Islam, the Misundersood Religion

hat one may not believe in it as there
is no difference between the two states of belief and unbelief '?
Talking about Islam they betray a similar state of intellectual crisis when the
missionaries of Islam tell them that Islam is not a mere creed, nor does it represent simply
an edification of souls, or a refinement and training of human virtues but is rather a
harmonious whole that also includes a just economic system, a well-balanced social
organization, codes of civil, criminal as well as international law, & philosophical
outlook upon life along with a system of physical instruction, all of these flowing from
the same fundamental creed of Islam and its moral and spiritual temperament. When they
hear all this, these "educated" people are greatly perplexed, for they supposed that Islam
had since long ceased to exist as it has become outmoded and had exhausted all its
usefulness. That is why they are surprised when they hear devout Muslims saying that
Islam does not belong to a remote past, it is not obsolete or antiquated but is a living and
flourishing system of life even at the present moment, as it holds within itself such
elements of life as no other system known to humanity does including socialism as well
as communism or any other system.
At this their surprise exceeds limits, they can no more contain themselves, so they
scream at these preachers of Gods words: Do you tell us all this about the religion that
approves of slavery, feudalism and capitalism-the system which holds that woman is only
a half-man and imprisons her within her household; which prescribes such punishments
as stoning to death, mutilation and whipping; which lets its people live on charity; which
splits them up into different classes, some exploiting the other; a system which provides
no security of decent living to the toiling people; and a system which is such and such,
how is it possible that such a system should even hold its own today, let alone its survival
in the future? Not to speak of its triumph and contending successfully, how can such a
system even hold out in the ruthless ideological struggle going on at present among
different modern socioeconomic systems?
Before proceeding further let us, however, pause awhile and see as to who these
"educated" skeptics are? Whence does their skepticism originate? Is this attitude of mind
a result of their own free thinking or are they merely parroting the words of other, without
even so much as understanding them?
The fact is that the skepticism exhibited by these gentlemen is not at all a result of
their own independent thinking, nor did it originate in their own minds as such. For its
true source we win have to go back a little over the history of modern times.
The Middle Ages witnessed crusades between Europe and the world of Islam. Furious
battles were fought between the two after which followed a period that saw a suspension
of hostilities between the two camps but their hostility towards each other never ended as
is well borne out by what Lord Allenby said in clear terms on the occasion of the British
occupation of Jerusalem in World War I: "Now have the crusades come to an end!'
We must also keep in mind that during the last two centuries European imperialism
remained in conflict with the Islamic Orient.
The British stepped into Egypt in 1882 following Taufiq's treachery. They hatched a
plot with him for the military occupation of Egypt in order to thwart the popular
revolution under the leadership of Orabi. Thereafter the British policy of necessity
revolved around one basic aim: strengthening their hold more and more on the Islamic
world and safeguarding their interests from being swept away by the true Islamic spirit of
the Orient. We would in this respect like to refer to what the British Prime Minister of the
Victorian age, Mr. Gladstone said in the House of Commons. Holding up the Holy Qur'an
in his hands he told the members of the House: "So long as the Egyptians have got this
book with them, we will never be able to enjoy quiet or peace in that land".
Naturally the policy pursued by the British was one of deriding Islamic laws and
principles, of exiling the sense of their sanctity from Muslims' hearts, and of painting
Islam in the blackest of colors so as to make them look down upon it and in due course of
time to discard it totally. They did all this in order to tighten up their imperialistic grip on
this country.
The educational policy they adopted in Egypt was such as left the students quite
ignorant about the reality of Islam, except that it was a religion embracing worships,
prayers, praising and glorifying God, and pursuing mystic practices; that the Qur'an was a
book read in order to invoke God's blessings and that Islam was a theoretical invitation to
pursue the noblest and most generous of moral precepts. Students were never told
anything about Islam as a socio-economic system of government or as a constitution, or
as a basis of internal and external policy, or as a system of education, or as a way of life
and a watcher over life. What they were taught instead was the doubts cast against Islam
by the orientalists and other European crusaders in order to make the Muslims forsake
their religion and succumb easily to the evil machinations of imperialism.
They were taught; that the only genuine social system in existence was that which
Europe possessed, the only true economic system was one that was conceived by the
European philosophers, the right and most appropriate form of constitutional government
was what the Europeans, thanks to their various experiments, evolved. They were taught
that the rights of man were first taken cognizance of by the French Revolution, that
democracy was fostered and made popular by the English people, and that it was the
Roman Empire that provided any basis of civilization. In short, the British depicted
Europe as a rebellious but mighty giant with none to stand in its way or check its progress
whereas they presented the East as a dwarfish underling with no standing of its own save
that of subordination to Europe and complete dependence upon it for its social and
cultural outlook.
This political policy at last took effect. Among the Egyptians there sprang up
generations who were shorn of any thought of their individuality or independent cultural
existence. They were completely enthralled by Europe; they worshipped it most
devotedly; they could neither see with their own eyes nor were they any more left capable
of thinking for themselves; they would see just what the Europeans wanted them to see;
and they thought what they wished them to think.
The "educated" intelligentsia of today represents as such the culminating point of
what the imperialists with their political maneuvers achieved in-this country.
These poor people know nothing about Islam but doubt. About Islam they have no
information save what they received through their European masters. That is why they
are seen shouting like them advocating the separation of religion from the state and of
science from Islam.
But in their ignorance they pass by the fact that the religion that Europe shook off was
one quite different from what the advocates of Islamic ideology call upon people to
adopt; and that the particular circumstances that prevailed in Europe at the time and made
it turn its back upon religion were confined to that region of the world only. Nothing of
the sort ever happened in the Islamic orient; nor is there any likelihood of its ever
happening there. Thus when they call upon their countrymen to discard Islam or declare
that Islam should have no say in the management of social, political and economic affairs
of community and life, they are merely expressing and parroting the imported thoughts of
their masters.
Europe was the scene of a conflict between religion and science, because the church
there had arbitrarily embraced certain theories and dogmas (inheriting them from Greece)
and insisted that they were sacred and a gospel truth. So when the theoretical and the
empirical science demonstrated the error and fallacy of these theories, the people there
had no other course but to believe in science and disbelieve in the church as well as in the
religion these churchmen stood for. The war between religion and science gained in
intensity and the enthusiasm to get free from the dominance of these religious men
increased as the church in Europe conferred upon itself divine power and proceeded to
enforce it in a most tyrannical manner. Thus for the people there religion came to signify
an abominable ghoul that harassed them in their working no less than in their sleeping
hours. It exacted from men costly extortion and reduced them to an abject state of
subordination to the churchmen, besides calling upon them to swallow nonsense and
superstitions in the name of God. The torturing of scientists and burning them alive
because they said, for instance, that the earth was round, was the ugliest of crimes that
made it a sacred duty of every sensible, free-thinking and conscientious individual there
to come forward and help the forces that sought to destroy this abominable ghoul or at
least put it in chains so as not to let it ever again harass and oppress the people besides
harming the cause of religion by misrepresenting it and making others feel as if religion
contained nothing but falsehood and untruth.
But what about us, we who live in the Islamic East? Why should we separate science
from religion or hold that the two are at variance and war with each other? Is there even a
single scientific fact which has been found to contradict Islam and its basic creed? Were
scientists ever subjected to persecution in the domain of Islam? The whole history of
Islam is before us. It testifies that there have been great doctors, astronomers,
mathematicians, physicists as well as chemists but never were they persecuted for their
views. There is no trace of any conflict between science and their religious beliefs to be
found in the minds of these great Muslim scientists. Nor did there exist any hostilities
between them and the ruling authorities such as might have led to their suffering or
burning alive.
What is it then that makes these "educated" people plead for separation of religion
from science, for attacking Islam and finding faults with it without any understanding or
knowledge of it? Their feverish crying is nothing but a symptom of the poison that had
been administered to them by the imperialists, of course, without their knowing it.
This class of the "educated" elite was not at all in my mind when I wrote this book.
They would never return to what is right until their masters in the West also do turn
towards it after despairing of their Godless materialistic civilization and recognize that it
can bring them no salvation, and so return to a system of life that is at once spiritual as
well as practical-a system embracing belief no less than life at once and at the same time.
I had rather another class before me in writing this book-the sincere and enlightened
youth, who earnestly wish to find out the reality, the truth, but the doubts and lies spread
about Islam by the deceitful imperialistic powers leave them helpless to see the light, or
the answer to these lies, and so they are left groping about in darkness, for the slaves of
imperialism and the devils of communism would not let them march out to the right paththe
path to freedom, honor and sublimity. It is to this enlightened and sincere group of
young men that I present this book and hope that it may please God to help me dispel
doubts about Islam from their minds.