EBook of Notes on Islam pdf download

EBook of Notes on Islam, by Ahmed Hussain

EBOOK OF NOTES ON ISLAM

From the Book

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 Movies) give glowing pictures of Heaven and Hell awaiting good and bad people after death.[50] But these motives are unworthy of the higher nature [Arabic: qu wa ye malakūti] of man.

They are like the crack of a whip or the show of green grass 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 that 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: malakÅ«ti] nature of man and assists 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 kum 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 surpass angels in godliness. 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 pass on to the main argument.

You always intend to do 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 that flow or result from your inward desires, passions, 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 that 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 conformity of Islam to a modern idea, that there are more worlds than one.[53] There are still some religions that assume that there is no other world than the world we live in and that God created and maintains it for men only.

Science has proved that such assumptions 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 monopolize God to itself.

Nor indeed have we, human beings, any right to consider ourselves as its superior inhabitants. Science is nowadays 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