WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT ISLAM

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WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT ISLAM
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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 an ideal society
as it did under the leadership of the last Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

 It was a miracle that Prophet Muhammad could bring even his toughest
enemies to the fold of Islam without adequate material resources. Worshippers
of idols, blind followers of the ways of forefathers, promoters of tribal
feuds, abusers of human dignity and blood, became the most disciplined
nation under the guidance of Islam and its Prophet. Islam opened before
them vistas of spiritual heights and human dignity by declaring righteousness
as the sole criterion of merit and honor. Islam shaped their social, cultural,
moral and commercial life with basic laws and principles which are in conformity
with human nature and hence applicable in all times as human nature does
not change.

 It is so unfortunate that the Christian West, instead of sincerely
trying to understand the phenomenal success of Islam during its earlier
time, considered it as a rival religion. During the centuries of the Crusades
this trend gained much force and impetus and a huge amount of literature
was produced to tarnish the image of Islam. But Islam has begun to unfold
its genuineness to the modern scholars whose bold and objective observations
on Islam belie all the charges leveled against it by the so-called unbiased
orientalists.

 Here we furnish some observations on Islam by great and acknowledged
non-Muslim scholars of modern time. Truth needs no advocates to plead on
its behalf, but the prolonged malicious propaganda against Islam has created
great confusion even in the minds of free and objective thinkers.

 We hope that the following observations would contribute to initiating
an objective evaluation of Islam:

 "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 Walverhamton, Oct. 7, 1887; Quoted by Arnoud in THE PREACHING OF ISLAM,
pp. 71-72.

 "Sense of justice is one of the most wonderful ideals of Islam,
because as I read in the Qur'an I find those dynamic principles of life,
not mystic but practical ethics for the daily conduct of life suited to
the whole world." --Lectures on "The Ideals of Islam;" see
SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF SAROJINI NAIDU, Madras, 1918, p. 167.

 "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, ISLAM AT THE
CROSSROADS, London, 1923, p. 8.

 "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 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 an 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.

 "I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation
because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which 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 for 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." --G.B. Shaw, THE GENUINE ISLAM, Vol. 1, No. 81936.

 "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.

 "The rise of Islam is perhaps the most amazing event in human
history. Springing from a land and a people like previously negligible,
Islam spread within a century over half the earth, shattering great empires,
overthrowing long established religions, remoulding the souls of races,
and building up a whole new world - world of Islam.

 "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 Asoka,
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 desert of Central
Asia to the deserts of Central Africa." --A.M.L. Stoddard, quoted
in ISLAM - THE RELIGION OF ALL PROPHETS, Begum Bawani Waqf, Karachi, Pakistan,
p. 56.

 "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 developments,
in every sense of the term, of the teachings of the Prophet, the Quran
has invariable 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 Muhammadan 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 marvelous power of winning its way into the consciences of men."
--Edward Montet, "La Propagande Chretienne et ses Adversaries Musulmans,"
Paris, 1890; Quoted by T.W. Arnold in THE PREACHING OF ISLAM, London, 1913,
pp. 413-414.

 "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 stores 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
of the one religion of the future.'" --W. Montgomery Watt, ISLAM AND
CHRISTIANITY TODAY, London, 1983, p. ix.

 
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World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), P.O. Box 10845, Riyadh 11443,
Saudi Arabia 
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