Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Second Fascicle

Efendî used to say: “If I knew a foreign language, I could serve the
entire world.” Nevertheless, he spoke Arabic and Persian
perfectly. He regretted not knowing the European languages, and
he was very sorry for it. He used to say: “It is a must to learn
foreign languages in order to announce to the whole world the
superiour qualities of the Islamic Religion, to inform everyone
that it is a source of comfort and happiness, that it reflects light in
the direction of civilization and progress in science and morals,
and, in short, in order to serve Islam and the entire mankind.”
A British man of knowledge, Lord Davenport, who studied all
the religions very well, says in his book entitled Hadrat
Muhammad and the Qur’ân, which he published in London in the
early twentieth century:
“It is Islam’s being utterly strict on morals that caused it to
spread in a short time. Muslims have always met those men of
other religions who surrendered to the sword with forgiveness.
Jurio says that Muslims’ behavior towards Christians is by no
means comparable with the behavior which the Pope and the kings
deemed proper towards believers. For example, on the twentyfourth
of August, that is, on the feast day of St. Bartholomew, in
980 [1572], sixty thousand protestants were massacred in Paris and
in its neighborhood with the command of Charles IX and the
Queen Catherine. Saint Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles,
was spreading Christianity, when he was martyred in Erzurum in
August, 71 A.C. The Christian blood that was shed through many
another persecution was much more than the Christian blood
which Muslims shed in battlefields. For this reason, it is necessary
to disabuse many deceived people of the wrong notion that Islam is
a cruel religion. Such wrong statements have no documents. When
compared with the papacy’s oppressions, which went up to the
degree of savagery and cannibalism, Muslims’ behavior towards
nonmuslims was as mild as those of an innocent suckling.
“Islam has been the symbol of a mental and ideal nobility that
grew up as purely as a flower among the bogs of superstitions and
doubts of other religions.
“Milton says: ‘When Constantine enriched the church, the
priests increased their ambition for rank and wealth. Its
punishment was suffered by Christianity which was torn to pieces.’
“Islam has rescued humanity from the disaster and nuisance of
shedding human blood for idols. By bringing worship and alms in
its place, it has imbued men with goodness. It has established the
basis of social justice. Thus, without leaving any need for bloody
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