The soul of Islam is its declaration of the unity of God; its heart is the inculcation of an absolute resignation to His will.

 
                                                                                             EDWIN ARNOLD.

 
        The religion preached by Muhammad has been called Mahommedanism, and its followers Mahommedans, as parallel terms to Christianity and Christians. These are misnomers. Its correct name is Islam, and the followers of the faith of Islam are called Muslims. The word `Islam' means `absolute submission to the Will of God', but this does not imply any idea of fatalism any more than `Thy will be done' does to the Christian. In its ethical sense it signifies `Striving after the Ideal (Righteousness)'. `Islam' is derived from a root word which means `peace'. The greeting of the Muslims is `Assalam o-Aleikum', which means `Peace be unto you'.

 
        Muslims do not worship Muhammad, who, according to their religion, was a Prophet divinely inspired, but a mortal man. `Muhammad is only (a man) charged with a Mission, before whom there have been others who received heavenly Missions and died. 1

        Muhammad did not claim to be the founder of a new religion, his mission was to restore the earlier religions to their pristine purity. 2The Muslim believes in a chain of inspired prophets 3 and teachers, who taught the same truths, beginning with the dawn of religious consciousness in man. With the evolution, progress, and advancement of humanity, the Divine Will reveals and manifests itself more clearly and distinctly. They believe in the Divine Revelations 4 of all earlier prophets, and that the Kur'an is the latest Revelation of them all, and has been sent to revive and consolidate the fundamental truths of religion, to the end that it might continue in the earth. 5

        The Kur'an makes no distinction between any of the prophets 6 and the Muslims use for all of them the same term of respect, `Sayedana, Hazrat' (My Lord and Master), as they use for their own prophet, Muhammad.

        The Muslim believes in the message of Lord Jesus but not in his divinity or sonship.7

 
        The Muslim conception of God is that He does not assume human form and is free from all human needs and imperfections; He is One, Invisible, Eternal, Indivisible, Beneficent, Al mighty, All-Knowing, Omnipresent, Just. Merciful, Loving and Forgiving. 9
Belief in the unity of God is the essential requirement for a Muslim; no baptism or formal ceremony of conversion is necessary as in the Christian religion.

        The Muslims believe that the Jews made the mistake of denying the Mission of Christ, and that the Christians erred by exceeding the bounds of praise and deifying Christ. In order to avoid any misconception, Muhammad's position as a Messenger or Prophet of God is repeatedly made clear. (Saying 57, page 61.)

        There is no monasticism nor any priesthood in Islam. Muhammad said: "The retirement that becometh my followers is to live in the world and yet to sit in the corner of a Mosque in the expectation of prayers." Muslims do not believe that any priest, pastor or saint can intervene or mediate between the individual worshipper and his Creator, nor can anyone grant indulgence or absolution from sins. In congregational worship any Muslim of good character can be the `Imam' or leader of the prayers in the Mosque. The idea of a church and clergy in the Christian sense is foreign to and unknown in Islam.

        The Muslims believe in the immortality of the soul, and the accountability for human actions in another existence; but they do not accept the doctrine of original sin, and hence, according to Islam, the souls of unbaptised babes are not lost. Muslims do not believe in the doctrine of Redemption or of vicarious atonement: each soul must work out its own salvation. It is therefore held that, provided a person believes in the cardinal doctrines of Islam, no one can say that he is not a Muslim. If a bad Muslim amends and reforms by sincere repentance, God will forgive his sins. 10 Islam does not promise salvation to Muslims alone, but gives equal hope to the righteous and God-fearing of all religions. `Whether Muslim, Jew, Christian or Sabian, whosoever believes in God and in the Last Day and does good to others, verily he shall find his recompense with his Lord. For him there shall be no terror, neither any torment or suffering. 11
 

TOLERATION

        Islam is against aggression, sanction is given for war only in self-defence. `Fight in the way of God against those who attack you, but begin not hostilities. Verily, God loveth not the aggressors. 12 And if they (enemies) incline towards peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in God. 13

 
        There is no ground for the oft-repeated allegation that Islam is intolerant and was propagated by the sword. The Kur'an states clearly `there is no compulsion in religion. 14 itwas only when her liberty and particularly her right of freedom of worship was threatened that `Islam seized the sword inself-defence, and held it in self-defence, as it will ever do. But Islam never interfered with the dogmas of any moral faith. It never invented the rack or the stake for stifling difference of opinion, or strangling the human conscience, or exterminating heresy.'.. . `It has been alleged that a war-like spirit was infused into mediaeval Christianity by aggressive Islam! The massacres of Justinian and the fearful wars Christian Clovis in the name of religion occurred long before the time of Muhammad. *1* The conduct of the Christian Crusaders when they captured Jerusalem provides a striking contrast to the behaviour of the Muslims when theyoccupied the city 600 years earlier.

        When the Khalif Omar took Jerusalem, A.D. 637, he rode into the city by the side of the Patriarch Sophronius, conversing with him on its antiquities. At the hour of prayer, he declined to perform his devotions in the Church of the Resurrection, in which he chanced to be, but prayed on the steps of the Church of Constantine *2* ; "for", said he to the Patriarch, "had I done so, the Muslims in a future age might have infringed the treaty, under colour of imitating my example". But in the capture by the Crusaders, the brains of young children were dashed out against the walls; infants were pitched over the battlements; men were roasted at fires; some were ripped up, to see if they had swallowed gold; the Jews were driven into their synagogue and there burnt; a massacre of nearly 70,000 persons took place, and the Pope's legate were seen partaking in the triumph!'*3*

        According to the Muslim Laws of War, those of the conquered peoples who embraced Islam became the equals of the conquerors in all respects; and those who chose to keep their own religion had to pay a tribute (called jizyah), but after that enjoyed full liberty of conscience, and were secured and protected in their occupations.15 In civil employment they could even become Ministers of State. Non-Muslims serving in the army were exempted from payment of this tax, and could even hold high command.

        The jizyah has been much misrepresented: it was not, as is usually stated, a tax on nonMuslims as a penalty for refusal to accept the faith of Islam; it was paid in return for the protection given to them by the Muslim army, to which they were not compulsorily conscripted like the Muslims. Non-Muslims were exempt from payment of zakat, the poor-rate of 2,5 per cent on one's total assets for each year, which was compulsory for Muslims, and the jizyah tax which they did have to pay was very light: the rich paid 48 dirhams a year (a dirham is about 5d.), the middle-class paid 24, while from the field-labourers and artisans only 12 dirhams were taken. The tax could be paid in kind; cattle, merchandise, household effects, even needles were accepted in lieu of specie, but not pigs, wine or dead animals. The tax was levied only on able-bodied men, and not on women and children; the aged and the indigent, the blind and the maimed were specially exempt, as were the priests and monks, unless they were well-to-do (Bell, pp. xxv, 173, and Abu Yusuf, pp.69-71, quoted by Sir Thomas Arnold in The Preaching of Islam, p.60).

        When the Roman Emperor embraced Christianity, the population of the whole Roman Empire, including Egypt, was by decree forced to renounce all other religions and adopt Christianity; but it was not until after five hundred years of Muslim rule in Egypt that, as the result of peaceful conversion, the Muslims formed even 50 per cent. of the total population. In Northern India (the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh), which has been under Muslim rule for six centuries, and in which are situated the important Muslim capital cities of Agra, Delhi, Lucknow, Allahabad and Rampur, there is a Hindu population of 41 millions, against the Muslim population of 7 millions, according to the Census of 1931. The Hindus and Muslims have lived together as fellow-citizens for centuries, and their reciprocal social and cultural influences have created a fusion which can be seen in their similarity of language, dress, and general level of culture. The Hindus in these parts are nearer to the Muslims in all these respects and provide a striking contrast to their Hindu brethren of the same castes living in southern India.
 

        SOCIAL REFORMS: POSITION OF WOMEN

        Islam forbids drinking, gambling, usury and all forms of vice. It introduced far-reaching changes in the social structure of the period: Muhammad said, "Henceforth, usury is prohibited. The debtor shall return only the principal; and the beginning will be made with the loans of my uncle Abbas, son of Abdul-Muttalib," and "Henceforth the vengeance of blood is forbidden and all blood feuds abolished commencing with the murder of my cousin Ibn Rabi'a, son of Al-Harith son of Abdul-Muttalib. *4*So far back as the seventh century of the Christian era, Islam abolished the horrible practice of female
infanticide prevalent among the pagan Arabs, 16 gave clear directions leading to the restriction of polygamy, *5* 17 restrained the unlimited rights exercised by men over their wives, and gave woman both spiritual and material equality with man .18 Muslim women inherit a share of the property of their husbands, parents and kinsfolk. 19 Pierre Crabites, an American judge in the Cairo mixed tribunals, after a long experience of Muslim law as
administered in the Egyptian capital, says: `Muhammad was probably the greatest champion of women's rights the world has ever seen. Islam conferred upon the Muslim wife property rights and juridical status exactly the same as that of her husband. She is free to dispose of and manage her financial assets as she pleases, without let or hindrance from her husband. 20

        Bertram Thomas says: `His humanity was all- embracing. He never ceased to champion the cause of woman against the ill-treatment of his contemporaries. He condemned the practice of inheriting the widow with the rest of an estate as though she were a chattel.*6* She must not be a despised creature to be ashamed of and to be ill-treated any more, but a person to love and cherish and respect: at her feet lay the gates of paradise.
 

        And so with slavery: he laboured for the amelioration of the slaves' lot, liberating any that were presented to him. He taught that the slave mother should not be separated from her children, extolled the freeing of slaves as penance, lauded the feeding of the orphan in times of famine and the poor man who lies in the dust.' Islam laid the foundation for the abolition of slavery by making the manumission of captives of war an item of expenditure in the budget of the Muslim State. In any case, slavery as understood in the West is unknown to the Muslims- the Memluk Sultans of Egypt, the slave kings and Malliks of Indian history are examples to prove this point.

        Great social changes were brought about by breaking down the differences between free-man and freed-man; placing every Muslim under the protection of the entire community, and instituting a compulsory poor rate (zakat) by which every Muslim had to pay 2,5 per cent of his total assets for the year to be collected in a central Tresury and distributed among the poor.
 

 
        Islam teaches, that all men are equal before God. There is no colour or race prejudice, and no distinction between Arab and non-Arab-good ness is the only criterion of worth. Muslims are spread all over the world and in many countries form the majority of the population. Though so widely separated by land and sea, and in spite of the diversity of race, nationality and colour, a living spirit of brotherhood, whose loyalties outweigh those of either kin or tribe, binds together the followers of the faith of Islam to-day just as it did when the first followers of the Prophet of Arabia embraced the religion.

        The Muslims are not broken up by caste restrictions based on occupation or wealth, or by barriers against intermarriage. The Haj is not a pilgrimage in the ordinary sense. It is not a visit to a place of sanctity to which miracles and superstitions are attached. It is a commemoration of a great event in the spiritual life of Ibrahim. It is a symbol of the journey of life, and an annual re-enactment of the principles of equality and brotherhood. There, the rich and the poor alike appear in the congregation for worship and in the sacred precincts of the Ka'aba clad in a simple unembroidered, unstitched, white garment , with bare head and either bare-foot or with an unstitched sandal; the women keep their beads covered but their faces unveiled. Here, as in any place of worship throughout the Muslim world, the prince and the peasant pray together in the same room, and indeed can sit in the same ranks. No one has any right of precedence in the House of God.
 

 
        1. Affirmation of belief in the unity of God and the recognition of the Divine Mission of  Muhammad as a Messenger of God (cardinal doctrines of Islam).

 
        2. Prayers five times a day.*7*

        3. Fasting for one month in every lunar year .*8*

 
        4. Obligatory annual payment of zakat or poor rate, for the relief of the needy (one-fortieth, 2,5 per cent. of the value of a person's movable possessions for the year).

 
        5. Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a person's lifetime. Incumbent on those whose financial, mental and physical conditions, and family obligations, permit it.

 
        MUSLIM PRAYERS

 
        As has already been pointed out, the Muslims are required to pray five times a day, but as the prayers are short and to the point, they do not take up much time nor weary the mind. In fact, they help to discipline the mind and develop its capacity of concentration, by lifting up the heart to God and feeling the comfort and strength of His presence. Of the five periods allotted for prayers, none can be called irrational. Nor can the midday prayers be criticised as interfering with the exigencies of modern business practice, for it must not be forgotten that in the middle of the day there is always an interruption of work for the midday meal, which is a physical necessity, and during this interval a Muslim can easily find a few minutes in which to say his prayers, thus satisfying his spiritual needs, and resuming his work refreshed and fortified both in body and in mind. Besides this, the Muslim law provides that if; for any special reasons, the prayers cannot be said within the prescribed period, it is permissible to offer them at the earliest opportunity.

 
        The form of Muslim prayers described in the Appendix is based on the traditions of the practices of the Prophet, and were prescribed to maintain a uniformity of practice. The Muslim is not required to put on any special vestments; there is no music or incense nor any such rituals as are considered necessary for communal worship in other religions. Islam does not require any ceremony of consecration of the ground on which the Muslim builds his place of worship (musjid, mosque), nor does the Kur'an recognise such a place as essential for the due worship of God. `It is one of the glories of Islam', says an English writer, *9*`that its temples are not made with hands, and that its ceremonies can be performed anywhere upon God's earth or under his heaven.' The Muslim offers his prayers wherever he happens to be at the appointed hour-he can pray standing, sitting or lying down; alone, or in company. For the soldier, it is enough if he whispers a remembrance in the recesses of his heart amid the heat and clamour of the battlefield. Every man and woman learns to say the prayers individually or in groups with a mind not befogged but able to understand all that is said' (iv. 43).

 
        The Muslims believe that, while praying, they are in the presence of their Maker, and therefore stand in orderly rows, and pray in a respectful attitude. They turn their faces towards Mecca (the Ka`aba), not to worship anything or anyone, but as the central point round which, at the appointed hours of prayer, are focused the religious thoughts of Muslims all the world over, and he feels that he is one of the great community which keeps alive the memory of the inviolable place of worship where  Ibrahim prayed to one God without partner or associate, and which again saw the light of the regenerated truth preached by Muhammad. The Kur'an does not teach that God is to be found in any particular direction: "Unto God belongeth the East and the West, and whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of thy Lord. Behold, God is All- Pervading, All-Knowing"(ii. 115).

 
        Islam makes cleanliness a part of godliness. 22 Prayers cannot be offered in a state of impurity (iv. 43). The worshipper must be clean in mind as well as in body, and wear a clean, simple and decent dress. The parts most likely to be soiled - the hands, feet and face-are washed before prayers in the prescribed manner, and this is considered sufficient before daily prayers, but for the congregational prayers on Fridays and on `Id days, a complete bath and change of garments are necessary. Before attending public worship one is also directed not to smoke, eat or drink anything that may make one's breath a nuisance to fellow-worshippers. These are excellent hygienic rules, and help one to achieve the essential requirement of cleansing the mind and heart from worldly thoughts.

        POLYGAMY

        With regard to polygamy, Muhammad did not introduce this practice, as has so often been wrongly alleged. The Scriptures and the other sacred books bear abundant proof of the fact that it was recognised as lawful and, indeed, widely practised by patriarchal prophets, Zoroastrians, Hindus and Jews. In Arabia and all the surrounding countries a system of temporary marriages, marriages of convenience, and unrestricted concubinage was also prevalent: this, together with polygamy, had most disastrous effects on the entire social and moral structure, which Muhammad remedied.

        Muhammad married Khadija at the age of 25, and he took no other wife during the twenty-six years of their married life. He married A'isha, daughter of Abu Bakr, at the age of 54, three years after the death of Khadija. After this marriage, he took other wives, about whom non-Muslim writers have directed much unjust criticism against him. The facts are that all these ladies were old maids or widows left destitute and without protection during the repeated wars of persecution, and as head of the State at Medina the only proper way, according to the Arab code, in which Muhammad could extend both protection and maintenance to them was by marriage. The only young person was Maria the Copt, who was presented to him as a captive of war, and whom he immediately liberated, but she refused to leave his kind protection and he therefore married her.

        `History proves conclusively that, until very recent times, polygamy was not considered to be so reprehensible as it is now. St. Augustine himself seems to have observed in it no intrinsic immorality or sinfulness, and declared that polygamy was not a crime where it was the legal institution of a country. The German reformers, as Hallam points out, even so late as the sixteenth century, admitted the validity of a second or

 
        Polygamy was consequential upon the social necessities of the age and moral conceptions of the people of the time: (1) To ensure an increase in the birth-rate and thereby the chance of replacing the depleted male population due to constant intertribal warfare. (2) Women were so helpless that marriage gave them a means of obtaining both bread and protection, and it was a chivalrous act to marry as many women as they could support. (3) It was considered a great indignity on the family, indeed on the whole clan, if a girl remained unmarried, or married below her social status. Eligible bridegrooms not only had more than one offer of marriage, but parents vied with each other in providing inducements in the form of valuable jewellery and property as dowers.

 
        In later times polygamy became a self-indulgent vice. It is to the credit of Islam that in the 4th year of the Muslim era, that is about 1,356 years ago, not only did the law relieve parents from the necessity of providing burdensome dowers, but on the contrary made it incumbent on the husband to fix a suitable dower (maher) on his wife at the time of marriage, and put a clear restriction on polygamy by religious enactment. `Ye may marry of the women who seem good to you, two or three or four, but if ye fear that ye cannot observe equity between them, then espouse but a single wife' (iv. 3). Some Muslims contend that the unrestricted number of wives allowed in pre-Islamic times has been limited by the above verse of the Kur'an to a maximum of four, provided one is able to treat them with perfect equality. They therefore divide material things equally between their wives, and also equally apportion the hours they spend in their company, and thus think that they are not breaking the law. On the other hand, the growing majority of Muslims interpret the above verse as a clear direction towards monogamy, and it has become customary among all classes of the Indian Muslims to insert in the marriage-deed (Kabin-nama) a clause by which the intending husband formally undertakes not to take another wife during the continuance of the first marriage. Verse 129 of chapter iv declares: "And ye will never be able to be equitable and just between women, no matter how much ye may strive to do so."Reading this verse together with verse 3 of chapter iv, given above, and considering the fact that it is impossible to show equality of affection to one's children, let alone to One's wives. There can be no doubt that the direction is clearly towards monogamy.

 
        The feeling against polygamy has become a strong social force amongst Indian Muslims, and the most progressive Muslim countries have already authoritatively declared polygamy, like slavery and the seclusion of women (the purdah system), to be abhorrent to the laws of Islam.

        MUSLIM CONCEPTION OF THE HEREAFTER-PARADISE
 

 
        In modern times, no Muslim of even average intelligence and culture interprets the descriptions in the Kur'an in their literal sense, and would refute most emphatically that any Muslim, no matter how dull and untutored his mind, looks forward to sensual enjoyment in the next world. The similes and descriptions given in the Kur'an are worded in such a manner as to be easily understood by the people to whom they were addressed. To the parched, toiling and destitute Arab of the desert, constantly engaged in internecine warfare, what could more vividly depict his ideals of happiness, dignity and comfort than a Paradise which is a garden, shady and evergreen, with murmuring streams of pure water, an unending season of fruits, stately mansions luxuriously furnished, and handsome attendants-no necessity for work, only peace and plenty. That these are allegorical descriptions will be clear from verse 35 of chapter xiii of the Kur'an:"The likeness, or similitude, of the Heaven which the righteous are promised is a garden beneath which flow rivers; perpetual is the enjoyment thereof its food is everlasting, and the shade thereof. Such is the reward of the righteous." The direction to follow the spirit and not the letter of the teachings of the Kur'an is clear from verse 6 of chapter iii: `It is He who hath revealed unto thee the Book (the Kur'an)". Some of its verses are decisive, clear to understand they are the basis of the Book-and others are allegorical. Those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part that is allegorical, seeking to mislead, and seeking to give it (their own) interpretation.

 
        From the following quotations it will be obvious that the Kur'an promises a spiritual Paradise.

     xiii. 21-4: `Those who bear calamity with fortitude, seeking the bliss of the countenance of their Lord:..... Gardens of perpetual bliss they shall enter there.....and angels shall enter unto them from every gate; Peace be unto you for that ye patiently endured calamity! Now how excellent is the final Home!

 
        lii. 23: "There they pass from hand to hand a cup wherein is neither taint nor cause of sin."

 
        xv 47-8: "And we shall remove evil and rancour from their hearts, they will be as brethren face to face, resting on couches raised. Toil cometh not to them there, nor will they be expelled from thence".

 
        lvi. 25-6: "There hear they no vain talk nor recrimination, only the word "Peace! Peace!"

 
        ix.72: "God hath promised to Believers, men and women, hallowed dwellings in Gardens under which rivers flow, to abide therein. But greater by far is the Presence of God-that is the supreme felicity."

 
        iii. 194: "Never will I suffer to be lost the work of any of you, be ye male or female. Ye are members one of another, of the same human status I will blot out their iniquities, and admit them into Gardens with rivers flowing beneath, a reward from God-the nearness of His presence is the best of rewards."

 
        xxxii. 17: "No one comprehends the celestial bliss which awaits him, the glory that will illuminate the darkness of his eyes as a reward for his good deeds." (See Saying 230.)

 
        lxxxix. 27-30: "O soul. that art at rest, return to thy Lord joyfully with his grace upon thee. Enter thou the fold of My devotees. Yea. enter thou My Heaven".

 
        With regard to the translations of the Kur'an on which most of the misconceptions and allegations against Islam have been based, it must be made clear that no synod of learned men were ever commissioned to produce an authentic translation of the Kur'an from the original Arabic into English or any other language. The existent translations are the result of the efforts of individual translators from time to time, each of whom has put his own meaning to the words, and given interpretation to the context according to his own ideas. It must also be realised that, apart from the fact that the Kur'an is written in several dialects (see Saying 100), the Arabic language itself is such that the slightest change of vowel points and accent entirely alters the meaning and significance of a sentence, and it is painful to see the mutilations and misrepresentations, some due to honest mistakes owing to lack of familiarity with the idiomatic expressions of the language, and others due to prejudice and venom against the Muslims and their religion. The standard translation in English, by George Sale, a learned Christian missionary, which finds a place in the Chandos Classics, is based on the Latin version of the Kur'an by Maracci, the confessor of Pope Innocent XI. The object of this work, which was dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, was to discredit Islam in the eyes of Europe, and Maracci introduces it by an introductory volume containing what he calls `a refutation of the Kur'an.' It is a recognised fact of history that in the Dark Ages of the Crusades, truth was constantly perverted for the sake of political ends. `To this day, wherever scientific thought has not infused a new soul, wherever true culture has not gained a foothold, the old Spirit of exclusiveness and intolerance, the old ecclesiastic hatred of Islam, displays itself in writings, in newspaper attacks, in private conversations, in public speeches.'*10*

         I earnestly trust that the modern spirit of enquiry and broadminded tolerance will prevent the acceptance of these old prejudices, and the publication of this little book will, `be the ambassador of and understanding between the Muslims and Christians.