Page:Maulana Muhammad Ali Quran.djvu/9

Rh If, in fact, you clearly observe uniformity in diversity in nature, do you not see therein a clear sign of the Unity of the Maker or Evolver? Then look to the incontestable evidence of human nature, how, even when believing in the plurality of gods, it recognizes a unity in the very plurality and thus bears testimony to the oneness of God. Again, turn over the pages of the sacred scriptures of any religion, search out the teachings of the great spiritual guides of all nations: they all testify to the oneness of the Divine Being. In short, the laws of nature, the nature of man, and the testimony of almost all the religious teachers of all ages declare with one voice the Unity of God, and this is the cardinal doctrine of the spiritual teachings of the faith of Islam.

Divine revelation.

The second fundamental principle of faith in the Islamic religion is a belief in the Divine revelation—not only a belief in the truth of the revealed Word of God as found in the Holy Qur-án, but a belief in the truth of Divine revelation in all ages and to all nations of the earth. Divine revelation is the basis of all revealed religions, but the principle is accepted subject to various limitations. Some religions consider revelation to have been granted to mankind only once; others look upon it as limited to a particular people; while still others close the door of revelation after a certain time. With the advent of Islam we find the same breadth of view introduced into the conception of Divine revelation as into the conception of the Divine Being. The Holy Qur-án recognizes no limit of any kind to Divine revelation, either in respect of time or in respect of the nationality of the individual to whom it may be granted. It regards all people as having at one time or other received Divine revelation. Without the assistance of revelation from God, no people could ever have attained to communion with God, and hence it was necessary that Almighty God—who, being the Lord of the whole world, supplied all men with their physical necessities—should also have brought to them His spiritual blessings. In this case too, Islam, while sharing with other faiths the belief in the fact of Divine revelation, refuses to acknowledge the existence of any limitation as regards time or place. Hence it also announces that though no prophet is needed after the Holy Prophet Muhammad, as religion and religious laws were made perfect at his advent, the door of Divine revelation is still open, and a true Muslim can have access to it.

There is also another aspect of the Islamic belief in Divine revelation in which it differs from some other religions of the world. It refuses to acknowledge the incarnation of the Divine Being. That the highest aim of religion is communion with God is a fact universally recognized. According to the holy faith of Islam, this communion is not attained by bringing down God to man in the sense of incarnation, but by man rising gradually towards God by spiritual progress and the purification of his life from all sensual desires and low motives. The perfect one who reveals the face of God to the world is not the Divine Being in human form, but the human being whose person has become a manifestation of the Divine attributes by his own personality having been consumed in the fire of the love of God. His example serves as an incentive, and is a model for others to follow. He shows by his example how a mere mortal can attain to communion with God. Hence the broad principle of Islam that no one is precluded from attaining communion with God or from being fed from the source of Divine revelation, and that any one can attain it by following the Holy Word of God as revealed in the Holy Qur-án.