Part 4 (1/2)
His sign is in all things,
* [Arabic: fa fi kulli ay?in lahu]
Indicating that He is One.
* [Arabic: aayah naral anna hu wa?id]
+Note 7.+
_III.--Why is Islam the best religion?_
My real task begins with this Note. I have to explain to you why I consider Islam[48] the best of the religions that are now professed by men all over the world. Mark, I do not say that other religions are not good, but I only say that Islam is the best religion of all those I know. Why do I say so? Because no other religion accords so well as Islam with the modern ideas of Science.
By applying the adjectives ”good,” ”better” and ”best” to religions, I indicate the _degree_ to which each religion, by its tenets and teaching, induces men to seek their welfare [Arabic: falah]: and by the word ”Science” [Arabic: ilm] I mean simply the systematised knowledge of things known and knowable.
_Science_ discovers things that are necessary or desirable for human welfare. _Arts_ generally show the way in which those things can be obtained or manufactured. _Governments_ provide, or ought to provide, facilities for scientific investigation and for improvement in arts. And it is _Religion_ that should move men to take the fullest advantage of the science and arts of the time. You may take a horse to a river but you cannot make him drink unless he is thirsty. If he is thirsty he will drink of his own accord; but if he is not, neither the appearance of clear water, nor the easy way to get at it, nor indeed your whip or coaxing can ever induce him to drink. In the same way Science may show you water or anything that is useful, Arts may show you different ways of getting it, the Government of your State may offer rewards or even threaten punishment; but you will not drink, that is to say, you will not take advantage of the good things shown you and placed at your disposal, unless you are thirsty, unless there is something in you which impels you to it. This thirst, this something that is the moving force or _motive_, is created or furnished by Religion.
The chief use of religion lies in the desire that it fosters in men to live well, and virtuously.[49] It is true that for most men the fear of punishment and the hope of reward, either here or hereafter, are motives for right conduct: and some religions (and even Islam as taught by some Moulvies) give glowing pictures of Heaven and h.e.l.l awaiting good and bad people after death.[50] But these motives are unworthy of the higher nature [Arabic: qu wa ye malakuti] of man. They are like the crack of a whip or the show of green gra.s.s to a horse that will not run. They are not so effective and lasting as the high spiritual motive for a virtuous life furnished by true religion. I cannot dwell further on this point without entering upon a philosophical or metaphysical discussion which is foreign to the purpose of these Notes. Suffice it to say that the spiritual or religious motive for virtuous conduct is the best of all motives, as it conforms to the higher or angelic [Arabic: malakuti]
nature of man and a.s.sists him in subduing his lower or animal [Arabic: ba ha'i mi] nature.[51]
”The son of man is a unique
and complex product (of
Evolution) which has combined
in him the natures of
[Persian: Aadmi zada turfah m'a both the angel and the beast.
joo ne ast za fa-rish-ta sa-rish-ta If he leans towards the latter,
hay wan gar kunad mayl een shuwad his animal nature, he
wa k.u.m azeen dar kunad qasn falls lower than the beast
aanshuwad beh azaan.]
itself, but if he turns his
attention to the former, his
angelic nature, he rises higher
than the angel himself.”
It is but religion, true Religion, that enables the ”son of man” _i.e._, mankind to surpa.s.s angels in G.o.dliness. Note, this is exactly what Sir Oliver Lodge says in his book, _The Substance of Faith allied with Science_.
There is another use of Religion to which I should refer briefly before I pa.s.s on to the main argument. You always intend doing many things but never succeed in doing them _all_, either because you change your mind or because somebody or something prevents you from carrying them out. It is nevertheless important to yourself and society that your wishes, which are naturally more numerous than your actions, should be as good as the actions themselves. Laws and social conventions cannot adequately control them, for they take account of only outward manifestations, that is, actions which flow or result from your inward desires, pa.s.sions and prejudices. These are controlled by such religions as true Christianity and true Islam which take that as done which was merely intended to be done, and inhibit bad intentions even before they appear in action.
Now, whatever religion supplies the best motives for virtuous conduct and most effectively prevents mischievous intentions, must necessarily be one which conforms best with the most approved ideas of the science and arts of the time. I hold that Islam is such a religion.[52]
Let me begin by showing a conformity of Islam to a modern idea, that there are more worlds than one.[53] There are still some religions which a.s.sume that there is no other world than the world we live in, and that G.o.d created and maintains it for men only. Science has proved that such a.s.sumptions are unwarranted, and has even suggested grounds for believing that there are beings in the innumerable worlds of stars. This world of ours with its inhabitants has therefore no right to monopolise G.o.d to itself. Nor indeed have we, human beings, any right to consider ourselves as its superior inhabitants. Science is now-a-days on the track of finding out beings who are or who may be superior to man. Note that all this is implied in the expression [Arabic: rabbi l-?alamin]
”the Lord of the _worlds_” contained in the Sura and other parts of the Qur'an. It does not say ”the king of the _world_” ([Arabic: rabbi l- ?alam]) or of _men_ [Arabic: rabbi l- ?insan] but says generally and truly that G.o.d is the King or Lord of great or grand _worlds_: [Arabic: rabbi l-?alamin], the definite article [Arabic: al] in Arabic is often used to express greatness or grandeur as in the word [Arabic: Allah]
which means the Most High G.o.d.
According to Islam there are two sources of knowledge, _Science_ and _Revelation_: the one represents man's effort to learn G.o.d's ways, and the other represents G.o.d's grace to discover His ways to man.[54] I for one believe that the difference between the two sources of knowledge corresponds to the difference between ”Experience” and ”Intuition,”
between Acquired Ideas and Innate Ideas--a difference which modern philosophers (Spencer and Bergson) consider to be one of degree only and not of kind.
+Note 8.+