Notes on Islam Part 9

[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 G.o.d. He created the Universe and rules it with love and mercy. He alone is to be wors.h.i.+pped; 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 lmasi?u ?isa bnu maryama wagihan fi d-dunya wa-l-?a?irati wa-mina l-muqarrabin]

"His name is Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, ill.u.s.trious both in this and in the next world. He is one of those who have near access to G.o.d."--iii. 40.

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

[12] The translation of the Sura in this a.n.a.lysis 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d but, so far as the evidence goes, did reverence one G.o.d 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 G.o.d."

[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 a.s.serts that G.o.d is Law or Wisdom.

(2) Islam teaches that G.o.d is Energy or Power.

(3) Christianity says that G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 Ident.i.ty is:--

Creator = Preserver = Adjuster.

G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d. Says Rumi in his celebrated _Masnavi_: "All religions are in substance one and the same"--Bk. iii, story 12 (St. Daquqi).

[22] See last para. of Note 4 and also Note 10. [Arabic: at ?uruq li-llah-i bi ?is-bil anfus] There are as many ways leading to G.o.d as there are minds.

[23] "Religion places the human soul in the presence of its highest ideal (=G.o.d), 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 G.o.d."--_Max Muller_.

[24] Sura = Chapter.

[25] Absolute = not conditioned by place time measure or circ.u.mstances. 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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_;