English PDF - Ahmadiyya Gazette Canada

the foundations of the commonbrotherhood of man. Thereaftera Muslim can have nothing butreverence for the founders andleaders of other religions. For him,Krishna as , Ramchandra as , Buddha as ,Zoroaster as and Confucius as areas much the Prophets of Godas Moses as and Jesus as , the onlydifference being that as the latterare mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān,there is a greater amount ofcertainty concerning them. This factfundamentally affects the attitudeof Islām towards other religions. Assoon as a Muslim hears of an oldreligion of which he was not awarebefore, or learns about anold Prophet of whom hehad never heard before,ُذَل ‏سَ‏ ‏ط he is not troubled, asif another rival hadappeared in the field,but welcomes thediscovery as a fresh proofof the truth of Islām anda fresh confirmation of ّthe teachings of theُHoly Qur’ān. Does not Islām teach that َGod is Rabbul ‘Ālamīnand that His bounties arenot confined to Arabia andSyria, and that as the physical sunlights up every corner of the world,so must the Word of God illumineevery valley and give light to allnations?It may here be asked, that if allreligions have a Divine origin, whyshould we not accept all of them astrue and believe that every one ofthem leads to God? This questionhas been answered by the HolyQur’ān in the following verses:‘We swear by our Ownself,that We sent Messengers toall nations before you, butThe Islāmic Conception of Godذُ‏ ا ‏لْ‏ا ‏ل ذ ذُ‏ ا ‏لرَّا ذَ‏ عُ‏the wicked people engagedthem (i.e., the nations) in otherpursuits and such people aretheir friends today; they shallsuffer a grievous punishment.And We have not revealed tothee the book but that thoumay make clear to them that inwhich they had differed, andas a guidance and blessing forthose who believe.’(Al-Nahl,16: 64, 65)This verse indicates that theintegrity of all previous books andteachings had become doubtful andextraneous doubts and errors hadfound place in them beforethe advent of the HolyProphet sa so that inspite of their Divineorigin they had ا ‏لْ‏ یَل ْ ‏ذَل become unworthyof practice andcould no longer offerthe guarantee that byacting on them a mancould attain to God.ذَ‏ َا لْمُھع ذُّ‏ ا ذَ‏ لْھُد ‏لعُ‏ ا ‏لْ‏ ذَ‏ یْریْ‏ا ‏ل‏َ ر‏َّمَ‏ Another questionconcerning Godwhich it is the duty ofreligion to answer is,why cannot we see Godif He exists? It is easy to assertthat God exists, but the difficulty isto prove the various attributes ofGod. The Holy Qur’ān recognizesthis responsibility and furnishesproofs of the various Divineattributes. For instance concerningthe last mentioned question it says:‘God cannot be seen with thephysical eyes but He revealsHimself to the eyes of man. Heis too subtle to be seen by theeye of man, but He is aware ofeverything!’ (Al-An‘am, 6:104)What a brief but comprehensiveexplanation! Subtle things, forinstance, air, electricity, ether, etc.,cannot be seen by man. How can hethen see God, Who is more subtlethan the subtlest thing and is notmade of matter however subtle, butis Himself the creator of all things?On the other hand God knowsthat man is restlessly seeking Hisunion and is impatient for Hismeeting. He, therefore, Himselfcomes to man and reveals Himselfto his eyes, that is to say, manifestsHimself through His powers andattributes and thus man is enabledto see Him with the eyes of reason.Concerning the proof of theexistence of God, the Holy Qur’ānsays:‘Blessed is He in Whose handis the kingdom and Who haspower over all things, Whohas created life and death toascertain which of you is bestin deeds. (That is to say, Hehas created life for actions anddeath for compensation, forperfect compensation couldnot be awarded in this life, lestfaith should become a thing ofno value). He is the Mighty, theForgiving. He has created theseven heights, each supportingthe other. You will find noincongruity in Rahman’screation. Then look and seewhether you can discover anydefect, and look again and againand your look will return to youunsuccessful and fatigued.’(Al-Mulk, 67:2-5)In other words, if one considersthe entire universe, one will findthat every need has been met, andthe most appropriate materials forthe development of every facultyand capacity have been provided.11