Why Did They Become Muslims

Europeans perpetrate cruelties in the Middle Ages? In my opinion,
we Europeans were rough barbarians in those years. Our history
teems with blatant examples of cruelty and torture. The Qur’ân alkerîm,
on the other hand, commands that prisoners of war should be
treated well and priests, old people, women and children should not
be hurt even during process of a battle. There were some Muslim
commanders who violated these restrictions enjoined by the Qur’ân
al-kerîm. Yet they were people who had not read the Qur’ân al-kerîm
and who had learned religious knowledge from ignorant tutors. It will
be very useful to have the Qur’ân al-kerîm translated and explained in
all religions. However, I think some more time is needed for the
realization of that task. For, in all Muslim countries it is considered
sinful to use any language except Arabic in religious practices. Some
years ago a Muslim in Madras in India was condemned because he
had recited a couple of Koranic verses in Hindi instead of in Arabic in
a mosque. [For it was done not as an explanation of the Qur’ân but in
the name of reciting the Qur’ân.] The Qur’ân al-kerîm is an extremely
civilized and logical religious book. Some Muslims who do not
understand the Qur’ân al-kerîm become playthings in the hands of
fanatics who impose on them their personal absurd ideas and heretical
beliefs. However, the Islamic scholars who study the Qur’ân al-kerîm
see the fact that their religion is an extremely useful one and that the
wrong indoctrinations being spread in some places are quite contrary
to the Qur’ân al-kerîm. I assert openly that no other two religions are
as identical in essence as ISLAM and CHRISTIANITY. These two
religions are brothers. They are like the children of the same pair of
parents. They have been inspired from the same soul.” [The lady
author of the book says so and thinks so under the influence of the
fallacies inculcated into her during her childhood. The fact is quite the
other way round. The Qur’ân al-kerîm has been translated into a
number of languages and explained in various languages. It would be
wrong, however, to look on these translations and explanations as the
Qur’ân al-kerîm itself or to recite them in acts of worship such as
namâz.]
The letter paraphrased above divulges various facts. Islam never
prohibits to translate the Qur’ân al-kerîm into other languages or to
explain it in other languages. What Islam prohibits is to mistranslate
the Qur’ân al-kerîm into, let alone other languages, Arabic itself, be it
done for insidious and perfidious purposes or as a result of ignorance.
Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated, “A person who
translates the Qur’an al-kerîm in accordance with his personal
understanding will become a disbeliever.” If everyone explains it as he
understands it, there will appear erroneous explanations as many as
the number of the heads, turning the Islamic religion into a crowd of
inconsistencies and contradictions like today’s Christianity. Our
– 290 –