Why Did They Become Muslims

The veracity of these statements gets demonstrative evidence
from the fact that the essentials in the Qur’ân al-kerîm, which are
still the same as they were fourteen centuries ago, are perfectly
consistent with today’s life-styles and today’s scientific levels. Yet
I was still demurring. For we were now in 1954; fourteen centuries
later, that is. I wondered if there was not an iota of obsolescence in
Islam that would make at least one of the principles communicated
by Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’, who was born in 571, inconsistent
with today’s conditions? I embarked on an assiduous quest for
mistakes in Islam. My efforts to find fault in Islam despite the fact
that my soul had already attained a complete belief in Islam, -so
much so that the verity of the Islamic religion was like a live
picture in front of my eyes-, should no doubt have been rooted in
the vilifications of Islam iterated by priests for the purpose of
imposing into our infant minds the idea that Islam was a very
defective, inferior and heretical religion.
The first file to rake around in was polygamy. Here, I had
found an important loophole. How come a man could marry four
women (at the same time)? When I asked about that, my Muslim
friend, whom I have mentioned earlier, explained the matter as
follows: “The Islamic religion appeared in a society where a man
could cohabit with as many women as he liked without any official
responsibility towards them. With a view to restoring the woman
into her proper place in society, the Islamic religion pared down
the number of women that a man could marry, and stipulated that
he should support the women, mete out justice among them, and
pay them (the canonically prescribed) alimony in the event of a
divorce. Furthermore, if a woman had no one to support her, she
could join a family as a member, not as a slave, of the family.
Moreover, marrying four women was not a religious
commandment enjoined on men. It was a permission with
provisos. Marrying more than one women was forbidden for men
who would not be able to fulfill the stipulations. It was for this
reason that many a man had only one wife. Marrying up to four
women was a kind of tolerance.” On the other hand, the
Mormons in America compelled every male member to marry
several women. My Muslim friend asked, “I wonder if the British
men cohabit with only one woman?” I confessed in
embarrassment, “Today all European men enter into relations
with various women both before marriage and even after they get
married.” Then the words of my Muslim friend reminded me of
the story of a young woman who had lost her husband in the war
– 70 –