Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/118



us return for the moment to our friend Mohammed Beg. It will be recalled that on his way to Mecca he was deeply impressed with the changes that he saw overtaking Islam, and that seemed to be gradually making it over into a different religion altogether. He was also greatly worried over the detailed reports that he heard of the wholesale political changes that had transformed Turkey, and had separated church and state. The problem that never ceased to bother him, almost to the point of distraction, after he had observed some of the changes taking place in the lives and customs of Moslems was, "Can a person be modern and a good Moslem at the same time?" His own feelings and his reactions as a strictly orthodox follower of Islam answered this question with an emphatic "No!"

To one brought up as he had been, there could be no doubt about the matter. The law of Islam, based on the Koran and the Traditions, was the law of God. It spoke with the voice of authority. The program for all life, and all peoples, and all ages was laid down