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Books
Section
> Islam
- My Only
Choice
> Chapter 1: The Historicity of Faiths and their
Founders . Chapter
1: The Historicity of Faiths and their Founders: All religions are a matter of history. Even with Islam, the latest of all, more than thirteen hundred years have passed since its birth, and if a man must look to some Holy Scripture for the light he has to receive from a religion, no religion should claim our allegiance unless its record is absolutely unimpeachable on the score of authenticity. In this respect Islam seems to me to possess merits of its own - merits which attach to no other religion. For example, the scriptures of all other religions have now been found, as is even admitted by their respective adherents, to be wanting in genuineness. Even Rabbis and high dignitaries of the church are today ceasing to believe in the authenticity of the Holy Bible. The followers of Zoroastrianism can only point to five or six verses that have come to them in their original purity, out of all the revealed mass ascribed to that great prophet of Persia. Vedicism, popularly known as Hinduism, presents another insurmountable difficulty. The Holy Vedas were written in a language now obsolete and what we should call “dead”; no one in India speaks it or understands it. The Vedic verses are susceptible of contradictory interpretations; they have given rise to innumerable sects, who differ from each other even in the fundamentals of their religion while they all receive their inspiration from the same Book. There are atheists, theists, agnostics and deists, image-worshippers and image-breakers, among Hindus, but they all take the same Book as the authority to substantiate their respective views. The translation of the Vedas given by one class of Hindus is condemned by the others. On the other hand, al-Quran, the Holy Book of Islam, is admitted by friend and foe to be the very words revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The Book has maintained its purity till now. Fortunately we live in times when reliable criticism has established the above facts, and its verdict has not been questioned. Now whatever may be the worth of the teachings of a religion, I think I could not consider or accept its claims when the very source of our information with respect to it is of a dubious character. From this point of view I think I am justified in saying that there is no comparison between Islam and other religions.
My surprise knew no bounds when I began to read of the Prophet Muhammad. Like a panorama the events of his life passed before my eyes one after the other. From the cradle to the grave everything of note in his life is narrated and preserved in a well-authenticated record. I was amazed to find in him an assemblage of the best of characteristics so rare in others. I am at a loss to understand how he could unite in himself all the best qualities of discrepant characters. He is meek and at the same time courageous; modest as a maiden but the bravest of the soldiers on a battlefield. While with children, loved for his playfulness and endearing talk to the little ones; when in the company of sages and old men, respected for his wisdom and farsightedness. Truthful, honest, trustworthy; a reliable friend, a loving father and husband, a dutiful son, and a helpful brother, Muhammad is the same man whether in adversity or prosperity; affluence or indigence cannot change him; unruffled in his temperament whether in peace or in war. Kind and hospitable, liberal in giving but abstemious for himself. In short, judge the Holy Prophet Muhammad from whatever angle of human character you will, and he is nowhere found wanting. With a critical eye, I studied all that has been said about him by his opponents. They could not lay a finger on a single flaw in his private character. It is perfect. And whatever has been said against his public character in one or two things, involves really a matter of principle. They say he had more than one wife; that he waged war; that he did this, that and the other; but before we judge him in these matters we have to decide as to the validity of the principles under which he worked. If polygamy is a matter of necessity in certain circumstances and an economic measure sometimes, then why find fault with Muhammad, when all the great men and benefactors of humanity, especially in the world of religion, have all of them had more than one wife? As to the use of the sword, the whole world until now has taken the greatest pride in unsheathing the weapon. War has hitherto been an indispensable institution. A prophet was needed to teach the world the true ethics of war, and who can deny the nobility of Muhammad in this respect? He unsheathed the sword only to crush evil and defend truth. With great care I read the accounts of every war waged by him and they were all in self-defence.
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