PART III

A CANDID INQUIRY INTO THE CLAIM OF ISLAM TO BE GOD'S FINAL REVELATION.

CHAPTER I

AN EXPLANATION OF THE REASON AND SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY.

THE honoured perusers of these pages are respectfully informed that, not many years ago, there reached the famous city of Shiraz in Persia a Christian merchant, whose merchandise was beyond all price, since it consisted of copies of the Word of God, the Book of the "People of the Book", to which Holy Book the Qur'an itself bears such high testimony, as we have already seen in the First Part of this Treatise. Wonderful to relate, however, when the merchant offered these books for sale, the Mullas stirred up the mob against him. They seized all his books, tore them in pieces, trod them under foot, beat the merchant, drove him out of the city, just as the wicked husbandmen did to some of the servants of the Lord of the Vineyard (Matt. xxi. 33-44), and threatened to kill him if he returned to circulate the Holy Scriptures, regarding which Muslims are commanded in the Qur'an to say: "We¹ believe in God and in what has been sent down unto us and in what was sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes, and what Moses was brought, and Jesus, and what the Prophets were brought from their Lord; we make no difference between one of them [and another], and we are resigned to Him." In the crowd there stood a Persian

boy. He saw all that took place, and wondered how it was that the Mullas so impiously ventured to urge the ignorant populace to destroy books which the Qur'an professes to have come to confirm and defend.¹ While he thought over this matter, the idea occurred to his mind, "Is it possible that these books of the Christians contain something of which our Mullas are afraid, something which disproves Islam?" This thought terrified the boy, who had hitherto most firmly believed in his religion. He fought against the thought, but could not shake it off. At last, when he had grown up to be a young man, he determined to inquire what the proofs of Islam really were, in order thus to remove the doubts which tormented his mind. There then dwelt near Shiraz a very much revered Haji, who was famed for his strict observance of all the rites of his faith, for his diligence in the appointed prayers (الصّلوات), in reading the Qur'an, in fasting during the month of Ramazan, and everything else which distinguishes a pious Muslim. To him the young man went for instruction. But he feared to ask openly what he desired to know. Therefore, after a reverential salutation and after showing the venerable Haji all due deference, he said, "Yesterday your humble servant met a Jew, and tried to convert him to our holy faith. He listened to what I said about the Seal of the Prophets, the Chosen, the Messenger of God (صلعم), and then said, 'Please tell me what proof you have that Muhammad was a Prophet.' Sir, I gave him what answer I could, but did not convince him. Therefore I have come to ask your Honour what proofs I am to mention to him." The Haji drew himself up, looked sternly at the youth, and said, "You are an infidel." The youth fled in terror, and soon went to Bombay, where as soon as he could he borrowed the New Testament, and read it carefully, in order to find out what in it had frightened the Mullas and made them destroy the books.