Documents of the Right Word

One day a bomb exploded in the midst of the West’s world of
arts, letters and politics: “Roger Garaudy embraces Islam!” With
the spread of this news to the whole world through telexes of news
agencies, the Kremlin was terribly shocked, since the Kremlin was
losing its greatest master of French communists; Garaudy was a
well-known scholar, with whose pen Marxism had been
disseminated for years.
This great man was now telling the truth: “Islam is the religion
that drags the ages behind itself. Other religions, however, were
dragged behind the ages. That is, all religions except Islam were
altered according to the time and reformed, and their holy books
were distorted to conform to the conditions of the time. However,
Qur’ân al-kerîm has dominated over the ages ever since its
descent. Not Qur’ân al-kerîm, but time followed behind. As time
got older, it became younger. This is an event that occurs beyond
the ages. This is an event much greater than all the terrible social,
political and economic disasters that followed so many wars in
history. Islam prevails against not only materialism or positivism,
but also existentialism. However, none of them prevailed over
Islam.
“The Great Prophet of Islam (’alaihi ’s-salâm) explained
everything by saying, ‘Work for the next world as if you were to
die tomorrow, and work for this world as if you would never die!’
Islam has control over not only the material but also the spiritual.
Therefore, these two cannot be separated from each other. How
can they be separated since Islam states: ‘Learn knowledge even if
it is in China,’ and ‘Scientific knowledge is the lost property of the
Believer; he should get it wherever he finds it!’ Knowledge and
working are not limited in Islam. Possessing no limits concerning
these two facts, which bewilder the world, Islam has bewildered
the world.
“By defining man to be ‘the superior and the most honourable
creature,’ Islam means that he should not be exploited. It is a
conglomerate of systems that disapproves extravagance,
ostentation and luxury, defines income as earnings obtained thru
the sweat of one’s brow, transfers growing capital to the poor by
means of a well-balanced and moral rule, prohibits interest, a
cause of laziness, and thereby destroys unlawful wealth. Islam has
made it obligatory that the Caliph and the slave shall share the
same rights. There was the case of the ‘camel’ which is a reality
sharper than a king’s sword: Hadrat ’Umar and his slave rode a
camel by taking turns as they travelled from one town to another,
– 490 –