. The idea was that the children of a healthy and strong father would naturally be healthy and strong. And if bodily physique could be improved in this way, it should be possible to do the same about mental capabilities. The offspring of mentally superior parents would be mentally superior.. In other words, this culture emphasised selective breeding as an over-riding principle among human beings.

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16. Wherever the Aryan civilization went, its political and social institutions rested on this foundation. The son of a Brahman would always be mentally superior; that of a Kashatrya physically, as a soldier; and a race that took care to guard its purity of blood along these lines would perpetuate its strength and its hold on others.. That is why their religious thought, too, remained subservient to this basic idea. For instance the. Vedas decreed that if words of the sacred texts should happen to fall into the ears of a Shudra (the untouchable), molten lead should be poured into them. Only the Brahman, the Kashatrya and the Vaish were entitled to listen to the sacred mantras, not the Shudras.. As far I have been able to see, their belief that man repeatedly returns to this world after death, and passes through many transmigrations of the soul, is also a direct result of the philosophy just mentioned.. They believed that for a superior race to maintain its position it was necessary that souls with a superior calibre should always be coming into it, and for this purpose they propounded the theory that the intellectually higher souls in the fold of each caste took rebirth after death as Brahmans; those martially superior, among the. Kashatryas; while those gifted with better business acuemen were reborn as Vaishas, the bad and the worthless descending among the Shudras.' By implanting this doctrine in the mind of the lower castes,

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17 the founders of this culture eliminated the possibility of any revolt against the order. The Shudras might have rebelled, had they been left with the impression that they would always remain Shudras; or the Kashatryns might have done so, if they had been taught that they would always have to play second fiddle. But both were effectively silenced by the hopeful belief ingrained into them that the Brahmans, Kashatryas, Vaishas and Shudras were not races in themselves; that the castes represented only assignments given to good or bad souls according to their deserts. In an army we find that a Jamadar, bears no grudge againt a Risaldar, nor a Risaldar against a Lieutenant, because each knows that these are ranks open to him as well, in time, on the basi< of merit. Similarly, in the mentality bred by this doctrine, the Shudra could have no malice against the Vaishas, nor the Vaishas against the Kashatryas, nor. Kashatryas against the Brahmans, all these positions in the caste system, based on a theory of the transmigration of soul, being the result of good or bad deeds in a previous phase of existence, and therefore open to the. Shudras, the Vaishas and the Kashatryas, if they lived good lives under the spiritual guidance of the Brahman.. In this way the founders of the Aryan civilization, by basing their entire social theory on the central idea of racial superiority and a rigidly selective breeding to perpetuate their dominance, eliminated, for ever, all possibility of any serious revolt against that order.. They created a strong but false hope in the mind of the

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18 people at the lower rungs that by being obedient to the Brahman they could rise in the scale, in time; and in this pleasant prospect the oppressed classes forgot their hardships, drugged by dreams of the good things in store for them, only if they won the approval and pleasure of the Brahman. This explains why in the face of thousands of years of racial oppression the so-called depressed classes have remained remarkably contented under the relentless dominance of the Brahman. The theory of the transmigration of soul has, in the eyes of every Shudra, limited the period of his distress and humiliation only to the phase, or life span, through which he was passing at the moment; and this bumiliation and distress was the result of his own misdeeds in his previous life. He could escape from this curse by pleasing the Brahman even now. In this frame of mind it naturally never occured to him that he should try to destroy order of which even the most valuable privileges were open to him through good deeds under the teaching of the Brahman.. In fact this theory of the transmigration of soul, as an instrument for prepetuating the racial dominance of a particular class, is the invention of some very extraordinary mind, one which deserves the highest tribute except for the fact that, unworthily, it applied itself to the mean task of preparing chains for the racial enslavement of large sections of mankind.. Basis of Roman Civilization: Law and Human Rights. The central impulse of the Roman civilization

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19 sprang from the importance it attached to law and hun.an rights. The founders of this culture were the people who gave the earliest recognition to the idea of human rights: they built up a system of life in which to one could be punished except by law, and they reduced political activity thereby to a sort of order.. The right to govern also was made dependent on certain principles, this being the reason why Roman. Law even today is studied carefully by legislatures and legal luminaries all over the wor!d.. Message of the Iranian Civilization :. Morality and Politics. The Iranian civilization was founded on ethical and political concepts, this being the reason why according to the ancient Iranian point of view it was impossible that a pure Being like God should soil His hands by creating an impure thing like sin. They held, therefore, that there were two Gods: one the God of. Cood, and the other the God of Evil. In other words, they invested ethics and morality with such supreme im portance that it became impossible for them to artribute the creation of an immoral and unethical thing to God.. Put since they could not run away from the fact that sin existed in the world, they got out of the difficulty involved in their basic idea by assuming that the creator of sin was some being other than the supreme deity, who deserved to be hated rather than worshipped.

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20. Iranian culture was the idea of co-operation, this being the reason why this culture has been the first to originate a concept which gave birth to the idea of an empire comprising units which, in a way, were free, but formed part of an inter-related whole.. If we look closely we would find that this political concept and vision was a result of the duality the culture conceded in regard to the deity. When they conceived that there were two Gods, both independent in themselves but still one superior to the other, they were mentally in a position to create a political and social order in which one king or ruler should be the most major among a number of minor ones, all the latter being independent in themselves, yet in a way subordinate to a higher political power. Imperialism seems to have developed from this concept.. Nothing like this is to be found in India or the other countries that a powerful king remained subject to another king, less strong, simply because he was the emperor and therefore entitled to obedience and respect. This political invention of the ancient. Iranian culture opened up a new way for the maintenance of peace and order for some time.. Instances abound in Iranian history where the dominant central ruler was weakened in time, while those in a subordinate position became stronger, yet they all flocked together at the call of the emperor.. The Abbasia Khilafat in its later period, and the. British empire in our own times developed on this

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21. Iranian pattern. If we carefully study the later period of the Abbasia Khilafat we find that the units subordinate to it were either Iranian, or such as followed the Iranian pattern wherein various chiefs had, for generations, been influenced by the Iranian concepts; therefore inspite of being themselves more powerful than the centre they continued to owe allegiance to it.. Basis of the Babylonian Civilization:. Mathematics and Astronomy. The basis of the Babylonian civilization was mathematics and astronomy. Its founders believed that God had created the sun, the moon and the stars, with an order in nature; and that progress was possible by copying this order in human affairs. They concentrated, therefore, on efforts to fathom the mysteries of the solar system, on following it to the largest possible extent, and on benefitting by it.. Message of the Western Civilization :. Materialism and Nationalism. The fifth type of world civilization, which we commonly speak of as the Western culture, is based on materialism and a supreme importance given to the national spirit.

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22. FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE FIVE TYPES. The Aryan civilization being founded on the idea of racial superiority and dominance, inspite of the great expansion it attained, it could not create any empire. Nor, again due to the same idea of racial superiority, could it create the degree of cohesion and unity which characterised the Iranian culture. The prosperity and progress of the Roman empire, on the other hand, offers a remrkable contrast, because its political principles were such that even after it had conquered a people it was able to maintain a workable relationship with them. It therefore went through a permanent process of evolution, and gave rise, in fact, to the theory of evolution itself.. The Iranian civilization laid the foundation of a a vast empire, of which the parts, within themselves, were free, yet subordinate to a chief. This characteristic is to be met with in all states which grew under the impetus of this civilization. Among the Iranians the idea of a government within another government was the outcome of their concepts in regard to Ahriman and Yazdan.. The Babylonian culture, being based on chemistry and astronomy, took special delight in construction, engineering and organization. Though this culture appears to be the oldest, and though only a few traces have survived, but whatever little has come before our eyes is really astonishing,

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23Traces of the Babylonian Civilization in the Holy Quran.. Some mention of some of the branches of this civilization is also to be found in the Holy Quran. In. Surah Fajr the Holy Book says: الم تركيفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِعَادِ ، ارم ذات العماد ، التي تم يُخْلَقَ مِثْلُها في البلاد ، وَتَمُودَ الَّذِينَ جَابُوا الصَّحْرَ ، بِالْوَادِ، وَ فِرْعَوْنَ ذِي الْأَوْتَادِ ، الَّذِينَ طَغَوْا فِي الْبِلَادِ ، فاكثروا فيها الفساد . (13 - 7 : 89). The people who founded this civilization are called the 'Aad. The Earlier 'Aad were the founders of the Babylonian civilization, while the later 'Aad were one of the bearers of this culture at a later period. The people referred to in the verse quoted here are the Earlier 'Aad, or the founders of the Babylonian culture. God says: Know ye not what treatment was meted out by God to 'Aad? The Earlier 'Aad, who were the builders of lofty buildings, such that no other nation has been able to compete with them in this respect. Though the world has made much progress since that time, still no one has been able to surpass the 'Aad in the science and art of architecture. And. Samood, a branch of the 'Aad, attained great skill in sculpture and the cutting of stone. They built town after town by cutting into the heart of the mountain,

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24 in places creating wonderful palaces by carving into the granite. And the Pharoah of Egypt, too, was a bearer of the same culture. He to whom belonged the autaad.. This word is the plural of watd, translated by many as pegs used in setting up tents. But this meaning does not seem to fit so well into the text as another, namely, towering buildings, soaring into the sky like mountains. In Arabic idiom mountains are called autaa-dul arz. The human nose also is called watad, since it protrudes prominently on the human face. It is a prominent characteristic of the ancient Egyptian buildings that they generally rise like a triangle, with not so much thought given to the requirements of providing accomodation as to towering height. The expression zill autaad used in this text would, therefore, more appropriately seem to mean lofty buildings soaring up like mountains.. Those who have been to Egypt know how the. Pyramids rise to giddy heights, and how people come from far off places to see them and wonder how the builders managed to carry such huge stones to these elevations. The pyramids are so high that it takes a strong, healthy man quite some time to climb to the top. The tower in Delhi known as Qutab Sahib's. Lath offers no mentionable comparison.. God Almighty says in this text that the Pharoah constructed triangular and lofty edifices which were very strong, and adds that the bearers of this civilization, in the days of their glory, created much discord

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25 in the world. They became inordinately proud. But mark how We destroyed them all!. The Babylonian type of civilization concentrated, thus, on the construction of lofty buildings and observatories. Remains of the 'Aad are to be found in the form of extraordinary, high constructions. Western historians were for some time inclined to deny the existence of 'Aad, and held the view that there has been no people of this name. But from about twenty years ago, when remains of this people began to be unearthed, they have come to accept the view that there has been a people in history of the name of 'Aad.. In fact I read recently a book by a Christian historian in which he wrote in regard to 'Aad that the Holy. Quran tells more in a few words than is possible for one to learn by wading through hundreds of pages written by historians. (Tarikhul Arab by Gurgi. Zaidan).. Babylonian culture as mentioned in other sacred scriptures. Description of the Babylonian government as found in the old Testament also bears out the Quranic view: ". And they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded, and the Lord said, Behold, the people is

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26 one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (Genesis 11:4-7).. This passage shows that according to Jewish history as well the Pabylonians were noted for their skill in raising lofty buildings, for it speaks of a bigh tower having been constructed by them. The other particulars given in this passage appear more to be of the nature of myths, but this much can be safely gleaned that the people of Babylon had aquired great skill in constructing lofty buildings which seemed to rise to the very skies.. In the Holy Quran too something similar has been said in regard to the Pharoah, but with this remarkable difference that in the Old Testament an absurd idea has been attributed to God that He was afraid that man, by raising such a lofty structure, may aquire some of the grandeur that should belong only to God, while the Holy Quran attributes this ridiculous idea to the Pharoah, which is not impossible, It says: فاوقدلى بهَامَانُ عَلَى الطَّيْنِ ، فَاجْعَلْ فِي صَرْحاً ، لَعَلي لى الطَّلِعُ إِلَى إِلَهِ مُوسى ، وَإِنِّي لَأَظُنُّهُ مِنَ الْكَاذِبِينَ . by i. e. when Moses put his claim before the Pharoah, the latter sent for his engineer, named Haamaan, and

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27 ordered him to set bricklayers at work, to build a palace equipped with telescopes and observatories, so that he (the Pharoah) should be able to fathom the mysteries of the heavens and find some trace of the. God Moses talked so much about.. Similarly we read in Surah Momin : وقال فرعون بهامَانُ ابْن لى صَرِها لَعَلَى ابلغ الأسباب لاظنه كاذباً. ..... :. اسبابَ السَّمَوَاتِ فَاطَّلِعَ إِلَى اللَهِ مُوسَى وَ إِنِّي i. e. the Pharoah said to Haamaan, Build for us a fort, so that we should reach the causes, the mysteries of the heavens, to learn about the deity professed by Moses, though of course in this we hold him to be a liar.. Here the idea at the back of the mind of the. Pharoah was not that he hoped to reach the sky by means of a high tower; his idea was by climbing to the top to get a clearer view of the heavenly bodies, so that he should be able to expose on a scientific basis the fallacy involved in the philosophy preached by Moses.. Similarly in regard to the Aad God says in another place in the Holy Book: 1031013I البنون بكل ربع آيَةٌ تَعْبَعُونَ ، وتتخلقُونَ مَصَانَعَ لَعَلَّكُم تَخْلُدُونَ ، وَإِذَا بَطَعْتُمْ بَطَعْتُمْ جَبَّارِينَ i. e. We said. you raise imposing buildings at the top of every mountain: you make big factories and ceptres of study for chemistry and you assume that you will

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28 last for ever (as the European people assume these days that their power and glory is ever-lasting). And when you obtain dominance over any country, you destroy its civilization and culture, imposing your own institutions in its place. Jabbaar means one who humbles another and raises himself above others. One very common way of doing this, as we know, is to destroy the culture of the conquered people, and to impose upon them alien institutions, with alien ways of thought. From this passage, and the expressions used in it, it is also to be gleaned that the science of military weapons in the days of this people reached a height never attained before. Judging from the manner in which these people cut deep into the solid. body of mountains, some historians have been inclined to assume that some sort of gunpowder had come into use. If we accept this view, the above verse would mean that they had invented destructive weapons of great power which they used to conquer other nations and to impose their own culture on them... PHILOSOPHY OF THE WESTERN CULTURE. The modern Western civilization is based on a philosophy of materialism resting on observation and experiment. The intensity of the national spirit in the West has flowed from this philosophy as a direct result.. Pure sacrifice is possible only when man believes that over and obove this life there is another life as

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29 well; when he believes that if he makes sacrifices for the benefit of others, he may not gain much in the worldly sense but would undoubtedly benefit in the spiritual sense. On the other hand, when a man is convinced that there is no lite other than this, he sees no sense in forgoing any gain, legitimate or illegitimate.. The extreme type of nationalism is a result of the materialistic philosophy of life. It leads to luxurious living, for which the desire is rooted in a material point of view which emphasises the over-riding need for making the utmost of this life, by whatever means should happen to be handy, this being the main reason why luxury has been developed in the West into an art and a cult... Difference between the Roman and Modern. Western Civilizations.. Government among the Romans was government by law, that being the reason why their philosophy followed, for the greater part, the method of deduction, being in most parts only a fuller development and a fuller exposition of Greek philosophy and culture. All branches of this philosophy follow the principle of déduction-medicine, ethics, religion, and political theory. But modern Western civilization being based on materialism, (i. e. observation and experiment of the particulars), it starts from the particular and proceeds to the general. The general is either arrived at on the basis of the particular

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30 or the general is dismissed as unimportant or absurd.. For instance the Greek system of medicine traces back all ailments to what are called the four basic humours of the human body, and diagnoses a disease on the basis of the medical principles of this system. But in the modern medical science the physician proceeds from sympto.ns to the ailment, and treats it accordingly, without seeing the necessity of linking up all diseases into a particular chain.. As far as the known history of the human race is concerned, these are the five main movements which have influenced the growth of social institutions and development of the human mind. Whatever other forms of government or philosophies have risen in the world, will, in the last analysis, be found to be their offshoots, or to have been influenced by them. If there are cultures anywhere which appear to be different, it will be found on a closer study that the diference lies only in some details: certain points of view, after detaching themselves from the parent system, have begun to appear as if they were totally different, while others, with a slight variation, have developed only as fresh interpretation of these philosophies or as a combination of more than one.. CAUSES OF SUCCESS. The primary cause of the success of these movements was the fact that they were built round the

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31 solid core of a definite message. They did not just take up the sword and conquer country after country. they also obtained a hold on the mind of the conquered people. That is why, when their political power came to be broken, their philosophy survived. The ruled in time broke their fetters, to become independent but on their mind the hold continued of what they had imbibed from their former rulers under political pressure. There was thus a sort of mental and intellectual continuity from era to era, though the roles of the rulers and the ruled changed frequent ly. The founders of these movements ruled over their world for some time, then passed away, but the movements survived for long periods, many of them being found in different forms to this very day. Influence of the Aryan culture is still strong in India where the Brahman does not allow a member of the. Shudra caste to touch him, not to come near him, in fact.. Some time ago it was reported from Madras in the newspapers that the son of a Brahman married a. Chamaran (a low caste held untouchable,). His parents drove away the youngman to live in a lonely hut. After some days, however, it occured to them to test the faith of their son. So they sent for him one day and plied him with pickles to make him extremely thirsty. Then they broke all the pitchers of water in the house, or hid them somewhere. At the end of the meal, when the youngman felt thirsty, he

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32 could find no water, and he started for his own hut, hoping to find it there. When he reached his hut his wife told him, however, that there was plenty of water, but only her glass to drink it from. The youngman declined to do so and went without water for some time more. Then he said to his wife that he could not stand it any more. He asked her to take some water into her mouth and to put it into his directly, which the woman did. Whereat the parents of the youngman, who had followed their son quietly and were hiding nearby in the bushes, watching everything, went back satisfied that their son was still firm on his faith and had not been polluted.. This story exaggerates a ridiculous form of the racial prejudice whcih forms the inner core of the. Aryan civilization, but it brings out graphically how deep is the influence of these ideas in India even today.. The result is that the Brahman and non-Brahman question remains as acute today as practically it ever was before.. Sometimes, however, these cultural philosophies get mixed up together, or other things find a way into them. But traces of the original body of the philosophy remain. Accordingly we find that something of this kind is happening in India these days. A long period of British rule and impact of the progress attained by the Western nations have created in this country the seed of Westernism which is getting stronger

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33 day by day, throwing out shoots and branches on everyside. This is especially the case with the educated classes which have fallen into the habit of looking at everything through Western glasses.. The movement for freedom has, to some extent, checked this tendency, but in the same way as used to be the case in former eras, i.e. the Western philosophy has been adopted with certain superficial and minor changes. We are going to have the same. Western type of councils, the same kind of legislatures, cabinets and administrative machinery.. Even if the British were to quit India today, the modes of British administration would continue to be in vogue. On a difficult question rising for the. Speakers of our legislatures, the answer normally would be that the matter would be duly studied and a ruling given later. In fact, however, this would only mean that records of the British Parliament would be closely scrutinised to yield a solution applicable to the situation in hand. The changes, when they come in India, would go no deeper than changes in Britain when, for instance, a Chamberlain takes over from a Baldwin, or an. Attlee from a Chamberlain. It no fresh culture rises in India in the meantime, Westernism would continue to reign here, though in some superficial respects it would tend to look like something diferent. Gandhiji, who is considered to be the

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34 founder of a new philosophy of life, himself follows in fact the line of this culture, though, as far as words are concerned, he repudiates it. Since the. Western civilization is based on a spirit of materialism, in many situations which teaches one to say one thing but to mean something quite different,. Gandhiji's disciples outwardly cry 'Peace, Peace', while inwardly and secretly they are preparing for war. They talk expansively about Ahinsa (nonviolence), but every time a situation of any difference rises between them and the Muslims. they massacre scores and hundreds of the latter.. From such happenings one is justified to conclude that this noble principle is intended only for show. not for due observance.. The fact is that, under the influence of naterialistic thinking, when man comes to the conclusion that there is no life hereafter, there is nothing to prevent him from working unscrupulously for the destruction of those he considers to be his enemies.. The Congressites may say a thousand times with their mouths that they follow the Gandhi philosophy of non-violence; what they follow in fact is. Western materialism. And unless the influence of materialism fades away from their mind, they would continue to reproduce the events of European history on the stage of Indian political lite.. To sum up, the success of these five world

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35 movements was due to the fact that the propagators of these cultures not only took possession of some territories and countries; they also enslaved the minds of the people they subdued, so that the mental slavery in many cases continued for centuries even after the political yoke had been thrown off.. In the religious sphere also real success comes only from revolution.. The same law applies to the religious sphere, real success in this field as well being dependent on. Revolution. No religion can succeed without this inner driving spirit and urge, success on any other basis being against the law of nature which cannot be ignored, for that law is the Act of God from which there can be no running away.. Revolution means a total and absolute change.. If you desire to raise a new structure in the place ot an old one, with a radically new design, the existing building has to be pulled to pieces, razed absolutely to the ground. Only a fool will aspire to the construction of a new building and ye hope to retain the old one in tact.. The Holy Quran makes religious progress dependent upon revolution. It says: وَمَا نُرْسِلُ المُرْسَلِينَ إِلَّا مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ فَمَن

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36 امن و اصلح فلا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون والذين كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يَمَسُّهُمُ الْعَذَابُ بِمَا كَانُوا يفسقون (50-6:49) i.e. whenever We send a messenger, he always proclaims two things: (i) he condemns the existing order to death: (ii) and in regard to the system he originates himself he proclaims, without ambiguity, that it would be established in the world in its purity, without change or adjustment under any pressure to make it acceptable to this or that people. Those who submit to this system, and ; mould themselves in conformity with its requirements, survive and prosper: but those who do not do so, they gradually fade out of existance.. Aslahans to mould a thing into conformity with a givea thing or value. Jas (good deeds) in this context, therefore, would be deeds in conformity with the requirements of the new values and the new situation. It should be clearly borne in mind that ‘amal-i-salih, generally understood as good deeds, is really speaking much more than that, there being an important difference between the two. For instance, it is a good thing to offer one's prayers, but if a man were to engage himself in prayer at a time when the need of the moment

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37 demanded that he engage himself in (jehad) his conduct would not be called (amal-i-salih). Similarly to observe fasting is a good thing. But in the course of one of his campaigns when a few of his followers fasted for the day, the Holy prophet remarked that those who did not fast had stolen a march upon those who did, since the latter fasted when the requirements of the situation called for a different kind of action. من امن و اصلاح Therefore the expression in this text does not mean those who tendered belief in the Holy Prophet, offered prayers and fasted. It rather means those who tendered belief and then moulded their attitudes, behaviour and actions in conformity with the nature and aims of this belief-these in fact who became like bricks and stones for the new edifice being built by the Prophet. For these there was no fear, no distress. On the other hand, those who did not so mould themselves and refused to become part and parcel of the new structure, the chastisement of God would descend upon them and level them up, as an old rotten building is levelled up with the ground.. Aim in raising prophets. This verse indicates that whenever a Prophet of. God comes in this world, he comes to smash up an existing order and to create a new one in its place;

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38 and only those get new life from him who accept the order he brings. It is necessary that it should be so in the case of every Prophet whether major or minor, but in the case of the major ones the change is very thorough and very drastic, as in the case of the changes brought about by the secular movements mentioned before. Among these Prophets, those, of course, who bring a new law also break to pieces the order established by an earlier dispensation, but Prophets who do not bring a new law, they do not break up the order established by an earlier Prophet, though of course they certainly smash to pieces the order evolved by the people in contravention of the law and the teaching brought by the earlier Prophet.. Ways in which religious revolutions come.. With reference to these religious revolutions. Allah says: .::.. مَا نَفْسَحْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَو نُنسها نَاتِ بخير منها أو 9. مِثْلِهَا أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِهِ وَ الهُمْ قدیر تَعْلَمْ اَنَّ اللهَ لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَوتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَالَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللهِ مِنْ وَلِي وَلَا نَصِيرٍ (103-2:102) ހގ i.e. with regard to messages which heretofore have come, or will come in future, there is a law which

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39 applies to them all, namely, that sometimes they are of a kind that after they have met a need of the time, they have to be effaced and replaced with another; while at other times people come to forget them, and what needs to be done is only this that the order which had come to oust a. Divine order, through thoughtlessness on the part of the people concerned, should be duly revived with full force. When a previous Divine order reaches a stage where, having fulfilled its mission, it has to be eliminated, Allah replaces it with one which is better, more suited to the new needs; but when an old order still remains applicable to prevailing conditions, and only happens to have been forgotten or tampered with, Allah revives the old one- and Allah has the power to do both these things.. And Allah adds: Do you not know why we do these things? Indeed We do so in order to bring about a great revolution, to create a new heaven and a new earth.. Evidently, in the days of the Holy Prophet, what enraged the Unbelievers so much was not the mere fact that the Holy Prophet was putting forth a viewpoint different to their own: the danger they sensed a danger of which the mere thought was for them a veritable torture-was that the Holy. Quran should come to rule over their lives. The

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- 40. Holy Quran says: "Do you not know that Allah is the monarch of the earth and the sky?" Therefore, when He has decided to establish His sovereignty on a new basis, who is there to prevent Him from . doing so?. DURATION OF A RELIGIOUS DISPENSATION. The Holy Quran lays down a principle that every order based on religion either becomes out of date in time, or people forget it. It might get out of date in two ways: people mix other things into it; or its teaching no longer suits prevailing conditions. For instance, we need a new suit of clothes when the old one is worn out to such an extent that it no longer fulfills our need. Or we need a a new outfit for a growing child even when his old clothes are still servicable, because he has in the meantime outgrown them. Similarly a religious teaching is sometimes changed because it had become impure, or it is changed when there is a change in prevailing conditions, so that the old teaching no longer meets the requirements of the new situation.. The cause of a Divine teaching no longer remaining suitable, because of human interference or other causes, occurs only when the Divine scheme demands it should no longer remain operative; for otherwise it always remains under

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41. Divine protection, so that it is continually capable of rejecting and throwing out interpolations through the agency of servants of God raised for this special purpose. But after the period a dispensation is intended to serve has ended, the Divine scheme no longer takes notice of errors creeping into it. For instance when we have an old garment in the house which is no longer servicable, we do not mind if the children get hold of it and tear it to pieces or make a bonefire of it to amuse themselves. Similarly. God allows people to interfete with a set of Divine teaching only when it is no longer needed, and when a new set of teaching is called for.. Thus, a Divine teaching goes through these two phases: (i) when no longer capable of serving the needs of the time, it is replaced with a better teaching - better becuse it meets the requirements of the new situation. The expression: نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ منها i.e., (We bring a teaching better then it) referes to this aspect. (ii) Or the teaching is still suited to the needs of the time, but the people ignore it and set up an order opposed to the spirit of the. Divine teaching. In these latter cases, no new teaching is called for; all that needs to be done is to revive the old teaching in all its purity. This is . أَوْ مِثْلِهَا implied in the expression

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42. At the end of this verse Allah says, "Do you not know that Allah has the power to do all things?". This piece rejects the meaning usually given to the verse by the general ulama. namely that it establishes the so-called theory of Abrogation in the. Holy Quran. Evidently, abrogation of certain verses of the Holy Quran has no remarkable bearing on the unrestricted and limitless scope of Divine powers. The meaning on the other hand which I have attributed to the verse refers most clearly to. Divine control on all things.. More over اللهَ - I W الم تعلم ان الله له ملك السموات والأرض . (.e., Do you not know that for Allah is the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth)also points to the same fact that whenever a new teaching comes, or an old one is revived, a revolution is needed, while the people in general think at the time that a revolution is not possible. Allah, however, always has the power to bring about such a revolution, either by means of a new teaching or simply by reviving an old one.. The interpretation I have given to this verse is a departure from the meaning given to it by most people. But all the various parts of the verse harmonise only when interpretted in the way I have done. The earlier commentators have explained

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43 it to mean that God sometimes sends down a verse but later abrogates it. Non-Muslims have always ridiculed this view, saying:. Why does God abrogate a verse after sending it down? When He sent it down, did He not know that it was not going to suit the needs of the situation? Secondly, the theory of abrogation, if accepted, would indicate a weakness of God, and the expression "Do you not know that Allah has the power to do everything" would become meaningless, for it would have no force when coming after a piece which established a weakness of the Divine being. On the other hand, the meaning which I ascribe to the verse contain a manifestation of Divine power, since it is by no means an easy thing to efface a former p:inciple of conduct well engrooved into the human mind, which people are not inclined to forsake, and to establish a new point of view, altogether a new principle, in its place. Nor is it easy, when a nation has thrown a Divine teaching behind its back and died its own death thereby, that a part of it should be given a new life under the impetus of the revived teaching, and the teaching again made a dominant factor. The doing of these things is undoubtedly most difficult, the accomplishment of these tasks beyond doubt being a great proof of the power of God, which in the verse in question is furth.or emphasised by saying, "Do you not know that for Allah is the sovereignty of the heavens and

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44 the earth". He can bring about a revolution of this kind any time He deems fit.. Meaning of Al-Saa'ah. The period when the dispensation of a major. Prophet commences, in a manner of speaking, is the time of Qiayamah (Day of Judgement), for an older race of men is eliminated and a new generation established in its place. The period, so to say. bears both characteristics of the Qiyaamah: death for all, to begin with, and then a new life. With the coming of these Prophets a kind of death overtakes the world: all the old doors for attaining nearness to God are closed. Then, through obedience to the new Prophets, they are opened afresh. Such Prophets demolish the first structure and raise a new one in its place, irrespective of the fact whether the old building represented a law that had to be replaced with a new one more in consonance with the needs of the time, or whether it represented a man-made version of a law intended yet to last for some time more. Such periods, in the Quranic terminology, are known as Al-Sa'ab.. In regard to the Holy Prophet the Holy Quran says: زين للذينَ كَفَرُوا الحَيوةُ الدُّنْيا ويسخرون من القِيَامَةِ الَّذِينَ أَسَنُوا وَالذِينَ اتَّقَوْا فَوقَهُمْ يَومَ القيام

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45 وَاللَّهُ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاء بغير حساب (2:213) ގ "For those who have disbelieved this worldly life has been greatly decorated, and they ridicule those who have believed, while those who have believed shall be placed above them on the Day of the. Qiyaamah" (Day of Reckoning).. This view of the Believers being placed above the Unbelievers will of course be seen on the final. Day of Judgement, when the Believers would go to. Paradise, while the Unbelievers would be placed in Hell; but on that day no one will be in a position to benefit by it. In the verse under discussion, however, the matter is mentioned as an argument to convince people here. The Day of. Reckoning mentioned here, therefore, is the decisive day when the Holy Prophet obtained a convincing victory over the Unbelievers-the day when the political power of those who opposed the Holy Prophet was smashed; when the world saw this strange spectacle that he who was alone, all by himself, the target for all kinds of oppression and tyranny, became the undisputed ruler over all, while those who had held sway over the land had to submit to the new order.. Meaning of Iqtiraabus Saa'ah. In another place the time of the Holy Prophet has been called Al-Saa'ah:

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$ 46 اقتربت الساعة وانشق القمر (54:2) "The Saa'ah has come, (of which the sign is that) the moon has burst asunder". Now how did the moon burst asunder? I may not here go into this question. What is relevent to the point in hand is the first part of this verse. Thirteen hundred years have passed since the event here spoken of as the "bursting of the moon", with a half of the fourteenth century as well, but the Qiyaamah as the end of the world, in the generally understood sence of the world, has not yet come, although. Allah said; in the words of this verse more than thirteen hundred years ago, that the bursting asunder of the moon was a sign of the immediate imminence of the Saa'ah. Another point worth pondering here is that there does not appear to be any connection between the bursting asunder of the moon and the coming of the Qiyaamah in the sense of the "end of the world.". The fact is that the Saa'ah referred to here does not mean the death of all and the end of the world: it means decisive victory of the Holy Prophet, and the spiritual regeneration that was to take place at his hands. And whatever the fact of the matter regarding the bursting asunder of the moon here spoken of, it was in reality a prophecy in regard to the breaking of the political power of the, Pagan

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47. Arabs. In books dealing with the science of the interpretation of dreams, the moon is taken to stand for the government and the political power of. Arabia. This verse proclaimed that the system prevailing in Arabia at the time was going to be destroyed and replaced by the law and the teaching. brought by the Holy Prophet, so that it was time for the people to pause in their old ways, to ponder and reform themselves.. That the moon in a dream or vision referred to the political power of Arabia, or to some individual chiet who was the repository of that power, was so well established among the Arabs that the followers of other religions as well had come to interpret it in that sense. It is recorded in books of history that following the conquest of Khaiber (Jewish strongholds in the neighbourhood of Medina) when. Safiah, daughter of a prominent Jewish chief, came to be married to the Holy Prophet, he (the Prophet) noticed some long scars on one of her cheeks.. When he inquired about their origin, Safiah replied: "I once saw in a dream that the moon had dropped into my lap from the sky. I was terrified by this dream, and related it to my husband, who in turn related it to my father, who was held to be a learned man among the Jews. But the moment my father heard this, he was so enraged that he struck me violently on the face and stormed, 'So

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481 you wish to marry the king of the Arabs'. That blow was given with such fury that it left permanent scars on my face.". The bursting asunder of the moon, in whatever from it was shown to the Holy Prophet, was thus in reality a prophecy about the destruction of the social order then obtaining in Arabia. کولاكَ لَمَا خَلَقْتُ الافلاك (Laulaaka Lamaa Khalaqtul Aflaaq). This revelation, known to have come down to a number of Prophets, means that, for the era in which the Prophet addressed was raised, each stood in the position of a fundamental pillar: that if it had not been for him, God would not have cared to create the universe for which that prophet was indispensible. It does not mean that God would not have created this universe at all. The degree and depth of the spiritual revolution brought about by a. Prophet depends on the position and rank of that. Prophet, his spiritual powers being reflected in it.. The Prophet, in fact, fathers that revolution. Just as there can be no children unless there is a man to father them, there can be no revolution in the spiritual sense without a Prophet to father it; and in this sense it is perfectly correct to say that if it had not been for that Prophet the new order which

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49 he brought into being would not have come at all.. This revelation also came to the Promised. Mesiah, and it came to the Holy Prophet as well... Now if we were to take Aflaak to mean the material world as embodied in the solar system, it would be extremely strange that first God says about one. Prophet that if he had not been, the universe would not have been created, and then He says exactly the same thing about another Prophet. This proves beyond a shadow of doubt that the expression Aflaak here does not mean the material universe but refers to the spiritual heaveh and earth created through that Prophet; and it is my belief that all such. Prophets as were instrumental in bringing about revolutions of this kind must have received this revelation. Since, however, the Holy Prophet, was raised for all mankind, and for all times, this revelation, when addressed to him, would be taken to be applicable for all times.. Meaning of "Aflaak" in the Old Testament. This view is supported by what we read in St.. Matthew (5: 18): "For verily I say unto you, Till the heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled".. The heaven and earth here spoken of is the Mosaic dispensation, the meaning being that as long as the period of this dispensation lasted the Teaching of

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50 the Torah could not be effaced. It would be effaced only when it had served its purpose and no longer met the needs of the time. This view also agrees with events as they actually turned out, for the Holy Quran later replaced the Torah. In the. Torah itself was said that after Moses another Law. I was to come. In Deuteronomy 18: 18, 19 we read: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My name; I shall require it of him".. The following inferences flow from this passage: (i) Another Prophet was to be raised for the Jews, since it is said "I will raise them up a Prophet". (ii) Like Moses he would be the bearer of a law, since it is said "a Prophet......like unto thee". (iii). He would be from among the Ismaelites, since it is said "A Prophet from among their brethren". (iv). Obedience to him would be binding upon the Jews. since the Prophet was to be raised for them. (v). It the Jews would not obey him, they would be destroyed, since it is written "Whosoever will not listen unto My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him".. In the tace of this prophecy it is not open to us

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51 to say that Jesus meant that the Mosaic dispensation would last as long as the solar system lasted. Evidently, what he meant was that the Mosaic dispensation could not be destroyed before the time came when it had served its purpose and had to be replaced.. The Word 'Qiyaamah' used in the Holy. Quran for the Promised Mesiah. We read : لا أُقْسِمُ بِيَوْمِ الْقِيَاسَةِ - وَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِالنَّفْسِ الدَّوَّامَةِ بحسب الانسان الن تجمع عظامه - بلى قادرين ـ عَلَى اَنْ نُسَوّى بَنَانَهُ - بَلْ يُرِيدُ الإِنْسَانُ لِيَفْجُر 3110 امَامَهُ - يَسْمَلُ أَيَّان مَوْمُ القِيَامَةِ - فَإِذَا بدى البصر شرق و وَخَسَفَ الْقَمَرُ وُجُمعَ الشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ - يَعُونُ الانسان يومئذ أين المفر (75:2-11) i.e. What the Unbelievers claim, that there is to be no. Qiyaamah, and that the dead would not be quickened with life, is quite wrong; and as evidence in support of this God refers to the Day of the Qiyaamah and to the nafsi lawwamah. Now this Day of. Qiyaamah must of necessity refer to some event in •

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52 this world, since the day of Qiyaamah and the. Nafsi Lawwamah have here been cited as a basis to establish that the dead shall be quickened. ·. For, if the Day of Qiyaamah here refers to the. Qiyaamah to come at the end of the world, then the argument becomes meaningless, since, mankind having already perished, there would be none to benefit by it. The dead will not need this argument to convince them that they were to be called back to life. The doubt as to the possibility of the dead being called back to life is a doubt in the mind of the living, and to remove it only that argument could be beneficial which applied to this world itself.. The fact of the matter is that this verse refers to an event which was to take place in this world itself, an event which was to serve as an argument to establish ¹, inevitability of the final Qiyaamah.. That event has been mentioned here together with nafsi lawwaamah, which furnishes another proof in support of Life after Death. Two arguments have been used here because the critics answered therein belonged to two separate periods. For instance, for the people at a later period who would deny the. Qiyaamah an event has been mentioned which, being akin to the final and the bigger Qiyaamab, itself deserved to be called the Qiyaamah in a sense. And this view is further supported by what we read in

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the verses which follow: الشَّمْسُ فَاذَا بَرَقَ الْبَصَرُ - وَخَسَفَ القَمَرُ - وَجَمِعَ الشَّ و العمرُ - يَقُولُ الأنْسَانُ يَوْمَئِذ أين المفر i.e. When human vision will be sharpened (powers of observation and experiment developed) and the mysteries of nature will be revealed in large numbers: when the sun and the moon will suffer an eclipse, one after the other, Man at that time will say in perplexity and despair: "Now where can. I flee for safety!". As evident from the text, the reference is to a period when man, so to say, will be drifting away from Allah in a general tendency towards atheism.. Denial of the final Day of Judgement will be much in vogue, and material science would be making great progress. Man would learn to look deep into the nature of things. The sun and moon will suffer an eclipse, in one and the same month. This last sign has been further clarified in the Ahaadees which further help to specify the period in question.. We read there that for the Mahdee a sign was to be shown which, since the world was created, had never been witnessed before to support such a claim. This sign was that in the month of Ramazaan the moon would suffer an eclipse on the first of the possible dates for such an event, while the sun 53

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34 would do likewise on the middle date out of dates possible for a solar eclipse.. When the verses quoted above are studied in the light of this Hadees it becomes clear that they refer to the advent of the Mahdee. The regeneration of the Muslims to take place at his hands is here cited to establish the inevitability of the final Day of Judgement... Two Signs of the 'Qiyaamat-al-Kubra' (The Bigger Day of Judgement). As I have explained above, two signs have been cited for the bigger Qiyaamah. (i) The Day of. Qiyaamah when man's sight and vision would be vastly developed: and (ii) the nafsi lawwaamah.. The argument of the nafsi lawwaamah stands appli cable for all times; but the evidence of this special. Day of Qiyaamah can benefit the people of that period alone. That is why for the people of the two eras two kinds of arguments have been given. In fact, if we look deeply, we find that in general the whole of this Surah refers to the present days. In a way, moreover, the argument of the nafsi lawwaamah also has a special meaning for these days, the science of Psychology having made more progress now than ever before, so that the argument of the nafsi lawwaamah, i.e. the Inner Admonishing. Sense, can be better appreciated these days when

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volumes have been written on the question of good and evil. This is the era when the argument can be used most effectively that the human mind has an inner sense which approves of certain actions as good, while it condemns certain others as evil.. Without going fully into the discussion as to what is good and what is evil, if we consider only the bare fact of the existence of this sense, we have to concede that human actions are subject to some kind of punishment and reward from which man in no way can escape. This sense, and its natural cause, furnish a strong proof of the Day of Qiyaamah and of life after death. If there is to be no final calling to account, why does human nature suffer from repentence in some cases, while in certain others it tries to attain to a better state of being.. Also in these verses the reawakening to lite that was to take place in this world itself is used as an argument in support of life after death. We are told that a death will overtake Islam. Its teaching would be there, but the people will forsake it. At that time Allah will give a new life to the Muslim people through an Apostle who would be a follower and a servant of the Holy Prophet; and all this, when it came to pass, would furnish a great argument in favour of the final Day of Judgement. For no one besides Allah could be in a position to foretell the initial rise of Islam to power and glory, its later

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56 decline, and subsequent regeneration at a particular time when a solar and a lunar eclipse will take place with a claimant to Apostleship in the field-no one could foretell with such specitic details in regard to the time of the regeneration as to point out that extraordinary development of the sciences based on observation and experiment shall take place, with a great increase in the drift towards atheism. Indeed when an event foretold 13 centuries before actually came to pass, it could not but be taken as an unquestionable proof that Allah knew the Unseen and the Future; and that He was also all powerful. able to bring about such deep and difficult changes.. And then, when all things had come to pass, no one will be in a position to falsify the tidings given by. God, the Knower of the Unseen, in regard to life after death. Having witnessed His power, no one will have any reason to deny the destined occurrence of the final Day of Judgement. When the first. Qiyaamah mentioned in this text occurred, intelligent people would realise there could be no running away from due recognition of the fact that a powerful Being existed who controlled all the diverse phenomana of life with an all-embracing power,. Who knew the unseen, and that absolutely nothing was outside his knowledge and notice.

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57 52. The Creation of a New Heaven and Earth in the Time of Every Prophet. In his memorable work entitled Aacena-iKanaalaat-i-Islam, cn. page 566, the Promised. Mesiah writes: "God has put it into my heart that whenever Allah desires to create an Adam, He creates heaven and earth in six days (stages), and He creates everything essential in the heaven and earth. Then at the end of the sixth day He creates the Adam. This has been the way of Allah in the earlier eras, and. He will do the same in the later age as well.". This indicates that a new heaven and a new earth is created in the time of every major Prophet.. Spiritually speaking the whole world undergoes a deep transformation, destruction overtaking the prevailing order, to give a new life to the world through a spiritual Qiyaamah... A Vision (Kashf) of the Promised Mesiah. The Promised Mesiah writes that in a Kashf he saw that he was absorbed in Allah, and "in that conI was saying that we desired a new order, a new heaven and a new earth. So first I created heaven and earth, in general outline, in which there yet was no order and no differentiation. Then in accordance

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58 with the divine will I created order in it and the necessary distinctions; and I saw that indeed I had the power to do all this. Then I created the nearest heaven and said إِنَّا زَيَّنَّا السَّمَاةَ الدُّنْيَا بِزِينَة الكَواكِبِ .. Then I said now we shall create man from an essence of clay. Then my condition was transformed from a state of Kashf to revelation and I found the following words flowing on my tongue : اَرَنتُ أَنْ أَسْتَخْلِف فَخَلَقْتُ أدَمَ - إِنَّا خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ في أَحْسَنِ تَقويم (Kitaab-ul-Bariyyah P.P. 78-79).. This Kashf also shows that every Prophet has a definite mission, namely, to bring about a change, which, in relation to the old order, is tantamount to the creation of a new heaven and earth. When a new law comes, it represents the new heaven and earth; but when a new Prophet comes in order to revive a law previously given, his mission is to destroy the civilization and cultuce prevailing at the time and to establish the control of moral and spiritual values in their truest sense, this being the meaning of the new heaven and earth which he creates. The values which he re-establishes are old, but they are such as had been lost sight of by the world, and therefore new to it when re-established.

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". MAIN ERAS OF RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS:. Message of the Era of Adam. It appears from the Holy Quran that for the present human race the first era was that of Adam.. In regard to this period the Holy Quran says: وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَعْكُ الدماء i. And when thy Lord said to the angels: 'I am about to place a vicegerent in the earth', they said,. Wilt Thou place therein such as will cause disorder in it, and shed blood?- and we glorify Thee with. Thy praise and extol Thy Holiness'. He answered,. I know what you know not. (2:31). This shows that Adam was the Prophet who laid, the earliest foundation of human civilization and culture, creating an order in human activity which had not existed before. The Adam spoken of here, however, is not the Adam who was the progenitor of the human race, but the Adam who was the originator of civilized human lite. In other words, before the time of this Adam man had not yet attained a stage of social life where he could be the bearer of a law. Till then man had, in fact, developd no social instincts, nor was he such as could

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60 rightly be called a buman being even in the most rudimentary sense as we know it, the utmost that could he said of him being no more than this that he represented a higher kind of brure animal life. . I might mention here that I do not believe that man has developed from some kind of an ape, and by the grace of God I can prove it.. Creation of Man on the Basis of a. Permanent Evolutin. It is, however, a fact that man's progress has followed a line of constant evolution. To begin with, he went through a phase of existence when he was no doubt a higher kind of being than the other current forms of animal life, but he bad not yet developed an entity that deserved to be given a life everlasting. When he rose a step higher from this stage, however, and his brain developed to an extent where he could be the bearer of a law, the first principle he was given was that he should live a corporate life along with others of his kind, under a chief to whom he should owe allegiance. The first law-' giver taught no more than an elementary form of worship, with emphasis on life in a common and social set up, under a chief who was to decide all matters on which disputes might happen to rise.. The name f this law-giver was Adam.. When we look at Adam from this point of

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61 view, all criticism levelled against this text of the. Holy Quran evaporates at once. For instance, at a time when Adam had not yet been created, how did the angels come to know that he would cause bloodshed? Attempts have been made to answer this question in a number of ways. For example it is said that since the function of one placed in a position of authority is to eliminate discord and conflict, the angels concluded that beings were to be created who would indulge in activities which lead to discord and friction. Of course it could be inferred, from the word Khaleefa, that there was going to be a creation that would create disorder. But if this Adam was the first individual, and progenitor of the human race, even then the question does arise that disorder was to be caused by the children of Adam at some future date: why then was Adam made khaleela at this early stage? And if the khaleefa could be in function without there neces sarily being any disorder, then what was the basis of the point raised by the angels?. Thus, this explanation, though reasonable far as it goes, does not fully meet the point as to why the question rose in the mind of the angels; and though the above view can be taken to furnish one explanation, it cannot be accepted as a "com pletely satisfactory interpretation.,. Some of the commentators say this passage a.

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62 means the angels said that in view of the capabilities Adam was endowed with the misgiving arose that he was bound to create disorder and cause bloodshed. But even then the question remains that Adam being a Prophet of God, he could not be expected to do anything except what he was ordered by God to do. It was not possible for him to do otherwise.. While interpretting this verse it should be borne in mind, however, that apparently it is to be inferred from it that the action which struck the angels as strange was an action of Adam himself. not of anyone else, for they ask: "Wilt Thou place therein such as will cause disorder in it and shed, blood?" The second point apparent from the words of the text is that bint of the disorder and bloodshed in question was inherent in the meaning of the word khaleefa itselt. The disorder referred to by the angels is some action included in the function and purpose of Khaleefa. In other words, the angels learnt from the words of Allah Himself that He would call upon Adam to do something which would lead to disorder and bloodshed. The thing that surprised and mystified them was that the vicegerent of God should be guilty of causing disorder and the shedding of blood.. Keeping in mind these aspects of the point raised by the angels, it would be seen that the objection raised fully applies to Adam in the position which my interpretation assigns to him. This Adam, as I

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63 have already made clear, was not the first progenitor of the human race, but the founder of the earliest era of the advent of law in human life. As I have deduced from the Holy Quran, this was the earliest beginning of human civilization when the sene of a corporate social life was first introduced into the human mind, since previously he had not been capable of bearing the yoke of an ordered society. But that sense having by this time come well within the grasp of man, the best individual of the time was raised to the rank of Prophethood and invested with the function to become the founder of an ordered society of human beings. It was in the course of this stage of human development that the sexual relationship between the male and the temale was put on the basis of a permanent union, there having been no principle previously to regulate this relationship.. Basis of the Point Raised by the Angels. After a proper grasp of this point the sense of the point raised by the angels becomes evident.. Prior to the emergence of a nucleus for ordered human society all conflicts and clashes had an element of evil in them; but the moment an ordered social unit came into being one kind of clash, and even bloodshed, became not only permissable but highly commendable application of force against those who opposed the establishment of this order, -

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64 this being the very first and earliest axiom of government.. Thus, when Allah expressed His desire to create a khaleefa in the earth, the angels pondered over all aspects of the principle of government, and they discovered a new concept that there was also a permissable kind of discord and bloodshed, and that such actions would often proceed from Adam, when they would be taken as commendable in the sight of the Lord-not evil and reprehensible. Since, theretofore, there had been no instance of a system of government on the earth, the development naturally struck the angefs as very strange. Very much in the same way, some people criticise the wars which the Holy Prophet had to fight, or they criticise the permissibility of capital punishment for homicide. God answered the angels by saying. 'I know what you know not". . You cannot visualise the advantages of such a system. Although the establishment of a settled government legalises certain forms of force and pressures, and although it interferes to a certain extent with individual liberty, on the whole this system of force and pressure is beneficial for the corporate life of the nation. as well as the life of the individual.. It is to be noticed that in view of the interpretation I have given to this passage the expression used by Allah, "I.know what you know not", fits into the text remarkably well, while in the light ot

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$5 the other current interpretations it appears rather forced: and in any case they are interpretations which seem to hang on some further explanations.. BASIS OF CIVILIZATION. Evidently, too, civilization means just this that certain kinds of clash and bloodshed are legalized and sanctified. Murder is culpable, but when the offender is apprehended and executed by the government, the state is not looked upon as having become guilty of murder. Rather, in fact, its action is considered fully sanctified. Similarly for anyone to take forcible possession of another person's house, or land, is reprehensible; but in cases of national requirements when a government takes such possession, it is held fully entitled to do so.. Unlawful detention of anybody, too, is oppression; but when duly constituted authority takes this action it is held to be perfectly justified.. Therefore, when God said that He was about to civilize the world, that He was going to appoint one individual as khaleefa who would enforce a law, under which he would punish those guilty of murder, would sometimes take possession of the property of some people, and interfere with individual liberty, the angels were amazed, because they had never known anything of the kind beforė.. For the people of that early period this point

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66 was one of a staggering nature. In fact even today it is far from having attained an undisputed position.. We find that in Europe there is a fairly large number of people who are opposed to the imposition of capital punishment, the argument they use for the purpose being that if it is a crime for anyone to take life, how does it become permissible for a . government to do so? But the fact of the matter is that the government does not only execute certain people; it also commits certain other deeds which have an appearance very similar to those of certain crimes for instance, it forces people to surrender portions of their incomes and properties in the form of taxes. It the objection mentioned above is held to be valid, it will have to be conceded that no government is justified in forcing people to pay taxes. But these people do not object to governments receiving taxes, which shows, in turn, that the objection against capital punishment too is rather a fanciful one, which springs from lack of due thought... The very essence of civilization, thus, is just this that all those actions which are considered bad and reprehensible, are called the basis of culture and human progress when a government has recourse to them. No one objects to these actions on the part of the state. But when an individual takes the same course, he is held fully guilty and

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67 duly punished.. When first the human mind took this stupendous step under the impulse of divine revelation, it was a revolution that must have most severely taxed the intellectual power of the human group first addressed. Naturally for the wild people of that era the demand must have been bewildering that they should submit to the authority of one from among themselves who, against their own inclinations, would have a measure of control over what they possessed, and would in certain cases even inflict the death penalty. Quite understandably, the first general reaction to such a demand must have been a violent urge to reject and throw away this new control. "It 1 have killed a man, that is something between me and those around the man I have killed'.. Who is this man that he should interfere in what I do, or want to do? Why should I submit to his authority? He is no better than myself. Why should I let him set himself up above me?" Such questions must have naturally risen in the inind of the members of the first group to which the law was originally addressed. Not to speak of those days, even now many people with muddled minds tall into similar mental confusions, and duly established governments have often to cope with disruption caused by men of this type. It is due, in some respects, to similar confused reasoning that

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08 capital punishment has been abolished in some. European countries; but if the people who have done so were present before me at this moment, I would ask them why on the same basis they do not take away from their governments the right to levy taxes.. Ideas of this kind are, in fact, an indication that a decline has set in in the mental capacities of the people of Europe, in some respects any way; and it is people of this kind who become the cause of weakness in the authority of established governments. The only difference between those who indulge in such confused thinking at this day and the primitive savages who tended to defy the law when first it came into human affairs is this that the idea of ordered society having become firmly rooted in the human mind; no longer occurs to anyone that the system of government by law should be done away with altogether. The idea, nevertheless, keeps cropping up in various forms that another government, differently constituted, would perhaps be more mindful of their rights, this being the reason why attempts are from time to time being made to effect changes in systems of government.. Among the primitive people, of whom there still are a fairly large number, the tendency even now is that they disapprove of all systems of control in an ordered society. Submission to any

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69 such order is extremely painful for them and they fail to understand why other people want to interfere with them. "If we find it more convenient to go about naked, what right has anybody to force us to wear garments. Our limbs are freer. and we get more air if we remain naked; and in any case it suits us. Why should anybody want to interfere with our personal likes and dislikes?". At one stage during their colonial administration in some parts of Africa, when the British began to persuade the primitive natives to wear clothes, on the out-skirts of towns officials were posted with supplies of wearing apparel, to be given over to natives coming from the bush to put on before they entered the city. With great reluctance the natives put them on, but felt very embarrassed in them, casting furtive glances to right and left, lest there be some one from among their own people who might see them in this disgraceful condition.. When with clothes on they happened to run across each other, they passed by with closed eyes, which 'meant that they were ashamed to have been caught in this condition. No wonder, then, that as soon as they had finished their business in the town, they flung the clothes at the official concerned at the post, and ran into the bush.. Not to speak of the primitive people in Africa and other parts of the world who still have an

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70 - abhorence for clothes, there are people here and there in Europe and America even now who prefer to go about without clothing of any kind. They are called the Nudists, the tendency having established itself in Western society as a sort of cult, seriously and publicly preached by its adherents. The police places certain restrictions on them in public interest, but they always kick against such interference with their personal inclinations and desires, as they call it.. This also is a symptom that a kind of mental decay has set in in some parts of the West. There are numerous regular clubs in these lands where no one can become a member if he or she bathed with any clothes on, for according to their point of view such a person is not properly civilized.. I once read a book on this subject in which a doctor wrote that his daughter joined the Nudists which he disliked very much, and he began to be strict with her. At last his daughter one day asked him to accompany her to the Nudist colony or club and see for himself how polite and civilized were. these people whom he was pleased to call indecent.. When he went to that place he saw that everyone was going about without a stitch of clothing on the body. At first he felt extremely embarrassed.. But then, he said, he noticed how innocent these people looked in this simple, unaffected condition.

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71. Finally he was so impressed that he took off his own clothes and joined them.. Advantages of Civilized Life under a Settled Government. Today perhaps you feel inclined to laugh at those who doubt the value of certain controls on human actions in the interests of all. But when this question was first raised by Adam, it must have created a violent commotion in the human group addressed, with tempers rising and blood flowing in many cases. When Adam called upon his people to take to some sort of clothing, many unruly spirits must have raised a violent protest that the proposed measure involved intolerable interference with their freedom of thought and action. To overcome this strong opposition, Adam was taught to take his stand on a rational, social basis. "If you agree to live in the proposed ordered unit, called jannat, you will no longer be exposed to the pangs of hunger and thirst, nor have to suffer at the hands of inclement weather (20: 119-120)". Here is the earliest root of the functions of a state established on the basis of moral and social concepts - that it should work for the well-being of the people. The verse in the Holy Quran bearing on this point has been grossly misunderstood to mean that Adam was kept in some place where he and those with him

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72 were not subject to hanger and thirst. The fact is that this verse lays down the basic duties of a government as conceived by the Islamic point of view, namely, that it should create channels for useful employment of the people placed under its care, should look to the fundamental needs of those not able to do work of any kind, arrange for dependable supplies of water, and furnish shelter against the inclemencies of weather. In other words, four duties devolve upon a government: to meet the needs of its people for food, water, clothing and housing; these duties having been clearly set forth in this verse of the Holy Quran where the benefits of the new system are expounded for Adam. If people protested against the new order, Adam was directed to explain to them the advantage it would bring. If they submitted to it, they would be placed in a condition where they would not ever have to go without food they would not have to go about naked in the sun and rain; supplies of water would be assured when needed; and they would have houses to live in and rest. Evidently, if a government made sure of these four things, it would have to be adjudged one of the best even according to modern standards.. Adam's people were thus told that restrictions upon individual freedom and action were no doubt irksome, but they were in the best interests of the group, for they would enable the new social set up

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73 to take care of their needs better than they could themselves individually, ensuring a lasting condition of prosperity and peace called Jannat, or. Paradise - a place of bliss.. The human mind in the time of Adam, however, was not fully developed. nor had its undesirable tendencies yet started to manitest themselves in the novel ways they did at later periods, except in the case of one or two. Therefore the rudimentary teaching given to him embraced the barest basic concepts without which no social unit can start an ordered, settled life. Wherever Adam is mentioned in the Holy Quran, we nowhere read of the deeper and subtler moral and spiritual truths embraced by later teachings when any reference is made to the teaching given to him, only these four elementary things are mentioned. He sowed thus the first seed of civilized lite, insignificant according to modern standards, but at the time it must have been a most staggering revolution. It was, in fact, a revolution which lies at the back of all subsequent development and progress right up to our own day.. SECOND ERA: MOVEMENT OF NOAH. When gradually the followers of Adam started to make progress, and man became familiar with and accustomed to the restraints placed on his conduct, and with duties imposed on him in common

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74 interest: when individuals had opportunity enough to distinguish themselves by service to the common cause, slowly a spirit of rivalry was created and fostered, which sharpened as time went on. Some individuals proved to be more intelligent, physically stronger, with a higher corporate sense than others who showed themselves to be dull, obtuse, lazy, and selfijsh for instance. This kind of difference, as we know, lies inherent in individual capacities, which a coporate life does much to accentuate. The more advanced a culture, the more marked and glaring become these differences between individual capacities. In the more developed and higher forms of culture they, in many cases, become so obvious and so vast that certain members of the society begin to appear as if they belonged to altogether a superior class of beings.. When the social order set up by Adam had been in operation for a sufficiently long period, it must have automatically led to the emergence of these differences in acuter forms than had been the case before nd scme of the complications, too, must have started to appear which naturally spring up from accidental or incidental faults in the prevailing conditions, or in the personnel conducting the various institutions. The ordinary human beings must have started to marvel at the almost superhuman ability displayed by some of their compatri-

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75 ots or ancestors. Combined with the general igno rance which prevailed at that time, this state of mind must have led them to assume that those who displayed extraordinary prowess. or extraordinary wisdom, must, in some way, have been more than human. This was the point where shirk started. the settings up of gods other than Allah. When man's mind evinced a tendency to stumble on this point, and certain undesirable aspects began to develop in the social organism. God raised another. Prophet Noah.. Message of the Second Era:. Revelation of 'Shariah'. This was the beginning of the second stage in civilization. Noah was raised at a time when the human mind had come to have some faint idea in regard to the divine attributes, which explains why the Holy Prophet said that Noah was the first. Prophet to receive a Skariah (moral and spiritual regulations). The Holy Quran also bears out this view. It says: إنَّا أَوْيْنَا إِلَيْكَ كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَى نُوحٍ واليمين (4:164) atas " i. e. The revelation we have sent down to thee is of the same kind We sent down on Noah. In other words, Noah received the first, revelation

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76 inculcating certain beliets, which embraced a cértain amount of detail in regard to attributes of the. Divine Being, the human mind having developed to a stage where it could now proceed to grasp these things, and where it had to be warned against addling up the whole plane and plan of his future achievement by setting up equals with the Divine. Being. The discussion of shirk in the Holy Quran begins with the days of Noah, who was the first of the Shari'i (law giving) Prophets, as they are called in Islamic terminology. At this period of human history man had risen to an inkling of the finer spiritual ways; he had become capable of initiating an endeavour to understand things in the metaphysical field.. THIRD ERA: ABRAHAM'S MOVEMENT. The third era was the era of Abraham. Though in regard to Noah it is to be gathered from the Holy. Quran that in his day ideas involving shirk bad star: ted to spring up in the minds of men, and he made a strong effort to eradicate them, but his was essentially an era of the earliest, inception in the human mind of a sense for an understanding of the divine attributes, though the idea of shirk too was only just beginning in a rough and rudimentary form, some having started to worship rude representations of some ancestors or some other simple form of shirk.. By the time of Abraham, however, shirk had begun.

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77 to assume the form of a regular philosophy, with a certain capacity for overawing and confusing the human mind. At the same time circumstances had sprung up which pointed out some subtle ways for realising the oneness of the Divine Being, a proper grasp of which, however, was far more difficult than the elementary conception of the unity of Gɔd.. For instance, idol-worship is to be met with in the world even today; but when the idol-worshippers are questioned on the point, they hasten to repu diate the idea that they worship any idol; they claim that all they do is to concentrate their mind on meditation by means of an object in front to hold their attention. In other words, the shirk is there, but it has been given a new form by a novel explanation. This is the reason why in regard to Abraham it has been repeatedly said: وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكين (:136:12 ; 80:6 ; 21:16 1) that he was not a mushrik, while in regard to Noah no such thing has been said, since in Noah's time shirk was only of a superficial kind, which had not come much into vogue. No very great measure of intellectual attainment was needed to avoid it, the rude forms it was tending to take having been too apparent to take in most people. In the days of Abraham, however, shirk from outward forms of habit and custom, had gone deeper into an atti-

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78 tude of the mind which took the form of a kind of philosophical flight of the mind which Abraham had to combat and to destroy.. Message of Abraham's Movement. Thus, in a period such as that of Abraham, only a perfect unitarian deserved to have it said of him that he was not a mushrik. Accordingly we find the expression used about Abraham, while nothing like this has been said about Noah, or needed to be said, since the implications of the conditions prevailing in his day in no way tended to breed a suspicion that perhaps he too was a mushirk.. Abraham we find mentioned in the Holy Quran in five different places, and in all five we find it said of him that he was not a mushrik; but we find no such expression used in regard to Noah. This shows that though Noah fought against shirk in his day, but since the tendency had not gained much ground at that time, there was little need for saying that Noah was not a mushrik. For instance every woman can make some use of a sewing needle, but every woman does not for that reason deserve to be called an expert tailor, for which a greater efficiency is required. Similarly in regard to Noah we say that he fought against shirk, while with. Abraham the struggle against shirk was the main plank of his mission.

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75. Apart from palpable instances of shirk, in the days of Abraham the tendency had assumed an intellectual and philosophical form. It no longer involved simple bowing before idols. Having become capable of subtle manifestations of love and hatred, human feeling had made great advances, so that now it was possible for one to nurture shirk of an intellectual kind without in any way soiling himselt with its simple, outward forms. This is the reason why Allah never called upon Noah to submit أسْلِمْ) nor do we find him saying in response: اسلمت لرب العالمين i.e., "I submit to the Lord of all the worlds". On the other hand, Abraham we find called upon to submit-not only in the sense that he would not bow before idols, but also in the far deeper sense that even the innermost processes of his mind would be set in devotion to Him, And Abraham in response said, 'I yield myself in the hands of the Lord of all the world". A far deeper and finer realisation of the unity of God is implied here; and in fact only that realisation deserves to be called the real spirit of unitarianism where a person feels truthfully impelled to say that all his lite, even the minutest details of his actions and behaviour, were directed to the attainment of the Divine purpose in life.. And the difference between the positions where

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80. Noah and Abraham stand in this respect is evident from the events of their lives. When Noah had to face the deluge, he was directed to build an ark, to save himself and his handful of followers. But when Allah directed Abraham to take his wife and child to a certain remote and uninhabited valley. we do not find him being directed to take steps for keeping them supplied with food and water. He was just ordered to leave them there, and he did so without the slightest hesitation, or worry, as to how the two would.subsist, for he had not the slightest doubt that the Lord Who fed them at home would also take care of them in that far off wilderness.. Abraham thuse stood at a higher point in regard to tawakkul (absolute reliance on God) than did. Noah, and perfect tawakkul is attained only at the point where Abraham stood.. Perfection of Humanity through Abraham. Similarly the perfection of humanity also came about through Abraham, and in fact the perfection of humanity and a perfect realisation of the unity of. God go inseparably with each other. Without a perfect realisation of the unity of God the humanity of man remains incomplete, while without the attainment of perfect humanity there can be no perfect realisation of the unity, uniqueness, power and glory of the Lord, this being the explanation

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81 why some sufees have said: رَبِّهُ من عرف نفسه فقد عرف ربه "Whoever comes to know his own self, also comes to know his Lord". Thus, whereas the human mind took a great step in its evolution at the hands of Abraham and religious philosophy attained a stage of high glory, perfection in the human status of man also was attained through him, man having been placed in a higher and distinguished position in regard to other objects. Human sacrifice was forbidden at this stage. Prior to this era human life had no particular value, for he was looked upon merely as one among many other kinds of animals which ate, and moved, and lived in many ways just as he did. In fact human beings were often sacrificed at the altar to propitiate angry gods.. But in the days of Abraham, when man obtained a perfect understanding of the unity of God, the Lord ordained that human sacrifice would no longer be permitted, since now he had developed into something more than a mere animal. For raising man to this position Abraham was called the Father of. Prophets, just as Adam had been called the Father of Man.. In the days of Abraham a correct conception in regard to Life after Death was created in the mind of man, and he was taught that this life was only a means for attaining to a nearness with God. There+

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82 fore, except in cases where the sacrifice of this life furthered the higher aims, the offering of this blood in superstitious and silly sacrificial rites was forbidden, since such sacrifices only did harm to the higher object for which he was created.. At this stage sacrifice was given a rational and philosophical basis, where it no longer remained only an outward and ritual process. For instance lives could be sacrificed in battle if necessary in the course of the struggle to uphold values and ideals without which human life became meaningless. It would be the sacrifice of a thing of lower value for something of higher value, in this case one or more human lives, for the sake of values without which the whole scheme of life would suffer frustration.. In other words, sacrifice was placed on a rational and philosoph al basis on certain occasions it was permissible, even binding, while on others it was strictly forbidden; and side by side with the growth of this concept rose the idea that man was the most superior creature in all creation, giving birth to the earliest form of tasawwuf, generally translated as mysticism. Man began to realise that the object of his creation was that he should win the approval of his Creator and become the beloved of Allah. Tasawwuf in this sense started with. Abraham, though only the first foundation was laid, which later was developed to great heights. This

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83 turn in the human mind came because it was decided that it was no longer permissible to kill a human being, the prohibition being based on the fact that man was created with the definite sacred object of becoming the beloved of God, so that more and more thought came to be given to the task of realising this basic purpose.. Abraham the Founder of a Perfect Civilization.. When human sacrifice came to be forbidden, the mind of man naturally tended to take the view that everything in this world was created for his benefit, and this concentrated the full force of human intellect on the task of unraveling the mysteries of the forces of nature, and on the development of better and still higher ways of life in the direction of a perfect culture. The way to a higher and perfect form of civilization also was, therefore, cleared in the days of Abraham. Prior to this era man was only a lover and a devotee; the idea that he should try to become the beloved of his Lord and Master had not yet come into his mind. On the basis of his imperfect achievement so far, there was the danger that he might become careless and lazy, for his perception was not yet subtle enough to grasp this fine philosophy. But in the days of Abraham he had attained a measure of mental development where these mysteries could be revealed to him. 1. L

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84. Abraham expounded the philosophy of man being the beloved of God; and since the lover does not like the life of his beloved to be wasted, human sacrifice was stopped. This was the seed that later developed into tasawwuf.. Similarly, the period of Abraham was the period when the philosophy of human life began t be properly understood, for the point of view was placed before man that his life was not meaningless but a great blessing in itself, and an opportunity for generating strength for future progress,. THE ERA OF MOSES & ITS MESSAGE. The next stage was the dispensation of Moses, which brought a new change and a new revolution.. The religious, or spiritual, and the secular spheres of life were combined into one system, with a clear line of demarcation drawn between Islam (submission) and Kufr (repudiation and rejection). In the time of Adam the teaching embraced some basic social aspects only; while in the time of Noah an elementary distinction was made between the idea of the unity of God and of Shirk, with a limited start of the Shariah; and the conception of the unity of God was completed at the hands of Abraham. But at the time when Moses came, the human mind had risen to a stage where a code was given which embraced both the secular and religious aspects of

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85 human life. Prior to the time of Moses no line of demarcation was drawn between Islam and kufr on the social plane. Abraham had marriage relationships with kafir families, marrying into them and maintaining other social contacts with them. But in the dispensation of Moses the true religion assumed a distinct and separate form, just as in the eras of. Adam a Noah humanity had assumed a different and higher status than other kinds of animals. The need of the time now was detailed instruction covering the three fields of human activity, namely, social, political and spiritual-instruction as to the line on which homes of the family unit were to be maintained on a clean and healthy basis; instruction in regard to social relationships between the individuals and family units; instruction, on the political side, as to the duties of rulers and the ruled; and instruction to cover the religious life of man as to the best way for worship of the Divine Being, and the ways best calculated to win His approval and nearness. In other words humanity now needed a Prophet who in his own person should be the political head and military leader, as well as the religious mentor. For this threefold task God chose Moses.. Since the human mind by this time had made con-; siderable progress, a complete system of social life had come into being, and philosophical thought was reaching a remarkable degree of perfection, the

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86 needs of the time called for a leader who at once should be an Adam, a Noah and an Abraham.. Therefore the mission of Moses combined all these duties in a single person.. First Point of the Mosaic Revolution:. Perfect Law. The revolution brought by Moses embraced t following points :. I. A complete law embracing eaching in regard to the forms and modes of worship spiritual matters, politics and civilization, there having been no such complete law at any previous stage. This dispensation emphasised the deep connection between the body and the soul, and the way was opened for attainment of the higher spiritual stages.. The great emphasis in the time of Abraham had been on the sanctity of human lite and the human body; but the close connection between the body and soul, the close interdependence of the two, was brought out by the dispensation of Moses. We read in the Holy Quran: ثُمَّ أَتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابِ تَمَاماً عَلَى الَّذِي أَحْسَنَ وَ مَةٌ تَعَلَّهُمْ بِلِقَاءِ تَفْصِيلاً لَّكُلِّ شَيْءٍ وهدى ورحمة لعـ ربهم يومنون (6:155) 1. i. e. Then we gave Moses the book as a blessing for one who had rendered the fullest obedience to Us.

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87. It embraced details of everything, with guidance and grace, so that people should be fully convinced as to the absolute certainty of a meeting with the. Lord.. Again we read: وعِظَةٌ وكَتَبْنَا لَهُ فِي الْأَلْواحِ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وتفصيلا لكُلِّ شَيْى (7:146) i. e. And we wrote for him in the Tablets advice and details in regard to all matters. In other words, the. Torah was the first Book which contained a detailed instruction for mankind; and man was taken to have reached such a high stage of civilization where it could now be expected that for the common good he would be prepared to surrender many aspects of his personal liberty. This dispensation contained a teaching covering all aspects of human liteinstructions to be carried out by women during menses for instance, by husband and wife after sexual intercourse, and by the sick, i.e. in the field of health and hygiene, and instructions for the conduct of places of worship. 2. The second point in the revolution brought about by Moses was that divine attributes were revealed in greater detail. Though the human mind had advanced far enough in the time of. Abraham to grasp the finer aspects of these attributes

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the vastness of their range and the inter-relationships of these attributes, one with another, involved conceptions of such a super-fine nature that the human mind at that time was still not fit for its proper grasp. In the days of Moses, however, mankind had reached that stage; so a vast knowledge of these attributes was vouchsafed to Moses which enabled man to understand the intricate machinery and the delicate balance of the universe.. Knowledge of these attributes in greater detail yielded better ways for the establishment of a closer bond between man and his Creator, as well as between man and man. All that the human mind previously had risen to grasp was the unity of God; it had not reached the stage where it could well understand that the working of the divine attributes was like the working of various inter-related, interlocked departments in a modern government. For instance, we have a king or a head of the state who has to be obeyed. the head of a state has numerous officials under him who must all be obeyed and duly respected. Then we say that such and such an official is incharge of such and such a department. This department deals with matters connected with education, that one with health, and so on. In the same way God Almighty has numerous attributes, and each attribute is connected with one or more aspects of human life, proper grasp of this

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89 point being dependent on a correct knowledge of the attributes.. The door leading to an understanding of these attributes was thus opened on Moses, and he was given a vast knowledge in this field. Those who have studied the Book of Moses with care would appreciate that the divine attributes explained by him practically amount to a sum total of those explained by the Holy Quran. Once I gave much thought to this question; but, at the time at any rate, I failed to find any divine attribute mentioned in the Holy Quran which was not mentioned in the. Torah. The attributes of Rab, Rahman, Raheem,. Malik-i-yaumiddeen, and some others, are the attributes mentioned by Islam, and these same are the ones which have been mentioned by Moses. In short, the intellectual grasp of man had now risen to a stage where he could realise that divine attributes worked like the various departments of an ordered, properly functioning government, and with Moses an outline knowledge of these attributes changed to a richness of detail, opening the door to a better relationship between man and God, and between man and man, this being the reason why after Moses there came a long chain of Prophets all owing allegiance to the Law brought by him though Prophethood was received by them directly from God.. In other words, when man rose to an appreciation

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90 how there were separate but inter-related depart ments for the manifestation of divine attributes in relation to man, Allah directed him to have departments of his own, the better to live his life for a better and speedy attainment of his goal, under the supervision and guidance of an order with a line of khulafa. Moses was the first Prophet who was followed by a line of successors ordained by God, who received Prophethood directly from. Allah but were all subservient to the Mosaic dispensation.. Religion now became a regular philosophy which threw light on all aspects of human life. The edifice of the shariah had been raised, and made safe and secure from all sides. When Abraham pondered over the divine attributes, all that he was impelled to cry out was: رب ارني كَيْفَ تُحْي الموتى (2:261) .e. "My Lord, show me how Thou bringest the dead back to life". But since Moses had a better understanding of the working of divine attributes, when he pondered over the matter, the desire which sprang up in his mind embraced much more. So he said: رب ارني انظر اليك (7:144) i. e. "My Lord, vouchsafe to me a vision of Thy-

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91 self". All that Abraham had asked for was the manifestation of just one out of the many attributes of God, but Moses aspired to a full vision of the person of Allah, so to say, in all its entirety.. It is usual in this world that whenever a Prophet of God appears, people call him a liar, but all vie with each other in extolling the Prophet that had gone before. When any excellence of a later. Prophet is mentioned. people say: "This cannot be so. Do you think our forefathers were ignorant people that they did not know these things it they are true"? When Moses said he had been privileged to have a vision of God, the children of Abraham, the Jews, were enraged for they thought this implied a slight to Abraham, and they said to Moses: "You are only telling a lie. It suck a thing is possible, let us, too, see God". We read in the Holy Quran that the followers of Moses said: يمُوسى لَنْ نُؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّى نَرَى الله جهرة (2:56) i.e. "We will not believe you (in this) untill we see God quite plainly with our own eyes".,. This was the spiritual revolution complete in all its four walls and angles; and this was the characteristic of Moses on account of which it was ordained that the last movement of this spiritual revolution also would follow the footprints of. Moses. It was said: "The Lord Thy God will

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92 raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren like unto me; unto him ye shall listen." (Deut. 18:15) And then in His last message to mankind, in the Holy Quran, God said to the. Muslims: اِنَّا اَرْسَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ رَسُولاً شَاهِدًا عَلَيْكُمْ كَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا الي فرعونَ رَسُولاً (73:16) "We have sent to you an Apostle, a witness upon you, as We sent down an Apostle to the Pharaoh". i.e. The most perfect and complete law brought by. Muhammad, although superior to the pre us. Scriptures, it nevertheless, in point of completion in form, resembles the Scripture given to Moses.. The teaching given to other Prophets may be likened to a number of rooms, all standing separately; but the teaching given to Moses resembled a wellplanned house, with different rooms to meet a set of needs. Though the Holy Quran stands head and shoulders above the other Scriptures, as a planned building, complete in itself, it resembles other such buildings-but in this respect it cannot be said to resemble separate rooms of which each stands alone, by itself. Moses, thus was the first Prophet to receive a complete set of laws, though in the finer and higher details it still lacked much which was later supplied by the Holy Ouran.

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93. 3. The third important and distinctive point in the Mosaic dispensation was that, having undergone a series of evolutions, in pace with the mental development of man, the mode of Revelation from. God now became direct and more precise. As now there was going to be a discussion on detailed aspects a precision in expression was called for, necessitating Revelation in definite, properly chosen, selected words, this being the reason why the Holy. Quran says: كلم الله موسى تعليماً (4:165) i.e. God spoke to Moses directly.. It should not, however, be taken to mean that. God did not speak to the other earlier Prophets directly the implication is that in the case of the earlier Prophets the mode of revelation was dreams and visions, while in the case of Moses, most of it came directly, in precise and clear language, in the form of words and sentences. But even in the case of Moses, the sense of the revelation alone was guaranteed. For instance, when we speak to another person, we use certain words, which reach the addresses just as we speak them, reducing the chances of our being misunderstood. But when we do not insist upon our exact words being preserved, there remains a risk that the addressee might make a mistake in picking up our meaning and still feel

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' 94 reasonably sure in his own mind that he had understood us correctly. The way to safeguard against this danger is for one to write down what he says, or to see that it is properly committed to writing precisely in the words used. This exactly is the difference between the Revelation received by. Moses and the one received by the Holy Prophet. Muhammad. The order had not yet gone forth that the Revelation was to be taken down in the very words it came, and what was committed to writing by Moses was what he had understood the. Revelation to mean. In the case of the Holy. Quran, however, every single word, even a vowel point, was preserved as it was revealed.. Message of the Christian Era: Regeneration of the Shariah. After the era of Moses begins the Christian era, and this is the stage which historically is covered by the latter part of the Quranic verse: مَا نَنْسَحْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ تُنْها نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ مِنْهَا أو مثْلِهَا (2:107) ގ ت i.e. When Our teachings fade from the mind of the people. We renew them by a revival. The dispensation of Jesus furnishes an instance of a Prophet who brought no new shariah, but only brought cer-

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95 tain aspects of the teaching of the Torah specially before the people. Therefore God says in the Holy. Quran about Jesus: ايد نَاهُ بروح القدس (2:254) "We helped him with the spirit of holiness". The. Shariah was completed in the Mosaic dispensation, the meaning growing to assume the form of an organised law, of which no instance had been seen before. Gradually, however, the minds of men drifted from the inner kernel of the teaching to the outward form or shell. On the other hand, human perception had meanwhile risen to a higher stage where it stood ripe for another lesson in tasawwuf.. So Jesus was raised so that on the one hand he should fulfil the Torah, as he has himself said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil" (Matt. 5:17); and on the other he should explain the wisdom of that teaching to the people, taking their mind back from the shell to the kernel.. His mission was to tell the people that the outward form of shariah was intended only to establish an inner attitude of the mind, the real thing being the cleanliness and purity of heart. On the one hand. Jesus re-established the law of Moses in its original. form; on the other he impressed upon those who were concentrating only on its outward form that

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.96 it had an inner essence bereft of which it was likely to deteriorate from a blessing into a curse. Prayer is a very good thing, but if one observed only its outward form, neglecting the inner spirit, even prayer became a curse; and so did fasting. This is the same thing which the Holy Quran has expressed by saying: " ويلُ لِلْمُصَلِّينَ (107:5) 1.e., there are people for whom prayer becomes a curse. And the world has seen that the Christians lived to, call their shariah a curse. They were misled into this belief by what Jesus had said in regard to the Shariah becoming a curse if its inner essence was neglected and only the outer form observed. On the other hand we find that the. Muslims in their history were never misled into thinking that the law is a curse, because in fulfilment of the prophecy of Jesus himself the Holy. Prophet had fully and thoroughly explained this point to his followers. Said Jesus in this regard: "How be it, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak for himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak." (John 16:13) Since the Holy. Prophet had properly explained the point, the Muslims did not stumble into saying that the law is a curse, although the Holy Prophet had said practically

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97 the same thing, namly, that observance of only the outward form of the shariah is a curse, not the shariah itself, as the Christian had done. When the religious and spiritual fibre of the Christians came to be weakened in time, under the influence of this weakness they began to give wrong interpretation to the law, and finally ended by saying that the law was a curse. They even did not pause to consider that the followers of Jesus, and Jesus himself, had engaged themselves in prayer and fasing, and had made a point of doing other good deeds, which showed that they did not look upon the outward form of the shariah as a curse, but only on that observance of it which remained on the surface and did not penetrate deep into the mind.. In short, the words used in the Holy Quran about Jesus Christ namely, اید دناه بروح القدس "We helped him with the spirit of holiness", (2:254) signify that profound points connected with purity of the mind were opened to him, and that his mission was specially to emphasise these aspects of the teaching, consolidated by a rational support of the commandments in the shariah, tasawwuf in his day reaching a stage which can best be described as its adolescence.

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98. Message of the era of Muhammad:. Completion of the Shariah. The edifice of religion had nearly reached completion in the day of Jesus Christ, but not quite. To take it to the final point of completion and perfection the Holy Prophet Mohammad was raised.. He was Adam in himself, since the Almighty. God appointed him Khaleefa, and the duty to create the right type of culture was entrusted to him.. He was also Noah as the Holy Quran says: انَّا اَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلى نُوحٍ i.e. "We send down revelation to thee as We sent it down to Noah" 6:164. He was also Abraham as says the Holy Quran: ثم أوحينا المَكَانَ اتَّبِعِ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيف ومَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ i.e. "Then We sent down revelation to thee that thou follow in the footsteps of Abraham, the hanc ef, who was not an idolator". (16:124). Again: قُل هذه سبيلي أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللهِ عَلى بَصِيرَةٍ أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي وَ سُبْحَانَ اللهِ وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ ie. "Say This is my path: I call people to Allah on

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99 the basis of a firm conviction on which I stand, I and my followers: holy is Allah, and I am not of the idolators" (13:109). Here we have the same expression used about the Holy Prophet Mohammad. We find him being directed by God to say to the world that he was the standard bearer of (Tauheed) i.e. unity of God, In yet another place the Holy. Quran says: قُلْ ستَقِيمٍ دِيناً قيماً قل أننى هَدَانِى رَبِّي إِلى صِرَاطٍ . يمْناً وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ ، قُلْ ملةَ إِبْرَاهِـ إِنَّ صَلاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي اللهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ . لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَبِذَلِكَ أُمِرْتُ وَأَنَا أَوَّل i.e. "Say to the people" : 'Allah has directed me to the right path, the path of Abraham who was not of the idolators. Say, 'My prayer and my sacrifice, my life and my death, are for Allah, the Lord of the worlds. He has no partners, and with this I have been commanded, and I am the first of Believers. (6:161-63). Here the word (mushrik) does not signify an ordinary idolator; it signifies a person who does not submit all his physical and mental powers to the accomplishment of the will of Allah'and who

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100 does not fully rely on Him. At this point when the Holy Prophet said that he too had been guided to the path of Abraham, the question could rise that. Abraham had submitted all his faculties into the hands of Allah, so that when he was ordered to submit, he said, "I submit to Allab, the Lord of all the worlds". Did the Holy Prophet say and do likewise. As an answer to this natural question. Allah directs Mohammad to say that he too had done the same thing; that his prayer and sacrifice, his life and death, were only for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds; and that nowhere in any corner of his mind or being was there the slightest trace of devotion to any other object or being. The ex-ression لا شريك له لَهُ i.e. "He has no partner" signifies profession of the most perfect sense of the unity of God. This verse tells us that the Holy Prophet also was commanded to act on this teaching. In other words, that he received this teaching directly from God, and that in fact he stood at a stage higher than that even of. Abraham, for he was directed to claim that he was the first of those who submit. In respect of time. Abraham, of course, was the first to say this, but in the quality, depth and profoundness of the profess ion the Holy Prophet stood at a higher point.

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101. The Qualities of Moses.. The Holy Prophet also combined in his person the qualities of Moses, as we read in the Holy. Quran: إِن اَرْسَلْنَا اللَيْكُمْ رَسُولاً شَاهِدًا عَلَيْكُمْ تحما اَرْسَلْنَا إلى فرعُونَ رَسُولاً. i.e. "Verily, We have sent down for you an Apostle, a witness on you, as We sent an Apostle to. Pharaoh (73:15). But this resemblance between. Moses and the Holy Prophet, it appears from the. Holy Quran, is not resemblance between two things of the same quality, but a resemblance between two of which one, though of the same kind, is higher than the other. Accordingly we find that the Holy Quran also clearly brings out these points where the teaching and the Book given to the Holy. Prophet stand on a higher plane than do those given to Moses. To quote a few instances here:. I. About Moses Allah says that a book was given to him which contained a full discussion, whereas about the Holy Quran He says: 11/07 مَا كَانَ حَديثُ يُفْتَرَى ولكن تصديق الذي بَيْنَ وهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ يقوم يَدَيْهِ وَتَفْصِيْلَ كُلِّ عَبْى می مومنون

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102 i.e. "It is not a thing that has been forged, but a fulfilment of that which is before it and a detailed exposition of all things, and a guidance and mercy to a people who believe". (12:112). In other words the question need not trouble one that Moses having been given a complete guidance, where was the need for this later teaching? For, instead of being an unnecessary forgery, it is a book concerning which there are prophecies in the earlier Scriptures-prophe cies which it pre-eminently fulfils. Therefore, a book, of the coming of which glad tidings were given by Moses himself, could not be held to be superfluous and unnecessary. In fact in this position it needs must contain something not to be found in the earlier Scriptures, since otherwise there was no reason why Moses should have held out hopes of its coming. The very fact that Moses spoke of a. Book coming at a later day conclusively proves that there still was need for another more complete and perfect book. 2. Moses said: انظر اليك رَبِّ أَرِنِي "O Lord, vouchsafe to me a vision of Thyself". (7:144) The answer to this request has been only briefly stated. Some people hold that a vision of the Almighty was vouchsated to Moses, while others are inclined to the view thatthe vision was

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103 withheld. But the Holy Prophet never made any request that he desired to have a vision of Allah.. Allah Himself, on the other hand, has said that He gave Mohammad the fullest and most perfect view of Himself. We read in the Holy Quran: ثُمَّ دَنَا فَتَدَلى . فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَمن او ادنى . "Then he approached and came closer, and became the chord of two arcs, or even 'nearer", (LIII:8-9) i.e. Mohammad and the Divine Being were like two arcs, approaching each other till the chord of one became the chord of the other (reached a point where the chords touched, one fully facing the other, completely in view from point to point,. In other words, Mohammad accomplished much more in the way of comprehending the Divine Being on the basis of a full vision than was dreamt of by. Moses. 3. In regard to Moses the Holy Quran says: وكَلَّمَ اللهُ مُوسَى تَعْلِيماً "And Allah spoke to Moses particularly". (IV:165). But about the Holy Prophet Mohammad it says: انَّا اَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَى نُوقٍ النبيين من سَعْدٍ، وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ

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104 ... واسمعيل وإسحق وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَعِيسَى روه در و ايوب ويونس و هرُونَ وَسُلَيْمَنَ وَآتَيْنَا دَاوُدَ بُوراً ، وَرُسُلًا قَدْ قَصَصْنَاهُمْ عَلَيْكَ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَرُسُلاً لم نقصُصْهُمْ عَلَيْكَ ، وَكلَّمَ الله مُوسَى تعليماً. "Surely We have sent a revelation to thee as We sent a revelation to Noah and the Prophets after him; and We sent revelation to Abraham, and. Ishmael and Isac and Jacob and his children and. Jesus and God and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and we gave David a book. And We sent some messengers whom we have already mentioned to thee, and some messengers whom we have not mentioned to thee; and Allah spoke to Moses particularly." (IV:164-165)In other words the Holy Prophet was given the qualities of all these Prophets, including the specific distinction of Moses in that God had spoken to him directly. The revelation given to. Mohammad combined the points and excellences of all the earlier teachings and dispensations, with the additional distinction that when Moses received a revelation he only preserved its sense and purport, not its specific words, clothing it in his own language. But in the case of the Holy Prophet, the

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105 world having reached the highest point of its progress, requiring the final and most comperhensive teaching, it was now necessary that the revelation should be preserved in the words in which it was revealed. Accordingly we find that Allah, says in tne Holy Quran: إِنَّا عَلَيْنَا جَمْعَهُ وَقَرانَهُ ، فَإِذَا قَرانَاهُ فَاتَّبِعُ . قرانه. (LXXV 17-18) "The duty to collect it and to keep it continually recited (to preserve it) devolves on. Us. Therefore, when We recite it on you, simply follow our recitation (without worrying how you were going to retain it in your mind)". Similarly in another place we read: إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ "Without doubt it is We have sent down the message, and assuredly We ouerselves shall guard it and preserve it", evidently both the language and spirit.. The Qualities of Jesus. The qualities of Jesus also are to be found in the Holy Prophet Mohammad. For instance we read in the Holy Quran that Jesus was strengthened with the holy spirit. (11:254) On the other hand

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106 in regard to the Holy Prophet Mohammad we read: قل نزله روح القدس من ربك بالحق ليثبت الذين روح القدس وا و هدی و بشرى للمسلمين آمَنُوا وَهُدً "Say the spirit of holiness has brought it down from thy Lord with truth, that He may strengthen those who believe, and as a guidance and glad tidings for the Muslims". (XVI;103). Further, whereas Jesus had said that the shariah was a curse if a man went only after the outward forms, neglecting the inner spirit, the Holy Quran says: "Woe to the worshippers who pray but remain neglectful of the real spirit of the prayer; who worship only to be seen of men." Similarly insisting upon the preservation and intensifiction of the inner spirit of prayer, the Holy Quran says in another place: ن يَنَالَ اللهَ لُحُومُهَا وَلَا دِمَاؤُهَا وَلكِن يَنَالُهُ 108 التقوى مِنْكُمْ. "The flesh and the blood of the animals you sacrifice do not reach Allah; what reaches Him from you is the spirit of righteousness from you". (XXII:38).

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Combination of the Excellences of all the Prophets. 307. In short, the Holy Prophet Mohammad combined in his own person the excellences of all the earlier. Prophets, from Adam to Jesus Christ, in addition to which he had his own points of special merit not shared by any other Prophet. The religion of which he was the bearer combined and embraced all the earlier teachings, so that now it suffices for all humanity, no matter at what stage of culture and civilization.. Meaning of "Today I Have Completed for you. Your Religion". This is the reason why Allah gives the glad tidings to the Muslims: الْيَوْمَ يَمْسَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ دِينِكُمْ فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَاخْشَوْنِ ، اليَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَاتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الأسلام ديناً. "This day have those who disbelieve despaired of harming your religion. So fear them not, but fear. Me. This day have I pertected your religion for you and completed My favour upon you, and have chosen. Islam as your religion". (V: 3) Thus the danger now was not that the Unbelievers might win in the

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struggle on the basis of their strength, but that the. Muslims should become unmindful of their Lord and. Allah withdraw His succour from them. Here a natural question rises in the mind: why did the Unbelievers fall a prey to despair? The Holy Quran men tions two factors which produced this mental state among the Unbelievers. (i) The religion was made complete and perfect, this completion and perfection also including establishment of the teaching in practice to mould the daily life of its followers, sincewithout having been tested in the actual field of the daily needs of human life no philosophy can rightfully claim to have proved itself. For instance, all medical students study books on surgery, but all do not become good surgeons unless they strengthen this study with practical work, first in the disection rooms and then in the operation theatres.. Bearing on this point there is an anecdote connected with Maharajah Ranjit Singh who ruled over the Punjab before the country fell to the. British. Once a physician from Delhi presented himself at his court who had a great deal of the theoretical knowledge of medicine, but who rather lacked the experience that comes only with practice.. At the Maharajah's court there was a Muslim Minister who was also a physician, this qualification having been, in tact, what had commended and preserved that minister in his position in that turbulent era.

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109. The new comer requested this minister to recom. mend him to the Maharajah, which the minister in the goodness of his heart could not very well refuse.. But presenting the new comer before the Maharajah, he said that the guest was an eminent scholar from. Delhi where, as far as the science of medicine was concerned, he had thoroughly mastered it. As for practice, if the Maharajah extended his patronage to him, he would have excellent opportunities to shine.. The Maharajah, who was a remarkably shrewd man, at once divined the inner meaning of his minister and said that since he had come from a place famous for learning, he should be given proper honour and rupees ten thousand paid to him, after which it should be suggested to him that to get proper practice of what he had read he should choose some people other than poor Maharajah Ranjit Singh.. This is only a humerous kind of anecdote which may or may not be true. But it shows very graphically that no knowledge in theory is of any use until it has been tested in practice, knowledge of the shariah being no exception to this rule.. Completion of religion therefore means that the teaching should come down in detail, and should also come to be established in practice. (ii) The second factor which contributed to the despair of the Unbelievers was that Allah's favour, too, was completed. Completion of favour means that both

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110 spiritual and material blessings should be received in their highest quality and quantity, since there can be no question about the value of a thing when it is actually in one's hand, and when, moreover, it has borne fruit. After a student has obtained his degree at the end of his studies at some college, or when, having served in some department for some time, a man obtains an official reward from the government, there can be no question of the possibility of that college or that department of government service involving a fraud. Similarly, atter acting on the teaching of a religion, when a man begins to receive all the fruits and favours which should follow, there remains no basis for doubt as to the veracity of that teaching.. What is Ni'mat (Favour). Let us now try to find out what is meant by ni'mat. We read in the Quran: وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ جَعَلَ فِيْكُمْ أَنْبِيَاء وَجَعَلَكُمْ تُلُوكاً وأتَاكُمْ . ما لم يؤت أحدا من العالمين "And remember when Moses said to his people, 'O my people, call to mind Allah's favour upon you when he appointed Prophets money and mado

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III you kings, and gave you what He gave not to any other among the peoples". (V:21). This verse bears out that the expression ni'mat, as used in the. Holy Quran, embraces (i) appointment and continuity of Prophets (ii) kingship: (iii) and a teaching better than that of any other system. These things stand clearly deducible from the following expressions respectively: the appointment of Prophets bestowal of kingship; and the bestowal of something which He had not given to anyone else, namely, a teaching, better than any other, in which one could take justifiable pride.. Temporal Power Necessary for some Rligions. Here a question might arise in the mind of some: How is kingship to be taken as a favour in the religious sense? The answer is that in religions where the shariah embraces a teaching on thepolitical and cultural aspects of man's life kingship is necessary, without which the teaching bearing on these points cannot be put into force. Kingship here does not however, mean. the kind of kingshio which is divorced from moral and spiritual values, since that type of secular authority is a curse, not a blessing.. Here kingship means the type of secular authority that puts the laws of the shariah into operation, as in the case of David or Solomon. Secular and temporal authority is thus given as a matter of necessity to a

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112 shariah of which the teaching embraces the political and the cultural aspects of human life, for other wise it would be difficult for the people to estimate the value of that teaching. Accordingly we find that Allah gave kingship to the Holy Prophet, so that now whenever we are in doubt as to any point, we get out of the difficulty by studying the life of the Holy Prophet and finding how he met the kind of situation which forms our problem. "And He made you kings" therefore means a temporal authority given by. Allah so that the social and political aspects of the teaching should be established by being put into practice, of which the operation is sometimes lett in the hands of khaleefas who are not Prophets, however.. Allah, in other words has said in this verse that (i) Mamoor khilaafat, (ii) non-mamoor khilaafat, and (iii) the best shariah bestowed upon you comprises ni'mat. Hence when we find it said of the. Holy Prophet that Allah's ni'mat had been completed upon him, it means that (i) the door to Prophethood would remain open for his followers: (ii) there would be a succession of rightful khaleetas; (iii) and thatthe teaching given to him was the best of all. Therefore when Allah says about theHoly. Prophet " اَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتى . "I have completed my Ni, mat on you", it would

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113 include both continuity of Prophethood and establishment of khilaafat. Further Allah sasy: إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ . "Indeed We Ourselves have sent down the Holy. Quran and We Ourselves shall be responsible for its due preservation". (XV: 9) i.e. the teaching given to the Holy Prophet is purely from God alone, no one else having anything to do with it. It stands in the words in which it was revealed; and it is to be preserved in this condition by God Himself, which fact would ensure that it would maintain its superiority, since Allah says that if any portion of the word of God is abrogated, He brings something like it or something better to replace it with. This establishes beyond doubt that a scripture that is allowed to stand is indeed the best, and intended to endure on that account. The Holy Quran, therefore. is not only better than the previous scriptures, but would always retain that position; and there would never be any question of its being abrogated. To understand the comparative position of the Holy. Quran and the previous Scriptures an example would be helpful. We know that roughly speaking the Afghan Government comprises the same kind of departments of administration as the British Goverment, but in point of efficiency and usefulness there

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114 is a world of difference between the two. Similarly the other Scriptures too were from God, but the teaching of the Holy Quran stands far higher, and would always endure as such.. The Great Revolution Brought by Islam.. These two verses indicate the greatness of the revolution brought about by Islam. It it be asked that the same words have been used about Moses, then how does the Islamic teaching become su perior to that of Moses? The answer is that the divine law is that nothing is abrogated or changed except with something better. Since we find that the dispensation of Moses has been replaced by the. Islamic teaching, it stands to reason that the latter is superior as compared with the former.. Having indicated what in the Quranic sense is meant by Ni'mat, it remains to be seen how this favour has been bestowed upon the Muslims in its fullest and completest form. We read in the Holy. Quran : وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَا وليكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِن النبيين والصديقمن والشهداء وَالصَّالِحينَ وَحَسُنَ أولئك رفيقاً "And whoso obeys Allah and this Messenger of. His shall be among those on whom Allah has bestowed his favours (ni'mats), namely, the Prophets, the Truthful, the Martyrs, and the Righteous. And excellent companions are these". (IV: 70). Here we

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115 are told that after a teaching has been revealed the fault often developes that people forget the law, and on that account the teaching becomes useless, although it is there. Even though this involves no defect of the teaching itself, since it is for the people to stick to it carefully or not to do so, the danger of this fault developing in the followers of a teaching is always present. This verse tells us that on such occasions, Islam will not stand in need of help from outside, since the teaching will itself generate a force that will remedy this defect a revivalist force thrown up by some disciple and follower of the Holy. Prophet.. It is of course true that this fault of the people forgetting the teaching occurred in the days of. Moses as well, and was remedied; but the physician to work this cure always came from outside. Reformers were raised under this system who received. Prophethood directly from Allah, though they were of the people of Moses. But the promise has been given to the followers of the Holy Prophet Mohammad that, on a fault developing among them, some one from among his disciples would come forward to set things right. In other words, the teaching itself will, at times of need, throw up reformist and revivalist forces.. Superiority of the Islamic Teaching. On what ground does the Islamic teaching claim

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116 to be superior? This question can be answered on the basis of a number of different points of view.. The following would serve as an instance.. Rational Basis. The Islamic teaching is fully consolidated and strengthened on a rational basis, which has planted the roots of Islamic tasawwuf (mysticism) in the holy book itselt: here there has been no need for any other Prophet to draw attention to these aspects, as happened in the case of the Jews. The earlier. Scriptures set down the teaching generally without stating the rational basis. The Holy Quran on the other hand tully states the rational basis of its teaching, dwelling convincingly on the benefit which would accrue if the teaching was observed, as well as on the harm that would result it it was not duly observed. Islamic mysticism thus has come to rest on the Holy Quran itself, unlike the case of the Jews among whom the deeper and finer aspects of the. Mosaic teaching remained unexpounded until the need was met by the mystic movement started by Jesus Christ which came to be known as. Christianity.. Middle Course. The second great point which establishes the superiority of the Islamic teaching is that it

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117 carefully avoids the extremes and picks out a middle course, maintaining an elasticity which fully meets the requirements of changing human faculties from individual to individual, and from time to time.. Direct Relationship Between God and Man. Thirdly, Islam eliminates the priestly class.. There is no ordained clergy, no highborn pundits, as among the Hindus, to stand as a link between God and man. In the days of both Moses and Jesus the important role of the priest was greatly emphasised, but not so in Islam where any private individual can officiate at a prescribed ritual prayer, a wedding, a funeral, or any other occasion where among the Jews and Christians the participation of an ordained priest is essential. This too was indeed a far reaching revolution, since, by taking this stand, the Holy Quran at one stroke broke the chains which had kept humanity bound for thousands of years, and ruled that for worship of the Divine. Being no intermediary was needed.. This aspect of the Islamic teaching so astonishes the Christians that they are found wondering how the Muslims can worship when there are no priests among them to officiate on these occasions.. Place of Worship Extended. Fourthly, Islam broke away completely from

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118 the former practice which tied down acts of worship to particular premises: in Islam the only role of any locality for the purpos: is confined to the requirementsof organisation for occasions when worship best fulfilled its purpose it done as a corporate act by an assembly of people of the same way of thinking.. Prior to the time of the Holy Prophet worship had to be performed at the synagogue, the church or the temple: but the Holy Prophet said: "The whole earth for me has been made into a mosque, so that I can worship anywhere and every. where when the time comes for worship". One might say that since the eater teachings were confined to certain periods or localities, the act of worship too had to be performed ince rtam specified localities: but when in the Islamic dispensation the order came for the whole surface of the earth to be purified as an embodiment of the Kingdom of. Heaven, the Muslims were directed to sanctify every inch of the ground with their acts of adoration. جعِلَتْ لِي الْأَرْضُ مَسْجِداً. Revelation in Specific Words. Fifthly, all the revelations came to the Holy. Prophet in specific, precise words, which not only had to be preserved as they stood, but God Himself guaranteed their preservation in thef ullestse nse.. This, for the future, made a great difference for the

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119 purpose of discussion and research. Formerly the question had to be answered as to whether a certainp hrase or expression was to be attributed to Moses or to. God, and the corresponding difference in the value of the two had always to be kept in mind. In the case of the Scripture brought by the Holy Prophet. Mohammad, however, the question no longer stood, since every word and wovel in it came from God as it stands, so that the utmost reliance can be placed on it for the purpose of inference and deduction.. I once saw in the course of a dream that some one was asking me why there was so much repetition in the Holy Quran. I replied that there was no repetition at all-that not to speak of there being no repetition of words, there was no repetition even of the wovel points, each repeated word and wovel point yielding some different or additional shade of meaning. No other Scripture can match the. Holy Quran in this respect.. Fullest Exposition of Divine Attributes.. Sixthly, the Islamic teaching contains the fullest and finest exposition of the Divine attributes, in comparison with which even the Jewish teaching fades into insignificance. Undoubtedly the Jewish. Scriptures mention the divine attributes in great detail; but their interplay is rarely brought out.. As I mentioned earlier, once when I studied this

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120 question with attention I did not find even one attribute mentioned in the Holy Quran which had not been mentioned in Jewish Scriptures. There is however, one thing which we find in the Holy. Quran but do not find anywhere in the Jewish. Scriptures. The Holy Quran goes into the question as to where the field of one divine attribute, for instance Rahmaaniyyat, commences, or where that of another ends, and how these attributes work in inter relation. In other words, the Holy Quran contains a full exposition of the manner in which the various categories of divine attributes act and react, while in the case of the Torah the various catagories are mentioned, but nothing is said about their interplay, restricting thus the benefit one can draw. This is a very weighty argument in favour of the superiority of the Holy Quran.. Full Light on Metaphysical Questions. The seventh exclusive advantage which belongs to the Holy Quran is that it discusses questions of metaphysics connected with the spiritual life of man on a philosophical and highly intellectual basis, while the same cannot be said in regard to the. Jewish or other Scriptures. So much so that among the Jews those who denied the possibility of the final Day of Judgement predominated, there having been only a few who believed in it. The Holy

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121. Quran is the first book that has discussed these questions in detail; and it has thrown such a flood of light on them that after listening to its arguments one can deny the truth of the Day of Judgement only from sheer cussedness and perversity of mind, not on any rational basis.. Establishment of a Shar'ee Terminology. The eighth advantage which the Holy Quran enjoys over the other Scriptures is that it has opened a new door for the clarification of human thought on spiritual and religious matters by establishing a terminology that facilitates thinking. Concepts which previously were embedded in lengthy discourses, the Holy Quran has embodied in expressions and terms which can easily be picked up to facilitate discussion of and penetration into spiritual truths. It has invested these terms with precise meaning and content which leaves no room for doubt on the points involved. For instance the. Holy Quran uses the word "Nabee", commonly rendered as Prophet in English, which it defined very precisely, explaining when nabees are raised, the signs by which to know them, their function in society, the connection between them and God, and the connection between them and the rest of the people, etc. There are scores of such questions which the Holy Quran discusses in tull, but in

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122 regard to which the earlier Scriptures have had nothing to say, this being a distinctive feature of. Islam which even enemies and hostile critics cannot deny,. At the time when the struggle between us and the Paighamees was at its height, I once wrote to a number of the religions leaders of other communities-Christian Bishops, Sikh Gianees, Hindu Pundits and Jewish Scribes-asking them how their Scriptures described and defined a Nabee. From some of these, however, I got no reply at all, while some replied that in their religious literature there was no. specific teaching bearing on the point, this being also the answer returned by a well known Bishop. Similarly there are a host of other problems: What are angels? What is their function ? and so on. All these are questions on which the earlier Scriptures throw no light. Islam on the other hand has coined the word "malaaikah" for certain spiritual beings and proceeds to define them, their being and their work. Similarly in regard to the Divine Being,. His attributes, prayer, qaza-o-qadr, hashro-o- nashr, heaven and hell, life in heaven, etc., the. Holy Quran has set up specific expressions and terms which help one to grasp the idea, and has thus given light and guidance to the human mind, to enable it to understand these subtle things with almost as much ease as it can pick up concepts

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123 in the field of the material sciences. By doing this the Holy Quran has safeguarded knowledge against being dissipated for lack of a proper vehicle, on the one hand, while on the other it has saved the human mind from the strain of a great deal of contused thinking.. Comprehensive Teaching. Ninthly, the Islamic teaching embraces all aspects of human life more thoroughly and comprehensively than was the case ever before, knitting up a properly inter related system of life. Though in the dispensation of Moses politics, worship and culture on the secular side were all brought into the purview of the law, Islam took the matter much further and has flung its guidance so far afield that now no conceivable activity of the human mind or body can overflow the circle of light created by the Islamic teaching.. Religion Based on Observation. Tenthly, the Holy Quran, by placing the word of God, as represented by religious teaching vouchsafed to man, and the act of God, as represented by the universe in its widest sense, on a parallel basis of mutual support, has brought religion to a point where it stands on the plane of observation and experiment. Formerly religion

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124 was taken as something metaphysical. The Holy. Ouran says that the universe represents the act of. God. while religious teaching represents his word, it being impossible that one should clash with or contradict the other. This point yields the golden principle for the guidance of man that when he confronts a situation which perplexes him, he should try to harmonize the act and the word of. God to ensure that a religious or a scientific theory was correct. It should be carefully grasped that the age old struggle between religion and science 'completely disappears at this point. Whenever we come across any contradiction between a scientific view and the teaching of a religion, we should always understand that either we have misunderstood the religious teaching or the scientific truth which appears to contradict it. This point of view is of tremendous importance for the future of mankind for it removes religion from the field of philosophy and places it in the field of observation.. Basis of International Unity. The eleventh great advantage of the Holy. Quran over other Scriptures is that its message is not meant for this or that nation, but for all mankind as a whole. The Holy Quran says: وَمَا اَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا كَافَةِ للنَّاسِ بَشِيْراً و نَذيرا و لكن

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125 أكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لاَ يَعْلَمُوْنَ. وَيَقُولُونَ مَتَى هَذَا الوعد إن كُنتُمْ صَادِفِينَ ، كُل لَكُمْ مِبْعَادُ يَوْمٍ لا تَسْتَاخِرُونَ عَنْهُ سَاعَةٌ وَلَا تَسْتَقْدِمُونَ . i. e. We have not sent thee except as a universal. Messenger for all the people, to give them glad tidings and to warn them, but of course most men do not understand.. Here we have a most staggering revolution indeed. Formerly every Prophet was raised for his own specific national or geographical group: Krishan in India, Zoroaster in Iran, Confucious in China.. Some owed allegiance to Moses, other to Jesus.. But then at one stage God said that henceforth there would be only one religion for all mankind, being all the children of the same father, now risen to a point of mental culture where they could take in this stupendous concept which smished geographical and racial barriers to unite the whole human race. The Holy Prophet has himself referred to this characteristic which distinguishes him from all other Prophet of God: كَانَ النبى يُبْعَثُ إِلى قَوْمِهِ خَاصَةٌ وَيُبْعَثُ الى ن الناس عامة

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126 "Formerly a Prophet was raised for his own specific people, but I have been raised for all mankind in general".. When this revolutionary idea was first put before the people, they were simply astounded that the world, with all its national and racial and geographical barriers, was now to become onejust as the Meccan pagans were astounded by the pronouncement of the Islamic teaching on the Unity of God. They said: اجعَلَ الألمةَ الهَا وَاحِدًا "There have always been so many deities in the world. Does he want to make them all into one?" So far there has been a God of the Iranians whom they have called Ahraman or Yazdan; there has been a God of the Christians which they call. Lord God, or Lord Jesus Christ; there has been a separate God of the Hindus whom they call. Permaishawar or Om; there is still another God of the Jews. But here is this strange man who says that there is only one God. How can he press them all into one? What he says, of course, is highly absurd.. All the same, though the Pagans of Mecca were staggered by the idea of the unity of God, the tact remains that all former conceptions of the deity, with human progress, are gradually being swallowed

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127 into the all embracing name of Allah, for the whole world is slowly rising to a realisation of the unity of God. Similarly the people of Mecca were staggered by the claim of the Holy Prophet that his mission embraced the whole of the human race.. Naturally, of course, the people of those days did not readily fall in with his view.. One should think that at the time when the. Holy Prophet was raised it was as taxing for the people to take this jumɔ from a local to a universal basis as must have been Adam's stand that people should submit to an order for the sake of corporate life, instead of living as independent, savage individuals, like beasts of the jungle. Who is this. Adam that I should begin to live according to his behests? This was the question which at the commencement of human civilization taxed the intellectual faculty of the caveman. But the mental difficulty involved in grasping the univerality of the Holy Prophet's mission cannot have been less confusing for the people of Mecca and. Arabia. Here is a man, they must have derided, who says he is raised for the people of Iran as well.. In fact he says he has been raised for all East and. West, North and South. How can such a thing be? " « مَتى هَذَا الْوَعْدُ انْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ ،، "When is this to come about, if you really are

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128 speaking the truth ?" The holy Quran answers this question by saying: لَكُمْ مِنْعَادُ يُومٍ "For you (in this matter) is the time limit of a yaum". This word yaum the Holy Quran itself defines in another place: يُدَ بَرُ الأَمرُ مِنْ السَّمَاءِ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ يَعْرُجُ إِلَيْهِ في يوم كان مقدار، اَلْفَ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّونَ ގ i.e., God will first establish al-Amr (here means. Islam) on the earth, after which in the course of a thousand years it wil fly into the heavens.. This verse indicates the period of the inception and establishment of Islam, delineating two distinct epochs, with the duration of one specified as a thousand years, while the epoch that would precede it has been left unspecified, This period too however, has been specified by the Holy Prophet in a tradition for he said: وخَيْرُ ثُمَّ والقُرُونَ قَرِي ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ يَلَونَهُم الاعوج ، لفيج "Best of all is my century, then the one to come after, and then the one next and then destruction."

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129. This shows what was called as tadbeer-i-amr in the Quranic verse quoted above would embrace three centuries, for this was the period Islam took to be firmly established as a world force: then came the period of decay which has stretched itself over a thousand years since the third century after inception. In other words the time for the revival of Islam was to come after thirteen hundred years from the time of Holy Prophet. refers to (قل لكم ميعاد يوم) The yaum in the same period to which a reference is made also in Surah Sijdah; it is represented by a thousand years of the decline of Islam, after which we are told that it would be the time when the propagation of Islam would reach the point of completion. The following verse also bears on the same point: هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُله "He is the One Who has sent His Apostle with guidance and the true religion so that He should make it prevail upon all other religions" (LXI: 9).. The meaning of this expression is thus deducably reduced to the time before the advent of

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130 the Promised Mesiah, when, after a thousand years of decline, Islam was to be revived again, and when the mission of the Holy Prophet would be established on an unquestionable rational basis-a thing which is now coming to pass right in front of our eyes in a variety of various ways.. Extent of the mission of Jesus. Some Christians have been known to say in this connection that this teaching is by no means exclusive to Islam, for they claim that the mission of Jesus Christ was for the whole of mankind. I have dealt fully with this question in another article wrote some time ago, where I proved conclusively on the basis of irrefutable evidence, based on biblical texts, that the mission of Jesus was strictly confined to Israel, since he himself has said: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of. Israel. (Matt. 15:23). Nor was the attitude of his disciples any different. But today I wish to refute this claim on a different basis. If it is true that the mission of Jesus Christ was to all mankind, to gather the whole human race under one banner, it will have to be conceded it was a mission bound to be fulfilled, since it had the backing of a divine purpose, namely, to make the whole world into one by a proper weakening of national and regional prejudice. Now let us see how far Christianity

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131 has fulfilled this mission.. Undoubtedly Christianity has spread all over. Europe it has spread into India, China and Japan; it has in tact penetrated to many places which Islam never reached. But the question is how far the primary aim of the mission has been achieved?. According to the Christian claim, the aim of this teaching was to eliminate separatist tendencies from international relations; to reduce nationalism to proper proportions, and to unite the whole human race under one banner, on the basis of equality and brotherhood. But the fact remains that no other teaching has so much furthered the growth of a blind, hidebound, unscrupulous nationalism as has been done by Christianity, there being not as much as one single country where it can be said to have established equality, either as between man and man, or between nation and nation. On the other hand, there is not one single country which came under the Islamic influence but failed to work out human relations on the basis of equality. Today we find the British are deeply hostile to the Germans, while the Germans reciprocate the feeling with equal intensity, if not more.. Both stand ready to strangle each other the moment they get an opportunity to do so. Air armadas are being built for this purpose, and other weapons for long range striking power are daily being developed

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132 on a top priority basis. But even then a Eritisher would never meet an Indian Christian on the same social level on which he would, as a matter of course, be prepared to meet a German atheist. If the mission of Christianity was to remove all distinctions and to bring humanity on a common level of equality, why Christianity even in the best days of its glory, only deepened the national and racial schisms.. Not only is there no question these days of the. Europeans and the Asiatics, or Africans, standing on a footing of equality, the European Christians have persecuted even the European Jews as if they were not human beings.. On the other hand, the feelings of equality engendered by the Islamic teaching, wherever it has gone, is a matter of history which few would venture to deny to this day. We have thus the act of God, the evidence of history, repudiating the claim of these Christians that the mission of Jesus. Christ was I confined to the "lost sheep of the. House of Israel" but extended to the whole of mankind.. History itself stands to prove that this divine purpose has been and is being fulfilled by Islam.. Since, however, cool winds bearing glad tidings begin to bolw some time before the advent of a promised reformer, in the Christian era, when there came a hint of the great revolution to be

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133 worked through Muhammad, and Jesus told his followers that at the hand of a prophet of God, who would be the greatest of all prophets, the whole human race would be gathered up under one banner, the Christians were misled into thinking that perhaps the time had come for this revolution; and that, perhaps, they could themselves bring it about. But stolen or borrowed garments remain a misfit on the body, and the act of God has proved that the standard bearers of this mission were the. Muslims, not the Christians.. The Islamic Revolution. In short, by bringing about the changes with which it is associated, Islam has radically altered man's knowledge, his thought, his philosophy, his emotions, his religion, politics, morals, his economic concepts and his culture. Under the Islamic influence the world today is a far different world than it would have been otherwise; in fact one can say quite justifiably that Muhammad created a new heaven and a new earth.. Basis of similarities between Islam and other religions. The resemblance between Islam and some of the other religions seen today is not due to the fact that points where they now resemble Islam

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134 have always been part and parcel of those religions, even before the impact of Islam. It is on the contrary due to the fact that the followers of these religions have, in time, tried to steal from the teachings of Islam. Not to speak of such cases of theft in the field of religion, there are instances of some Europeans having copied the works of some. Muslim scholars but claimed the authorship for themselves, a number of publications having lately been put into the hands of the public wherein such cases of theft have been exposed. Only a short time ago I obtained a book from England which deals with the science of music and proves that the Europeans stole this science from Spanish. Arab sources, the author claiming boldly that he could quote the names of books from which. European authors had copied out but witheld the name of the real authors. He even quoted indignantly an instance preserved in the British. Museum Library. He says at number so and so is a book in the British Museum which contains a letter by some Christian addressed to such and such a clergyman, to the following effect: Dear Sir,. Muslim music being of a high order, in comparison with which our own music appears extremely uncouth, it is my wish that I should translate Muslim books on this science for the European people. But. I am afraid by copying and publishing the works of

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135. Muslim scholars I would run the risk of being denounced by the Church as a heretic myself.. I should like to have the favour of your opinion on the point. If this science were to be copied, the. Church would ultimately stand to gain by the improvement in our music. The author of this book claims that the clergyman in question wrote back to the effect that there would be no harm if the translation were made, but the names of the real authors of the works should be witheld, for otherwise people would come to know that the science was being borrowed from the Arabs, which would tend to raise the Muslims in estimation of the people doing harm thereby to the position of the Church. This author claims that the letter is still to be seen in the. British Museum.. Similarly the philosophy of Ibn Rushd was taught in Paris upto 1840: only slight alteration was made in the name so that no one should know that it was Muslim philosophy that was being taught. It is also interesting to note that once it was decided in the University of Rome that in future such and such a book should be taught in place of such, Since, it was said, philosophy had during the time made much progress. But the Bishops denounced the proposed change as a heresy, not dreaming on account of the long passage of time, that the book which was be-

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136 ing replaced in the curriculum by another was by a. Muslim scholar.. Due to ignorance there is an impression among our people that the Muslims have borrow. ed from the West in many things, whereas the fact is that the Muslims have not borrowed from the Christians, the case being quite the reverse.. The European Christians have borrowed, even stolen, extensively from the works of Muslim scholars, though the Muslims in general know nothing about these things, not being very conversant with these works. In fact the Muslims of these days have let all these sciences and branches of knowledge slip out of their hands, while the Christians have taken care to master them, and even to add to them in the natural course of time, so that the sciences developed by our fathers have become unrecognisable for us today. In fact the present day decline of the Muslims has gone to such an extent that now they have no religion, no politics and no culture except a desire to ape the. West. The Holy Quran still contains all those things which the early Muslims adopted to make such astonishing progress; but in the hands of the Muslims of our own day the Holy Quran is no more than a closed book, while for everything they look to the West, like the helpless fledgeling of spariow waiting with an open

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137 beak for the parent bird to come and put something into it.. Their case, in fact, resembles the story related of some king of Iran who happened to hear much praise of the Indian fruit, called mango, which created a great desire in him to taste it. So he sent a courtier to India as ambassador, to bring the fruit.. When the Iranian reached the court at Delhi, however, the season for mangoes was over. But the. Delhi king made special efforts to find in the gardens of the neighbourhood some specimen of the fruit, unearthing just one mango, but of a very inferior qualliy. sour and full of fibre. He asked the ambassador to have a look at it. "The mango looks like this." he said, "but it tastes exceedingly sweet.. This one which is before you is not so fine. You may please teste it as well, so that you may give an idea to your king about a mango.". He tasted the mango and found it extremely unpalatable On his return to the Iranian capital he told his master that since his visit to India he had begun. to have serious doubts in regard to the taste and intelligence of the people of that country. Asked to explain, he said that he had tasted the fruit which he had been sent to fetch. And as for what it was like. please taste this and know'. Saying this he held out a cup full of tamarind pulp mixed with a little water to make it into a thick liquid.. The Iranian king put the cup to his lips and was surprised to find that the Indians were so fond of a fruit of which the taste had nothing to recommend it.

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138. This is what the Muslims are like at the present day. They have gone absolutely out of touch with the profound truth and guidance contained in the Holy Quran, which for them has turned into a lifeless book. What these people have before them today bears the same relationship with the Holy. Quran which that absurd concoction prepared by that Iranian ambassador had with a mango.. Although Islam contains all the beauty, all the finest attributes, and although the people of Europe have learnt the basic principles of knowledge and science from the Muslims and from Islam, the present day. Muslims, being claim to profess, have become enamoured of Westernism.. The principles of Western Philosophy. Nowhere today in the world' is the Islamic teachings to be found in practice as a whole, what survives among the Muslims being no more than a piece here and another there. The real Islamic teaching has been forsaken by the Muslims, who have fallen victim to a craze in everything to ape the west, of which the philosophy of lite is dominated by three main principles: (i) Spirit of materialism; (ii) with its unfailing result in the form of an extreme nationalism; (iii) and the urge to make all religious and spiritual values subordinate to the requirements of national aggrandisement.

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139. These factors have ruined morality and the spirit of real sacrifice, causing a gross and vulgar disfigurement of all forms of religion. If to day. European nations attach any importance to religion, it is only to the extent to which doing so seems to be helpful for their aims in the field of their political hold on the people. The Indian mind cannot pro⚫perly grasp this point, but this is what actually happens. For instance, if there is a revolt, say, in Germany, and the Church feels that the Christian teaching does not give them strength enough to control the situation, they quietly remove inconvenient portions from that teaching, and proceed to propound altogether a new philosophy, and then all hasten to agree that this in fact was their religion. For example, suppose there is a Muslim who desires to have a hundred wives, and finding that the Holy. Quran did not allow more than four, he proceeds to alter the text to suit his purpose, then marries a hundred wives, and continues to claim that he is a very good Muslim. Now to the mind of a Muslim any such thing is grossly impossible. This however, is what has been done in Europe more than once. When the European people see that the observance of some part of the Christian teaching would cause harm to national interests, they do not scruple to change the teaching to suit their requirements, glibly claiming the new view to be the essen-

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140 ce of their religion. In other words they stand so far removed from any sense of religion that they mistake the most gross and selfish kind of nationalism for religion. Whatever strengthens the nation is for them the clear will of God. The result is that the bottom has been knocked out of the moral values, and religion has become a mockery. This neoreligion based on an extreme sense of nationalism has killed the spirit of sacrifice. A German now will not make any sacrifice for anybody except the Germans, while a Britisher will sacrifice anything but only for the good of the British people.. Revolution of the Seventh Era: Revival of the. Islamic Teaching. The spirit of materialism and nationalism, combined with the urge to subordinate all other considerations to the requirements of national interest have totally destroyed peace. Therefore God has raised the Promised Messiah in this age, his mission, which represents the seventh phase in human civilization based on divine religion, being to bring about a revolution of the kind mentioned in the latter part of the verse of which some aspects have already been discussed, namely, مَا نَنْسَحْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَو نُنْسِهَا نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ مِنْهَا أو مثلها .

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141 which means that sometimes a revolution only consists in the revival, through a servant of God raised for the purpose, of a teaching which had come to be replaced through human error although it still had the power and capacity to meet all requirements of situation. This revolution is further referred to in. Surah Jum'ah where we read: هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولاً مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوا ,, يُعَلِّمُهُمُ الكتاب و عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مبين والحكمة و ان كانوا واخَرِينَ مِنْهُمْ لَمَّا يَلْحَقُوا بِهِمْ وَهُوَ العَزِيزُ الحكيم "It is He Who has sent among the unlettered an Apostle from among themselves, who rehearses to them His signs, purities them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, although they had been before in manifest error. As well as the others of them, who have not yet joined them, and He is the. Exalted in might and the Wise. (LXII: 2-2) Here the words wa aakhareena minhum lammaa yalhaqu behim indicate that there is to be another advent of the Holy Prophet, so to say, at a later date, and another body of men to be raised by this means at

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142 that time who, in spirit and conduct and aims, would be identical with the followers of the Prophet in his own day. Evidently, since the rebirth of anyone after he has once passed away from this world is out of the question according to the Islamic point of view, what is manifestly meant here is the advent of a reformer in the spirit and purpose of the. Holy Prophet, and in absolute submission and obedience to another advent of the Holy Prophet himself.. Mission of the Second dvent. The mission of this advent has also been referred to in Surah Saff where it is said: الَّذِي هُوَ الذي اَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ على الدين كله i.e., A day was coming when Allah would spread the guidance brought by the Apostle all over the world, and make it dominant over all other religions.. This verse came down on the Promised Mesiah as well, so that it should be made clear that the time had come to which it was applicable. Commentators of the Holy Quran of the old school are agreed on the point that this verse refers to a later period when this mission would be entrusted to a. Promised Reformer.

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143. Now these verses indicate that at the time of the first advent the religion was established in the world on a firm basis. The stage to make it dominant over all other religions coming later at the time of the second advent, the mission having a twofold object: (i) to bring people to Islam with persuasion on the basis of reason and argument, and (ii) to eliminate other cultures and civilizations, to make the Islamic civilization prevail everywhere in the world. This is why Allah has said that He raised the Promised Messiah so that He should make Islam prevail over all other religions.. Means for bringing about this dominance. It now remains to be seen by what means this dominance can be brought about. If dominance is taken to mean dominance of the teaching, in the sense that some people from the followers of every other religion would come over to Islam, it cannot be accepted as an adequate interpretation, for the co ning over of a tew men from the rest of the religions can hardly justify the use of the expression found in the text. The dominance that is here spoken of is the same kind of dominance which the. Western type of culture holds over the world today. Our task thus is to make the Islamic philosophy of life prevail in the world at any rate, to, the same extent Western civization prevails in the

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144 world at this time, which means that even though their might still continue to be some Christians, some Hindus, and some Jews in the world, the culture of each and all of them should be suffused with Islamic values, as all other types of culture to-day carry manifest marks of being dominated by. Western ideas. Just as today all seem to think that the Western civilization is the best and grandest achievement of man, all should come round to hold the view that the spirit and value inculcated by. Islam represent the very best which humanity can aspire to achieve.. Revelations of the Promised Messiah bearing on this real Revolution. A careful study of the revelations received by the Promised Messiah bears out that they carry this claim. We find that the Promised Messiah saw in in a kashf (vision) that he was saying: هم ایک نیا نظام اور نیا آسمان اور نئی زمین چاهتے هیں "We desire a new order, a new heaven and earth". (Tazkirah page 196). In his memorable work entitled Chashma-i-Mesechee he intereprets the vision in the following words: "This vision means that. Allah at my hands would bring about such a revolution as would virtually stand for the creation of a new heaven and earth, bringing real human beings into the world." (page 35).

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2. One revelation speaks of him as . محي الدين ومقيم الشريعة. 145 "The reviver of the Deen and the establisher of the. Shariah". 3. A third revelation, for instance, is: وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُحْيِ الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا . "Know that indeed it is Allah Who brings the earth back to life after its death". (Tazkirah page 78). 4. Another revelation refers to his opponents (زندگی کے فیشن سے دور جا پڑے ھيں) فحقهم تسحيقاً : a5 "They have drifted far away from the fashion of life. Grind them down as grinding should be". (Tazkirah page 472). This revelation carries a vivid picture of the modern tendency to be "in the fasion" in all things, and says that these people have drifted far away from the real fashion of life, as a consequence of which they stand to be ground down by the great forces driving mankind towards progress. the followers of the فسحقهم تسحيقاً Here, in the words. Promised Messiah have been taught a prayer to the . effect that the people who had drifted far from the fashion of life be destroyed from the world, as they deserved on account of the wrong values they upheld, and that the Islamic point of view be made to prevail.

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146 5. A fifth revelation bearing on the point, for instance is: مَا أَنَا إِلَّا كَالْقُرْآنِ وَسَيَظْهَرُ عَلَى يَدَى مَا ظَهَرَ مِنَ الْفُرْقَانِ. Here we have the Promised Messiah being directed to say that he was "Only like the Quran" and that at his hands would take place the changes which had earlier been brought about by that holy Book. (Tazkirah page 617) "King6. Another revelation is: is dom of Heaven" (Tazkirah page 622), i.e., The mission of the Promised Messiah was to establish the. Kingdom of Haven on earth.. These verses of the Holy Quran and revelation of the Promised Messiah are quite clear that his mission is to eradicate the prevailing western civilization, and to establish in its place the Islamic philosophy of life, the Islamic Shariah, the Islamic civilization, the Islamic economic structure, and the. Islamic moral and social values. Part of this change is in the personal field, like the offering of prayers and the observance of fasting and part of it pertains to corporate lite. The personal sector calls for individual action in the wake of appropriate advice and admonition but the sector belonging to corporate life calls for a strong, well knit cohesive order. For

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147 instance there is a man who takes care to be punctual in the matter of prayers as far as he is cncerned even if the others neglected it, he would still be able to persevere with his own prayers. But there are another kind of teaching which call for an organised, systematic effort by the entire body of society as a whole. For instance take the case of the five daily obligatory prayers which should be offered in congregation. No individual by himself is in a position to observe this teaching unless his friends and neighbours begin to come regularly to to the mosque at the right time.. Success of Ahmadiyyat in the field of doctrine.. As is only too evident, the Ahmadiyya Movement by this time has achieved a great success in the field of doctrine and belief, so that even our opponents admit this triumph. When the Promised Messiah first said that Jesus Christ had died a natural death at the end of a natural span of life, there was an uproar against him that this was kufr, pure heresy. He was accused of insulting. Jesus Christ. But today it you have opportunity to search the hearts of the educated people, you would find many and many who feel convinced in their mind that Jesus Christ is dead, while most will pretend that he is alive but insist that the question is of no practical value to the. Muslims. This state of mind only denotes that the aD

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148 enemy himself feels he cannot win against us by means of this weapon.. Moreover, when the well known religi us decree of Kufr was issued by the Ulama against the Promised Messiah, one of the grounds was stated to be the fact that he did not subscribe to the commonly held view pertaining to naaskh wa mansookh (abrogation) in the Holy Quran. Some of the Ulama of the old school held as many as full eleven hundred verses to have been abrogated, others six hundred, and others a little less: while there were some who held that only three verses had been abrogated. But the Promised. Messiah proclaimed that all such ideas were ridiculous and absurd: that not a single verse of the. Holy Book stood abrogated. Then he took up those verses which, under the weight of criticism of a kind, were held to have been abrogated, and he explained them in such a beautiful and new way that not only they did not contradict any part of the Holy Book, or raise any other difficulty, but they proved, in themselves, to be miraculous instances of the matchlessness of the. Holy Quran as compared with the rest of the great Scriptures. In a way this was a hidden treasure which the Promised Messiah dug up for mankind, making many people wonder how these things had escaped their eyes. But when the. Promised Messiah first proclaimed that not a single

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• 149 verse of the Holy Book had been abrogated, a storm of fury was raised against him which has seldom been excelled. Today, however, one would hardly find any well read Muslim subscribing to the view that there is abrogation in the Holy. Quran. The interpretation which the Promised. Messiah gave to the verses which were held to have been abrogated has generally come to be accepted, which furnishes a clear case of the great triumph achieved by the Ahmadiyya Movement in the field of doctrine and belief.. The triumph of Ahmadiyyat and the field of Action. The success of the Ahmadiyya Movement in field of action, however, is by no means so clear and manifest, since we cannot so far claim that we have driven the rival orders and systems out of the field and established the Islamic order instead.. The reason is obvious: there can hardly be any question of perfection on the practical side of religion without the creation of a strong organiza tion to uphold and propagate the aim of the phi osophy. All that the Movement has been able to achieve so far is reformation in the body of the doctrine and personal individual action, and the creation of a system of some financial backing for the programme of the Movement in the form of subscriptions from individual members. But individual effort can never take the place of regular

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150 organisation in support of a view of life established on a corporate basis in the life of the people.. Nor, for the following reasons, can individual effort succeed in bringing such a system and order into being: 1. Most people are not adequately enlightened in regard to the inner meaning of the teaching and its profound bearing upon life. Their individual effort to spread this teaching and to establish it on a firm basis remains therefore incomplete, since it lacks adequate vigour. 2. Even among those people who have a due understanding of these things, a part remains lazy. The activity of this part remains mostly dependent on persuasion and pressure of environment, the corporate body having in many cases to issue notices to them that they should brush themselves up, or drop out of the Movement. 3. Violation or non-observance of the Shariah, on the part of those who might do so from ignorance or laziness, produces a bad effect on the others. Some people, through ignorance, even begin to mistake such instances of the violation or non-observance of the Shariah to involve no infiringements at all. Suppose, for instance there is a great and successful businessman who shows slackness in the observance of some point of the. Shariah. Many people would take to copying him, thinking that perhaps what he failed to observe was not part of the Shariah at all. The spirit of

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151 violation, non-observance, or even wilful, defiance in time, begins to spread and create an atmosphere of disruption. 4. Even people who are properly educated as to the aims and objects of the Movement, and who also have every desire and inclination to fully observe the Shariah, cannot do so without a strong organisation to further those aims, for in some cases the teaching pertains to two parties in such a manner that if one of them fails to observe it, the other party too finds itself handicapped. The case of congregational prayers offers a very clear and simple instance. Unless there are many people in the body of the Movement who are determined to carry out this injunction of the Shariah, no individual will be in a position to do so all by himself. Or suppose a man needs a loan. He would be able to avoid taking a loan on interest only if there are people in the community who have money to spare without wanting to exact interest. Or take the case of the Islamic teaching in regard to inheritance. Suppose there is a father who desires to have his estate divided among his heirs according to the Shariah, but some of the heirs object and create diffculties on the basis of prevailing customs or the law of the land.. Similarly there are many aspects of the teaching pertaining to political matters which call for a system and an organisation, if they are to be

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152 properly observed. Hor instance the shariah demands that market rates and prices should be controlled in certain cases, in a certain manner.. Evidently no such thing can be done unless the teaching is being observed in the entire community as a whole in the form of an intelligent economic system based on the teaching of the Shariah 5. Another difficulty experienced by new. Movement is that those who are best qualified to lay the foundation, in practice, of the new order, are the early disciples of the Reformer. If the new order does not begin to emerge in the lifetime of these companions of the Reformer, people coming later do not have the same incentive or vision. 6. Over and above all this stands the fact that unless some sort of new order is brought into being, the old order cannot be done away with.. Unless people can see with their own eyes some superior system in being, it never begins to occur to them that they need to get rid of the old, or that they have any alternative at all, even when they generally have begun to feel uneasy on the score of the old system to which they have been used. Another danger involved is that without developing an order of their own the members of the Movement themselves run the risk of being reabsorbed into the old order which needs to be replaced.

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Our part in bringing about the Real Revolution 153. Thus, when the mission of the Promised Messiah: is to bring about this real revolution by etfacing the old order and creating a new one to replace it-to such a radical extent as to create a new heaven and a new earth-the question we must face is whether we have done anything to achieve this object. Let us for a moment not worry about what our opponents say: Let us try to find the answer to this question among ourselves. If a foreigner came to India who knew nothing about the difference between the Ahmadis and the nonAhmadis; who was deaf. so that he could not. Dear what people said; suppose that .he was also "dumb, so that he could not talk to anyone; but suppose he had eyes to see and a healthy mind to think with: coming to live among the Ahmadis, would be to think that these people had a new heaven and a new earth as compared with the other people? Or woud he only have reason to understand and say that whereas some people among the non-Ahmadis observed the daily prayers, some of the Ahmadis too did so; that just as there were people among the non-Ahmadis who were neglectful in the matter, the same was found to be the case with the Ahmadis as well that even among the. Ahmadis were people whose sense of the impottance of religion was weak, whose attitude and behaviour in daily life left much to be desired,

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154 then what answer would he give to the question whether or not the Ahmadiyya Movement had succeeded in creating a new heaven and a new earth?. If we search our minds duly in this respect, we would find that all we have done so far is that we have obtained a proper understanding of some of the important questions pertaining to doctrine and belief; we give a portion of our earnings for financing the activities of the Movement; and we have made some personal improvement. All the difference we can claim in comparison with others is only this that whereas the number of those who tell lies is larger among the non-Ahmadis, among us it is perhaps not as large; that whereas large numbers among the non-Ahmadis would be found who do not observe prayer and fasting, the number of such people among the Ahmadis is small; that the non Ahmadis make no effort to take the Islamic teaching to the non-Muslims, while the Ahmadis do so that few among the non-Amadis have any understanding of the Holy. Quran, while knowledge of the Holy Book is tairly abundant among us. Basically speaking. however, the shape of things has remained unaltered: the pattern of life has not changed.. Then how can we say that we have changed the heaven and earth? So far we have not even succeeded in creating in the mind of the general

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155 people a proper dislike of the old order we had found in prevalence. Many of our own yonng men are unduly fond of aping the western ways.. From a desire to be in the West, they have neglected, and are neglecting, to emphasise the. Islamic way in their life, in contrast with that of the Western way. Instead of concentrating fully on demolishing the old order, all we can do in the circumstances is to remain occupied with the task of winning back cur own youngmen from the Western influence. But here too the unfortunate fact seems to be that while we win back one such young man, the enemy misleads and takes under its wings scores of others. Instead of effacing the untavourable and hostile order, most of our energies are being dissipated in the task of rescuing our owa people from its clutches.. The utmost need of the time for us, however, is that we should give our fullest attention to the task of replacing the present world order with the. Islamic civilization, in every detail of human life.. Role of the Promised Messiah in bringing about this Revolution. The question here might arise in the mind of some people that if this was really the sense in which the Promised Messiah interpreted the verses of the Holy Quran, and his own revelations, as quoted above, and it that was so, why did he

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156 not himself do something to start the required revolution.. The answer is that a start was made in very clear revelations of the Promised Messiah, and in the course of his writings, he has again drawn attention to the matter. He has clearly said that God at his hands would create such a deep and a thorough change that in a manner of speaking a new heaven and a new earth shall be created, bringing forth real human beings. He has stated this mission of his on the basis of numerous revelations and visions. The start, thus, has been made, though it is not necessary that the mission should be completed immediately, all at once. In fact it appears to me that in obedience to an injunction of the Holy Quran, which he also received himself as a revelation, the Promised. Messiah began this task in a particular order, of which the links unfortunately dropped out of our hands after his death. Or perhaps it was the divine will and purpose that a break should occur in this work. Allah says in the Holy. Quran : كَزَرْعٍ أَخْرَجَ شَطَّاهُ فَازَرَهُ فَاسْتَغْلَظَ فَاسْتَوَى عَلَى سوقِهِ يُعْجِبُ الرُّرَّاعَ لِمَغِيظَ بِهِمُ الكُفَّارَ وَمَدَ

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157 اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحاتِ مِنْهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ و اجرا عظمنا. This verse implies that the revolution to take place in the days of the Promised Messiah would fall into four stages: (i) The first stage has been described as akhraja shat'ahu, like the first shoots of the seed coming out of the earth i.e. the principles of the revolution would be stated, very frail and tender in growth, unlike the condition of Islam in its first stage which God has described 7 (27:XVI) اتى الله بنيانهم XVI : 2 : or as) اتي أمر الله 28 in contrast to its rapid, almost sudden growth during the phase of its inception in the days of the Holy Prophet, there being in its growth at this latter stage of revival and regeneration a marked measure of slowness, a graded process a definite order and sequence. Faith at first would be like a seed sown in the hearts. Then it would germinate, turning in to a tender verdure.. The next stage in its progress and growth has been described as aazara, when the plant will become strong. The third stage would be when it fulfills the prophecy contained in the word istaghlaza, i.e. the weak plant would develop a thick trunk-when the movement, which had appeared very insignificant, would spread all over the world, winning adherents everywhere, and 1

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158 penetrating to every nook and corner of the earth.. The fourth stage will be reached when the. Movement shall present a spectacle of fastawa ala sugihee, i.e. Islamic states would come into being, and even those principles which pertain to the Islamic conception of a state shall come into practical operation, giving one civilization and one culture to all mankind. The expression fastawa ala sugihee used here is very similar to what is said in the Holy Quran in another place in regard to God's istawa on His arsh. The Islamic civilization, to be established through Ahmadiyyat would be so grand and glorious that it would make other nations open their eyes with wonder, saying that here was indeed a goodly crop. This is the same thing expressed elsewhere in the. Holy Quran as رُبَمَا يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْ كَانُوا مُسْلِمَنَ "Often and often those who disbelieved would wish if only they had been Muslims (xv: 3).". When the Holy Prophet successfully put into operation the Islamic teaching, the unbelievers were forced to concede that though the founder of Islam was false in his claim, he had given a teaching that was undoubtedly sublime, giving birth to a conciousness in their own minds, that it would have been grand if they too had been the followers of such an excellent teaching. Simi-

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159 larly Allah says that when the Islamic way of life came to be established through Ahmadiyyat, and when Islamic states came to dominate the earth. other nations would be surprised and begin to feel that the new order could not be resisted any longer. These would be people with a certian amount of fairness and a certian nobility of mind.. But there would be others in regard to whom the. So as to exasperate ليغيظ بهم الكفار verse says the unbelievers with it", which means that there would be an extreme and fanatical type of opponents, who would, so to say, die a death in despair.. Thus, in the days of the Promised Messiah the. Movement passed through the first stage, when it was like a tender new verdure shooting out of the earth. But now the time has come when the second stage should begin, so that the task should be accomplished under the eyes of those disciples of the Promised Messiah who directly partook in the clear vision of the founder of the movement.. If this work is not accomplished today, it will never be accomplished.

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THE AIM OF TAHRIK-I-JADID.. During the first stage of Tahrik-i-Jadid i took a step in this direction, but certain points which I had in mind in connection with the second stage of Tahrik-i-Jadid I had postponed at the time, but I called upon members of the Movement to give due thought in their own minds to the question why we had so far failed to defeat our opponents in the field of action, whereas in the field of belief and doctrine we had defeated them so early and so easily. I hope all of you have by this time given due attention to the question. My intention at that time was that the exposition of certain points involved in the second phase of Tahrik-i-Jadid I would leave for the occasion of the Annual Gathering when a considerable portion of the members of the Movement would be present and I would be in a position to ask them directly if they were now prepared to imp lement this programme.. I therefore desire to proclaim today that the. Holy Prophet had said: الإِيمَانُ بِضْعُ وَسَبْعُونَ شُعْبَةُ أَفْضَلُهَا قَولُ لا اله الا الله و ادلاهَا إِمَاطَة الْأَذَى مَنِ الطَّرِيقِ 160

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161 i.e. O ye Muslisms. you sometimes recite the. Kalimah and then rest satisfied that you were real Muslims. This is altogether wrong. In the first place to merely recite the Kalimah is nothing,. But even if it were, always remember that faith and belief embrace more than seventy parts, it being incumbent on you to act upon them all. The expression bizun wa sab'oona is an. Arabic idiom which denotes great plurality. We have similar expressions in Urdu as well. When we say: "I have said this a hundred times", what is sought to be emphasised is not the particular number one hundred, but very frequent repetition of what was said. This saying of the Holy. Prophet thus means that Faith embraces a large number of aspects, all falling in different grades, some being higher, others lower, one among the most elementary being an act like removing a thorn or an obstacle from the wayside. Faith and belief is thus a composite state of the mind which has inumerable aspects and hundreds of actions:. Islam is not the name of any one thing or one state of mind. For instance, Islam means faith in the unity of God; faith in Qaza and Qadr (Divine decision and estimate in regard to the nature and behaviour of all things, animate and, inanimate, which from ignorance many people confuse with what is believed to be implied in Pre-destination:):

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162 faith in all the Prophets; in Life after Death; in heaven and hell; acceptance by Allah of prayer by man; in all attributes of the Divine Being; the offering of prayers and the observance of fasting: performance of the pilgrimage; the giving of zakaat and charity; to acquire knowledge and to teach it to others; to serve one's parents; to be of service to mankind; to be brave and self-respecting; to be grateful for favours received; to always think well of others; to have a lofty resolve; to be merciful and gentle; to have a due sense of dignity; to be simple in life; to pursue the middle course in all things; to be just and generous; to be faithful; to cultivate a spirit of sacrifice; to be forgiving; to be respectful id considerate to others; to deal with people pleasantly and cheerfully; to be obedient to authority; to educate one's own selt and others as well: to keep aloof from the enemies of the nation; to create love of God and to depend on Him; to propagate the truth; not to backbite; not to be fraudulent in dealing; not to be dishonest; not to be cruel and oppresive; not to resort to mischiet and disorder; not to spread scandal and accusations against others; not to be disdainful and hold others as low; not to ridicule anyone; not to be idle or slothful; to work industriously and intelligently; and hundreds of other such things-all these form essential parts of faith, the least of all these

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163 being to remove an obstacle that may happen to lie on a public path. What is called Islam lies. thus, in duly adopting the Islamic way of life in its natire range in one's beliefs, actions, acts of worship, in one's civilization and culture, economics, politics, in the settlement of disputes that might arise between him and others, in short in the whole field of life. Unless one does all these things, one cannot truly be held a Muslim.. The Holy prophet has said: 5.9 الامام جُنَّةٌ يُقَاتِلَ مِن وَرَائِه that the Imam is like a shield behind which the peodle should take their stand and fight the enemy from that position of strength. Therefore, as long as I had not sent forth this call, the members of the Ahmadiyya Movement could have been held to be free agents: but henceforth only he would be held to be a member of the Movement who, according to this Hadees, would take his, stand behind the Imam and prepare for the struggle.. Responsibility of the Ahmadiyya Community. The time has now come that the Community should realise its great responsibility, and intensify the struggle for revival of the Sunnah and the. Shariah. It shall no longer be permissible for any-

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164 one to lag behind. If we remain careless and negligent now, it will not be possible to achieve any thing ever afterwards. Though the number of. Sahabah (companions of the Founder of the Movement) among us is now small, but some of them are still among us, and this task, if it is ever to be accomplished, can be accomplished properly only within the life span of these Sahabah. If we remain negligent, and these blessed companions pass away from our midst, the mission entrusted to us will never be fulfilled. -:0:-

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ISLAMIC TEACHING IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE. Good Morals.. The Holy Prophet says that انَّ الْخُلُقَ وعَاهُ الدِّينِ to have a "Morals are the vessel which holds and preserves deen (religion or the sense of ultimate values). Now do you think that you can keep the milk you have, and prevent it from running waste, or from being polluted, unless you have a clean vessel to hold it in? Indeed it is possible for one vessel, but no milk to be put into it. But it is not possible that one should have some milk and be able to preserve it without a vessel in which it could be put and held. Therefore, if there was a man who claimed that he had faith in his heart but failed to display an appropriate moral sense in his dealings with people, then such a person shall have to be held a liar and a cheat.. This is the reason why on another occasion the. Holy Prophet said إنما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الأخلاق مِنْتُ لأُتَمِّمَ that he had been raised to bring morals to their due perfection 165

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166. Dealings.. In regard to a Believer's dealings with other people the Holy Prophet said: اشْرَفُ الإِيمَانِ أَنْ يَا مَنَكَ النَّاسُ وَاشْرَفُ الْإِسْلَامِ أَنْ يَسْلَمَ النَّاسَ مِنْ لِسَانِكَ وَيَدَكَ i.e. Belief of a high order demands that all other people should remain in peace at one's hand, nor should anyone have to suffer through one's actions or words.. National Service.. On the point of national service the Holy Prophet said: حَدِكُمْ سَاعَةٌ فِي بَعْضٍ مَوَاطِنِ الْإِسْلَامِ مبر احدكم بد الله اربعين يوما اں من "If anyone spent as much as an hour in the Holy. Service of Islam without gaining personally from it in any way, it was better for him than worship and meditation extending over forty days.. Lawful Livelihood. In regard to lawful means of living the Holy. Prophet said: २

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نْهَا . ف خُدمـ الْعِبَادَة عَشَرَهُ أَجْزَاء تِسْعَةُ مِنْهَا الحلال "The worship of God consisted of ten parts. of which one was represented by devotional acts, such as prayer fasting, performance of the pilgrimate and payment of zakat, while the rest nine all lay in subsisting only on lawful means of livelihood.. In other, words, if a man observed prayer and tast ing, performed the pilgrimage, and paid zakat, but was dishonest in trade, he mixed nine measures of foul impurity into one measure of milk, Evidently, theretore, the slightest carelessness in regard to the strictest standards of honesty in commercial dealings destroyed all the virtue and reward such a person might have won on the basis of his act of worship.. Keenness and Industry. In regard to those who work with keennes and industry the Holy Prophet said: عَمَلَ امْرِى يَظُنُّ أَن لَّن يَوتَ اَبَداً واحذر . ان يموت "When you engage yourself in worldly activity. remember the Islamic teaching for such occasions

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168 that you work with such keenness, diligence and absorption as if you thought you were never going to die ; وَاحْذَرْ حَذَرَ أَمْرِي يَخْشَى أَنْ يَمُوتَ غَدًا but over matters concerning the ultimate value of things, be so careful and warned as if you were going to die the very next day." On the one side a man should give his whole mind and energy to the work he may have in hand, as it it had never occurred to him that he would ever die and not be here to enjoy the fruits of his labour. On the other he should have such fear of God in his heart as it every moment he was prepared to be called to His presence.. Welfare of Mankind. In regard to good will for mankind the Holy. Prophet taught مُسْلِمَ صَدَقَةٍ فَإِن لَّمْ مَجِدَ فَلَيَعْمَلْ بَيَدِهِ فَيَنْفَعُ لناس. "Sadaqah (charity) is obligatory on every Muslim, but if he should find he has nothing in his possession which he could give, he should work with his hands and benefit mankind in that way. On occasions when people should come forward with financial help to further the aim and object of the

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169 are. Movement, some are found to say that they ar too poor to give anything: that rather in fact they stood in need of help themselves. People who fall into this category should discharge the obligation which lies on their shoulders in this respect by working with their hands to further the common objectives those who have money to spare for such purpose should ever be ready with subscriptions but those who are hard up should for periods engage themselves in some work for the common good of all. This is one reason why in connection with Tahreek-i-Jadeed I insist on everyone doing some manual work of some kind as a measure inculcating self discipline and physical activity: and those disabled persons who could not do even this, should in any case keep themselves engaged in prayer, which would be tantamount to their having discharged their duties in a due and proper manner.. Cleanliness. The Holy Prophet taught: النَظَافَةَ مِنَ الإِيْمَانَ "To be particularly mindful about cleanliness was part of Faith." Again he taught: اَخْرِجُوا سِنْدِيلَ القَمَرِ مِنْ بَيُوتِكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ الْغَيْبِ وَمَجَلِسَة

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170 "The tablecloth that had become greasy and dirty should be thrown out of the house since it harboured dirt and other injurious things". Flies and other harmful insects gather round it, giving rise to many diseases. It is surprising why some people seem to think that clothes in use should not be washed and cleaned untill worn out and torn to rags.. Truthfullness. The amount of emphasis the Holy Prophet laid on being absolutely truthful may be judged from the following Hadees. He said: يَّاكُمْ وَالْكَذَبَ فَإِنَّ الْكَذِبَ لَا يَصْلُحُ في الجد وَلَا الْهَوْلَ وَلا يَعِدِ الرَّجُلُ صَبِيهُ ثُمَّ لَا يَضِي لَهُ "O ye people Listen with care. Avoid falsehood and let it sink well into your mind that falsehood and lies are neither Permissible in jest nor in seriousness." Sometimes when the attention of such people is drawn to their carelessness or laxity in the matter, they try to excuse themselves by saying that they had only been joking. It is to be carefully borne in mind that the Holy Prophet looked upon this kind of carelessness and laxity also as no less than falsehood. He placed such emphasis on this point that he advised against

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171 holding out a false promise even to a child. When a child is naughty or will not stop crying, some people try to pacify him by holding out promises which are not intended to be seriously fulfilled.. The Holy Prophet discouraged this attitude and held it was not different from falsehood and lies. 138 ثُمَّ لَا يَغِي لَهُ لا يعد الرجل صبه. One should earn one's own livelihood.. To earn one's own living and not to remain dependent on others is also part of Islam. It is recorded that some of his companions came to the. Holy Prophet and said: "O Prophet of God, there is a man who spends all day and night in worship: fs not he the best of all men?" And mark how delicate and refined is the manner in which the. Prophets of God answered such questions. The. Holy Prophet replied if the man spent all his time in worship, wherefrom did he eat? The companions said that others kept him supplied with food; whereat the Holy Prophet said that all those who looked to his needs were better than him.. Similarly it is on record in works of Hadees that the Holy Prophet once happened to be sitting with some of his companions when a youngman passed by who was tall, extremely well built and strong he went by running fast in connection

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172 with some business he had in hand. Some of the companions who noticed his hurry and great absorption in his work tended to deride him for being so engrossed in mundane pursuits while it was open to him to win more merit by devoting his youth and strength in the way of God. When the Holy Prophet heard this remark, he deprecated strongly, saying that if a man worked with zeal and speed, hoping that his wife would benefit thereby, then such a person was to be taken as engaged in the way of God. But if he was showing speed only to win applause from people, then he was a disciple of the devil. To work diligently, inorder to win an honest livelihood, too, is therefore to work in the way of the Lord.. Care of one's property.. Is'am has given specific and very clear instructions in regard to the proper care of property.. The Hoiy Prophet said that if a man sold his property, living on the proceeds, he was a worthless fellow, who did not deserve that Allah should bestow his favours upon him.. I have mentioned these few things only by way of instance. Otherwise injunctions and directions in Islam run into hundreds, and to put them all into proper practice is called siyasat (for which the English equivalent generally used is politics) and this siyasat forms an essential portion of Islam.

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WAYS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE. ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION. Our duty to establish the Islamic civilization cannot be properly discharged, however, unless the following things are done:. Change in Ideas. First and foremost a change should be brought about in the ideas of the people, and it should be deeply impressed upon them that to be a momin and and Ahmadi was by no means only that one repeat a formula of belief with one's tongue. Or that he should believe in the Holy Prophet. Mohammad and the Promised Messiah, where the matter would end. Every Ahmadi should be made to realise that minute attention to hundreds of things was needed before Faith could be said to have reached the desired point. of perfection -things connected with general culture, social relationships, economics and politics. No one can. become a real Momin unless he strengthens all these links; and it is incumbent upon the Ulama of the Movement that they should leave no stone unturned for completely changing the mentality of members of the Movement, and for impressing 173

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174 upon the people the immense responsibility that devolves on them. Unfortunately, however, when out on tour, many of the Ulama merely confine themselves to delivering lectures on such subjects as the Death of Jesus Christ, or Khatm-i-Nabuwat, and then rest satisfied that they had done their duty. In this they resemble a man who goes out determined to build a palace, but returns home in the evening with just one brick under his arm, and then begins to think that he had done all he should have done. It is the duty of the Ulama of the Movement to create a strong consciousness in the minds of the people that for the revival of the. Sunnah and the Shariah they shall have to accept death with open eyes, since the great and lasting permanent sacrifies needed for the purpose cannot be adequately described except as the acceptance of a living death; and for this they must now prepare themselves.. Perfect Obedience. For the attainment of this aim it is necessary to create in the people a resolve that they would remain obedient and perfectly disciplined, no matter how great the personal loss in doing so. For these things demand a strong organisation indispensible for a sustained effort; and if even one link in the chain shows weakness the strength of the whole chain becomes dubious, irrespective of the extra-

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175 ordinary strength of some particular links. Let me here state a case for example. The Shariah orders that articles of a certain standard of excellence alone should be put into the market: but suppose thare is an Ahmadi businessman who contravenes this order by wanting to sell inferior and defective goods. In such a case suppose we advise that no. Ahmadi should buy these goods but it some people begin to protest that this was interference with a man's right to earn a living, then how and when on earth would a start be made for putting the Islamic way of life into operation. If we agree like this to free people from the necessity to observe the Islamic teaching first in regard to one thing, then in regard to another, and so on, our case would be like that of a man who, it is said, once went to have the likeness of a lion tatooed on his body. But when the artist started with the job and he felt the sharp prick of the needle, he winced and said: "what is that you are trying to tatoo ?" "It is the left ear of the lion" replied the artist. "Well, look here, my good fellow, suppose you leave out the left ear, would the lion be any the less a lion for that"? "No, not at all the lion would remain a lion," "Then please leave it out and proceed with the rest of the job", said the man. At the next prick of the needle, however, the conversation was repeated

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176 with the same result; and this continued until the artist exhausted all the limbs of the lion that was to be tatooed, and then he put down the needle from his hand, saying there was nothing more to be done. Similarly if we see people contravening the Islamic injunctions in regard to various things, but continue to tolerate their doing so, there would in time be nothing left either of. Islam in the lives of the people, nor anything of the aims and objects of the Ahmadiyya Movement.. It is therefore our duty to reform, with persuasion and advice, those who can be reformed by that method and we should begin to use pressure in the case of those who do not respond to persua sion. In this great and important work all members of the Movement should give their whole hearted co-operation; and they should be prepared to render the fullest obedience even if for this purpose they have to cut themselves off from their nearest and dearest-even from one's father, or wife, son or brother.. Literature. Another very necessary thing for this purpose is suitable literature that should bring out most convincingly and vividly the wisdom and truth of the Islamic teaching in all its aspects.. Lawful Pressure. The fourth thing needed is recourse that

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177 lawful pressure in society which is called Siyasat, and no importance should be attached to cases of people who might stumble when dealt with in this way. This is what Siyasat really means: that lawful pressure should be yoked to the purpose in putting the Shariah law into operation,. Muslim Ulama having produced voluminous works on the subject, making a convincing case in favou of the application of such pressure. For us, too, it is necessary that we have recourse to this method. When a man comes to us and takes. Baiat at our hand, surrendering himself to our influence and guidance, we automatically aquire the right to apply all lawful pressure to bring him up to the mark, if he showed laxity in his endeavour to conform to the aims and requirements of the Movement. This right remains vested in us as long as he continues to claim he is part of us, since his weaknesses and transgressions bring the. Movement into disrepute. For a man who did not approve of the application of such a pressure against him, the caly course would be either to remove the need for it, by working a change in himself, or to leave the Movement.. Revival of Shariah: Two Parts. The task of revival of the Shariah falls into two main parts: one which falls in the scope of the duties of the lawfully established government, of the country, and one which falls in the scope

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-378 of the organisation of the Movement itself.. Matters which fall in the scope of the duties of the government are, for instance, the Islamic law that the hands of a thief should be cut off, or that it is not necessary that a man guilty of murder should be executed, it being permisable for the victim's kith and kin either to insist on. Punishment or to forgive him. These things pertain to the functions of a government, so that we are not in a position to put such laws into force.. Or there is the Islamic principle that a person guilty of culpable homicide should be handed over to the next of kin of the victim, whereas according to the law of the land the government does not hand over the murderer and reserves the right of execution to itself. The defect of this law lies in the fact that even after the culprit has been condemned and executed, a rancour remains smouldering in the mind of relations of the victim, who keep on the look out for chances of further vengeance by killing someone connected with him; and as this bloody score mounts, it develops into a dangerous feud harmful to the peace and well being of society. Under the Islamic law, the guilty person is handed over to the kin of the victim, to be executed by them in the presence and supervision of government officials, ..e. لا يصرف فى القتل subject to the condition of there should be no transgression of the limits in

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: 1.79 carrying out the sentence, in the form of any tendency towards barbarism on the occasion. Or the next of kin could say to the government that they did not wish to carry out the sentence personally themselves, and would prefer that the government catry it out. This procedure has a greater chance of uprooting rancour from the mind of kith and kin of the victim, nipping in the bud thereby many sources of mischief for the future. Again, according to the Islamic law it is open to the kin of the murderer to forgive him altogether, since that is better for society in some cases, and the right of next of kin extends to such forgiveness, if they choose to exercise it. All these, however, are fields of the Shariah which pertain to the duties of a government, no private citizen being entitled to interfere. But there are other. matters which, though in some ways connected with the functions of a government, are still lefe to the initiative of the parties concerned, such as the department of Qaza (Justice) we have in,. Qadian. The government does not object to it, for its policy in the case of non-cognisable disputes is to leave the matter to be decided by the parties concerned out of court, if they desired to " do so. In regard to all these matters we must now come to a firm decision to put the IslamicShariah into force; for if there are any portions of the Shariah which it is open to us to put into

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180 operation, and we fail to enforce them, it would only mean that willfully and deliberately we were ignoring the Shariah, and insulting it thereby. We must now take some practical steps towards the attainment of this objective, to the extent it is open to us to do so, and we must not allow ourselves to be pulled back from this course by any though. of some weak members stumbling in the matter.. First step to extend right of inheritance to women.. The first step in this connection should be reformation in those matters where the defects stand very evident and obvious; and today I wish to draw your attention to one of these-a matter in which there is no obstacle in our way, if we really are determined to make a move, except lack of real gious zeal, or ignorance, or negligence on the part of most of us. Otherwise there is no reason why we should not resolve today that in future this fault shall not occur among us. The thing I am referring to is a national sin that is being committed all over the country, even among us, namely, that the right of inheritance, as stipulated by the Shatiah, is not being extended to women, particularly among the landowning classes. It is now fifty years since the Ahmadiyya Movement was started, but so tar we have not begun to give our daughters

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181 speak of many example have their due share in our properties. I should not be understood to imply that this is not being done even in individual cases. Not to other instances, we ourselves, for given their share to our mother and sisters in the property left by the Promised Messiah. But in the majority of cases members of the Movement generally fail to act upon this part of the Shariah.. There is absolutely no difficulty in our way if we really desire to act upon it, except this that a long established custom among us is to the contrary. But did not all Muslims in the past act upon it without feeling any ill effects? And is it not a matter of great shame for us that in the United. Provinces even non-Ahmadis act upon this teaching and similarly in the Noth Western Frontier. Province also the Muslims have obtained a law which entitles them to divide their property : among their heirs in accordance with + dictates of the Shariah, while there are Ahmad who do not give their due share to wives, sisters and daughters. The zamindars (landowners) are afraid, I presume, that if they give a share to daughters in their property, then parts of it would pass into the hand of other families. But if the whole community begins to observe this teaching, even this difficulty would be minimised, for just as their property in some cases would pass out of their hands, portions of the properties of other

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182 people would come into their hand as well, through their sons marrying into other families.. I am convinced that the time has now come for every sincere Ahmadi to make a pledge with himself that in future he would not fail to bequeath due share in his property to his daughter, sister, wife and mother. Those who are not prepared to do so should leave the Movement. The. Community should take every step to ensure that this part of the Shariah now comes fully into practice among us; and it is time we decided what we were going to do in regard to those members of the Movement who might continue to fail in the matter, even after this fresh start under a special impetus. Whatever penalty comes to be decided upon to cope with cases of detault in future should be resolutely and evenly aplied; those who might refuse to accept that punishment should be turned out of the Movement, so that no one in future should be in a position to say that the Shariah is ignored and insulted even in the Ahmadiyya Movement,. Demand from members of the Movement.. Now having fully explained the importance of the question, and having proved that we can build a new heaven and earth only by reviving the Shariah, I proceed to say and do somthing which I have never said or done before. I, here

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2883 and now, demand from members of the Movement that those who are prepared to give this pledge should stand up in their seats. (All the audience gave the pledge, after which Hazrat. Ameerul Momineen continued) Now remember that today everyone of you has pledged that regardless of whatever difficulties might have to be encountered, he would, voluntarily and for the love of God and His Apostle, the Holy Prophet. Mohammad, without any force or pressure being applied to him, extend the right of inheritance · fully to female members of his family, as laid down by the Shariah. And since the whole. Community has now decided with one voice that it should be so, it should henceforth be also borne in mind that whoever failed to live up to this pledge, members of the Movement shall be called upon to have nothing to do with him, or some other penalty shall be imposed on him, as may be open to us to impose; and in case of failure to accept that penalty, the culprit will be turned out of the Movement.. Three rights of women.. The second defect to which I wish to draw attention is not so widespread as the other, but since the Shariah lays an equal amount of emphasis on it, I advise you to be particularly careful in the matter of due discharge of the rights of

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184 women. Instead of trying to crush their natural emotions, you should learn to understand them and appreciate them, especially in cases where you happen to have married more than one wife. It is very clear. injunction of the Shariah that a man should keep all his wives on the same level. But unfortunately it is only too true that in many cases I have seen the teaching is often violated.. Such people perhaps assume that a woman does not carry a heart in her breast but only a lump of stone, devoid of feeling and emotion. I have even come across cases where, without any justification in the Shariah, a wife is forbidden the natural normal contact with her parents, and the husband presumptuously gives to himself a position where his wife should live absolutely under his command, will and pleasure. Foolish people of this type fail to realise that a woman also is a human being, with all the feelings and emotions natural to the human heart. They should pause to think what would be their reaction if they were to be called upon not to serve their parents in any way, nor have anything to do with them. Naturally, they would not welcome such a demand. In fact they would be perfectly justified to resent it. Then why do they impose such restrictions upon their wives? It pains me to know that some among you who have more wives than one do not accord equal treatment to them

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185 all; and some of them, as I have mentioned above, even forbid them to see their parents, or in any way try to serve them. This is a most shameful thing to do, and members of the Ahmadiyya Movement should vow today that they would always show due respect for the natural feelings and emotions of women. It is true that the Shariah gives some rights to the male as well, since it has pronounced him to be the qayyum in the family unit. But that should not be taken to mean that it is right for him to have recourse to such harshness, severity and injustice-even inhumanity. Everyone of us should solemnly vow that either he would not have recourse to polygamy, or if he does, he would either not fail to treat all his wives on a basis of perfect equality, or if he did fail in this respect, he would divorce the first wife or wives. Otherwise the Movement shall be justified in pressing him to take the line indicated above, tailing which he would be turned out of the Movement.. Trustworthiness. The third thing to which I wish to draw attention is the importance of every one of us being absolutely trustworthy. Unfortunately I have seen that in many cases where a sum of money is entrusted to some one for safe keeping, under the stress of his own nerds the trustee succumbs

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186 to the temptation of spending a portion to meet his own requirements, with the result that he is not in a position to return the money on demand.. Apparently they do so in all honesty of heart, but they are in fact guilty of misappropriation, even though it may be of a temporary nature. Real honesty demands that the sum should remain lying with the trustee, in tact, until demanded back, and handed over without the least delay. In Delhi at the time of the revolt of 1857, Hakeem Mahmud Khan and his family were widely reputed for a strict sense of honesty in matters of such trust When the revolt assumed frightful forms and proportions, and people began to flee from. Delhi, they flung their valuables wrapped in bundles over the compound walls of his house, it having been under specially protective arrangements made by the Maharaja of Patiala, for. Haleem Mahm Khan was his Court Physician.. Some of these people came back to claim their properties sometimes after long years, but the articles were returned to the owners in tact, without delay. This is the example which every member of the Community should set, and every. Ahmadi should become so well known for the strictest sense of honesty that people should not hesitate to entrust thousands and hundred of thousands for safe keeping to any man they knew to be an Ahmadi.

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187. Service of Humanity. The fourth point to which I desire to draw. your special attention is service of humanity.. Those of you who live in the rural areas, or have anything to do with them, should undertake all kinds of toil, even work with your own hands, to bring your villages to a proper standard of cleanliness and hygiene. Public roads in the towns in India, and streets and hutments in the villages are, as a rule, woefully dirty. It is the duty of our Community to give immediate attention to this matter. The teaching given by the Holy Prophet in regard to cleanliness and refinement can be put into practice only if every member of. the Movement, young and old, ceases to look upon manual labour as in any way derogatory, and begins to make almost a fetish of cleanliness.. Villages with a majority of Ahmadi population should become proverbial in this respect, so much so that a stranger, on visiting these villages, and noticing the clean and neat streets and homes. should at once conclude that it must be a village inhabited for the greater part by Ahmadis.. Department of Justice. Fifthly I desire to impress upon members of the Movement that, except in cases where the law of the land makes it obligatory, no dispute among. Ahmadis should be taken to the law courts. All

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188 such cases should be decided in accordance with the Shariah by our own department set up for the purpose. Any Ahmadi found unwilling to accept the decision of this department should be pressed to do so. In case of failure, the offending member, as the last resort, should be turned out of the Movement. In Qadian itself this measure has been in operation for some time; but. I desire now that the agreement should be extended to other places as well and Panchayate. Boards formed in various places to adjudicate on disputes which might happen to arise between the. Ahmadis.. After receiving the following revelation from. God: اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم واتممت عليكم نعمتی و رضيت لكم الاسلام ديناً (Today have I perfected your religion for you, and perfected My favour upon you, and chosen Islam for your religion) on the occasion of Hajjul Wida' the. Holy Prophet mounted a camel and proclaimed it to the people; and then he asked them it he had duly communicated to them the teaching he had received; whereupon all exclaimed that indeed he had. Similarly. I, too discharge my duty today, telling you that the teaching given to you by. Allah is not confined to a mere recital with your tongue of the formula "There is no one worthy of worship except Allah"; that what is needed is its application to your lives in all the religious,

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189 economic, political, cultural, and moral fields. It is now the duty of the Ulama of the Movement that they should bring out all these points from the Holy Quran and the Ahadees, so that everyone of you should fully understand these things.. Books should be written on these subjects, so that all should benefit by them; and this task should be expedited with all possible speed. For certain classes of people, it would perhaps be better to write books in the form of easy questions and answers, as in the case of the well known books in Punjaabee known as Pakkee Rotee, etc.. It is true we cannot today operate those portions of the Shariah enforcement of which can .be undertaken only by the machinery of a duly established government: but from this very day we should begin to act upon things which lie within our own power; and for the future, as soon as an additional aspect of the Shariah comes to be duly explained and amplified, we should waste no time in impressing it on our minds and translating it into action, so that in future it should be impossibl for any Ahmadi to fall into the error of thinking that all his duty as an Ahmadi was duly discharged in the form of subscriptions. The real aim of his life should be the enforcement of the Shariah in all its entirety, except of course the parts which lie ontside the sphere of action for an individual citizen. This thing in our lives

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190 should be so clear and evident that the whole world should see that we had indeed built a new earth and a new heaven. Wherever an Ahmadi might be encountered, in whatever sphere, on seeing him no one should have any reason to think that he was only just another person obsessed with the desire of aping the West, but one who had succeeded in creating around him the atmosphere of the streets of Medina in the days of the Holy. Prophet. Dear friends, I repeat again that I have today communicated to you the message of God.. The honour of the Holy Prophet Mohommad is involved in the matter, and that is not an ordina ry responsibility. You have solemnly pledged that you would act upon the Islamic teaching, whatever the difficulties in the way, and that you would re-establish the Way of life which Islam requires. I hope and pray that you would all remain firm upon this pledge, and start forth with to act upon that part of the teaching which lies in the individual and corporate sphere, as distinct from the sphere which lies in the scope of the government. The witness of your lives should be such that the words of those enemies of the Movement who say that the Ahmadiyya Movement is an insult to the Holy Prophet should choke in their mouths before they have time to utter them. The witness of your lives should force the world to concede that far from being insulted

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191 through Ahmadiyyat, if the Holy Prophet lived and was honoured anywhere upon the earth, he lived and was honoured most in the lives of members of the Ahmadiyya Movement.. Difficulties in the way.. I have now reached the end of my talk for today. Many parts of this talk have had to be left without due elaboration of the points involved.. This elaboration, God wills, will be done in the course of some other work, and I would also try to get the Ulama of the Movement to write books on various aspects of the matter. But once more I desire to emphasise that to give a pledge is an easy thing, but to live upto it is a difficult matter. There are most probably many here who have pledged that in future they would duly extend the right of inheritance to their daughters and other female heirs, as stipulated by the. Islamic Shariah; but on going home, when they would try to live up to this pledge, they might find their male heirs unwilling to forego the shares which prevailing custom allows for them, and in this way serious difficulties might arise in your path. Therefore, when you leave this gathering, you should be fully determined to overcome whatever difficulties you might encounter.. You must always remember that there is no merit in yielding a pledge under the stress of

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192 some momentary impulse, under a special stimu lus it is always the living up to a pledge that counts, and that is rather difficult. If it had been an easy thing, you would have made a start with it long ago, since the teaching is not new. You have been aware of it all along, but still you failed to observe it. To take a vow under the impulse of an emotional appeal is very easy: even weak minded people also are swept into it. But when the time for appropriate action comes, they begin to take shelter behind untenable, flimsy excuses, and try to throw the blame for their failure upon this or that official of the Movement connected with the matter. I realise that a number of new mischiefs might spring up, in the wake of this new effort, from the side of the actual or potential defaulters, trying to throw the blame on the organisation of the Community.. Indeed we already have some experience of the kind. When action is taken against some people in Qadian, they begin to raise a hue and cry. Instead of saying that they have been severely dealt with because they had been dishonouring the Shariah, and bringing Islam into disrepute by their actions, they start a propaganda that such and such office bearer of the Community had some personal grudge against them, the action taken against them being due to that fact alone, and to nothing else.

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193. Advice to Friends. I therefore advise all of you to turn especially to prayer and say: "O Lord, on frail shoulders such as ours You have thrown the weight of a responsibility which You had thrown on the. Holy Prophet. O Lord. we are only too painfully aware of our weaknesses. We have no strength, except as might come to us from You.. We are in sore need of Your help and succour.Be pleased to grant us the strength necessary for a proper discharge of this responsibility, Let us bear the truth upon our tongues; let Faith be in our hearts; and let there be light in our mind.. Give us high resolve. Rid us of all our weakness and carelessness; give us such strength that in holding truly to Your Commandments we should not swerve an inch, even if, for doing that, we have to sacrifice our lives. Be pleased to give us the strength to establish Your Shariah in the world, so that its blessings should attract the whole world, like a magnet drawing people to. Islam.. It is an everyday experience that after a pupil has mastered one lesson, he is given another. I hope and pray that you will not fail to master the lesson I have given you here, and then God would put the kingdoms of the earth

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194 at your feet, saying: "My children, now that you have put into practice parts of the Shariah which pertained to personal, individual spheres of life,. I put you in a position where you can also operate those portions which pertain to the authority of states and governments. If only you begin to do as I tell you, Allah will entrust Governments to you, and governments not prepared to be guided and influenced by you will live to be destroyed. He would order His angels to overthrow such governments, and to hand over the reins to people who would he trying to put his Shariah into operation. You should not fail in the sphere which falls in your own field of action: the rest then would be upto God. You will then see a manifestation of Allah's all embracing power, even as was witnessed by the Holy Prophet. But this task is the most stupendous, while we are only too weak and frail. Let us, therefore, all pray to God that He make us truthful, brave, obedient and disciplined; that He give us the strength of. Faith, and the will necesary for living upto the Quranic teaching. Our young and old, men and women, and our children: make us all into Thy true servants; guard us from all those frailties which take away from the right path. Create Thy love in our hearts; create in our hearts the love of our religion, our siyasat our economics and our culture.. Give us a sense of their grandeur, so that nothing

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195 should be as dear to us as these-nothing so dear as the teaching given by Thee to Muhammad. O Lord, let it be so that those connected with Thee, and dear to Thee, should be dear to us, while all those who are far from Thee be far from us.. Nevertheless, the well being of the whole world should be dear to us. And thus, O Lord, make us successful in the task of bringing about the. Revolution Thou hast delcared is Thy intention and purpose to bring about at the hands of the. Promised Messiah. Amen!

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