Mohammed The Prophet -By Ramakrishna Rao( Fair Orientalists'
Statements)

I bear witness that no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad
peace be upon him the Messenger of God...

Anyone studying the life of Muhammad out of this

By Prof. K. S. Ramakrishna Rao, Head of the Department of Philosophy,
Government College for Women University of Mysore, Mandya-571401
(Karnatika).

Re-printed from "Islam and Modern age", Hydrabad, March 1978.

In the desert of Arabia was Mohammad born, according to Muslim
historians, on April 20, 571. The name means highly praised. He is to
me the greatest mind among all the sons of Arabia. He means so much
more than all the poets and kings that preceded him in that
impenetrable desert of red sand.

When he appeared Arabia was a desert -- a nothing. Out of nothing a
new world was fashioned by the mighty spirit of Mohammad -- a new
life, a new culture, a new civilization, a new kingdom which extended
from Morocco to Indies and influenced the thought and life of three
continents -- Asia, Africa and Europe.

When I thought of writing on Mohammad the prophet, I was a bit
hesitant because it was to write about a religion I do not profess and
it is a delicate matter to do so for there are many persons professing
various religions and belonging to diverse school of thought and
denominations even in same religion. Though it is sometimes, claimed
that religion is entirely personal yet it can not be gain-said that it
has a tendency to envelop the whole universe seen as well unseen. It
somehow permeates something or other our hearts, our souls, our minds
their conscious as well as subconscious and unconscious levels too.
The problem assumes overwhelming importance when there is a deep
conviction that our past, present and future all hang by the soft
delicate, tender silked cord. If we further happen to be highly
sensitive, the center of gravity is very likely to be always in a
state of extreme tension. Looked at from this point of view, the less
said about other religion the better. Let our religions be deeply
hidden and embedded in the resistance of our innermost hearts
fortified by unbroken seals on our lips.

But there is another aspect of this problem. Man lives in society. Our
lives are bound with the lives of others willingly or unwillingly,
directly or indirectly. We eat the food grown in the same soil, drink
water, from the same the same spring and breathe the same air. Even
while staunchly holding our own views, it would be helpful, if we try
to adjust ourselves to our surroundings, if we also know to some
extent, how the mind our neighbor moves and what the main springs of
his actions are. From this angle of vision it is highly desirable that
one should try to know all religions of the world, in the proper
sprit, to promote mutual understanding and better appreciation of our
neighborhood, immediate and remote.

Further, our thoughts are not scattered as appear to be on the
surface. They have got themselves crystallized around a few nuclei in
the form of great world religions and living faiths that guide and
motivate the lives of millions that inhabit this earth of ours. It is
our duty, in one sense if we have the ideal of ever becoming a citizen
of the world before us, to make a little attempt to know the great
religions and system of philosophy that have ruled mankind.

In spite of these preliminary remarks, the ground in these field of
religion, where there is often a conflict between intellect and
emotion is so slippery that one is constantly reminded of fools that
rush in where angels fear to tread. It is also not so complex from
another point of view. The subject of my writing is about the tenets
of a religion which is historic and its prophet who is also a historic
personality. Even a hostile critic like Sir William Muir speaking
about the holy Quran says that. "There is probably in the world no
other book which has remained twelve centuries with so pure text." I
may also add Prophet Mohammad is also a historic personality, every
event of whose life has been most carefully recorded and even the
minutest details preserved intact for the posterity. His life and
works are not wrapped in mystery.

My work today is further lightened because those days are fast
disappearing when Islam was highly misrepresented by some of its
critics for reasons political and otherwise. Prof. Bevan writes in
Cambridge Medieval History, "Those account of Mohammad and Islam which
were published in Europe before the beginning of 19th century are now
to be regarded as literary curiosities." My problem is to write this
monograph is easier because we are now generally not fed on this kind
of history and much time need be spent on pointing out our
misrepresentation of Islam.

The theory of Islam and Sword for instance is not heard now frequently
in any quarter worth the name. The principle of Islam that there is no
compulsion in religion is well known. Gibbon, a historian of world
repute says, "A pernicious tenet has been imputed to Mohammadans, the
duty of extirpating all the religions by sword." This charge based on
ignorance and bigotry, says the eminent historian, is refuted by
Quran, by history of Musalman conquerors and by their public and legal
toleration of Christian worship. The great success of Mohammad's life
had been effected by sheer moral force, without a stroke of sword.

But in pure self-defense, after repeated efforts of conciliation had
utterly failed, circumstances dragged him into the battlefield. But
the prophet of Islam changed the whole strategy of the battlefield.
The total number of casualties in all the wars that took place during
his lifetime when the whole Arabian Peninsula came under his banner,
does not exceed a few hundreds in all. But even on the battlefield he
taught the Arab barbarians to pray, to pray not individually, but in
congregation to God the Almighty. During the dust and storm of warfare
whenever the time for prayer came, and it comes five times a every
day, the congregation prayer had not to be postponed even on the
battlefield. A party had to be engaged in bowing their heads before
God while other was engaged with the enemy. After finishing the
prayers, the two parties had to exchange their positions. To the
Arabs, who would fight for forty years on the slight provocation that
a camel belonging to the guest of one tribe had strayed into the
grazing land belonging to other tribe and both sides had fought till
they lost 70,000 lives in all; threatening the extinction of both the
tribes to such furious Arabs, the Prophet of Islam taught self-control
and discipline to the extent of praying even on the battlefield. In an
aged of barbarism, the Battlefield itself was humanized and strict
instructions were issued not to cheat, not to break trust, not to
mutilate, not to kill a child or woman or an old man, not to hew down
date palm nor burn it, not to cut a fruit tree, not to molest any
person engaged in worship. His own treatment with his bitterest
enemies is the noblest example for his followers. At the conquest of
Mecca, he stood at the zenith of his power. The city which had refused
to listen to his mission, which had tortured him and his followers,
which had driven him and his people into exile and which had
unrelentingly persecuted and boycotted him even when he had taken
refuge in a place more than 200 miles away, that city now lay at his
feet. By the laws of war he could have justly avenged all the
cruelties inflicted on him and his people. But what treatment did he
accord to them? Mohammad's heart flowed with affection and he
declared, "This day, there is no REPROOF against you and you are all
free." "This day" he proclaimed, "I trample under my feet all
distinctions between man and man, all hatred between man and man."

This was one of the chief objects why he permitted war in self
defense, that is to unite human beings. And when once this object was
achieved, even his worst enemies were pardoned. Even those who killed
his beloved uncle, Hamazah, mangled his body, ripped it open, even
chewed a piece of his liver.

The principles of universal brotherhood and doctrine of the equality
of mankind which he proclaimed represents one very great contribution
of Mohammad to the social uplift of humanity. All great religions have
preached the same doctrine but the prophet of Islam had put this
theory into actual practice and its value will be fully recognized,
perhaps centuries hence, when international consciousness being
awakened, racial prejudices may disappear and greater brotherhood of
humanity come into existence.

Miss. Sarojini Naidu speaking about this aspect of Islam says, "It was
the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for in the
mosque, when the minaret is sounded and the worshipers are gathered
together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the
peasant and the king kneel side by side and proclaim, God alone is
great." The great poetess of India continues, "I have been struck over
and over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes a man
instinctively a brother. When you meet an Egyptian, an Algerian and
Indian and a Turk in London, it matters not that Egypt is the
motherland of one and India is the motherland of another."

Mahatma Gandhi, in his inimitable style, says "Some one has said that
Europeans in South Africa dread the advent Islam -- Islam that
civilized Spain, Islam that took the torch light to Morocco and
preached to the world the Gospel of brotherhood. The Europeans of
South Africa dread the Advent of Islam. They may claim equality with
the white races. They may well dread it, if brotherhood is a sin. If
it is equality of colored races then their dread is well founded."

Every year, during the Haj, the world witnesses the wonderful
spectacle of this international Exhibition of Islam in leveling all
distinctions of race, color and rank. Not only the Europeans, the
African, the Arabian, the Persian, the Indians, the Chinese all meet
together in Medina as members of one divine family, but they are clad
in one dress every person in two simple pieces of white seamless
cloth, one piece round the loin the other piece over the shoulders,
bare head without pomp or ceremony, repeating "Here am I O God; at thy
command; thou art one and alone; Here am I." Thus there remains
nothing to differentiate the high from the low and every pilgrim
carries home the impression of the international significance of
Islam.

In the opinion of Prof. Hurgronje "the league of nations founded by
prophet of Islam put the principle of international unity of human
brotherhood on such Universal foundations as to show candle to other
nations." In the words of same Professor "the fact is that no nation
of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has done the
realization of the idea of the League of Nations."

The prophet of Islam brought the reign of democracy in its best form.
The Caliph Caliph Ali and the son in-law of the prophet, the Caliph
Mansur, Abbas, the son of Caliph Mamun and many other caliphs and
kings had to appear before the judge as ordinary men in Islamic
courts. Even today we all know how the black Negroes were treated by
the civilized white races. Consider the state of BILAL, a Negro Slave,
in the days of the prophet of Islam nearly 14 centuries ago. The
office of calling Muslims to prayer was considered to be of status in
the early days of Islam and it was offered to this Negro slave. After
the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ordered him to call for prayer and
the Negro slave, with his black color and his thick lips, stood over
the roof of the holy mosque at Mecca called the Ka'ba the most
historic and the holiest mosque in the Islamic world, when some proud
Arabs painfully cried loud, "Oh, this black Negro Slave, woe be to
him. He stands on the roof of holy Ka'ba to call for prayer." At that
moment, the prophet announced to the world, this verse of the holy
QURAN for the first time.

"O mankind, surely we have created you, families and tribes, so you
may know one another.
Surely, the most honorable of you with God is MOST RIGHTEOUS AMONG
you.
Surely, God is Knowing, Aware."

And these words of the holy Quran created such a mighty transformation
that the Caliph of Islam, the purest of Arabs by birth, offered their
daughter in marriage to this Negro Slave, and whenever, the second
Caliph of Islam, known to history as Umar the great, the commander of
faithful, saw this Negro slave, he immediately stood in reverence and
welcomed him by "Here come our master; Here come our lord." What a
tremendous change was brought by Quran in the Arabs, the proudest
people at that time on the earth. This is the reason why Goethe, the
greatest of German poets, speaking about the Holy Quran declared that,
"This book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent
influence." This is also the reason why George Bernard Shaw says, "If
any religion has a chance or ruling over England, say, Europe, within
the next 100 years, it is Islam".

It is this same democratic spirit of Islam that emancipated women from
the bondage of man. Sir Charles Edward Archibald Hamilton says "Islam
teaches the inherent sinlessness of man. It teaches that man and woman
and woman have come from the same essence, posses the same soul and
have been equipped with equal capabilities for intellectual, spiritual
and moral attainments."

The Arabs had a very strong tradition that one who can smite with the
spear and can wield the sword would inherit. But Islam came as the
defender of the weaker sex and entitled women to share the inheritance
of their parents. It gave women, centuries ago right of owning
property, yet it was only 12 centuries later , in 1881, that England,
supposed to be the cradle of democracy adopted this institution of
Islam and the act was called "the married woman act", but centuries
earlier, the Prophet of Islam had proclaimed that "Woman are twin
halves of men. The rights of women are sacred. See that women
maintained rights granted to them."

Islam is not directly concerned with political and economic systems,
but indirectly and in so far as political and economic affairs
influence man's conduct, it does lay down some very important
principles to govern economic life. According to Prof. Massignon, it
maintains the balance between exaggerated opposites and has always in
view the building of character which is the basis of civilization.
This is secured by its law of inheritance, by an organized system of
charity known as Zakat, and by regarding as illegal all anti-social
practices in the economic field like monopoly, usury, securing of
predetermined unearned income and increments, cornering markets,
creating monopolies, creating an artificial scarcity of any commodity
in order to force the prices to rise. Gambling is illegal.
Contribution to schools, to places of worship, hospitals, digging of
wells, opening of orphanages are highest acts of virtue. Orphanages
have sprung for the first time, it is said, under the teaching of the
prophet of Islam. The world owes its orphanages to this prophet born
an orphan. "Good all this" says Carlyle about Mohammad. "The natural
voice of humanity, of pity and equity, dwelling in the heart of this
wild son of nature, speaks."

A historian once said a great man should be judged by three tests: Was
he found to be of true metel by his contemporaries ? Was he great
enough to raise above the standards of his age ? Did he leave anything
as permanent legacy to the world at large ? This list may be further
extended but all these three tests of greatness are eminently
satisfied to the highest degree in case of prophet Mohammad. Some
illustrations of the last two have already been mentioned.

The first is: Was the Prophet of Islam found to be of true metel by
his contemporaries?

Historical records show that all the contemporaries of Mohammad both
friends foes, acknowledged the sterling qualities, the spotless
honesty, the noble virtues, the absolute sincerity and every
trustworthiness of the apostle of Islam in all walks of life and in
every sphere of human activity. Even the Jews and those who did not
believe in his message, adopted him as the arbiter in their personal
disputes by virtue of his perfect impartiality. Even those who did not
believe in his message were forced to say "O Mohammad, we do not call
you a liar, but we deny him who has given you a book and inspired you
with a message." They thought he was one possessed. They tried
violence to cure him. But the best of them saw that a new light had
dawned on him and they hastened him to seek the enlightenment. It is a
notable feature in the history of prophet of Islam that his nearest
relation, his beloved cousin and his bosom friends, who know him most
intimately, were not thoroughly imbued with the truth of his mission
and were convinced of the genuineness of his divine inspiration. If
these men and women, noble, intelligent, educated and intimately
acquainted with his private life had perceived the slightest signs of
deception, fraud, earthliness, or lack of faith in him, Mohammad's
moral hope of regeneration, spiritual awakening, and social reform
would all have been foredoomed to a failure and whole edifice would
have crumbled to pieces in a moment. On the contrary, we find that
devotion of his followers was such that he was voluntarily
acknowledged as dictator of their lives. They braved for him
persecutions and danger; they trusted, obeyed and honored him even in
the most excruciating torture and severest mental agony caused by
excommunication even unto death. Would this have been so, had they
noticed the slightest backsliding in their master?

Read the history of the early converts to Islam, and every heart would
melt at the sight of the brutal treatment of innocent Muslim men and
women.

Sumayya, an innocent women, is cruelly torn into pieces with spears.
An example is made of "Yassir whose legs are tied to two camels and
the beast were are driven in opposite directions", Khabbab bin Arth is
made lie down on the bed of burning coal with the brutal legs of their
merciless tyrant on his breast so that he may not move and this makes
even the fat beneath his skin melt. "Khabban bin Adi is put to death
in a cruel manner by mutilation and cutting off his flesh piece-meal."
In the midst of his tortures, being asked weather he did not wish
Mohammad in his place while he was in his house with his family, the
sufferer cried out that he was gladly prepared to sacrifice himself
his family and children and why was it that these sons and daughters
of Islam not only surrendered to their prophet their allegiance but
also made a gift of their hearts and souls to their master? Is not the
intense faith and conviction on part of immediate followers of
Mohammad, the noblest testimony to his sincerity and to his utter self-
absorption in his appointed task?

And these men were not of low station or inferior mental caliber.
Around him in quite early days, gathered what was best and noblest in
Mecca, its flower and cream, men of position, rank, wealth and
culture, and from his own kith and kin, those who knew all about his
life. All the first four Caliphs, with their towering personalities,
were converts of this period.

The Encyclopedia Brittanica says that "Mohammad is the most successful
of all Prophets and religious personalities".

But the success was not the result of mere accident. It was not a hit
of fortune. It was a recognition of fact that he was found to be true
metal by his contemporaries. It was the result of his admirable and
all compelling personality.

The personality of Mohammad! It is most difficult to get into the
truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic
succession of picturesque scenes. There is Mohammad the Prophet, there
is Mohammad the General; Mohammad the King; Mohammad the Warrior;
Mohammad the Businessman; Mohammad the Preacher; Mohammad the
Philosopher; Mohammad the Statesman; Mohammad the Orator; Mohammad the
reformer; Mohammad the Refuge of orphans; Mohammad the Protector of
slaves; Mohammad the Emancipator of women; Mohammad the Law-giver;
Mohammad the Judge; Mohammad the Saint.

And in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human
activities, he is like, a hero..

Orphanhood is extreme of helplessness and his life upon this earth
began with it; Kingship is the height of the material power and it
ended with it. From an orphan boy to a persecuted refugee and then to
an overlord, spiritual as well as temporal, of a whole nation and
Arbiter of its destinies, with all its trials and temptations, with
all its vicissitudes and changes, its lights and shades, its up and
downs, its terror and splendor, he has stood the fire of the world and
came out unscathed to serve as a model in every face of life. His
achievements are not limited to one aspect of life, but cover the
whole field of human conditions.

If for instance, greatness consist in the purification of a nation,
steeped in barbarism and immersed in absolute moral darkness, that
dynamic personality who has transformed, refined and uplifted an
entire nation, sunk low as the Arabs were, and made them the torch-
bearer of civilization and learning, has every claim to greatness. If
greatness lies in unifying the discordant elements of society by ties
of brotherhood and charity, the prophet of the desert has got every
title to this distinction. If greatness consists in reforming those
warped in degrading and blind superstition and pernicious practices of
every kind, the prophet of Islam has wiped out superstitions and
irrational fear from the hearts of millions. If it lies in displaying
high morals, Mohammad has been admitted by friend and foe as Al Amin,
or the faithful. If a conqueror is a great man, here is a person who
rose from helpless orphan and an humble creature to be the ruler of
Arabia, the equal to Chosroes and Caesars, one who founded great
empire that has survived all these 14 centuries. If the devotion that
a leader commands is the criterion of greatness, the prophet's name
even today exerts a magic charm over millions of souls, spread all
over the world.

He had not studied philosophy in the school of Athens of Rome, Persia,
India, or China. Yet, He could proclaim the highest truths of eternal
value to mankind. Illiterate himself, he could yet speak with an
eloquence and fervor which moved men to tears, to tears of ecstasy.
Born an orphan blessed with no worldly goods, he was loved by all. He
had studied at no military academy; yet he could organize his forces
against tremendous odds and gained victories through the moral forces
which he marshaled. Gifted men with genius for preaching are rare.
Descartes included the perfect preacher among the rarest kind in the
world. Hitler in his Mein Kamp has expressed a similar view. He says
"A great theorist is seldom a great leader. An Agitator is more likely
to posses these qualities. He will always be a great leader. For
leadership means ability to move masses of men. The talents to produce
ideas has nothing in common with capacity for leadership." "But", he
says, "The Union of theorists, organizer and leader in one man, is the
rarest phenomenon on this earth; Therein consists greatness."

In the person of the Prophet of Islam the world has seen this rarest
phenomenon walking on the earth, walking in flesh and blood.

And more wonderful still is what the reverend Bosworth Smith remarks,
"Head of the state as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in
one; but, he was pope without the pope's claims, and Caesar without
the legions of Caesar, without an standing army, without a bodyguard,
without a palace, without a fixed revenue. If ever any man had the
right to say that he ruled by a right divine It was Mohammad, for he
had all the power without instruments and without its support. He
cared not for dressing of power. The simplicity of his private life
was in keeping with his public life."

After the fall of Mecca, more than one million square miles of land
lay at his feet, Lord of Arabia, he mended his own shoes and coarse
woolen garments, milked the goats, swept the hearth, kindled the fire
and attended the other menial offices of the family. The entire town
of Medina where he lived grew wealthy in the later days of his life.
Everywhere there was gold and silver in plenty and yet in those days
of prosperity many weeks would elapse without a fire being kindled in
the hearth of the king of Arabia, His food being dates and water. His
family would go hungry many nights successively because they could not
get anything to eat in the evening. He slept on no soften bed but on a
palm mat, after a long busy day to spend most of his night in prayer,
often bursting with tears before his creator to grant him strength to
discharge his duties. As the reports go, his voice would get choked
with weeping and it would appear as if a cooking pot was on fire and
boiling had commenced. On the very day of his death his only assets
were few coins a part of which went to satisfy a debt and rest was
given to a needy person who came to his house for charity. The clothes
in which he breathed his last had many patches. The house from where
light had spread to the world was in darkness because there was no oil
in the lamp.

Circumstances changed, but the prophet of God did not. In victory or
in defeat, in power or in adversity, in affluence or in indigence, he
is the same man, disclosed the same character. Like all the ways and
laws of God, Prophets of God are unchangeable.

An honest man, as the saying goes, is the noblest work of God,
Mohammad was more than honest. He was human to the marrow of his
bones. Human sympathy, human love was the music of his soul. To serve
man, to elevate man, to purify man, to educate man, in a word to
humanize man-this was the object of his mission, the be-all and end
all of his life. In thought, in word, in action he had the good of
humanity as his sole inspiration, his sole guiding principle.

He was most unostentatious and selfless to the core. What were the
titles he assumed? Only true servant of God and His Messenger. Servant
first, and then a messenger. A Messenger and prophet like many other
prophets in every part of the world, some known to you, many not known
you. If one does not believe in any of these truths one ceases to be a
Muslim. It is an article of faith.

"Looking at the circumstances of the time and unbounded reverence of
his followers" says a western writer "the most miraculous thing about
Mohammad is, that he never claimed the power of working miracles."
Miracles were performed but not to propagate his faith and were
attributed entirely to God and his inscrutable ways. He would plainly
say that he was a man like others. He had no treasures of earth or
heaven. Nor did he claim to know the secrets of that lie in womb of
future. All this was in an age when miracles were supposed to be
ordinary occurrences, at the back and call of the commonest saint,
when the whole atmosphere was surcharged with supernaturalism in
Arabia and outside Arabia.

He turned the attention of his followers towards the study of nature
and its laws, to understand them and appreciate the Glory of God. The
Quran says,

"God did not create the heavens and the earth and all that is between
them in play. He did not create them all but with the truth. But most
men do not know."

The world is not illusion, nor without purpose. It has been created
with the truth. The number of verses inviting close observation of
nature are several times more than those that relate to prayer,
fasting, pilgrimage etc. all put together. The Muslim under its
influence began to observe nature closely and this give birth to the
scientific spirit of the observation and experiment which was unknown
to the Greeks. While the Muslim Botanist Ibn Baitar wrote on Botany
after collecting plants from all parts of the world, described by Myer
in his Gesch. der Botanikaa-s, a monument of industry, while Al Byruni
traveled for forty years to collect mineralogical specimens, and
Muslim Astronomers made some observations extending even over twelve
years. Aristotle wrote on Physics without performing a single
experiment, wrote on natural history, carelessly stating without
taking the trouble to ascertain the most verifiable fact that men have
more teeth than animal. Galen, the greatest authority on classical
anatomy informed that the lower jaw consists of two bones, a statement
which is accepted unchallenged for centuries till Abdul Lateef takes
the trouble to examine a human skeleton. After enumerating several
such instances, Robert Priffault concludes in his well known book The
making of humanity, "The debt of our science to the Arabs does not
consist in starting discovers or revolutionary theories. Science owes
a great more to Arabs culture; it owes is existence." The same writer
says "The Greeks systematized, generalized and theorized but patient
ways of investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the
minute methods of science, detailed and prolonged observation,
experimental inquiry, were altogether alien to Greek temperament. What
we call science arose in Europe as result of new methods of
investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, measurement,
of the development of Mathematics in form unknown to the Greeks. That
spirit and these methods, concludes the same author, were introduced
into the European world by Arabs."

It is the same practical character of the teaching of Prophet Mohammad
that gave birth to the scientific spirit, that has also sanctified the
daily labors and the so called mundane affairs. The Quran says that
God has created man to worship him but the word worship has a
connotation of its own. Gods worship is not confined to prayer alone,
but every act that is done with the purpose of winning approval of God
and is for the benefit of the humanity comes under its purview. Islam
sanctifies life and all its pursuits provided they are performed with
honesty, justice and pure intents. It obliterates the age-long
distinction between the sacred and profane. The Quran says if you eat
clean things and thank God for it, it is an act of worship. It is
saying of the prophet of Islam that Morsel of food that one places in
the mouth of his wife is an act of virtue to be rewarded by God.
Another tradition of the Prophet says "He who is satisfying the desire
of his heart will be rewarded by God provided the methods adopted are
permissible." A person was listening to him exclaimed 'O Prophet of
God, he is answering the calls of passions, is only satisfying the
craving of his heart. Forthwith came the reply, "Had he adopted an
awful method for the satisfaction of his urge, he would have been
punished; then why should he not be rewarded for following the right
course."

This new conception of religion that it should also devote itself to
the betterment of this life rather than concern itself exclusively
with super mundane affairs, has led to a new orientation of moral
values. Its abiding influence on the common relations of mankind in
the affairs of every day life, its deep power over the masses, its
regulation of their conception of rights and duty, its suitability and
adaptability to the ignorant savage and the wise philosopher are
characteristic features of the teaching of the Prophet of Islam.

But it should be most carefully born in mind this stress on good
actions is not the sacrifice correctness of faith. While there are
various school of thought, one praising faith at the expense of deeds,
another exhausting various acts to the detriment of correct belief,
Islam is based on correct faith and righteous actions. Means are
important as the end and ends are as important as the means. It is an
organic Unity. Together they live and thrive. Separate them and both
decay and die. In Islam faith can not be divorced from the action.
Right knowledge should be transferred into right action to produce the
right results. How often the words came in Quran -- Those who believe
and do good thing, they alone shall enter paradise. Again and again,
not less than fifty times these words are repeated as if too much
stress can not be laid on them. Contemplation is encouraged but mere
contemplation is not the goal. Those who believe and do nothing can
not exist in Islam. These who believe and do wrong are inconceivable.
Divine law is the law of effort and not of ideals. It chalks out for
the men the path of eternal progress from knowledge to action and from
action to satisfaction.

But what is the correct faith from which right action spontaneously
proceeds resulting in complete satisfaction. Here the central doctrine
of Islam is the Unity of God. There is no God but God is the pivot
from which hangs the whole teaching and practice of Islam. He is
unique not only as regards his divine being but also as regards his
divine attributes.

As regards the attributes of God, Islam adopts here as in other things
too, the law of golden mean. It avoids on the one hand, the view of
God which divests the divine being of every attribute and rejects, on
the other, the view which likens him to things material. The Quran
says, On the one hand, there is nothing which is like him, on the
other , it affirms that he is Seeing, Hearing, Knowing. He is the King
who is without a stain of fault or deficiency, the mighty ship of His
power floats upon the ocean of justice and equity. He is the
Beneficent, the Merciful. He is the Guardian over all. Islam does not
stop with this positive statement. It adds further which is its most
special characteristic, the negative aspects of problem. There is also
no one else who is guardian over everything. He is the meander of
every breakage, and no one else is the meander of any breakage. He is
the restorer of every loss and no one else is the restorer of any loss
what-so-over. There is no God but one God, above any need, the maker
of bodies, creator of souls, the Lord of the day of judgment, and in
short, in the words of Quran, to him belong all excellent qualities.

Regarding the position of man in relation to the Universe, the Quran
says:

"God has made subservient to you whatever is on the earth or in
universe. You are destined to rule over the Universe."

But in relation to God, the Quran says:

"O man God has bestowed on you excellent faculties and has created
life and death to put you to test in order to see whose actions are
good and who has deviated from the right path."

In spite of free will which he enjoys, to some extent, every man is
born under certain circumstances and continues to live under certain
circumstances beyond his control. With regard to this God says,
according to Islam, it is my will to create any man under condition
that seem best to me. cosmic plans finite mortals can not fully
comprehend. But I will certainly test you in prosperity as well in
adversity, in health as well as in sickness, in heights as well as in
depths. My ways of testing differ from man to man, from hour to hour.
In adversity do not despair and do resort to unlawful means. It is but
a passing phase. In prosperity do not forget God. God-gifts are given
only as trusts. You are always on trial, every moment on test. In this
sphere of life there is not to reason why, there is but to do and die.
If you live in accordance with God; and if you die, die in the path of
God. You may call it fatalism. but this type of fatalism is a
condition of vigorous increasing effort, keeping you ever on the
alert. Do not consider this temporal life on earth as the end of human
existence. There is a life after death and it is eternal. Life after
death is only a connection link, a door that opens up hidden reality
of life. Every action in life however insignificant, produces a
lasting effect. It is correctly recorded somehow. Some of the ways of
God are known to you, but many of his ways are hidden from you. What
is hidden in you and from you in this world will be unrolled and laid
open before you in the next. the virtuous will enjoy the blessing of
God which the eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it
entered into the hearts of men to conceive of they will march onward
reaching higher and higher stages of evolution. Those who have wasted
opportunity in this life shall under the inevitable law, which makes
every man taste of what he has done, be subjugated to a course of
treatment of the spiritual diseases which they have brought about with
their own hands. Beware, it is terrible ordeal. Bodily pain is
torture, you can bear somehow. Spiritual pain is hell, you will find
it almost unbearable. Fight in this life itself the tendencies of the
spirit prone to evil, tempting to lead you into iniquities ways. Reach
the next stage when the self-accusing sprit in your conscience is
awakened and the soul is anxious to attain moral excellence and revolt
against disobedience. This will lead you to the final stage of the
soul at rest, contented with God, finding its happiness and delight in
him alone. The soul no more stumbles. The stage of struggle passes
away. Truth is victorious and falsehood lays down its arms. All
complexes will then be resolved. Your house will not be divided
against itself. Your personality will get integrated round the central
core of submission to the will of God and complete surrender to his
divine purpose. All hidden energies will then be released. The soul
then will have peace. God will then address you:

"O thou soul that art at rest, and restest fully contented with thy
Lord return to thy Lord. He pleased with thee and thou pleased with
him; So enter among my servants and enter into my paradise."

This is the final goal for man; to become, on the, one hand, the
master of the universe and on the other, to see that his soul finds
rest in his Lord, that not only his Lord will be pleased with him but
that he is also pleased with his Lord. Contentment, complete
contentment, satisfaction, complete satisfaction, peace, complete
peace. The love of God is his food at this stage and he drinks deep at
the fountain of life. Sorrow and defeat do not overwhelm him and
success does not find him in vain and exulting.

The western nations are only trying to become the master of the
Universe. But their souls have not found peace and rest.

Thomas Carlyle, struck by this philosophy of life writes "and then
also Islam-that we must submit to God; that our whole strength lies in
resigned submission to Him, whatsoever he does to us, the thing he
sends to us, even if death and worse than death, shall be good, shall
be best; we resign ourselves to God." The same author continues "If
this be Islam, says Goethe, do we not all live in Islam?" Carlyle
himself answers this question of Goethe and says "Yes, all of us that
have any moral life, we all live so. This is yet the highest wisdom
that heaven has revealed to our earth."