not find it and walk therein, how can we escape from going astray and spiritual error (ضلالة)?

But above all things it is becoming that in our search for the truth we should avoid all strife and bitter controversy, all hatred and vituperation, remembering that these things blind men's spiritual eyes and prevent them from aiding one another in seeking for the precious jewel of Truth. Instead of hating and contending with one another about Religion, we should all endeavour to aid one another in this search and in our weary pilgrimage to the Threshold of the Court of God Most High, since we are all alike sons of Adam, creatures of the One True God, and pupils in the school of this lower world. The poet Sa'di has well said:

Members¹ a.e Adam's sons one of another,
Made from one essence, brother and brother:
Should one member suffer disaster or pain,
Other members no rest for themselves can obtain.

If we help our brothers and fellow-seekers for the light, we may trustfully and hopefully turn in humility to entreat God Most Merciful to show us the light of His Countenance and to help us to lay aside all spiritual pride, since God's blessing can never rest upon the proud.

Learn² humbleness, O thou who thirstest for grace:
River's water ne'er drinketh too lofty a place.

Truly has the poet said:

When³ God would succour us, His own,
He moves us for His aid to moan.

As the sun is visible to our eyes only through his own light, so only through the spiritual radiance of

His own Divine Grace can the Invisible God become visible to our spiritual sight. Having therefore through earnest and continuous prayer, offered from the depth of our hearts, obtained God's gracious guidance, and having thus been led to the Knowledge of the Truth, let us accept and acknowledge it wherever we may have found it knowing that all truth is from God, who is Himself the Truth (ألْحقّ). For whoso despiseth the Truth rejected God Himself.

This Treatise is divided into three Parts. In the First we shall consider the assertion of the ignorant that the Torah, Zabur, and Injil now current among Christians are both corrupted and abrogated. In the Second we shall briefly state the main doctrines of the Christian faith, and inquire whether the Old Testament and the New satisfy the tests already mentioned. In the Third Part we shall consider whether, as the Muslims hold, the Qur'an is the Word of God (كلام الله) and Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets, the Messenger of God. And may God's blessing rest upon this attempt to point out the Way of Salvation and upon all who seek by God's grace to walk therein.