In the name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Merciful
The
Islam that was revealed to Muhammad (PBUH) is the continuation and
culmination of all the preceding revealed religions and hence it is for
all times and all peoples. This status of Islam is sustained by glaring
facts. Firstly, there is no other revealed book extant in the same form
and content as it was revealed. Secondly, no other revealed religion has
any convincing claim to provide guidance in all walks of human life for
all times. But Islam addresses humanity at large and offers basic
guidance regarding all human problems. Moreover, it has withstood the
test of fourteen hundred years and has all the potentialities of
establishing and ideal society as it did under the leadership of the
last Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
We hope that the following observations would contribute to initiating an objective evaluation of Islam.
Canon Taylor
“It (Islam) replaced monkishness by
manliness. It gives hope to the slave, brotherhood to mankind and
recognition of the fundamental facts of human nature.”
Canon Taylor, Paper read before the Church Congress at Wolverhampton, Oct 7, 1887, Quoted by Arnond in The °reaching of Islam, pp 71-72. Sarojini Naidu
“Sense of
justice is one of the most wonderful ideals of Islam, because as I read
the Quran I find those dynamic principle of life, not mystic but
practical ethics for the daily conduct of life suited to the whole
world.”
Sarojini Naidu, Lectures on “The Ideals of Islam” see Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu,Madras, 1918, p. 167.
De Lacy O’Leary
“History
makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping
through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon
conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that
historians have ever repeated.”
De Lacy O’Leary in Islam at the Crossroads,London, 1923 p. 8.
H.A.R.GIBB
“But Islam
has a still further service to render to the cause of humanity. It
stands after all nearer to the real East than Europe does, and it
possesses a magnificent tradition of inter-racial understanding and
cooperation. No other society has such a record of success in uniting in
an equality of status, of opportunity, and of endeavours so many and so
various races of mankind. Islam has still the power to reconcile
apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the
opposition of the great societies of East and West is to be replaced by
cooperation, the mediation of Islam is and indispensable condition. In
its hands lies very largely the solution of the problem with which
Europe is faced in its relation with East. If they unite, the hope of a
peaceful issue is immeasurably enhanced. But if Europe, by rejecting the
cooperation of Islam,throws it into the arms of its rivals, the issue
can only be disastrous for both.”
H.A. R. Gibb, Whither Islam, London,1932,p.379
George Bernard Shaw and “The Genuine Islam”
“I have
always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its
wonderful vitality. It is the only religion that appears to me to
possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence,
which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him – the
wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must
be called the Saviour. of Humanity. I believe that if a man like
him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would
succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much
needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of
Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is
beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”
Sir George Bernard Shaw in ‘The Genuine Islam,’ Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.
A.J. Toynbee
“The
extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the
outstanding achievements of Islam and in the contemporary world there
is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic
virtue.”
A.J. Toynbee, Civilization on Trial, New York, 1948, p 205.
A.M.L.Stoddard
“The
closer we examine this development the more extraordinary does it
appear. The other great religions won their way slowly, by painful
struggle and finally triumphed with the aid of powerful monarchs
converted to the new faith. Christianity had its Constantine, Buddhism
its Ashoka, and Zoroastrianism its Cyrus, each lending to his chosen
cult the mighty force of secular authority, Not so Islam. Arising in a
desert land sparsely inhabited by a nomad race previously
undistinguished in human annals. Islam sallied forth on its great
adventure with the slenderest human backing and against the heaviest
material odds. Yet Islam triumphed with seemingly miraculous ease, and a
couple of generations saw the Fiery Crescent borne victorious from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas and from the deserts of Central Africa.”
A.M.L.Stoddard, quoted in Islam – the religion of all Prophets,Begum Bawani Waqf, Karachi, Pakistan, p.56
Edward Montet
“Islam is a
religion that is essentially rationalistic in the widest sense of this
term considered etymologically and historically. The definition of
rationalism as a system that bases religious beliefs on principles
furnished by the reason applies to it exactly.. It cannot be denied that
many doctrines and systems of theology and also many superstitions,
from the worship of saints to the use
of rosaries and amulets, have become grafted on the main trunk of
Muslim creed. But in spite of the rich development, in every sense of
the term, of the teachings of the Prophet, the Quran has invariably kept
its place as the fundamental starting point, and the dogma of unity of
God has always been proclaimed therein with a grandeur, a majesty, an
invariable purity and with a note
of sure conviction, which it is hard to find surpassed outside the pale
of Islam. This fidelity to the fundamental dogma of the religion, the
elemental simplicity of the formula in which it is enunciated, the proof
that it gains from the fervid conviction of the missionaries who
propagate it, are so many causes to explain the success of Mohammedan
missionary efforts. A creed so precise, so stripped of all theological
complexities and consequently so accessible to the ordinary
understanding might be expected to possess and does indeed possess a
marvellous power of winning its way into the consciences of men.”
Edward Montet,
“La Propaganda Chretienne et ses Adversaries Musulmans” Paris
1890,quoted by T. W. Amold in The Preaching of Islam,London 1913, pp.
413-414.
W. Montgomery Watt
“I am not a
Muslim in the usual sense, though I hope I am a “Muslim” as “one
surrendered to God”, but I believe that embedded in the Quran and other
expressions of the Islamic vision are vast stories of divine truth from
which I and other occidentals have still much to learn, and Islam is
certainly a strong contender for the supplying of the basic framework
for the one religion of the future.”
W. Montgomery Watt, Islam and Christianity TodayLondon 1983, p. IX.
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