Chapter VI: Appendix

_We are indebted to Mr. J.C. Molony for the following illuminating criticism which affords food for serious thought--Editor._

If we assume the existence of a God, interested in the governance of this world, it becomes impossible to deny that Muhammad was God's messenger, or, at least, God's prophet. It seems to me unlikely that a man could change the belief of nations by chance, incredible that he should do so were he an impostor. Muhammad was certainly honest; the persistence of the faith called after him leads me to consider him as inspired. Or, if "inspired" be objected to as a general religious term of very indefinite meaning, let us say that he saw into the heart and reality of life further and more clearly than any man has done since his day. How then comes the fact, noted by Amjad and Mahmood and admitted by you, that Islamic countries in the main have wretched governments, and are crumbling away before Christian Powers? I do not think that you have answered this question[89]. You have merely pointed out that Islam, if rightly understood, is an excellent religion.

The boys, I think, have stated their dilemma too sharply; the contrast is not entirely between Islam and Christianity. India is for all practical purposes a "Hindu" country, and the power of the old Indian Kingdoms has faded before Christian invaders. In that section of the world in which Christianity is the prevailing and accepted form of religious belief, the temporal might of those nations professing one great form of the Christian creed, the Roman Catholic, has undoubtedly waned in comparison with that of the nations professing what is generally called the Protestant faith. There are many varieties of non-Roman Catholic Christianity, but Protestantism is a label sufficiently comprehensive and sufficiently well understood for our purposes. I speak without sectarian bitterness; I am not, I fear, a convinced adherent of any particular form of religious faith. I have met many good men, and have many friends, among Muhammadans, Hindus, and Roman Catholics. But I think that the objective truth of what I say, particularly in the Christian sphere, is indubitable. Compare for instance the decay of Spain with the grandeur of England, the feebleness of Austria with the strength and order (turned to ill uses though they may be) of Germany.[90] The question at once arises whether religion has anything to say to the matter. I think that it has.

Muhammadanism, Hinduism, and Catholicism (I omit the prefix Roman) have concerned themselves too much with Heaven and Hell, with the avoidance of future damnation and the obtaining of future bliss. These religions have afforded some justification for the gibe that Auguste Comte levelled at Christianity; he said that it sprang from "a servile terror and an immense cupidity." Religion should be rather _a guide of life here_ than _a guide to a life to come_. Kant would have curtailed the beatitude "blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God" into "blessed are the pure in heart". It is good to be good; it is not good to be good in the hope of some ultimate gain thereby.[91] The great Catholic Bishop of Pondicherry, Monseigneur Bonnand, wrote to one of his desponding priests: "Continue a missionary to the end, and you will assuredly be saved". In my opinion he was wrong; I should think little of a missionary, whether Christian or Muhammadan, who endured the trials of a missionary life (and some of those old French priests did endure abundantly) solely in the hope of making a personal, albeit spiritual and eternal, profit at the end of it all.

Now, "Bishop Blougram", a character created by the poet Browning, though supposedly inspired by the personality of Cardinal Wiseman, says in his "_Apology_":

There's one great form of Christian faith
I happened to be born in--which to teach
Was given me as I grew up, on all hands
As best and readiest means of living by.

The same, I fear, might now be said of Muhammadanism. But to my mind there is no fixity, no absolute truth in any form of religious dogma. Religion is a thing that must grow with man's intelligence; it is not a box of spiritual truths packed once and for ever, and unpacked for the gaze of successive generations. It is not enough to believe in certain facts that happened long ago, or to obey certain injunctions given long ago in a particular country; we must apply the spirit of a religion to the circumstances in which we live. We shall never attain to final absolute truth, "the end is not yet, and the purposes of God to man are but half revealed" (Jowett).

Unfortunately when any religion has taken itself as final it has developed a priesthood, and that priesthood has been apt to lay down a code of fixed rules wherewith alone compliance is required. It is a fatally easy thing to live in conformity with any definite code of rules. Muhammad himself, I imagine, was a singularly liberal theologian. He laid down certain regulations for the conduct of life, excellent considering his place and time; the modern Muhammadan has accepted these as a maximum spiritual demand, ignoring the fact that they probably represented the minimum demands of common sense in Muhammad's time and country.

Muhammad directed that a Muhammadan should not drink alcohol. This is a maxim of excellent sense in Arabia; Haji Burton, who much appreciated good wine, has told us that in the Arabian deserts wine is positively distasteful as well as unwholesome. I have not the least desire that Muhammadans should drink wine. I merely say that there is no _merit_, other than that of common sense, in obeying this excellent instruction in countries wherein circumstances render it excellent. I do not believe that Muhammad would find the least fault with disregard of his maxim in countries where the climate makes the _moderate_ drinking of wine both pleasant and beneficial.

Muhammad instituted the Ramzan fast, mainly, I am told, to harden his soldiers. But the Muhammadan of to-day finds a positive merit in fasting. There is none; else the jockey's profession comprises the most virtuous men in the world.

Muhammad permitted polygamy, and enjoined the practical seclusion of women. This, as Sir Syed Ahmad has pointed out, was the counsel of common sense in Arabia at the time of the Prophet. Apparently there were more women than men, and if a woman was not under the protection of some man, and was not under guard, she was very likely to come to harm. But I do not think that this counsel holds good for all time. Polygamy among Indian Muhammadans is dying out, but the general Muhammadan here still imprisons his womankind in the comfortable assurance that he is thereby paving his own way to salvation. I do not see much hope for the physical and mental development of Muhammadans so long as one half of the people remains in seclusion and ignorance, in a habit of life necessarily unhealthy. If you observe that you thereby escape the evils that are published to the world in European divorce courts, I would answer that in the first place I doubt the completeness of your escape, (it is a matter on which I have heard much sardonic comment from Muslim friends), and that in the second place, even granting what you say, 80% of women free, educated, virtuous and healthy, is a far better result than 100% merely virtuous, and that by constraint.

Muhammad laid down that a man should pray five times a day. To my mind this was merely the Prophet's way of saying that man's whole life should be a prayer: the modern Muhammadan too often "repeats prayers" five times a day and is satisfied. He might as well repeat the multiplication table five times a day. "Words without thoughts to Heaven never go" said the king in _Hamlet_. I do not know if our friend D.B. prays ten times a day, or five times, or not at all, and (candidly) I do not care. All I know is that in his responsible position he would die rather than take a bribe, tell a lie, intrigue against his master. And I fancy that the Prophet, could he return to earth, would find this abundantly sufficient.

You mention a few other points of orthodoxy; the cut of one's hair, the length of one's trousers. Dr. Khaja Hussain told me that he once saw a Muhammadan Street aroused to frenzy and riot by the appearance of a true believer in Feringhi (or Kafir) boots. It is all of a piece. Muhammadans have concentrated their attention on these ready-made rules for getting to heaven; their prophet found no such easy road to bliss. I do not imagine that it would ever have occurred to his great soul to claim any particular merit in that he did not drink wine, in that he repeated prayers (he at least understood these prayers) five times a day, in that he did not let his wives roam the country a prey to any marauder of those wild times. After all any one can obey these regulations with very little trouble to himself; it is not quite so easy to adopt the spirit that guided Muhammad's life. Sir Afsur, I do not doubt, will tell you that it is an advisable thing for a soldier to drill smartly, to keep his arms and accoutrements clean, and that with a little trouble it is not difficult for a soldier to do all this. But he will tell you, I feel sure, that this is far from being all; the supreme duty of a soldier is to be brave in battle--an affair of much more difficulty. A soldier may be smart and clean, but if he fails in battle his smartness and cleanness are worth nothing--he is a bad soldier.

Muhammadanism has lost touch with life; it contents itself with the letter of the Prophet's teaching and shuts its eyes to, does not search for, the indwelling spirit. It is a small kernel rattling in a very big shell, as Charles Kingsley said in "Yeast" of the Church service at St. Paul's in the fifties of the last century. _Religion has been divorced from life, and so the followers of Islam as nations have decayed._

It is the same with the other religions that I have mentioned. The old time Brahmin called himself such because he was educated, intelligent, sanitary in his habits, upright; he did not claim to be all this simply because he was the son of his father. The great obstacle to progress down here is the fact that people imagine it is sufficient to follow in a mechanical unintelligent way the letter, while totally disregarding the spirit, of some old and after all not very important rules. Ireland is said to have been an "Isle of Saints", I have my doubts on the subject, but suppose it so. It is now full of fine churches and religious establishments; no people in the world go to church with greater regularity, abstain more thoroughly from meat on Fridays, etc. etc. But with the mechanical observances they are, I fear, too well satisfied. Drunkenness, idleness, utter disregard for truth, are rampant in Southern Ireland, and therefore Southern Ireland is what it is. Formal devotion is no substitute whether in the daily battle of the world, or (I believe) in the ultimate judgment of God, for the proper ordering of one's every day actions.

If Muhammadans breathe the breath of life on the dry bones of their religion I see no reason why the temporal power of Islamic countries and the spiritual strength of the Muhammadan Church should not revive. Something of the kind has happened in France. Zola cried out against "the nightmare of Catholicism"; antagonism to the Catholic Church had been growing up long before M. Combes started to "strafe" the religious establishments of the country. The orthodox imagined that France was losing all religion: Auguste Comte, an unbeliever, proclaimed that France was daily becoming more religious. Rènè Bazin, a Catholic writer, implicitly admits that Comte was right. The people were sick of the dry, lifeless, formal rules that were offered to them; the priesthood have had this truth hammered into them, and they are quickening their formulæ with life to fit the life of the people, not striving to dessicate the people's life to fit their formulæ.

J.C.M.

As a _socio-political institution_ Islam is, in the middle of its fourteenth century (1340 A.H.), in the same vicissitudes of development, as Christianity was in the middle of _its_ fourteenth century (1350 A.D.)--an institution weakened by contending sects and rendered stagnant by rigid formalism. "It is a dispensation of providence", says Syed Ameer Ali, "that whenever a religion becomes reduced to formalism cross-currents set in to restore spiritual vitality." As in Christianity in its fourteenth century, so in Islam of our own times, the vitalising cross-currents have set in and we are now witnessing a Muslim Renaissance all over the world. Its pioneers in India were Sir Syed Ahmad, Mowlana Shibli, and the poet Hali. The Rt. Hon. Ameer Ali, Dr. Iqbal and a host of others bear aloft the New Light. The Muslim Reformation is coming on as surely as the Christian Reformation came in the wake of Patristicism and Formalism. It need not necessarily mean Political Revolutions as in Europe.

A.H.

OUR PRAYER.

1.

All praise is due to Thee, O God!
None other than Thee we adore.
Thou art the Master of the Worlds,
Thine aid alone do we implore.

2.

Thou art Compassion; lead Thou on
To Thy right path our human race.
Thy Mercy floweth evermore,
Do guide us to the path of Grace.

3.

Thou art the Lord of Judgment-day,
For sure shall all be judged by Thee,
O keep us off the path of Sin
And Error's way. So mote it be!

_Abdur Rahim._

FOOTNOTES

[1] Translated by Mushtari Begum of Bejnor and
published in the _Islamic Review_ April 1916.

[2] This was written in 1917.

[3] By the word "best" I mean "the most suitable
for both the spiritual and material needs of man." I do
not wish to cast any reflection on any other religion. See
Note 7.

[4] I make a difference between Islam and Muhammadanism.
The latter is not pure Islam. It has forgotten the
_spirit_ of Islam and remembers only the _letter_ of its
law. "The dry bones of a religion are nothing; the spirit
that quickens the bones is all." See Note 5.

[5] There is no place in Islam for either priests
or monks. Yet the Muhammadanism of to-day has both. There
are Tartuffes and Pecksniffs in this religion as well as
in any other religion.

[6] This is the real reason of the political and
social weakness of most Islamic countries of our own
times.

[7] The teaching of Muhammad has been admirably
summarised by a Christian writer as follows:--

"There is no deity but God. He created the Universe and
rules it with love and mercy. He alone is to be
worshipped; in Him confidence is to be placed in time of
adversity. There must be no murmurings at His decrees;
life--your own and others dearer than your own--must be
placed in His hands in trust and love."

I do not believe that there is any monotheistic religion
in the world which will dissent from this teaching. The
writer (in the _Harmsworth Encyclopedia_) goes on to
say:--

"The fatalism which has come to be regarded as part of the
Moslem creed had no place in the system established by
Muhammad who again and again distinctly and emphatically
repudiated the idea. Muhammad taught _reform_, not
_revolution_."

In these days of political unrest I cannot impress on you
too strongly the meaning of the last sentence in which I
have italicised two words.

[8] See p. 33 para. 6.

[9] The Author has not kept copies of these
letters.--_Ed._

[10] The Qur'an speaks very highly of Jesus:--

[Arabic: smuhu lmasīḥu ʾīsā bnu maryama waǧīhan fī d-dunyā
wa-l-ʾāḫirati wa-mina l-muqarrabīn]

"His name is Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious
both in this and in the next world. He is one of those who
have near access to God."--iii. 40.

[11] Published and sold by the Rationalistic Press, London
for 6d.

[12] The translation of the Sura in this analysis is
slightly different from that given in the succeeding
page.--_Ed._

[13] "It is strange": says Havelock Ellis, "men seek to
be, or to seem, atheists, agnostics, cynics, pessimists;
at the core of all these things lurks religion.... The men
who have most finely felt the pulse of the world and have,
in their turn, most effectively stirred its pulse, are
religious men."--_New Spirit, 228._

[14] The word "religion" also means a system of beliefs
and rites pertaining to them. I do not use the word in
that sense here.

[15] _i.e._, the world such as we perceive and conceive
it.

[16] "I know that even the unaided reason, when correctly
exercised, leads to a belief in God, in the immortality of
the soul, and in a future retribution"--_Cardinal Newman._

[17] Prof. Scott Elliot at the end of his book,
_Prehistoric Man_ (p. 381) writes thus: "It seems true
that almost every race of man is not only capable of
believing in a Supreme God but, so far as the evidence
goes, did reverence one God who was often also thought of
as the Creator of the Sky or of the World.... There is a
very strong body of evidence showing that every race of
mankind possessed quite early in its development a feeling
of awe and reverence towards an Unknown God."

[18] There are at present three missionary religions in
the world--religions which were intended and designed by
their respective founders to unite all men without any
distinction into a Universal Brotherhood.

(1) Buddhism asserts that God is Law or Wisdom.

(2) Islam teaches that God is Energy or Power.

(3) Christianity says that God is Father or Love.

But all these religions inculcate in fact one and the same
Truth in its three aspects, as Muslim Sufis would say. I
believe the gist of doctrines held by them is that God is
Omnipotent _Energy_ manifesting itself uniformly as _Law_
and operating benevolently as _Love_.

Wisdom = Power = Love.

You should try to solve the equation for yourself. You
will not fail to understand it if you think hard.

[19] Here again taking the three missionary religions
mentioned above, the Identity is:--

Creator = Preserver = Adjuster.

God said unto Moses, _I am that I am_--_Exodus, iii, 14._

[20] Some Sufis define Nature as Individual _plus_ his
Environment. By _individual_ they mean any one capable of
thinking of himself as "I" or "Me" and every thing else as
"not I" or "not me" which is his _environment_.

[21] It may be said that all the three ideas of God's
relation with Nature (the three "isms" I have mentioned in
brackets) are but different _degrees_ of a man's desire
for communion with his God. Says Rumi in his celebrated
_Masnavi_: "All religions are in substance one and the
same"--Bk. iii, story 12 (St. Daqúqi).

[22] See last para. of Note 4 and also Note 10. [Arabic:
at ṭuruq li-llah-i bi ḥis-bil anfus] There are as many
ways leading to God as there are minds.

[23] "Religion places the human soul in the presence of
its highest ideal (=God), it lifts it above the level of
ordinary goodness, and produces at least a yearning after
a higher and better life in the light of God."--_Max
Muller_.

[24] Sura = Chapter.

[25] Absolute = not conditioned by place time measure or
circumstances. Infinite = without beginning or end.

[26] "The proper name of the religion preached by Muhammad
is Islam."--Sale

[27] The word "Islam" means literally (1) resignation (2)
preservation and (3) peace. Lord Tennyson has most
admirably expressed the Islamic ideal of self-surrender to
the will of God and has incidentally decided the vexed
question of free-will in a single line:--

"_Our wills are ours to make them Thine._"

[28] By Christians in European countries.

[29] "The proper name of the religion preached by Muhammad
is Islam"--_Sale_. See p. 37.

[30] I use the word in the restricted sense of "Islam as
taught by Muhammad." If you take Islam to mean belief in
one God and virtuous conduct in life, you may say that
there has not been and will never be any true religion
besides Islam. In this sense Islam is the only true
religion. See p. 27, last para. of Note 2 p. 19, and of
this Note pp. 33, 34.

[31] "A man must not do reverence to his own sect or
disparage that of another man without reason. Deprecation
should be for specific reasons only, because the sects of
other people all deserve reverence for one reason or
other. By thus acting, a man exalts his own sect, and at
the same time does service to the sects of other people.
By acting contrariwise, a man hurts his own sect and does
disservice to the sects of other people."--King Asoka's
_Edict XII_.

"Every sect favourably regards him who is faithful to its
precepts, and, in truth, he is to be commended."--Akbar,
(Ain Akbari III).

[32] See p. 55.

[33] Muslim = resigned and submissive, therefore,
_peaceful_.

[34] See Foot note [30].

[35] Compare _the Bhagvat Gita_, iv. 7-8:--

"Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bharata,
and there is exaltation of unrighteousness, then
_I myself come forth_;

For the protection of the good, for the destruction of
evil-doers, for the sake of firmly establishing
righteousness, _I am born_ from age to age."

The words _italicised_ suggest the Hindu doctrine of
Incarnation and Metempsychosis. Orthodox Muslims do not
believe in any such doctrine ([Arabic: hulool wa
it-ti-had]) but would substitute for the italics the
words: _I send a messenger or reformer._ See, _e.g._,
Quran, xvi. 36.

[36] To students of Islam and its history I cannot
recommend better and more useful books than the Rt. Hon.
Dr. Syed Ameer Ali's _Spirit of Islam_ and _History of the
Saracens_. New and revised editions have been recently
published. They present the various aspects of Islam in
their proper perspective. They are classics for English
readers.

[37] "Grant the existence of God and it is impossible to
deny that Muhammad was His Messenger. A man does not
change the belief of half the world by chance." So wrote a
Christian friend of mine.

[38] Muslim = resigned or submissive, therefore, peaceful.

[39] I mean "goodness and greatness" as a _human being_, for
Muhammad never said or did anything to show that he was not
a human being. The Qur'an commanded him, "Say I am a man
like yourself." [Arabic: qul ʾana bašarun miṯlukum] He
therefore insisted that men should attach greater importance
to the nature of the message than to the character of the
messenger himself. "I am," said he "no more than a man: when
I order you anything with respect to religion, receive it,
and when I order you about the affairs of the world then I
am nothing more than a man."

[40] "Ahmad" is another name of Muhammad. I have nothing
to say to those mystics, who, by a reasoning peculiar to
their doctrines, identify the Messenger (Prophet) with the
Master (God).

[41] Nor indeed is Jesus answerable for the Inquisition
and _autos-da-fe_.

[42] "These are parables which we have set forth for
men--Q. xxix. 43.

[43] [Arabic: yow-mud-dīn] = the day of the Faith = the
time of Dissolution predicted by Islam as well as by
Science. Sir Syed Ahmad fully explains the meaning of
[Arabic: qiya mat-e-kubrā] = Universal Destruction and of
[Arabic: qiya mat-e-sughrā] = individual destruction,
(_i.e._, death) from the viewpoint of modern Science.

[44] As regards miracles, the beliefs that are held do not
matter so much as the spirit in which they are held. If
the spirit is right and leads to virtuous conduct in life,
any reasonable belief will quite do. Here comes in the
Pragmatism of Islam. It does not object to anything which
has a _practical value_ unless it is unreasonable,
immoral, or inconsistent with the Islamic ideas of the
unity of God and the brotherhood of man.

[45] "We will soon show them our sign in all horizons (=
regions) and in their own souls, until it shall become
quite clear to them that it is the Truth--Qur'an xli 53.

[Arabic: sa-nurīhim ʾāyātinā fī l-ʾāfāqi wa-fī ʾanfusihim
ḥattā yatabayyana lahum ʾannahu l-ḥaqqu]

[46] God's is the East and the West, therefore whichever
side you turn, you will see the face (= presence) of
God--Qur'an i. 115.

[Arabic: wa-li-llāhi l-mašriqu wa-l-maġribu fa-ʾaynamā
tuwallū fa-ṯamma waǧhu llāhi]

[47] And He is within you (= in your mind), why don't you
see Him?--Qur'an li. 21. [Arabic: wa-fī ʾanfusikum ʾa-fa-lā
tubṣirūna]

[48] Islam must not be confounded with what is called
"Muhammadanism" which is but an ossified form of Islam,
clothed in Mediæval beliefs and disfigured by pagan
practices. See Mr. J.C. Molony's admirable report of the
Census of the Madras Presidency for 1911, where, quoting
from the poet Hali's famous _Musaddas_, he describes how
far Muhammadanism in Southern India has been influenced by
Hinduism. Read also Hali's excellent pamphlet called
[Arabic: al-dīnu sarih] "the Simplest Religion" which describes how
Islam has been "ossified," _i.e._, rendered rigid and
unprogressive.

[49] I know of no religion which does not say, "Do good
and avoid evil" and I consider it no religion which does
not say, "Live well and happily."

[50] Ghalib:

[Urdu: * Hum ko ma'loom hai jannat ki haqiqat laikin
* dil kay khoosh rakhnay ko ghalib ye khiyal
achcha.]

[51] See p. 24 above.

[52] It supplies the best motive for overcoming the
perversity of human nature to which St. Paul directs our
attention in these beautiful words: "The good that I
would, I do not: and the evil which I would not, I
do."--Rom. vii. 19.

[53] Read Draper's "Conflict between Science and Religion"
which is a historical account of how some scientific ideas
had to contend with religious prejudices--a book which, by
the way, disproves the charge that Caliph Omar destroyed
the great Library at Alexandria.

[54] God reveals Himself to everybody at every instant of
his life. It depends entirely on the spirituality or
spiritual capacity of each individual to what extent he
knows God and God's ways. The "spiritual capacity" is
partly inherited from one's ancestors and partly acquired
by faith and devotion, as well as by right conduct and
good works.

[55] [Persian: Neest bar lohe delam joz alefe ghamat yar
* che konam harf degar yaad nadad ostadam] The _Alif_ of
the Loved One's form is engraven on my heart, No other
letter did my Shaikh ever to me impart--_Hafiz_.

[56] See Note 2.

[57] I have neither time nor space to explain the full
significance of the Qur'anic verses I have quoted here.

[58] Some would call this Reality, God; but others would
say that God is greater and higher than the Reality which
manifests itself in different forms. He is above all that
any man can think of or imagine. [Arabic: Au bar taraz
khiyal wa qiyas guman wo waham.]

[59] Vol. ii. 748. You have to read the book itself to
understand this. I cannot explain it in a short note.

[60] I have neither time nor space to explain the full
significance of the Qur'anic phrases I have mentioned
here.

[61] "In the world there is nothing so great as man. In
man there is nothing so great as mind"--_Sir William
Hamilton_.

"In the mind of man there is nothing so great as the idea
of God"--_Islam_.

[62] This is quite different from the Christian doctrine
of Atonement.

[63] It was the spirit of co-operation which Islam
engendered among wild and unruly Arabs, that enabled them
to put aside their tribal feuds, to unite and conquer more
than half the known world in the first century of the
Hijri era (= the 7th century of the Christian era). It was
the lack of that spirit in the next two centuries that
dismembered the Muslim Empire.

[64] I say "_the_ Islam of our ancestors", because the
Islam of _some_ of our contemporaries, called
Muhammadanism, is not quite the same.

Read Prof. Gregory's _Discovery or the Spirit and Service
of Science_.

[65] "Sufis" are those Muslims who claim with Mowlana Rumi

[Persian: maazey quraan ra badashtaim istekhwan beish
sagaan andakhtum]

"We have taken the marrow out of the Qur'an and thrown the
bones to dogs," meaning by "dogs" those who quarrel over
words ([Arabic: mutakallimin]) of the sacred texts.

[66] "Man" says Carlyle, "is a symbol of Eternity
imprisoned into Time."

[67] This proviso defines also the Liberty of Subjects in
a State. Every man should be free to do whatever he wishes
provided that he does not thereby prevent others from
enjoying the _like_ liberty of action. It is the basis of
all good Laws which should provide _equal opportunities_
to all subjects without distinction.

[68] Muhammadans generally misunderstand and misapply the
doctrine of "Qismat" or Fate. The Prophet distinctly
taught that we should first of all do whatever lies in our
power and then leave the rest to God. We are apt to forget
the first part of his precept and cling to its second part
only which accords with our tropical laziness. See
footnote (7) on page 12.

[69] [Arabic: ḏālika d-dīnu l-qayyim] = It (Islam) is the
standard religion.--Q. xii. 41.

[70] Islam rejects some "previous revelations" not because
they are untrue but because their records that have come
down to us are not quite genuine and trustworthy.

[71] The heading of all chapters except one of the Qur'an.

[72] "Mankind comes to Me along many roads; and on
whatever road a man approaches Me on that road do I
welcome him, for all roads are Mine."--_Bhagawat Gita_.
[al turuk ila-allah bihasbi anf] See p. 24.

[73] See Note 2 (concluding part) which mentions three
common factors in all religious systems of the world.

"The city of the Hindu God is Benares and the city of the
Muslim God is Mecca. But search your hearts and there you
will find the God both of Hindus and Muslims. If the
Creator dwells in tabernacles only, whose dwelling is the
Universe?"--_Kabir_.

[74] Some Muslims believe that Zoraster, Krishna, Buddha,
and Confucius were also prophets or messengers of God but
that they were no more than good and great men. They do
not attribute any divinity to them.

"Religion", said Hitchcock, "implies Revelation". By
"Revelation" is meant a set of sublime (and therefore,
divine) truths revealed, _i.e._ communicated from time to
time to chosen men (= Prophets) who had the necessary
spirituality to comprehend them and to convey them, as
God's messages, to their fellow-men in the _human_
language of themselves. The defects (if any) found in the
authoritative records (= Scriptures [Arabic: ṣaḥif]) are the
defects in the human language and not certainly in the
sacred and sublime truths revealed to the chosen men, the
Messengers of God. It is the defect of _human_
understanding, no less than the poverty of _human_
language, that has often prevented the full comprehension
of the divine dispensation and the sublime truths in the
messages of Prophets. It is _our_ comprehension of the
truth itself that has given rise to diversity in religious
beliefs and practices.

[75] Provided they are authentic and genuine and not
altered by interpolations and omissions.

[76] Neither the Bible nor the Qur'an is responsible for
the cruel excesses committed by Christians or Muhammadans
in the name of Religion.

[77] "The best of things is the medium thing"--_Muhammad_.

[78] Charles R. Gibson.

[79] _Vide_ Note 12 para. marked (a) p. 79.

[80] For the purpose of this Note it will be enough if you
understand the first four propositions. I am afraid you
will find some difficulty in understanding the remaining
two propositions without illustrative examples, for which
I have no space here.

[81] "For _such as be_ blessed of him shall inherit the
earth, and _they that be_ cursed of him shall be cut
off."--Psalm 37th, 22.

[82] Qur'an, xxi. 105. Following the late Mr. Justice
Karamat Hussain of Allahabad, I take the word [Arabic:
saleh] to mean "fit" in the evolutionary sense. See his
book [Arabic: ilm-ul-akhlakh].

[83] He edits a journal called "Biometrika" which is
devoted to the statistical study of biological problems.

[84] Prof. Muirhead of the University of Burmingham, in
his kind letter to the author on these "Notes."

[85] Hence Formalism creeps into every Religion and
renders it lifeless when its doctrines fail to adjust
themselves to new facts or to changes in old facts. See
_Appendix_.

[86] It should be construed and applied to new ideas and
changed circumstances of each age in quite the same manner
as Judges in a Court of Law construe and apply old
Statutes to facts of cases that come before them. See
Hali's [Arabic: al-din yassin]

[87] See the verse of the Qur'an quoted on p. 33.

[88] Or say: True Christianity is but true Islam writ
large. "On the whole this religion of Mahomet's is a kind
of Christianity."--_Thomas Carlyle._

[89] See hints:--Para 3 of Note 5 pp. 31, 32; Footnote
(48) p. 43; Footnotes (4) and (5) page 12; Footnote
(85) p. 81.

[90] Written in 1917.

[91] Cp. Note 7.