Notes on Islam Part 3

In order to know anything quite well, it is desirable not only to know _what it is_ but also to know _what it is not_.

1. The religion taught by the Qur'an and the Traditions [Arabic: ahadith] of our Prophet is _Islam_ and not "Muhammadanism," as it is often named. Those who profess Islam are _Muslims_ and not "Muhammadans," as they are called. The word "Musalman" is but a corruption of the Arabic plural [Arabic: muslimun/muslimin] of the singular [Arabic: Muslim]. We and our religion have been called[28]

after the name of Muhammad just as the terms Christians and Christianity have been derived from the name Christ. But "Muhammadanism" and "Muhammadans" are not at all the correct names of "Islam" and "Muslims"

as you will presently see.[29]

2. From the point of view of Islam, all religions may be divided thus:

Religions are either, --------------- --------------- _False_: being beliefs} {_True_: being beliefs in more G.o.ds than } or {in one and only G.o.d; one, } {and True Religions (Paths of Sin) } {are either, +---------- ----------+ _Pure_, such as } {_Mixed_, such as true Islam } {religions which unmixed with any } {mix up inconsistent inconsistent } or {ideas with ideas. } {the idea of } {one G.o.d.

(Paths of Grace) } {(Paths of Error)

Observe that a pure Religion, such as true Islam, comes in between false Religions and mistaken or mixed Religions, just as the Quranic Path of Grace lies between the Path of Sin and the Path of Error. It is the mean between two extremes.

3. It is not Islam to believe that there has been no true religion besides Islam.[30] Such an erroneous belief leads to intolerance, thereby begetting bigotry and fanaticism [Arabic: taa'ssub]. It is contrary to the teaching of the Qur'an and the Prophet. The first verse of the second Sura [Arabic: Baqrah = ?-l-m] commands us to believe in not only what was revealed to Muhammad but also in what was revealed to those who went before him. It clearly indicates that there are, and will ever be, many true religions of which Islam is one. Almost the first saying of our Prophet reported in collections of his traditions [Arabic: ahaadith] is "whoever says 'there is no G.o.d but G.o.d,' will attain Salvation" _i.e._, will obtain eternal bliss. This shews clearly that all religions which inculcate belief in one G.o.d are true religions--are right Paths of Grace which lead to eternal bliss.

Observe that most Muhammadans (not Muslims) of to-day have forgotten this principle and have therefore become intolerant fanatics,[31] which accounts largely for the loss of political power of most Muhammadan Governments of modern times.

4. Neither is it Islam to believe that all religions are true. Such an erroneous belief leads to indifference, thereby begetting caprice and impiety. It is obviously contrary to the teaching of the Qur'an and the Prophet, for they both denounce many a false religion. If everybody thinks that every religion is true, there will be no two men professing the same religion, and there will be no real agreement between their thoughts and actions. Co-operation[32] [Arabic: ittifaq wa ittihad]

among men (which is the root of Family, Society and State) would tend to become impossible. Note that it is the indifference to religion and the consequent impiety of some of the Muhammadans of to-day that accounts mostly for their lack of co-operation, and for their loss of political power in modern times. Degradation is the lot of _faithless_ Muslims, for as the Qur'an says, "Ye will be exalted only if ye be faithful Muslims."

From what has been said you can easily infer that we should adopt the mean between two extremes and must therefore believe that neither are all religions true nor are they all false, but that _some religions_ are true and that Islam is one of them. The characteristic mark of true religions is belief in one G.o.d; and this indeed is the reason why Muslims are permitted to eat and live with, and even marry, Jewesses, Christians and others who believe in one G.o.d and possess sacred Scriptures.

5. I, for one, would not hesitate to call all Monotheists (Jews, Christians, and other Unitarians [Arabic: muwahiddin]) _Muslims_, because they believe in one G.o.d: but I would not call them _Momins_ [Arabic: Momins,], because they do not believe in one G.o.d in accordance with the teaching of our Prophet. You know that our Creed [Arabic: kalimah] consists of two parts:--

(i) There is no G.o.d but G.o.d, (ii) And Muhammad is His Messenger.

Those who believe in the first part are Muslims ([Arabic: Muslim ] = the peaceful)[33] and those who believe in the first as well as the second part of the Creed are Momins ([Arabic: Mumins ] = the faithful). Both Muslims and Momins are believers in one G.o.d; the only difference between them is that Muslims may not (like Momins) accept Muhammad as their guide in the belief. The Qur'an (iii. 83) defines Islam thus:--

Say ye; We believe in G.o.d, and that which hath been sent down (revealed) to us, and that which hath been sent down to Abraham and Ismail and Issac and Jacob and the tribes; and that which hath been given to Moses and to Jesus and that which was given to the Prophets from their Lord. No difference do we make between them--and to G.o.d we are resigned (Muslims).

6. "There is no deity but G.o.d." Since G.o.d is One, His Revelation to Man cannot be other than one and the same for all time. There has therefore been and will ever be but one true religion. That religion is Islam.

[Arabic: ?inna d-dina ?inda llahi l-?islam] "Verily the (only) religion with G.o.d is Islam" (Q. iii 19). All the prophets from Adam to Muhammad received but one and the same Revelation and therefore preached Islam and Islam only. [Arabic: ?alika d-dinu l-qayyim] "It was (and is) the standard religion"--Q. xii. 40.[34]

Whenever any people went astray and deserted Islam for idolatry a prophet arose among them to preach Islam and bring them back to righteousness.[35] Each prophet or messenger of G.o.d did nothing but try to restore the universal religion to its pristine simplicity and purity.

It was only in interpreting the Revelation and applying it to the practical needs of their age, that successive prophets and their followers differed; and the differences gave rise to the so-called _religions_ and religious systems of the world.

+Note 6.+

_"Islam" and "not-Islam"._

I must devote this Note also to my observations on "Islam" and "not-Islam" in order to prepare you for a just appreciation of my contention that there are many good religions in the world but Islam is the best of them[36].

1. The Prophet Muhammad lived and died more than thirteen hundred years ago. There are now on the face of the earth no less than 250 millions (= 25 crores) of human beings who profess his religion, and who love and respect him just as his own immediate followers loved and respected him.

These two simple facts are enough to prove--

(1) that there must be something real and true in the religion professed by so many people, and

(2) that the man who preached and established it must have been both great and good to an extraordinary degree;

for common experience leads us to conclude (_a_) that nothing which is false or unreal can survive centuries of change and (_b_) that none who is not good and great can be loved and respected by millions of men. No Muslim or Momin need therefore believe in any thing more than:--

(i) that Islam is a real and true religion, and

(ii) that Muhammad was a very great and good man.[37]

Thus, your belief in one G.o.d [Arabic: la ?ilaha ?illalah] makes you a Muslim[38] (= _peaceful_), no matter by what other name you call yourself; and your belief in the goodness and greatness[39] of Muhammad [Arabic: Muhammad rasulullah] makes you a Mumin (= _faithful_), no matter by what name others may call you. Let me quote here a pa.s.sage from Sir Edwin Arnold's Preface to his beautiful poem "The Pearls of Faith: the Ninety-Nine Names of Allah:" [Arabic: asma?u l-?usna]

"The soul of Islam is its declaration of the _unity_ of G.o.d: its heart is the inculcation of an absolute _resignation_ to His will. Not more sublime, in religious history appears the figure of Paul the tent-maker, proclaiming 'the Unknown G.o.d' at Athens, than that of the camel-driver Muhammad, son of Abdullah and Amina, abolis.h.i.+ng all the idols of the Arabian Pantheon, except their chief--Allahu ta 'Ala, G.o.d the Most High--and under that ancient and well-received appellation establis.h.i.+ng _the one-ness of the origin, government, and life of the Universe_.

Thereby that marvellous and gifted Teacher created a vast empire of new belief and new civilization, and prepared a sixth part of humanity for the _developments and reconciliations_ which later times will bring. For Islam must be conciliated; it cannot be thrust scornfully aside or rooted out. It shares the task of the education of the world with its sister religions, and it will contribute its eventual portion to

--"that far-off divine event Towards which the whole creation moves."

The _italics_ are mine. I shall have to refer to them in my subsequent Notes. Observe, the cosmopolitan poet uses only the word "Islam" and not "Muhammadanism".

2. It is not Islam or Eman [Arabic: iman] to deify Muhammad or to represent him to be akin to G.o.d, as sometimes some Moulvies represent him and call him "the One (Ahad) in the guise of Ahmad[40]." Our Prophet himself never claimed that he was anything more than a mere man. Indeed, he taught us all to say [Arabic: Ash-hadu alla ilaha illallah, wa Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah] that he was but "a servant and messenger of G.o.d." The only thing he ever claimed for himself was that G.o.d had chosen him to be a messenger [Arabic: rasul = payghambar] to convey His messages to men. "That an immense ma.s.s of fable and silly legend," says Rodwell, "has been built up upon the basis of the Qur'an, is beyond a doubt; but for this Muhammad is not answerable,[41] any more than he is for the wild and bloodthirsty excesses of his followers in after ages."

3. G.o.d's messages which Muhammad delivered to men were all collected soon after his death and are preserved intact in a remarkable book called the QUR'AN--a book which has lived through no less than thirteen centuries without undergoing the least alteration in a single word or even a dot! The difference in the messages contained in the Qur'an and the ordinary sayings of the Prophet reported in books on Hadis [Arabic: hadith] is simply this:--that when delivering G.o.d's messages Muhammad himself felt, and those who were in his company witnessed, that he was inspired by some divine energy or power which impelled him to say what he said; whereas at other times, when he was talking like an ordinary man, no signs of divine energy or inspiration were visible. It will carry me too far if I endeavour to explain here the real nature of "the divine inspiration" under which he delivered what he and others believed to be "divine messages". You will understand it if you read such books as Professor James's _Varieties of Religious Experience_. Let us, like good Momins, take it as a _fact_, what our Prophet's intimate companions [Arabic: ??abah] vouched, that he appeared to be quite a different man when he uttered such messages. Their style or matter itself even to this day proves to all unbia.s.sed minds that they are no ordinary sayings of an ordinary man. There is something unique in them which we can only feel but cannot define or express in words. Even historians and biographers like Gibbon and Muir and translators like Rodwell, Palmer and Lane-Poole are obliged, in spite of themselves, to admit and admire, what some of them call, the rugged grandeur and eloquence of the Qur'an.

Even Sale says that some pa.s.sages are really sublime.

4. We call the Qur'an _the word of G.o.d_, chiefly because it contains messages of high spiritual value delivered by _an illiterate man_ like Muhammad. It is neither a history like some of the books of the Old Testament, nor a biography like the four Gospels of the Bible. It is only a collection of sermons, commands, and instructions delivered and issued from time to time as occasions required. It contains, indeed, references to stories of older Prophets and previous events well known to the people of Arabia. But they are less by way of narration than by way of ill.u.s.tration. They are parables more or less ([Arabic: tilka l-?am?alu na?ribuha li-n-nas])[42]. Commentators like Zamakh-shari ([Arabic: tafsir-e-kashshaf]) and Imam Razi ([Arabic: tafsir-e-kabir]) whose learning and authority cannot be questioned, have clearly proved that there is nothing in the Qur'an which is improbable or cannot be rationally explained to be quite in accordance with the laws of Nature [Arabic: qanun-u qadat]. If you read Sir Syed Ahmad's Commentary [Arabic: tafsir ahmadi] or his Essays [Arabic: khutbat] you will find rational explanations of the ideas of Paradise and h.e.l.l, the Day of Judgment,[43] etc. I need not dwell on them here. I would however draw your attention to what is called the rule of "Parsimony in Thought"

which is in vogue among men of Science. It is that if and when you can explain anything by what is well-known and understood by every one, you should not believe in the existence of "supermen" or a.s.sume the occurrence of supernatural events. When, for example, we can explain any action of Muhammad as an ordinary action of a reasonable man, we should not a.s.sume or believe that he performed a miracle. If we can explain the defeat and discomfiture of Abraham's Army by natural causes, such as an epidemic, we ought not to a.s.sume the occurrence of any supernatural event[44].

5. The Qur'an does not favour any particular system of Philosophy. It leaves Muslims free to adopt any system of thought that commends itself to them, provided that it is not inconsistent with the ([Arabic: tawhid]) idea of the one eternal and absolute G.o.d. Thus the Qur'an confines itself to the sphere of religion--the sphere where man is brought face to face with his G.o.d.

(a) _What, then, is the object or aim of the Qur'an?_

To reveal a man unto himself. [Arabic: mun arafa nafsa hu arafa rabba hu] (He who has understood himself has understood his G.o.d.)

(b) _Why should a man be revealed unto himself?_

In order that he might know his true relation with the rest of the world so that he might shape his conduct accordingly _i.e._, be true to himself, true to others, and true to his G.o.d in thoughts, words, and deeds.

(c) _How does the Qur'an reveal a man unto himself?_

By showing him:--

(1) G.o.d in History[45] ([Arabic: huwa l-?awwalu wa-l-?a?ir]

He is the First and the Last.)

(2) G.o.d in Nature[46] ([Arabic: wa-?-?ahir] He is the Manifest.)

(3) G.o.d in Man's Conscience[47] ([Arabic: wa-l-ba?in] and He is the Hidden--Qur'an lvii. 3.)

In this sense the Qur'an is truly a revelation!