The object of this publication, produced by the Muslim Community, is to educate, enlighten and inform its readers on religious, social, economic and political issues with particular emphasis on .

EDITORIAL BOARD CONTENTS – December 2001, Vol.96, No.12

Chairman: Rafiq Hayat Fazal Ahmad, Sarah Waseem, Editorial ...... 2 Fauzia Bajwa, Fareed Ahmad, Basit Ahmad, Mansoor Saqi, Bockarie Tommy Kallon, Comment ...... 3 Navida Shahid, Mahmood Hanif, Fazal Ahmad – UK Tanveer Khokhar, Mansoora Hyder-Muneeb, Saleem Ahmad Malik. The History and Theory of Islamic Medicine...... 5 Chairman of the Mrs Samina Mian – Edmonton Management Board: Naseer Qamar Assessment of Belief – Part I...... 16 Special Contributor: Hadhrat (as) Amatul-Hadi Ahmad

Design and Typesetting Chirality and Sideness in Tanveer Khokhar Nature ...... 23 Shaukia Mir Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad Publisher Al Shirkatul Islamiyyah Socrates(as) – Development of Greek Philosophy and Religion...... 33 Distribution Muhammad Hanif, Fazal Ahmad – UK Amatul M. Chaudry, M.D. Shams Division and Unity...... 44 Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad the views of the A h m a d i y y a Muslim Community A Unique Cosmic Heavenly Sign...... 52 M. Alikoya – India All correspondence should be forwarded directly to: Index of 2001 Artcicles...... 62 The Editor The London Mosque 16 Gressenhall Road London, SW18 5QL United Kingdom

© Islamic Publications, 2000 (Photo: From ArtExplosion Photo ISSN No. 0034-6721 library) Editorial The realm of medicine has fascinated Mirza Tahir Ahmad in his outstanding man for centuries. Particularly with the work R a t i o n a l i t y, Revelation, expectation of a longer and a healthier Knowledge and Truth. In this issue, we life, man has been obsessed with have an extract from his book covering understanding nature and medicine. In the science behind sidedness in nature as the modern world, we have a range of seen in animal and plant life. treatments available based upon hundreds of years of compiled For many centuries, Muslims were at knowledge and experimentation. It does the forefront of scientific and medical however come as a shock to many advance because they understood that people to learn the extent to which our the physical and spiritual aspects of life knowledge of nature, biology and are closely intertwined, just as the medicine comes from the early religious modern phrase ‘healthy mind, healthy scholars and the insights and inspiration body’would allude to. that they gleaned through the Holy Qur’an and the practice of the Holy Modern science has taken a more (sa). selective approach to medicine in which sporadic successes have pushed the The feature article takes a closer look at medical profession to the view that they how our understanding of medicine can play at creation as witnessed by evolved in the schools of knowledge in recent activities around cloning and the Islamic world. It shows how they gene experimentation. preserved and built upon the knowledge of the Greeks. Moreover, it illustrates Hopefully, the articles in this issue will how unlike much of modern medicine remind scholars of the fact that all life which aims to treat the symptoms of was created by God, and that the illness, Islam encouraged early physical and spiritual aspects of life are practitioners (or hakims) to treat the governed by the same Laws of that one cause in order to treat the illness. In this God. To understand one aspect without way, Islamic medicine concentrated on investigating the spiritual aspect will lifestyle (exercise, food, stress, prayers, lead to a flawed confidence in our family) as well as the disease itself. ability to control medical conditions.

Even in modern times, scholars can explain phenomena through the insights of the Qur’an as shown by Hadhrat

2 Review of Religions: December 2001 Notes and Comments

Seasons Greetings Empire could celebrate in peace and December is an interesting time of anonymity. Therefore Christmas is year. Christians celebrate Christmas now a seasonal festival. In Europe Day to mark the birth of Jesus(as) and and the States, this is a cold time of this year, Muslims will finish the the year and often there is snow, so month of Ramadhan and celebrate the festival has come to be associated Eid ul Fitr during December also. In with snow, trees, a warm fire, both cases, families will get together stockings etc. Similarly in the to celebrate, eat together and Christian calendar, Easter occurs presents will be handed out. So are during the spring. Of course, just as the two events similar or is there a it is associated with snow in Europe difference? and North America, in places like Australia, it occurs during the Obviously the two festivals have summer and so will be associated to d i fferent roots, meanings and warm weather and barbecues! significance, but there is also an obvious difference: in five years In Islam, all major events and time, Ramadhan and Eid will be in festivals are tied to the Islamic October or November while calendar which is based on the Lunar Christmas will still be in December. calendar, and that is why the symbol of the crescent moon is so prominent In the case of Christmas, it is tied to in Islam. The Lunar calendar is 10 a particular date, the 25th December days shorter than the business year which was selected in Roman times based on the solar calendar, and this because it was the festival of the Sun explains why Islamic festivals move god Sol Invictus, and co-incided with back 10 days each year. Accordingly the winter solstice on that day two Ramadhan will slowly move back thousand years ago. Adopting the from December towards August in a Roman day of the sun god for the few years time. Many people in the Christian son of God seemed a past have mocked Islam for the fact logical and safe decision at the time that the dates change in this way and which meant that Christians in the that festivals and major events

Review of Religions: December 2001 3 Notes and Comments cannot be tied down in a fixed way have family get-togethers and to the Gregorian calendar. distribute presents, but the day also revolves around attending the So does any of this matter? After all, mosque and remembering the a festival is a festival, and the main significance of the day just as purpose is the spiritual significance practising Christians also attend the and the remembrance of God. The Church on the 25th. If these festivals climate or other factors have very were fixed to a particular day, there little to do with it. Well in the UK, is every danger that the same shift to there was a recent call from a commercialism could have blighted Christian clergyman that Christmas them also. should be celebrated two days after the 25th. His rationale is not based There seems to be a logic to the way on any thoughts that the date is not Islamic events are based on the the actual birth date of Jesus( a s ), Lunar calendar which is only now rather it reflects his concern that the coming to the fore. There are signs 25th has now been hijacked by the that true Christians are trying to general public as a day of merry- rescue their festival and its making. In Europe, the run up to significance from the commercial Christmas is now a time of many p a r t y. Whatever the merits or parties involving immoral behav- otherwise, it is a fact that more and iour, huge consumption of alcohol more cards sent on this occasion and a huge emphasis on commer- have now replaced ‘Merry cialism. He is horrified at the way C h r i s t m a s ’ with ‘Seasons the day has become such a Greetings’. commercial institution while the religious significance has been all Fazal Ahmad – UK but forgotten. People now associate the 25th with a family get-together, presents, alcohol, snow and cold weather.

In Islam, this is not observed, partly because the festivals are not seasonal. Muslims therefore also

4 Review of Religions: December 2001 The History and Theory of Islamic Medicine by Mrs Samina Mian - Edmonton, India

The author had the opportunity to on its historical development, review the history of Islamic practice, theory and the influence of medicine and was so fascinated that Islam on Islamic medicine. she compiled this article to chronicle the achievements of Muslims in the Historical Development field of medicine. The article Islamic science, from its very explores how Muslim scientists beginning, did not concern itself created the very fundamentals of only with man’s physical modern medicine. environment, but included a pene- trating analysis of man as a spiritual Modern man, dependent as he is on being and of the society in which he the drugs of the chemist and the skills dwelt. The first Muslim physician of the physician, on the reckoning of was a Companion of the Holy the computer and the predictions of P r o p h e t( s a ), Haridth ibn-Kaladah, the economic planner, owes more of who had studied at Jundishapur(1). a debt than he might suspect to the But despite this very early contact of Islamic scientists of the Middle Ag e s . Islam with the school of medicine, Between the 9th and 14th centuries, Arab Muslims did not pursue this Muslim chemists, physicians, field, and nearly all of the early astronomers, mathematicians, physicians were either Christians, geographers and others not only kept Jews or Persians. It was only after alive the disciplines of Greek the establishment of as a science, but extended their range, major medical language, and the laying and strengthening the penetration of medicine and its foundation on which much of knowledge into the texture of modern science is built (Stewart, everyday life that Arab Muslims 1967). The topic of this essay is gradually became drawn to this Islamic medicine, with an emphasis subject.

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In the beginning, the main target that One of the foremost of the scholars drew the Islamic scholars was the at the House of Wisdom was capital city of Baghdad. There, the Hunayn ibn-Ishaq. Hunayn studied Caliph Mamun, who ruled the medicine in Baghdad under a empire from 813 to 833, created the physician who had trained at the ‘House of Wi s d o m ’ – a famous famous Persian medical school in centre of learning that included a Jundishapur, which was to have a library, a translation bureau and a profound influence on the develop- school. Within seventy-five years ment of Islamic medicine. Later, after the establishment of the House Hunayn was made in charge of the of Wisdom, the greatest thoughts of House of Wisdom by the Caliph, the Greek and the other early people where he supervised all the had been translated into A r a b i c . translations. In addition to his These translations included the chief translations, Hunayn also produced philosophical books of A r i s t o t l e , a large number of medical works of some important works of Plato, and his own, among them the earliest major studies by Euclid, Ptolemy, known textbook on opthalmology(2). Archimedes and the celebrated The great compilation and Greek physicians Hippocrates, translation of knowledge, accom- Dioscorides and Galen, as well as plished by Hunayn and his many important Persian and Indian colleagues did much to lay the scientific works(2). groundwork of modern science, particularly in the field of medicine, Hippocrates, known in Arabic as as the works of these men were later Buqrat, was recognized from the translated into Latin and made their earliest period as the ‘Father of way into the West, primarily Greek medicine’. Numerous works through Sicily and Spain. by him were rendered into Arabic by the movement of translation, as The basis for all Islamic science was described above. More of Galen’s the Greek belief that underlying the works survived in Arabic than in apparent chaos in the universe was a Greek, and Muslims identified him fundamental order. This order was as much with philosophy as with said to be governed by universal medicine(1). laws that could be understood by human reason; once these laws were

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comprehended, all phenomena, no Like Jurjis, most of Islam’s early matter how unrelated they seemed, practitioners were Persian-born, but could readily be understood. Thus in they spoke and wrote Arabic, the an effort to understand the true language of scholarship during the nature of the universe, scholars Middle Ages. One of the most pursued more than one branch of celebrated of these Eastern learning. The scientist-philosopher physicians was al-Razi, who lived was not a narrow specialist, but was from 865–925 CE. The finest an expert in such varied fields as physician of his age, he has been medicine, chemistry, astronomy, compared to Hippocrates for his mathematics, logic, metaphysics, originality in describing a disease. and even music and poetry. Razi (Latin - Rhazes) is said to have written more than two hundred Starting in the 8th century, the books, ranging in subject matter Muslims gradually developed a from medicine and alchemy to more sophisticated approach to theology and astronomy. About half medicine, rather than the early of these books are on medicine, and desert superstitions of the Arabs. include a well-known treatise on The main impetus came from the small pox. In his discussion of small Persian medical school in pox, Razi was the first to Jundishapur, whose teachings were differentiate a specific disease from based primarily on the Greek among many eruptive fevers that practice of treating disease by assailed man. By giving the clinical rational methods. The contact symptoms of small pox, he enabled between Jundishapur and the rulers doctors to diagnose it correctly and of Islam began in 765 – not out of to predict the course of the disease. the search for universal truth, but He also recommended a treatment due to a more urgent and personal for the ailment. He urged gentle reason – a chronic indigestion that therapy, good diet and good nursing plagued the founder of Baghdad. care, which meant about the same as The chief physician of Jundishapur, it does today; rest, clean sur- Jurjis, who was a Christian, was roundings and keeping the patient invited to treat him. He succeeded, comfortable. and was appointed as the court physician.

Review of Religions: December 2001 7 The History and Theory of Islamic Medicine

While Razi knew nothing about ‘prince of physicians,’ the Avi c e n n a bacteria which were not discovered of Western scholastics and until the early 17th century, he had physicians, and one by whose name an intuitive sense of the hygienic many people in the East call Islamic principles far ahead of medieval medicine to this day( 1 ). Born in standards(2). He was once asked to Bukhara, he was self-taught in choose the site for a new hospital in medicine and was already a famous Baghdad. To do so, he suspended physician by the age of eighteen. He pieces of meat at various points lived from 980 to 1037 CE, and around the city, and at the location wrote some 170 books on where the meat petrified most ph i l o s o p h y , medicine, mathematics slowly, he recommended building and anatomy, as well as poetry and the hospital. religious work. Ibn Sina’s most renowned achievement was a l - The 10th and 11th centuries were Qanvn fil-tibb – the Cannon of the age of numerous medical author- M e d i c i n e, which was an ities of the highest rank. While al- encyclopaedia that dealt with Majusi was dominating the field of virtually every phase of the treatment internal medicine in the East, of disease. This is perhaps the most Andalusia produced the first of its influential single work in the whole great medical figures – al-Fahrawi. history of medicine, even including He was the greatest of the Muslim the writings of Hippocrates and surgeons and his Kitab al-Tarif (The Ga l e n (1 ) . The encyclopaedia consists Book of Concessions), which is a of five books which contain: medical encyclopaedia, was a definitive guide for surgeons over • the general principles of the centuries. This was also the medicine; period of major works on opthalmology. Ali ibn Isa was the • simple drugs; first person to propose the use of anesthesia for surgery. • disorders of internal and external organs of the body; The most illustrious figure of this period and Islam’s most famous • illnesses which affect the body in physician was Abu Ali ibn Sina, the general;

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• and compound drugs. before Columbo and Servetus, Ibn Nafis had explained correctly the From the 12th to 17th century, the circulation of blood. This was one of Cannon of Medicine served as the the most important discoveries in chief guide to medical science in the history of medicine, and made European universities. Ibn Sina is the name of Ibn Nafis celebrated in now credited with such personal the West as the real predecessor of contributions as recognising the William Harvey rather than contagious nature of tuberculosis, Columbo and Servetus, who had and describing certain skin diseases been credited until then with the and psychological disorders. discovery of minor circulation. Western historians consider Ibn Sina to be a great thinker who was In Maghrib, between the 11th and instrumental in passing the Greek 12th centuries, Ibn Fuhr composed heritage to the West(3). The Book Facilitating the Study of Therapy and Diet, which is among After Ibn Sina, Islamic medicine the most celebrated products of gradually underwent a regional Islamic medicine in Andalusia. A development while preserving its Spanish physician, ibn-Rushd (Latin basic unity. In Iraq, Syria and – Averroes) wrote on medicine, adjacent lands, major cities like philosophy, law and astronomy. His Cairo and Damascus became centres talent was varied enough that he of attraction for many physicians served not only as a chief physician, with the building of new hospitals in but also as a judge in Seville and the 12th century. Ibn Nafis, Cordoba. In addition, Ibn Rushd is p h i l o s o p h e r, theologian and known as one of the foremost physician, was entitled the second interpreters of Aristotle. A n o t h e r Ibn Sina, while working both in Spanish born Jewish physician who Cairo and Damascus. Although Ibn influenced western ways was Ibn Nafis has been celebrated through- Maymum, who served as a court out the Islamic world, including physician to the Sultan of Egypt and Persia and India, since his death in Syria in the 12th century. His 1288, it was only in 1924 that an medical works include the Egyptian doctor, Muhyi al-Din al- commentaries on Galen and Tatawi, discovered that centuries Hippocrates, as well as his own

Review of Religions: December 2001 9 The History and Theory of Islamic Medicine observations, primarily related to The history of Islamic medicine in diet and personal hygiene. A f t e r India is inseparable from that of these celebrated figures, medicine Persia because of the flow of a large gradually declined in Andalusia, but number of Persian physicians to survived in Morocco, where it India in the 15th and 18th centuries, continues in certain quarters to this as well as the use of Persian as the day. primary scientific language, especially in medicine. It was after In Persia and India, most of the the Eighteenth century that Muslim medical history was dominated by and Hindu physicians from India the works of Ibn Sina. In the 12th itself came to the fore to continue c e n t u r y, there appeared the first the cultivation of Islamic medicine. extensive medical encyclopaedia in It is in India, , and Persia modelled upon the Cannon by Bangladesh that Islamic medicine is a l - J u r J a n i( 1 ). He is perhaps most alive today(1). responsible for the perpetuation of the medical teachings of Ibn-Sina Medical activity in the Turkish part during the later centuries. of the Ottoman world was closely related to that of Persia until the After the Mongol invasion, there 15th century. From the 17th century was great cultural and scientific onward, the influence of European exchange between Islam and China. medicine began to make itself felt in From the reign of Nadir Shah Tu r k e y, and by the Nineteenth onward, modern European medicine century, there had been a nearly total was introduced into Persia. T h i s replacement of traditional medicine process accelerated with the by the modern European system in establishment of a new university this part of the Islamic world. Dar al-Fanun in Tehran during the Qajar period, where modern Islam and Islamic Medicine medicine was taught. In Persia, as in The principles of Islamic medicine Egypt, Turkey and other lands of are deeply rooted in Islamic Western Islam, the traditional tradition, although this medicine system has continued, although to a itself came into being as a result of lesser extent(1). the integration by Muslims of several older traditions of medicine,

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of which most important was the Some jurists have pointed out that of Greek. Islam directs the faithful to the ‘foreign’ sciences, only seek knowledge of the natural medicine was studied by even one or world, and inspiration in it: the two of the companions of the Holy world is the work of God. In Islam, P r o p h e t( s a ), and that medical both the ends and means of an practices which would lead to the individual’s actions must be halal regaining of the health of body and (allowed). Therefore, the whole of soul were encouraged from the Islamic medicine is also related to earliest period of Islam(1). Within the Islam through the injunctions Islamic world, what survives of the contained in the Qur’an and the traditional medicine today is closely , concerning health and associated with the actual practice of various questions related in one way religion by the majority of people. or another to medicine. The Practice of Islamic Medicine The aspects of Divine Law con- Islamic civilisation created certain cerning personal hygiene, dietary institutions and norms closely habits, ablutions, and many other related to its own general structure elements affecting the body are in order to make the teachings and again related to medicine. As a practice of medicine possible. practical guide to health, the Qur’an G r a d u a l l y, the figure of the makes some explicit instructions – physician, originally of Christian or for example, the importance of Jewish background, became Islamic bathing is emphasised and it is and there came into being the included in great detail in the Islamic figure of the hakim – who preparation for praying. The result is was at once physician and that there is always a link between philosopher, as well as a master of Islamic medicine and the teachings most of the other traditional of Islam, and whatever historians sciences. may say of the Greek, Syrian, Indian or old Persian origins of the medical Most of the clinical aspects, as well idea or practice, Islamic medicine as surgery and pharmacology were has always been seen by Muslims as taught in hospitals to which usually closely related to religion. a medical school was added. T h e teaching and the practice of Islamic

Review of Religions: December 2001 11 The History and Theory of Islamic Medicine medicine are inseparable from the The Theory of Islamic Medicine institution of the hospital, which at The theory of Islamic medicine is its height contained in addition to related to the whole of Islamic words, major libraries, lecture halls metaphysics, cosmology and philo- and other facilities necessary for the sophy. Islamic physicians saw the training of medical students. To this body of man as an extension of his d a y, the only remnants of larg e - soul and closely related to both the scale hospitals and dispensaries spirit and the soul ( 1 ). Moreover, where Islamic medicine is practised Islamic medicine was especially are to be found in the Indian concerned with the interpretations subcontinent, some of the examples and interrelation of cosmic forces, being the Osmania hospital in and the effect of these forces upon Hyderabad, Deccan, and the man. Muslim physicians also Hamdard Institutes of Dehli and remained fully aware of the Karachi. The practice of Islamic sympathy between all orders of medicine has always been closely existence, and the mutual actions connected with the dispensaries and and reaction of one creature upon c h e m i s t ’s shops. The traditional another. They therefore visualised druggist has knowledge of various man to be related both inwardly drugs, especially herbs, which through the soul and the spirit, and comprise most of the traditional outwardly through the grades of m e d i c a m e n t s. micro-cosmic hierarchy of the Principles of Cosmic manifestation. Also significant for its medical uses is the traditional bath (hammam), Muslims reject the idea of original which is found in one form or sin, and therefore, the concept that another throughout the Islamic disease and suffering have resulted world. Muslim physicians have used from the original sin is contrary to the traditional bath for all kinds of the basic Islamic belief that men are uses including overcoming born free( 4 ). Muslim physicians headaches. These baths continue to believe in the spirit which is the fulfill medical as well as religious subtle body standing intermediate and hygienic functions. between the physical body and the force of life which comes from the world above. Muslim physicians

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also believed that six external Branches of Islamic Medicine factors are essential and must be D i fferent branches of Islamic present to guarantee the health of the medicine are anatomy and physi- patient(1). These factors are air, food, o l o g y, internal medicine, surg e r y, bodily rest and movement, sleep, o p t h a l m o l o g y, and hygiene and emotional rest, and excretion and public health. I will consider retention. hygiene and public health in more detail because of the fact that The four humours, that is blood, Islamic medicine is concerned more phlegm, yellow bile and black bile with the prevention of illness than form the foundation of animal with its cure. activity, and the body of all animals, including man, is comprised of The emphasis upon personal them. The traditional physician hygiene and cleanliness in Islam is a sought to restore the health of the direct effect of the teachings of patient not only by examining Islam. Ritual cleanliness requires internal problems but by studying all Muslims to wash themselves regu- the external factors so as to discover l a r l y. Dietary habits of Muslims, the one or several causes which had which include not only abstention disrupted the harmony of humours from alcoholic drinks and pork, but within the body and with the also fasting, eating less than one’s environment. These causes could full appetite and eating slowly, may range from having eaten the wrong have a direct medical effect. Diet food to emotional strain. Health has a more prominent role in Islamic then, as considered by Muslim medicine than it does in modern physicians, is a question of living in medicine. The Muslims considered harmony with oneself and with the the kind of food and the manner in environment, taking into full which it is consumed to be so consideration of what one eats and directly connected to health, that the drinks. It is then through diet, effect of diet was considered by medicament, exercise or other them as being perhaps more factors to re-establish the harmony powerful than that even of drugs on which is synonymous with health. both health and illness. It is also interesting that the Holy Prophet(sa) stressed the use of a toothbrush

Review of Religions: December 2001 13 The History and Theory of Islamic Medicine

(miswak) and never neglected its greater attention is being paid to use personally. Therefore, the Islamic medicine. Many Muslim Islamic belief is that sickness comes governments are trying to provide from unhygienic living, and is not a medical coverage for all of their punishment for sin(4). The aspects of citizens, but both the rapid rise in Islamic medicine concerning population and the cost of training hygiene and public health include the physicians in the Western type of the religious teachings, and purely medical school make such a medical ones inherited through programme impossible. Moreover, millennia of experience and science. medical care has become much worse in certain areas where the old Islamic Medicine Today hakims have died out without The continuous weakening of anyone taking their place. traditional medicine before the Therefore, there has been a onslaught of the spread of modern conscious effort in certain countries, Western medicine in the last two such as Persia, to bring back centuries is seen in most parts of the traditional medicine in combination Islamic world. As a result, today, with certain programmes for the except for the sub-continent of India spread of rural medicine. where traditional Islamic medicine and pharmacology continue on both As revealed at the International the intellectual and popular level, in Conference on Islamic Medicine in Persia, Iraq, Syria and Egypt – only Kuwait (1981), medical school a few branches such as pharma- curricula should emphasize that cology and certain dietary habits medicine is ‘worship’, both as an continue, while the medical schools approach to Belief by contemplating have become completely dominated on the Signs of God, as well as from by Western medicine. the applied aspect by helping man in distress. Moreover, the medical Because of the rumours in the school curricula should comprise Western world about the short- the teachings and the study of the comings of Western medicine and ‘Islamic Code of Medical Ethics’. especially pharmacology, new interest is being shown in the use of In conclusion, it can be said that herbs as medicaments. As a result, a Islamic medicine is fully alive in

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Pakistan and Bangladesh and among 5. Walgate, Robert. 1981. ‘Islamic the Muslims of India, and only Science: Radicals A g r e e ’ . partly alive in the rest of the Islamic Nature: 293 (8). p.418. world. Islamic medicine is still able to teach a great deal in fields as far 6. Hakim Mohammad Said. 1981. apart as pharmacology and The International Conference psychosomatic medicine to a on Islamic Medicine. Medical humanity that has divorced the soul Times June 1981. 16 (1). pp 47- from the body. 50. Published by Hamdard Foundation, Pakistan.

Bibliography

1. N a s r, Seyyed Hossein. 1976. Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study. World of Islam Festival, Publishing Company Ltd. p.273.

2. Stewart, Desmond. 1967. ‘Early Islam’. Ti m e I n c o r p o r a t e d, New Yo r k . p.192.

3. S a r d a r, Fiauddin. East-We s t discord over the Prince of Scholars. New Scientist. August 1981, p.395.

4. Barton, Richard Thomas. 1958. Religious Doctrines and Medical Practice. Charles C. Thomas publishers USA. p.94.

Review of Religions: December 2001 15 Assessment of Belief - Part I

(Translator’s note: All references to the verses of the Holy Qur’an are given in Arabic as they occur in the text. The English translation, presented in italics, is taken from the translation of the Holy Qur’an by Hadhrat Maulvi Sher Ali S a h i b( r a ). Where the Pro m i s e d Messiah(as) has himself stated a certain interpretation of the Arabic verse, this is incorporated in the main body of the text).

A person cannot, in reality, abandon his old ideas until he begins to think with a clear mind, listens with careful attention and gives due consideration to all aspects of the Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as) matter. Hence, when a person hears (The Promised Messiah and Mahdi) something new, he should not immediately be ready to oppose it. It Presented below is a translation of the should be considered his duty to address that was delivered by Hadhrat carefully consider all aspects of the Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of , the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, on 31 matter with due care, honesty and August 1901 at the occasion of the visit to justice. Above all, he should ponder Qadian of the Municipal Commissioner of over it in solitude with the fear of Vizirabad, Janab Babu Ghulam Mustafa God before him. Sahib. For the purposes of translation, the original Urdu script of this address has been What I wish to say at this time is no taken from Malfoozat, Vol. 4, pp.1–9. small or ordinary matter that can be Compiled and translated by Amatul Hadi given cursory attention. On the Ahmad c o n t r a r y, it is a matter of great

16 Review of Religions: December 2001 Assessment of Belief – Part I

magnitude. It is not something that surely We will be its Guardian. has been concocted by me – it is (Ch.15:v.10) something that has been stated by God. It is for this reason that he who In accordance with this promise and dares to falsify it, does not falsify in accordance with the prophecy of me but falsifies the signs of God and the Holy Prophet(sa), revealed to him dares to falsify the Holy Prophet(sa) by God, it becomes necessary that at of Islam. Falsification of me at the the head of this century of which hands of my opponents is not of nineteen years have already passed, concern to me but I do feel sorry for there should be appointed [by God] the person who, through his own a Reformer for rejuvenation of foolishness, invites the wrath of religion [of Islam] and for the God. reform of its followers. However, before the appointed Reformer [of It is a well-known fact among all the 14th century Hijri] made Muslims that it has been stated by manifest his claim of having been the Holy Prophet(sa) that God will appointed by God, it was incumbent send a Reformer (among the upon the good and steadfast people Muslims) at the turn of every that they should have searched for century – a Reformer who will such a man of God with deep rejuvenate the religion of Islam by anguish and anxiety. They should facing whatever tribulation was have become keen and eager to hear confronting it at the time. T h i s the voice bearing the glad tiding that system of appointing Reformers ‘I am the one who has come from comes under the promise made by God in accordance with His God as stated in the Holy Qur’an in promise’. the following verse: It is true that the eyes of the great people of this Umma [the followers of Islam] are upon the fourteenth century [Hijri] and the people who had been given indication through dreams, visions and revelation, all Verily, We Ourselves have sent pointed to the fact that the Reformer down this Exhortation, and most appearing at the head of the

Review of Religions: December 2001 17 Assessment of Belief – Part I fourteenth century will be an innovations and polytheistic pra- extraordinary person of great ctices in place of beliefs and distinction who has been given the practices glorifying the Unity of title of the Promised Messiah and God. Virtuous deeds are being Mahdi [by the Holy Prophet(sa)] in replaced by social customs and the Ahadith. However, I have to say traditions. Worship of graves and this that when the time came and the worship of P i r s [i.e. religious one who was to come appeared, guides] has reached such extremes there were few indeed who heard his that it has become a permanent voice. In short, the fact that a ‘religious law’ in itself. I am always Reformer appears at the head of surprised and amazed at the fact that every century is nothing new or such people accuse me of having strange. claimed ‘’, even though they have not understood what it is In short, in accordance with this that I do say, but they do not look at promise it was necessary that in this their own situation and ponder over century also there should be a the fact that it is they who have Reformer and nineteen years have claimed ‘Prophethood’by creating a already passed since the beginning new religious law for themselves. of this century. It is important, The question that should be however, to also consider the second answered is this: Were the chants aspect of this matter as to whether in and mantras that the Pirs teach their this age Islam is faced with grave followers invented by me or is it the d i fficulties and dangers of such case that I follow the religious law magnitude that they are calling out and practice of the Holy Prophet(sa) for a Reformer. When we carefully [of Islam] and that to add anything consider this aspect it becomes to that, however minute, is evident that Islam does indeed suffer considered by me to be an act of from two kinds of difficulties at the infidelity. present time – one is internal and the other external. There are many thousands of religious innovations that different Internally, the situation of Islam has sects have adopted for themselves. come to be such that there have Righteousness and purity that crept in a number of religious werethe true desired aims and

18 Review of Religions: December 2001 Assessment of Belief – Part I

objectives of Islam, for the Externally, you will note that all the establishment of which the Holy d i fferent religions that presently P r o p h e t( s a ) faced all manner of exist [in India] wish to destroy dangers, difficulties and tribulations. Islam. Christianity in particular is a The extent of these tribulations was staunch enemy of Islam. All the such that no heart except ‘the heart efforts of the Christian missionaries of Prophethood’, could have the and priests are aimed at somehow to capacity to bear. Yet, that true bringing about the destruction of the purpose of Islam has today religion of Islam as far as possible vanished. Go to the prisons and see and however possible. Furthermore, – you will find that deeds such as the Unity of God that was adultery, use of alcohol, usurping of established by Islam and for which the rights of others and many other many lives have been sacrificed, criminal acts are taking place to should be made extinct and thereby such a large extent that it is as if it make the world accept the deity of has been assumed that there is no Christ and establish the belief in God. If one were to discuss the salvation through his blood which in d i fferent levels of the nature of turn leads to a life of free license. In problems and shortcomings experi- this way the true purpose of creating enced by nations, it would become a life of righteousness and purity a large volume. If every wise and that was the aim of Islam would be thinking person were to ponder over wiped out. The Christian priests, in the state of the different people of trying to achieve success in these this nation, he will reach the aims have adopted many different conclusion that righteousness, that means and it is with regret that I was the ultimate desired objective of have to state that they have the Holy Qur’an, that was indeed the converted to Christianity. Muslims true source of noble acts and the true numbering more than one-hundred cause of good deeds, does not exist thousand in number. Besides these today. There was an urgent need for there are many whom they have the state of people’s deeds and turned into neo-Christians and there practices to be good, providing a is yet a much greater number of clear distinction between Muslims those who are of an atheistic and non-Muslims – instead, it has inclination who maintain a lifestyle become extremely weak and bad. that is greatly under the influence of

Review of Religions: December 2001 19 Assessment of Belief – Part I

Christianity. There is yet another turned away from the faith, an group of people that comprises uproar was created. Against this is young people who were born in the situation that now there is no Muslim households but were count of those who are turning educated in colleges and who give a w a y. If a wise person were to precedence to philosophy and ponder over all these matters medicine over the word of God. To together, and if he were to ponder this group of young Muslims Islam over them for the sake of God and was a religion appropriate for the consider whether there is not now Arab deserts. When I see and hear of the need for some special such things, I feel a deep sense of manifestation of God or is it the case sadness that today Islam is that even now time has not come for surrounded and entrapped by the fulfilment of God’s promise of enormous difficulties and tribu- safeguarding [this faith as expressed lations and the progeny of the in this verse of the Holy Qur’an]: Muslims is suffering such a fate that Islam is considered to be against their tastes!

The third type of people are those who have not stepped outside the limits set by God as such – they Verily, We Ourselves have sent have not turned the permissible into down this Exhortation, and most the prohibited – but they prefer the surely We will be its Guardian. fashionable style of dress. T h e y (Ch.15: v.10) have set one foot inside Christianity. It can now be clearly understood If it is in fact the case that there is that internally there are the religious not the need [in Islam] for the innovations and the polytheistic special manifestation and assistance customs [that have seriously harmed of God, then someone should tell us Islam] and externally there are the as to when that time will come. dangers, especially those posed by Consider carefully and think over the religion of the cross that has this matter that on the one hand done great damage. Islam was the events are indicating that there have religion that even if one person arisen such needs that there should

20 Review of Religions: December 2001 Assessment of Belief – Part I

IF IT IS IN FACT THE CASE THAT THERE IS NOT THE NEED [IN ISLAM] FOR THE SPECIAL MANIFESTATION AND ASSISTANCE OF GOD, THEN SOMEONE SHOULD TELL US AS TO WHEN THAT TIME WILL COME. CONSIDER CAREFULLY AND THINK OVER T H I S M AT T E R T H AT O N T H E O N E H A N D E V E N T S A R E INDICATING THAT THERE HAVE ARISEN SUCH NEEDS THAT THERE SHOULD BE A SPECIAL MANIFESTATION OF GOD TO SUPPORT HIS RELIGION THROUGH TRUE PRACTICES AND HEAVENLY ASSISTANCE.

be a special manifestation of God to support His religion through true practices and heavenly assistance. On the other hand,the century has Most surely We will be its set a seal [on time that] in Guardian. accordance with God’s promise that (Ch.15: v.10) was made through the lips of the Holy Prophet(sa) that at the head of Does it not falsify the prophecy of every century there would appear a the Holy Prophet(sa) regarding the Reformer for the rejuvenation of the appearance of a Reformer at the religion of Islam. Hence, a Reformer head of every century? Does it not should now appear. The century has lead to the conclusion that Islam is a advanced by nineteen years and yet, religion that is faced by numerous despite the needs of the time, tribulations yet God did not care for [according to the beliefs of the it? opponents] no Reformer has appeared. If this line of reasoning is If someone wishes to put my claim to be accepted then for the sake of [of being God’s appointed Reformer God ponder over what remains of of this age] to one side, he may do the religion of Islam? Does not the so, but he should carefully consider adoption of such a view go against the issues before replying. The fact the promise made by God [in the is that by falsifying me, you forego verse]. Islam altogether. However, I say it

Review of Religions: December 2001 21 Assessment of Belief – Part I truly that in accordance with the falsify me, do not falsify me but promise made in the Holy Qur’an, falsify God and His Prophet(sa). They God Almighty has safeguarded His do not, in fact, have any right to religion and the prophecy of the falsify until they can present some Holy Prophet(sa) [with regard to this] other Reformer instead of me has been fulfilled. It is so because it because the time and period is was exactly at the time of real need indicating that a Reformer should that God Almighty established this appear because everywhere there is Movement [i.e. the A h m a d i y y a disturbance and dissension. T h e Movement] and that is also in Holy Qur’an states that it is at such accordance with the glad tidings times of trouble that the appointed given to the Holy Prophet(sa). This one appears for the safeguarding of proves that the word of God and the Holy Qur’an and the AHadith states word of His Prophet is true. It is a that at the head of every century a person of wicked inclination who Reformer will appear. The needs of falsifies them. the time are there and the promises of safeguarding and reform are in My claim now becomes clear that I addition to that, which leads to the have been sent in this century for the situation that the denial of one who reform of religion. I say it force- comes in accordance with needs and fully that I have been appointed by promises is possible only in the form God and a period of over twenty- of one of two arguments: either two years has passed since this another Reformer should be appointment. For there to exist presented or the promises [made by numerous signs supporting me for God] are falsified. such a long period is in itself an accusation of God against the people [who oppose me] as well as being a (To be continued) complete argument [in my favour]. This is because the claim that has been made by me, that I have been sent for reform of the situation of conflict and strife, is a claim that is in accordance with the Holy Qur’an and the AHadith. Now, those who

22 Review of Religions: December 2001 Chirality or Sidedness in Nature by Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad This is an extract taken from the book Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth written by the author.

What is sidedness, what significance elaborated to some detail in many does it possess if any and why traditions of the Holy Prophet( s a ) sidedness at all, are the questions to which instruct the believers as to which we shall presently turn our how they should conduct themselves attention. When moving in circles in their everyday social and religious whether we begin to turn from right practices. They display a decided to left, or left to right, the quality of trend in favour of the right over the this exercise is not in the least altered left. in whichever direction we initiate the turn. If we pick up an object with our Why such partiality in matters so right hand or pick it up with our left, trivial, as the mere preference of one so long as it is lifted the question of side over the other, is a question right or left loses significance. The intriguing enough in its application question of right or left will acquire to religious teachings. But when significance only if we understand addressed to a similar universal its underlying wisdom. But phenomenon of sidedness in nature, s u r p r i s i n g l y, both in Islamic the enigma assumes astronomical teachings and in some proportions. Religious instructions manifestations of natural laws, are invariably dictated by a sidedness seems to be rigidly conscious human mind, or Divine enforced without any apparent teachings. No such Conscious reason for its preference. In the Creator is recognized by the secular chapter Life in the Perspective of scientists to have designed any code Qur'anic Revelation we briefly of natural conduct. Why then this mentioned that many verses of the intriguing similarity between Holy Qur’an speak of sidedness with religion and nature in the area of a religious significance. T h i s sidedness? If not due to a common Qur'anic attitude is further

Review of Religions: December 2001 23 Chirality or Sideness in Nature origin, could it be reasonably nature. It can easily be understood dismissed as mere coincidence? But with reference to some group that is not all. The more we study the displays of children which highlight manifestations of sidedness in the excellence of their physical nature, the more we are training. Children of some groups overwhelmed by the element of organized in circles of equal number wonder it generates. There is no are required to run clockwise while known scientific rationale for its those of some other groups are existence. Why nature should instructed to run counter-clockwise. display such selective propensity of To enhance the spectacular effect preferring one side over the other is a they are generally so paired that if question which has not been one of the pairs runs in one direction, answered until now and may yet then the other runs in the opposite remain unanswered for many a one. Visualize just such a pair and decade to come. you will grasp the meaning of sidedness or chirality in scientific It should be worthy of note here, that terms. Although similar in all other according to the Qur'an every natural respects, the image of the group behaviour should be rationally moving from right to left cannot be explainable. The Qur'an superimposed on the group moving categorically rules out any scenario from left to right because of the of creation which is haphazard, opposite direction of their disorderly or accidental. Hence, if movement. Likewise, though all not today, the dawn of that tomorrow molecules spin, all do not spin in the may not be too far away when same direction. Some move from scientists will be able to fathom the right to left, while others do so from deep underlying reasons beneath all left to right. Some compounds of expressions of sidedness in nature, exactly the same chemical formula however shallow they may appear at may contain both the right spinning present. and the left spinning molecules suspended together in a single Before proceeding further, it seems solution; while some others are appropriate to explain at some length composed only of such molecules as the phenomenon of sidedness, or move in just one direction. But c h i r a l i t y, as found operative in chirality is not confined to the

24 Review of Religions: December 2001 Chirality or Sideness in Nature

molecular level alone, even the tiniest of subatomic particles display chirality.

The evidence of chirality in nature came to light only some one hundred and fifty years ago. It was Louis Pasteur, the great French scientist who discovered chirality in the spin of molecules in 1848. It is a great tribute to his exceptional intelligence Louis Pasteur and keen observation that while examining a certain salt of tartaric Another singularly significant acid he noticed that there were two discovery in the same field was made types of crystals, each a mirror yet again by Pasteur in 1857. One image of the other. day he noticed the growth of a mould in a chemical solution lying in a jar. He carefully separated the two, Instead of throwing away the dissolved them in water and made a solution as contaminated, he made a beam of light pass through the beam of light pass through it to solution. He was surprised to examine the effect, if any, of that discover that the polarized light was mould on the solution. He was rotated differently by the two astounded to discover that the specimens. One was rotated solution, though inactive in relation clockwise and the other to light prior to its contamination, anticlockwise. This clearly meant had suddenly become active and that the molecules of the two started polarizing light. It was separated specimens of tartaric acid inactive in relation to light for the were either spinning to the right or to simple reason that it was composed the left - neither could be of an equal number of right spinning superimposed on the other. This was and left spinning molecules each the first ever case of chirality neutralizing the other's effect on observed by scientists at the light. Hence the polarity displayed elemental level.1 by the contaminated specimen could only mean that the mould had eaten

Review of Religions: December 2001 25 Chirality or Sideness in Nature up only such molecules as spun in on the property of matter to become the same direction and left detectable through human sensory completely untouched those which organs. But what of moulds which spun in the opposite. One mystery have no known sensory organs; all was thus resolved but only after they have is a diffused sense of having given birth to another much awareness? more complex one. How could a mere mould detect the spin of This amazing tale of chirality in molecules with such unfailing nature does not end here. It just exactness and why was it at all begins. Since the time of Pasteur, partial to the molecules spinning in research on chirality has made any specific direction? These were tremendous progress and many more the questions which baffled the mind extremely perplexing examples have of Pasteur then and still baffle the come to light testifying that chirality minds of scientists today. For how can be unmistakably detected by long they remain unanswered, the different species of life. scientists know not. The magnitude of the dilemma is enormous. The By now chirality is discovered to molecules of any element or operate at every level of material compound, right spinning or left existence. Yet the manner of how spinning, share exactly the same and why it so behaves is far from chemical and physical properties. understood. Until 1957 it was What or who dictates their believed that the four fundamental propensity to spin in any particular forces which govern the interaction direction is a brain-twister enough, of elementary particles were parity but when it comes to the most conserving. This simply means that uncanny ability of life to detect all particles at elementary level had which molecules are spinning in chiral-symmetry. However, in 1957 which direction, the question Chien-Shiung Wu and her colleagues acquires bizarre astronomical at Columbia University discovered proportions. None of the five senses that beta particles emitted from bestowed to man are equipped with radioactive nuclei did not display any known mechanism which can c h i r a l - s y m m e t r y. The left-handed determine the spin of molecules. The electrons far outnumbered the right- spinning molecules leave no imprint handed ones. It was further

26 Review of Religions: December 2001 Chirality or Sideness in Nature

discovered that the tiniest subatomic and left-handed spin of neutrinos, as particles, neutrinos and anti- well as that of electrons. But this neutrinos, which are electrically weak electric force cannot be neutral and move at the speed of contemplated as the causative factor light, also display a certain spin. But to produce the right sided or left unlike electrons which pre- sided behaviours at all other levels of dominantly prefer left-handed spin, chirality. The behavioural difference anti-neutrinos are always partial to between the two sometimes the right-hand. The contrary is not perplexes scientists, particularly in found in nature. No one knows why relation to the role they play in biotic chiral-asymmetry exists at such evolution. The problem is further fundamental levels of existence at compounded when we observe that all. the two right sided and left sided components of exactly the same Many hypotheses are being chemical formula exert a completely presented but most are found to be different influence on life in odd simply preposterous when examined ways. The following are some more minutely. However, there is fascinating examples: one suggestion which seems to have provided scientists with a clue to the Limonene is a compound found both factor possibly at work at the most in lemons and oranges. There is not rudimentary level of chirality in the slightest difference in their nature. Yet at this level, it is too chemical formula, yet the spin of ethereal to be demonstrated or limonene molecules in lemons is verified. It is related to a theory invariably opposite to the molecular which unifies the weak and spin of limonene found in oranges. electromagnetic forces first Limonene in lemons is always right propounded by Dr. Abdus Salam, spinning while in oranges it is Steven We i n b e rg and Sheldon always left spinning. How on earth Glashow in 1960. That theory could lemons and oranges always predicted a new electroweak force pick the limonene of a specific spin which does not conserve parity. This for their consumption while the disparity according to scientists difference between their limonene is could possibly be responsible for the merely that of molecular spin? It right-handed spin of anti-neutrinos needs to be emphasized yet again

Review of Religions: December 2001 27 Chirality or Sideness in Nature that both the right-sided and left- adverse effect on the embryo, the sided specimens of limonene contain other type produced the most exactly the same chemical and horrible congenital deformities physical properties. How the instead of curing the morning olfactory glands of the human nose sickness. The most profound side- can ever detect the difference of the e ffect was the deformities of the spin in oranges and lemons and lower limbs among the infants born ascribe to them completely different under its influence. smells is absolutely astounding. Of course there has to be some reason Another intriguing case of the but as yet we cannot identify it. detection of the spin and the preference of one spin over the other Another example relates to the is found at the most fundamental influence of chirality on life of a level of life. Although there were rather sinister nature. This came to several hundred amino acids freely light in 1963 when a drug, available in the primordial soup from thalidomide, was introduced by a which such proteins were created as pharmaceutical company for the cure made the fundamental bricks of life of morning sickness in pregnant (DNA and RNA), ‘nature’ selected women. Many were cured, but for only twenty amino acids out of them many others it proved disastrous. and they were all left spinning! Horrible congenital defects were found in the babies born to some In the case of selecting molecules for mothers treated by the same drug. A building sugars however, the choice subsequent intensive research was reversed. The molecules of all revealed that the pharmaceutical the four different forms of sugars company which manufactured responsible for the provision of thalidomide had inadvertently e n e rgy to all forms of life are, manufactured two types of without exception, right spinning. thalidomide compounds of the same This means that all natural sources of formula. While the molecules of one sugar available to life, like sugar type spun in one direction, those of cane, beet root, fruit, etc., the second type spun in the other. manufacture sugar consisting only of While one type cured morning right spinning molecules. sickness without producing any

28 Review of Religions: December 2001 Chirality or Sideness in Nature

Nevertheless, a successful exper- r e s p e c t i v e l y, barring a few rare iment was conducted a few years ago individual exceptions of course. for synthesizing sugar comprising Roger A. Hegstrom and Dillip K. only left spinning molecules. It was Kondepudi in their jointly authored discovered that this artificially article The Handedness of the synthesized sugar, though exactly U n i v e r s e published in Scientific the same in taste, chemical American in January 1990, present properties and cooking behaviour, many examples of handedness in was totally rejected by the human nature without any apparent reason digestive system. Not a molecule for preference. While observing that was assimilated. This gave rise to the most people are right-handed, they bizarre idea of manufacturing sugar fail to recognize any reason ‘...why consisting of only left spinning right- and left-handed persons are molecules on a commercial scale, not born in equal numbers.’2 not only for the benefit of diabetics but also for the pleasure of But it is not a prerogative of the gourmands and gluttons. They could human race alone to display definite consume mountains of sugar without trends with regards to handedness. the fear of accumulating even a molehill of fat. The only snag is that, On partiality to sidedness as found in at present, the cost of manufacturing the animal kingdom and vegetative left spinning synthetic sugar is behaviour, they write: prohibitive. A mountain of money would be needed to produce a mere ‘Right-handed or dextral shells molehill of such sugar. Perhaps only dominate-on both sides of the the royal highnesses of oil rich E q u a t o r. Among these right- monarchies sitting upon mountains dominated animals, left-handed of oil wealth could afford this luxury. individuals exist only as a result of mutations, which appear with a The apparently arbitrary preference frequency ranging from about one for right or left also manifests itself in hundreds to one in millions, in many other ways. Most humans depending on the species.’3 are right-handed and the arrangement of the heart and liver is In contrast to them, the lightning- universally left sided and right sided whelk of the Atlantic coast are

Review of Religions: December 2001 29 Chirality or Sideness in Nature predominantly left-handed. In plants, the honeysuckle winds around its support in a left-handed helix while the bindweed prefers winding from right to left. Even in bacteria some of their colonies spiral from right to left yet as the temperature increases they reverse the spiral direction to left-handed turns.3

These are but a few cases. At every

Honeysuckle and Bindweed

to ascribe this role to the haphazard vagaries of blind nature!

We feel that at the end, the purpose of this exercise needs to be emphasized once again. The basic issue of discussion is whether revelation can play any role in transferring information from the realm of the unknown to the realm of the known. Every discussion level of evolution we find many under different titles in this treatise other outstanding examples of how is invariably related to this issue. In life displays partiality to the spin of this chapter the relevance may not molecules. Their study excites have been clearly understood, hence wonderment and leaves one the need for further elaboration of bewildered. There has to be a this point. We have already pointed Conscious A l l - Wise Supreme out that in the entire comity of Selector who made choices at every religions Islam stands out in its stage of decision making or one has emphasis on sidedness in religious

30 Review of Religions: December 2001 Chirality or Sideness in Nature

LITTLE DID THE MAN OF THAT AGE KNOW THAT NOT ONLY IN MATTERS OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DIVISIONS, BUT ALSO IN THE DOMAIN OF SCIENCE, SIDEDNESS WOULD ACQUIRE SUCH IMPORTANCE AS COULD NEVER BE IMAGINED IN ANY PREVIOUS ERA.

behaviour and conduct. We foot first. In the seating arrange- respectfully draw the attention of the ments at a table, the guest of honour reader that in all other religions the is seated on the right side of the host. opposite number of right is wrong, At the birth of a child in Islam, the not left. Muslim call for prayer (Azan) should be whispered into the right In Islam however, the word 'right' is ear before whispering Al-Takbir in not employed exclusively to the left. Such instructions were not indicate goodness, it is also accidental but were specific down to employed to indicate ‘the side’ the minutest detail. According to his literally. As such, in this context the instructions and his own personal term ‘right’ is not used against consistent example, the Muslims are ‘wrong’; it is used against ‘left’. required to always use the right hand This is clearly sidedness. In many for touching and holding clean Qur’anic verses right is decidedly things, while the rest are left to the mentioned in its preference over the left hand. Hence when a Muslim left. It is these verses which must shakes hands with others he is have provided the guidelines for the expected to do so with full Holy Prophet( s a ) to direct the confidence that he is offering a clean believers to prefer right over left in hand. day-to-day religious conduct. His established practice was to always Instructions such as these clearly commence good things from his indicate that the concept of right side or by his right hand. The sidedness in religious and social believers are told to perform behaviour were purposefully incor- ablution, for instance, with the right porated in Islam. It is also in this hand first. When they wear their sense that the prophecies concerning shoes, they should insert the right the future of mankind use the terms

Review of Religions: December 2001 31 Chirality or Sideness in Nature

‘ r i g h t i s t ’ and ‘leftist’. Hence the in matters of political and economic political and economic division in divisions, but also in the domain of the contemporary age, based on the science, sidedness would acquire rightist philosophy or the leftist such importance as could never be philosophy, tally clearly with the imagined in any previous era. Qur’anic prophecies regarding the future of mankind. References Why is it that it is Islam alone which emphasizes sidedness so strongly 1 . Fessenden, RI, Fessenden, J.S. while other Divinely revealed (1982) Organic Chemistry. 2nd religions do not even mention it? ed. PWS Publishers. Wi l l a r d Grant Press. Massachusetts, p. In answer to this question, it should 139. be well understood that according to the Qur’an, the age of all other 2. Hegstrom, R.A., Kondepudi, religions had come to an end with D.K. (January, 1990) T h e the dawn of Islam. Polarity and Handedness of The Universe. sidedness are the trends which had Scientific American: pp.98-99. not yet been born in human affairs in the age prior to it. It was only Islam 3. Hegstrom, RA, Kondepudi, D.K. which was to address the people of (January, 1990) The Handedness an age where polarity and sidedness of The Universe. Scientific were to become common coinage in American: p.99. matters of expression.

Looking at it from this angle, the evidence of sidedness in day-to-day behavioural matters was in a way prophetic, that man was about to be ushered into that advanced age when sidedness would acquire new depths and new dimensions. This is exactly what has come to pass. Little did the man of that age know that not only

32 Review of Religions: December 2001 Socrates(as) - Development of Greek Philosophy and Religion

by Fazal Ahmad - UK

Ancient Greek culture developed rapidly before it came into contact with foreign cultures from Egypt, India and elsewhere. At some point in time this triggered the development of philosophy and religion.

This article examines the early development of religious concepts related to God, the soul, morality and society in Ancient Greece and the role of Socrates(as) and his contemporaries.

Introduction Early Development of Gre e k The Greeks were one of the earliest Thought cultures alongside the Egyptians, The Greek civilization began to Persians and Indians to contemplate develop as early as 7000 BC when a their lives, actions, beliefs, life after farming community settled in the death, and the universe in which region. By around 2000 BC, the they co-existed with the rest of Minoan culture of Crete (a large nature. Island near the Greek archipelago) became the dominant power of the Over a period of a few hundred region. After the erruption of the years before Jesus(as), the Greeks had volcano on Thera around 1500 BC, made huge advances in the Minoans lost their power, and mathematics, philosophy, art, the Greeks began to rise in strength. a s t r o n o m y, medicine, music and politics. Their achievements are Over the period 1000 BC to the time acknowledged to this day, but would of Jesus( a s ), the Greeks began to have been lost but for the develop concepts of philosophy endeavours of the Islamic culture to linked to science, politics and the preserve and translate their work, arts. The question could be asked as and to take their knowledge to new to whether these were random boundaries. developments in an advanced

Review of Religions: December 2001 33 Socrates(as) culture, or whether any of these Pythagoras (580 – 500 BC) of developments could have been Samos began to delve deeper into framed within a religious context, spirituality. Born in the 6th century and perhaps even through the BC according to some legends of a bounty of Divine Revelation. virgin to the god Apollo, in the knowledge that he was to serve Greek Philosophy Flourishes mankind, he travelled widely and It was at this time that some of the was trained in the Orphic, Judaic, early schools of thought emerged. Egyptian, Chaldean, Hindu and The Greeks had an essentially pagan Zoroastrian traditions. A g a i n culture in which they worshipped a according to some traditions, plethora of gods and godesses which Pythagoras was later known as the were ultimately to have an effect on ‘son of god’ and was the first Greek shaping the new religion of to call himself a philosopher – one Christianity many centuries later. trying to find out. The Greek pantheon consisted of the following: Pythagoras was aware of the soul, and taught that the soul was trapped • Zeus - sky god in the human body as a punishment • Athene - virgin goddess for sin, and could therefore be • Apollo - the brilliant god condemned to several incarnations, • Artemis - chaste goddess of the whether human or animal. His hunt views showed an influence from • Poseidon - god of the sea Indian Hindu beliefs of • Hades – the underworld reincarnation, and indeed, the pantheon of gods and goddesses There were several others, but this amassed by the Greeks also bore the list gives a flavour of ancient Greek hallmarks of the Vedic Triad and religion, and there was a vast web of other Hindu incarnations. mythology by now built up around each of these characters. It was out He also taught that all knowledge of this chaotic view of religion and stemmed from mathematics, and deity that the later philosophers of related musical, astronomical and Greece tried to carve some harmony spiritual phenomenon to numerical and order. relationships. He died at the age of

34 Review of Religions: December 2001 Socrates(as)

Map of Classical Greece

60, but the order of his followers ‘There is one God, greatest lasted 250 years. among gods and men, neither in shape nor in thought like unto Another contemporary of mortals. ... He is all sight, all Pythagoras was Xenophanes (563 – mind, all ear. ... Yet men imagine 483 BC) from Colophon who is gods to be born, and to have reported to have said: raiment, voice and body, like themselves.’

Review of Religions: December 2001 35 Socrates(as)

Xenophanes was arguing against the The Odyssey (journey home of the unsophisticated approach of the hero Odysseus after the war). Greeks to their deities. He argued that all creatures could view God in I r o n i c a l l y, nothing is known of their own image, and thus humans H o m e r, and indeed doubts have had created a complex mythology been raised about whether Homer assigning human form and was a person or a group of weakness to God, as he wrote: traditions. Nevertheless, to the Greeks, the writings embodied ‘If cattle or horses, or lions, had everything that was moral, practical, hands, or were able to draw with heroic and poetic, and therefore all their feet and produce the works young Athenians had to digest which men do, horses would Homer, and this alone would arm draw the forms of gods like and equip them to cope with the horses, and cattle like cattle, and rigours of life. they would make the gods’ bodies the same shape as their Life of Socrates(as) own.’ Socrates(as) was born in Athens in (Xenophanes quoted by 469 BC. He soon developed his Diogenes Laertius) thoughts on philosophy much as Pythagoras had done before him. In actual fact, Xenophanes was U n f o r t u n a t e l y, he left behind no showing that God is a supreme direct written record of his beliefs, p o w e r, beyond the forms and however we do have detailed attributes that we could envisage. accounts of his life recorded by Could Xenophanes have been one of Plato and also by the Greek historian the first true monotheists of Europe? Xenophon of Athens. From these records and accounts, we can piece So we can see that religious thought together information about his life, was evolving and debated at the his beliefs and his character. time in Greece, and this was fertile ground for spiritual advancement. As a youth, Socrates(as) would have The state view was that all youths received the normal training in had to study Homer’s epics T h e science, music and gymnastics. Iliad (story of the siege of Troy) and These were the accepted subjects of

36 Review of Religions: December 2001 Socrates(as)

virtue during the classical Greek Socrates: I wanted to get your period. He was known as a sculptor, opinion not only of bravery in and some of his work is thought to the hoplite line, but also in have been on show on the road up to cavalry engagements and in all the Acropolis of Athens at one point. forms of fighting; and indeed of bravery not only in fighting, but Ho w e v e r , he soon gave this up as he also at sea, and in the face of received a series of dreams, illness and poverty and public revelations and signs which pointed affairs. And there is bravery not to his Divine mission to reform the only in face of pain and fear, but people of Athens. He wanted to show also of desire and pleasure, both them the futility of their beliefs and fearsome to fight against lifestyle in order to encourage them whether by attack or retreat - for towards a more intellectual and some men are brave in all these moral lifestyle. Throughout the rest encounters, aren’t they, Laches? of his life, he was guided by his ‘divine voice’, and referred to this Laches: Yes, certainly. contact with God in such personal terms that modern religious people Socrates: Then all these are would recognise. Socrates(a s ) be l i e v e d examples of bravery, only some his ‘voice’ and never went against it, men show it in pleasure, some in believing that the voice always pain, some in desire, some in pointed him to truth and good. danger. And there are others who show cowardice in the same So c r a t e s (a s ) had a unique style of circumstances. preaching in which he would question someone on a subject from Laches: Yes. several directions and then draw out his conclusion, a style also later used Socrates: Now what I want to by Confucius(a s ) among the Chinese know was just what each of people. A good example is a these two qualities is. So try recorded conversation between again and tell me first, what is S o c r a t e s( a s ) and a retired general, this common characteristic of Laches, on the subject of what courage which they all share? constitutes bravery: Do you understand what I mean?

Review of Religions: December 2001 37 Socrates(as)

In these discussions, Socrates( a s ) wrong by corrupting the youth.’ encouraged people to think about (Freeman, p.267) deeper meanings, and to dwell on why they did and said things. He According to the account of Plato, also encouraged the youth to think he refused to take up a rhetorical about their actions and thoughts, and argument in order to defend himself, not to leave all of their but instead adopted a more sober understanding to Homer as the state approach. He began his defence had mandated. according to Plato’s apology with the following words: He also held some status, although he shunned politics as it interferred ‘ Well then, I must make my with his spiritual mission. However, defence, and endeavour to clear in holding some office, he was bold away in a short time, a slander and fearless in often standing alone which has lasted a long time. ... for what he believed to be the right And so leaving the event with course of action. Examples included God, in obediance to the law, I when he alone stood against now make my defence.’ proposal against the victors of (Apology, 19a) Arginusae in 406 BC. Two years later, he also disobeyed the Thirty He had opportunities to get himself Tyrants during their reign of terror. a lighter sentence but resisted and stood his ground. He seemed The extensive preaching of oblivious to his impending death, Socrates(as) and his principled stance and even stated that he could be had annoyed the Greek state who going to a better place. He was had him arrested in 399 BC. The sentenced to death, and after many accusers were Meletus, a poet, days of imprisonment, he was Anytus, a politician, and Lycon, an forced to drink hemlock, and died. orator. The charge was as follows: Character of Socrates(as) ‘Socrates does wrong by not Plato in his work S y m p o s i u m , acknowledging the gods the city captures the thoughts of Alcibiades, acknowledges and introducing a wealthy politician in Athens, and other, new powers. He also does his reaction on listening to the

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preaching of Socrates(as) as follows: Greek Philosophers ‘When I listen to him, my heart pounds ... its a sort of frenzy ... Pythagoras (580 - 500 BC) - possessed ... and the tears stream originally of Samos, he developed a out of me at what he says. And I fraternity who believed that the unity and order of the worldcould be seen can see a lot of other people that through Science, Mathematics and he’s had just the same effect on. Music. I’ve heard Pericles, I’ve heard Socrates (469 - 399 BC) - plenty more good speakers and I developed concepts of virtue and vice, thought they did pretty well, but and encouraged people to contemplate they never had an effect like this on their actions. on me. My soul wasn’t turned Plato (427 - 347 BC) - founded the academy in Athens in 387 BC. He upside down by them and it stressed the major virtues of wisdom, d i d n ’t suffer from the feeling courage, sobriety and justice. that I’m dirt.’ Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) - founded (Freeman, p.264) the Lyceum at Athens. He encouraged analytical thinking, experimentation and Alcibiades was describing his specualtion. interaction with a unique man, not a Epicurus (342 - 271 BC) - brought his concpet of a life withdrawn from politician, nor an egotist, but politics from his upbringing on Samos. someone with conviction and a He encouraged the fight of reason, and in strong sense of good and evil, right its path, the acceptance of pain and no and wrong, who could stir his fear of death. listeners in the way that only a Zeno of Citium (336 - 263 BC) - prophet of God can. Plato even developed Stoicism and the humanist ideal. described Socrates(as) as ‘the most Aristarchus (320 - 250 BC) - from just man of his time’. Samos, developed concept of a Sun- centred universe, with the Earth revolving around the Sun. Another of his friends described him Posidonius (130 - 50 BC) - came in the following terms: from Apamea and founded of the School of Rhodes, and the fusion of Stoicism ‘so pious that he did nothing with mysticism. without taking counsel of the

Review of Religions: December 2001 39 Socrates(as)

gods, so just that he never did an that time, Athenian society consisted injury to any man, whilst he was of the following classes: the benefactor of his associates, so temperate that he never • pentakosiomedimnoi - upper preferred pleasure to right, so class of property owners; wise that in judging of good and • hippeis - middle class; evil he was never at fault - in a • zeugitai - peasants; word, the best and the happiest • thetes - property-less class. of men.’ Even in political life, the Athenians These attributes describe a pious elected their A rchons and the man who reflected upon his own keeper of the Treasury from actions and words, and took each amongst members of the first class, step with care so as not to offend and the 400 members of the Council God, and the ‘voice’ of God that he were elected from members of the had grown accustomed to. T h e upper classes. The lower classes historian Xenophon made the were permitted to take part in the following observations about him: popular assembly and courts.

‘No one ever knew of his doing However, for Socrates(as), his God or saying anything profane or was the creator of all mankind, and unholy.’ the messages and the reform of society applied to all men and Another interesting facet of the women in Athens, therefore he was character of Socrates(as) was that he just as comfortable having was able to discuss his ideas and discussions with poets, historians beliefs with people of all strata of and military men at one level, and society and from all walks of life. then with shoemakers and carpenters at another (Ahmad, p.81). Greek culture was very structured This again is a quality that we see and hierarchical just as society was amongst such as Jesus(as), in India, Egypt and elsewhere, and Moses(as) and Buddha(as). normally poets, scientists and politicans held discussions amongst Beliefs of Socrates(as) themselves as the intelegensia. At At that time, much of the brain-

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power of Athens had been devoted leads us to the view that he was the to the study of science and external recipient of dreams and revelations, nature, but he began to change that especially when we consider the balance more towards mankind and impact that he suddenly made upon the effects of actions and thoughts. Athenian life. He wanted to give his followers an understanding of what it would He was able to reconcile his belief in mean to live a good and pious life. a Supreme Being and Creator of the S o c r a t e s( a s ) tried to teach people universe against the state about the meaning of life and death polytheism by referring to the and was surpised at their reaction as common law of nature. He was he said: defiant against the plurality that had developed in Greek religion out of ‘Nobody knows what death is, their mythology. He encouraged his nor whether to man it is fellow Athenians to pray for good perchance the greatest of rather than for material gain. blessings, yet people fear it as if they surely knew it to be the After Socrates(as) worst of evils.’ Many schools of thought developed after Socrates( a s ). The reason we He also challenged the ancient have so much knowledge about him Greek concept of the soul or psyche. in the first place is through the Ancient belief was that the soul was writings of his admirer Plato. Plato a mirror of the deceased person was so moved by the predicament of which moved from the worlds of the Socrates(as) that he wrote about his living and the dead. Socrates( a s ) life and the subsequent trial in his argued that the soul was distinct famous works Dialogues, Apology from the physical body. He argued and Symposium. He also accepted that the psyche had a natural the view that the Universe was tendency towards good, a concept governed by an invisible force. which was later challenged by At the same time, there had been Aristotle (Freeman, p.281). many followers who had got closer to Socrates( a s ) during his lifetime Most strikingly though, Socrates(as) according to Xenophon in order to: held a personal view of God which

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‘become good men and true, Buddha(as), Confucius(as) and so on. capable of doing their duty by The Qur’an alludes to this in several house and household, by places: relations and friends, by city and fellow citizens.’ ‘And We did raise among every people a Messenger preaching: Some of these followers had got “ Worship Allah and shun the closer still (in Christianity, they Evil One”. Then among them would have been called disciples) were some whom Allah guided and upon his death, they took it and among them were some who upon themselves to continue to became deserving of ruin.’ transmit his message. (Holy Qur’an, Ch.16: v.37)

Plato believed that the visible world In another verse we read: did not contain all knowledge and truth, and was rather a façade for an ‘Surely, We have sent revelation unseen world where truth and to thee, as We sent revelation to knowledge existed. Noah and the Prophets after him; and We sent revelation to By the time Aristotle of Stagira Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac came on the scene, the concept of and Jacob and his children and God was reduced to one of the initial to Jesus and Job and Jonah and cause of Nature, but as not playing A a ron and Solomon, and We an active role thereafter (Ahmad, gave David a book. And We sent p.77). some Messengers whom We have already mentioned to thee and Conclusion some Messengers whom We Islam, Christianity and Judaism all have not mentioned to thee’. share a common heritage of (Ch.4: vs.164-165) prophets in the line from Abraham(as). However, the Qur’an is There are no written works from unique in acknowledging that other many of the early prophets of God to prophets also existed outside of the demonstrate their beliefs, however middle east, as we later understood the evidence they leave behind in through a study of Krishna( a s ), the reaction of their people and their

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influence on historians and future 3. The Early Greek Concept of the generations of religious thinkers Soul, Jan N Bremmer, Princeton provide us with strong clues about University Press, New Jersey them. 1983.

In the case of Socrates(as), we are 4. The Penguin Atlas of Wo r l d lucky in that accounts of his life, H i s t o ry, Volume 1, Hermann works and beliefs have been Kinder and Werner Hilgemann, recorded in some form by one of his Penguin Books, Munich 1974. students, Plato. While the accuracy of these works could be debated, 5. The Encyclopedia of Myths and there is no doubt about the general L e g e n d s, Stuart Gordon, picture that emerges. Headline Books, London 1993.

We have to rely on this kind of evidence for prophets among other races also such as the Egyptians. So using the best sources of evidence that we have available to us, we can infer through the life, works and sayings of Socrates(as) that he was more than likely a prophet of God.

References 1. The Greek Achievement - The Foundation of the Western World, Charles Freeman, Penguin Books 1999.

2. Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth, Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Islam International Publications Ltd, Surrey 1998.

Review of Religions: December 2001 43 Division and Unity

Hadhrat Mirza TahirAhmad, the Fourth Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, from time to time offers to people of all nationalities, faiths and beliefs the opportunity of raising questions and issues that are of interest to them. Presented below is an answer to a question that was raised in a session held at the London Mosque on 14 September 1984. Compiled by Amatul Hadi Ahmad

Questioner: sects plus one, that is, the I wish to ask how we can know Ahmadiyya Community. It is not that of the seventy-two sects which so much a question of whether the exist within Islam why is the Ahmadiyya Community is right or Ahmadiyya Community the right whether the others are right – it is one? an open question for all. Of the seventy-three sects one is the Hadhrat Mirza Ta h i r A h m a d: Ahmadiyya Community and This question was first raised seventy-two other sects each one about fourteen hundred years ago of which claims to be the sect and was asked directly of the Holy whose followers are deemed to Prophet Muhammad ( s a ) of Islam enter heaven. For a newcomer who and his answer is obviously the may be a convert from Christianity best answer. A better answer could or from some other religion, this not possibly be given to this situation presents great confusion question than the answer that has and requires a very diff i c u l t already been given by the Holy judgement to be made. However, Prophet Muhammad( s a ), the consider the greatness of the Holy Founder of Islam. His answer P r o p h e t( s a ) of Islam when we makes this apparently diff i c u l t discover how easy he has made it issue very easy to resolve. The for us to decide upon this question question in itself is very difficult and how simply he has resolved particularly for a newcomer to this issue. He was asked the same Islam, such as yourself, who finds question by one of his Companions Islam divided into seventy-two – the question was: O’ Prophet of

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God! How will we find out which question indeed but consider the one out of the ‘seventy-two’ (or answer – the Holy Prophet( s a ) ‘seventy-three’) sects is the sect stated: Ma ana alaihe wa ashabi, that will enter heaven and which (that is, those who follow my ones are the sects that are bound example and that of my for hell (as had been described by Companions), thus simplifying the Holy Prophet( s a ) e a r l i e r ) ? what was otherwise a very Before proceeding further, complex issue. In other words, the however, it would be helpful if we Holy Prophet(sa) was stating that consider briefly the background to you need not be in any doubt as to this question. The question arose which of those sects is on the right as the Holy Prophet( s a ) w a s path – the sect that you find to be explaining to his Companions how in a situation closely resembling in the future a time would come mine and that of my Companions, upon Islam when the Muslims that would be the sect whose would be divided into seventy-two followers would be heaven bound. sects and another sect, (a Jama’at), that would be in addition to the The question here arises as to what seventy-two sects and would be a was the situation of the Holy distinct entity, separate from the Prophet(sa) and his Companions and other seventy-two sects. He further who was responsible for creating stated that the seventy-two sects [the extreme hardships and would be hell bound and the one cruelties that they had to endure]? distinct Jama’at will be heaven An understanding of the answer to bound. These were the words of this question simplifies the whole the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa) of matter. Islam – as translated by me. Hearing this description from the The Holy Prophet( s a ) and his Holy Prophet( s a ), one of his followers were not permitted to Companions became concerned proclaim La ilaha illallah and asked the question as to how M u h a m m a d - u r- Rasulullah we could find out which one of the (meaning ‘There is none worthy of seventy-three was that fortunate worship except Allah and sect? This is a very diff i c u l t Muhammad is His Messenger’ –

Review of Religions: December 2001 45 Division and Unity this being the first article of faith to pronounce La ilaha illallah of Islam). For uttering these words, Muhammad-ur- Rasulullah – that the early Muslims were cruelly is ‘There is none worthy of punished. They were dragged worship except Allah and along the stony streets of Mecca Muhammad is His Messenger’ . and were at times put to such The only sect that stands alone and extremes of torture as can possibly is distinct in this is the Ahmadiyya be invented by evil human beings. Jama’at. The Government agencies The Meccans thought up various come along with the Mullahs and kinds of torture with which the they wipe out the K a l i m a Muslims were tormented merely themselves from the walls of the for uttering the words: La ilaha Ahmadiyya mosques. They have to illallah Muhammad-ur- do this themselves because the R a s u l u l l a h. They were, in fact, Ahmadis do not acquiesce to such forbidden to do so. demands and they refuse to commit the outrage of erasing with The next question that arises here their own hands the Kalima, that and needs to be addressed is to ask is, the words ‘La ilaha illallah which sect today is not permitted, Muhammad-ur- Rasulullah’. Such in a Muslim country, to utter the events decide one thing very same words: La ilaha illallah clearly which is that in our time the M u h a m m a d - u r- R a s u l u l l a h or to situation that was faced by the inscribe these words upon the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa) and walls of its mosques? It is the his followers is being repeated and Ahmadiyya Jama’at, none other, is being faced only by one sect and that is receiving such harsh that is the Ahmadiyya Community. treatment. The other sects within Islam have their animosities and The Holy Prophet( s a ) and his their hostilities between followers were also not permitted themselves – each sect opposes the to build mosques. It is on record other and there is no doubt about that during the Meccan days, this. Each sect declares the other to Hadhrat Abu Bakr Siddique, who be an infidel but each permits the later became the first Caliph of other the use of the Kalima, that is Islam, built a mosque in his own

46 Review of Religions: December 2001 Division and Unity courtyard as the Muslims were not endangered the family’s lives so permitted to build mosques much that they had to leave their outside. He was, however, stopped house and were given refuge in a from building a mosque even in his neighbour’s house and this is a own courtyard. A mob of Meccans common story. Is there any other entered his house forcibly and told sect in Islam that shares this Hadhrat Abu Bakr Siddique that he situation with the Holy Prophet(sa) could not build a mosque as it was and his Companions? There is not permitted – not even in a none other than the Ahmadis. Muslim’s own courtyard. Exactly the same situation was repeated in Furthermore, Ahmadis are told by our own time in Karachi, Pakistan, their opponents that they are not a few months ago. Generally, this going to be accepted as Muslims to has been happening for a long the extent that they are not time. Ahmadiyya mosques have permitted even to name themselves been damaged, demolished and as Muslims. It is we, the non- even burned down – that is a Ahmadis, they say, who have the common story. This particular right to give you a name and we incident, however, was almost an have named you either ‘Mirzai’ or exact repeat of the incident that ‘’ – but not Ahmadis. In took place in Hadhrat Abu Bakr other words, they say that the title S i d d i q u e ’s courtyard many of ‘Muslim’ is out of the question hundred years earlier. In Karachi, a but we will not permit you even to mob entered the house of an name your own sect. Ahmadi and stopped him and other fellow Ahmadis from At the time of the Holy Prophet(sa) offering congregational prayers in the Muslims were treated in the his house saying that his house had same way. It has been recorded in been turned into a mosque and the Holy Qur’an that the Muslims they would not permit it. They said were told by the Meccans that your that they felt insulted and were name is ‘Saabi’ and not Muslim. deeply hurt if an Ahmadi offered Hadith, (i.e. a record of the actions congregational prayers in his own and sayings of the Holy house. [The anger of the mob] Prophet(sa)), also speaks of this in

Review of Religions: December 2001 47 Division and Unity detail and tells us that on one have been imprisoned, they have occasion Hadhrat Umar Farooq been thrown into filthy lavatories [who was later to become the and kept locked up there by the second Caliph of Islam] went to the police who told them that this was , the holy place of worship in their punishment for insisting upon Mecca. He had someone with him calling themselves Muslims. Is to declare that he, that is, Hadhrat there any other sect in Islam that is U m a r, had become a Muslim. or has been treated like this for Upon hearing this announcement, calling themselves Muslims? Th e the person who made the answer has to be that the announcement was mobbed and Ahmadiyya Jama’at is the only sect beaten up by the Meccans who said that has been treated in this way. that they could use the word ‘S a a b i ’ but not ‘Muslim’. Th e In short, we are told that we are not name ‘Saabi’, they asserted, was permitted to offer prayers in permitted as they had chosen that congregation. We are declared name for the followers of the Holy renegades and the punishment for P r o p h e t( s a ) but to declare renegades according to the themselves as Muslims, that was Mullahs is stoning to death or to be preposterous and was not to be killed – by whosoever whishes to permitted. Another Companion of do so. Daily we receive reports the Holy Prophet(s a ) was violently from Pakistan that under the attacked for the simple act of marshal regime [of General Zia] declaring himself to be a Muslim. which is extremely sensitive to its His own words regarding this event own criticism – even the slightest have been recorded and preserved finger raised against it is ‘cut off’– in history. He said that he was so yet it is very lenient towards the violently beaten up that he lost his Maulvis and the Mullahs who sight and he did not know which declare that Ahmadi life and way he was going. This is the property should be confiscated in punishment that has also been the light of Islam. They do not meted out to Ahmadis. Simply for mind that the Mullahs go on declaring themselves to be preaching openly to all that to kill Muslims, Ahmadis in Pakistan Ahmadis is not forbidden – they

48 Review of Religions: December 2001 Division and Unity preach in fact that to kill an cruelty being perpetrated. I have Ahmadi is to find a way to heaven. just received a report of a Marshall This situation has persisted for a Law Administrator who observed long time and nobody seems to for a time the cruel treatment in his check and no one minds. This, region of Ahmadis at the hands of however, was exactly the state of the Mullahs and their followers. affairs that the Holy Prophet(sa) and The Mullahs in that region were his Companions had to face. It was particularly hostile and treated openly declared that whoever kills Ahmadis so abusively and cruelly a Muslim, a follower of the Holy that ultimately it proved too much Prophet(sa) would be performing a for the Administrator to bear – it good deed that would be rewarded. went beyond the limits of his They declared it to be a toleration. Consequently, he called commendable act if the homes of the Mullahs and admonished them the Muslims were looted or severely. He pointed out to them forcibly occupied and their ladies that if their cruel acts against the were dishonoured – whatever Ahmadis were repeated, they offences they wished to commit would be severely punished. The against the Muslims were, in fact, words he used were to the effect permissible. This is what happened that from now on if the Mullahs to the Holy Prophet ( s a ) and his tried to send the Ahmadis to hell, followers and the same is happen- as they claimed to do, he would be ing to us. sending the Mullahs to hell – so they should be prepared for this. In Pakistan, the cruel treatment of Such incidents show that in face of Ahmadis reaches such extremes the cruelties perpetrated against that at times some government the Ahmadis, some of the officers themselves recoil from it. opponents are breaking down This is because cruelty in the end themselves as did many an does have an affect on human opponent of the Holy Prophet nature. Sometimes it happens that M u h a m m a d( s a ) who ultimately those who witness cruel acts reach broke down in the face of extreme a threshold beyond which they cruelty being perpetrated against cannot tolerate witnessing that the followers of the Holy

Review of Religions: December 2001 49 Division and Unity

Prophet(sa). Hadhrat Umar Farooq, They generally close their eyes to for instance, became a Muslim Ahmadis coming to their country because of the oppression of the from other directions for the Muslims and the cruel, inhuman purpose of performing Hajj, if they treatment of the Muslims that he can afford to do so. However, if the witnessed. It sometimes so matter comes to their attention happens that the hardness of the openly then they find that they oppressor softens in face of the have to impose their regulation to cruelty meted out to the oppressed prevent Ahmadis from performing and this appears to be what the Pilgrimage. One of the happened to Hadhrat Umar questions that naturally arises here Farooq. is to ask who was the first person in history who was prevented In short, take all these situations from performing the Pilgrimage to that were faced by the Holy Mecca and the answer is that it was P r o p h e t( s a ) of Islam and his the Holy Prophet( s a ) of Islam Companions, and you will find that himself who was prevented from all of them are found together in performing the Pilgrimage at the one sect alone and that is the time of the Agreement of Jama’at Ahmadiyya. The similarity Hudaibiyya. It is named after the is brought even closer when one field of Hudaibiyya where the considers the fact that even Hajj, agreement was reached between the Pilgrimage to Mecca, is not the Meccans and the Holy permitted for the A h m a d i y y a Prophet(sa) and his followers. Jama’at. It was there that he was prevented In 1974 when the Ahmadis were from going further in the direction declared to be non-Muslims, (by of Mecca. Since that time now, in an Ordnance of the Government) the present time, it is the members they were also forbidden by the of the Ahmadiyya Community, as a Pakistani Government to perform sect, who are prevented from Hajj. The Saudi Government also performing the Pilgrimage to took the same action at least Mecca. against the Pakistani A h m a d i s .

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The circumstances [in which the by the illiterate as well as the Ahmadiyya Jama’at finds itself] literate, by the black as well as the speak for themselves and this is the white because these events are a beauty of the answer given by the part of the history of Islam that is Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa) in that known to everyone. Every a decision in this matter does not Muslim, right from his childhood, require one to be a learned person is taught about the circumstances [it makes it possible even for an that the Holy Prophet(sa) and his illiterate Muslim to make a Companions had to encounter. decision for himself]. However, if Hence, even in the remotest it were the case that the Muslims corners of the Muslim world the had not been provided with such a Holy Prophet’s(sa) guidance in this simple solution to this question, it matter provides a light for all to would still have been binding upon see. them to make a judgement as to which of the seventy-three sects In conclusion, I think this is the was right and, therefore, heaven best proof we have of our truth, of bound. In a binding injunction lack the Ahmadiyya Jama’at being the of knowledge cannot be permitted sect that is right. However, if you as an excuse for one’s inability to wish to investigate this issue in reach the right judgement. It can be greater depth, there is literature argued, however, that in such a available on this subject in scenario an illiterate person could different languages that can help complain before God that God had you to pursue this matter further. Himself ordained his birth in an illiterate family and thus it was an impossible task for him to discover the truth through making a study of the Holy Qur’an and the Traditions of the Holy Prophet(sa) of Islam. In short, the Holy Prophet(sa) of Islam has saved us from all such difficulties by giving an answer which can be understood equally

Review of Religions: December 2001 51 A Unique Cosmic Heavenly Sign by M.Alikoya – India

The lunar and solar eclipses of 1894 provided a heavenly sign for the advent of the Messiah for all of the world. Here the author explores the expectation of the signs of the Messiah in many world faiths and in Islam. This article is reproduced from the Minaret quarterly journal published in Kerala, India in January 2001, of which the author is one of the executives.

A number of spiritual teachers Mahdi (Messiah of Islam) and have prophecied about the advent foretold how every eye would be of a Mahdi or Messiah (Divine able to witness it. Never before Reformer) in the latter days. has a heavenly Sign given Buddhist and Hindu scriptures testimony to the arrival of a have clearly alluded to the Prophet. But for the promised appearance of a Reformer in the Messiah(as) who is the Mahdi for latter days. The Gospels – Amos Muslims, Jesus(as) for Christians 8:9; Matthew 24:29 and the Holy and Jews, Buddha( a s ) f o r Q u r’an 75:9-10, have also Buddhists and Krishna( a s ) f o r referred to the second advent of Hindus, a heavenly Sign would J e s u s( a s ). Jesus ( a s ) himself has appear so that every eye which clearly mentioned about his has vision to see would be able to in the latter days. witness it. He further said that every eye would witness the arrival of the The Signs mentioned in old Messiah. The Holy Prophet(sa) of scriptures and in the Qur’ a n Islam had mentioned an exact indicated the time of the advent timetable for the advent of the of this Promised Messiah which

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have been fulfilled in this age. A prediction when mankind had no mighty proof of the truth of the clue of fore-casting any such Qur’an is that in accordance with heavenly signs. The great the prophecies made in it, a man fulfilment of this prophecy has been raised by Almighty God proves beyond a shadow of a in this age who has claimed to be doubt that the Holy Prophet( s a ) the promised Messiah and Mahdi. was endowed with Divine This claimant was the late inspiration. Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as) (1835 – 1908) of Qadian in India, Traditions about the Mahdi the founder of the Ahmadiyya There are several traditions community in Islam. relating to the coming of the Mahdi of Islam. In the Qur’an, It is worth pondering over this there is the following verse: great prophecy of the Holy Prophet(sa) of Islam. How beau- Allah will raise him among tifully it has come to fruition. The others who have not yet joined Holy Prophet( s a ) presented this them. He is the Mighty, the

Review of Religions: December 2001 53 A Unique Cosmic Heavenly Sign

Wise. That is Allah’s Grace. equity and justice.’ He bestows it on whom He (Musnad Ahmad) pleases. And Allah is the Lord of immense Grace. At the time of the advent of the (Holy Qur’an: Ch.62, vs.4-5) Mahdi, there would be a general disregard of the Qur’an and a Explaining these verses, the Holy weakening of Islam. Evil would Prophet(sa) is reported by Bukhari be prevalent with open adultery, to have said that: unnatural crimes, the bearing of false witness, the predominance ‘If faith were to go up to of the use of the pen and trade on Pleiades, a man of Persian a massive scale. People would be descent will bring it back.’ engrossed in their worldy affairs, would be prone to apostacy and Below are several other traditions forming new creeds, Islam would in Islam about the arrival of the splinter and there would be the Mahdi: appearance of the Dajjal and Gog and Magog in the world. ‘I swear on Him who holds my life in his hands that the Hadhrat Ali(ra), one of the great son of Mary shall surely Caliphs of Islam is reported to appear amongst you as a just have said: Arbiter nad will break the Cross and annihilate the ‘The Mahdi shall resemble the swine.’ Holy Prophet in character and (Hadith of Bukhari) not in personal appearance. The Promised Messiah will ‘I give you the glad tidings of point out the errors of the Al-Mahdi who will be Christianity and it is on this raised by my Ummah at the count that he is called Jesus time of the decadent people. son of Mary. He will restore He will fill the earth with Islam to its pristine glory and

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lustre and is called Ahmad.’ to convey their respects to him (Hadithul Ghasia) when he appeared. There was a consensus among the Muslim There are traditions in Shia’a sects that the Mahdi would Islam contained in the text appear at the beginning of the Biharul Anwar: 14th century of Islam.

‘The Mahdi will have a P rophecies of Eclipses fro m double name. One will be other Scriptures Ghulam and the other Ahmad In the New Testament of the and still another Muhammad Bible, Jesus (as) narrating the signs and he will also be called Isa of his second coming said: (jJesus) Masih’. (Biharul Anwar, Vol.13, pp.7- ‘Immediately after the 8) tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the ‘The Promised Messiah will moon shall not give her light.’ break the Cross, i.e. he will (Matthew 24:29) refute and annihilate the creed of crucifixion by arguments In the Hindu scriptures of the against it.’ Mahabharat, Sri Vyasji states: (Biharul Anwar, Vol.3, p.198) ‘After this with the passage of A number of saints such as Syed time, Satyug would come; Ahmad Sirhind and Shah when the Brahmin would Waliullah Dehlavi reminded exert influence over society. Muslims of the advent of the Then the avenues for the Mahdi. The learned and the advancement of the world divines yearned to live long would open. When the sun, enough to be blessed with the the moon and Jupiter would presence of this august person be aligned with Pushya and enjoined upon their children N a k s h a t i r. It would be the

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beginning of Satyug. At that cosmic importance reported by time it would rain in time. The Hadhrat Imam Baqar Mohamed stars would shine brighter ibn Ali, the son of Hadhrat Imam than before.’ Zainul A b i d e e n( r a ). The quote which is accepted as authentic by Mahatma Surdasji has mentioned both Sunni and Shia’a Muslims the following: reads as follows:

‘When Kalki Avatar would ‘There are two Signs for our appear, both the moon and the Mahdi which have never sun would be eclpised and appeared before since the there will be much violence creation of the heavens and and death.’ the earth, namely the moon (Sursagar) will be eclipsed on the first night (of the lunar eclipse In the Holy book of the Sikhs, it dates) in Ramadhan and the is written: sun will be ecipsed on the middle day (of the solar ‘When Maharaj (Krishna) will eclipse days) of Ramadhan, come as Nah Kalank, the sun and these signs have not and the moon will be his appeared before since God helpers.’ created the heavens and the (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) earth.’ (Sunan Darq u t n i, Vo l . 1 , Prophecy of Eclipses from the p.188) Holy Prophet(sa) Hadhrat Ali ibn Umar A l - Imam Darqutni was one of the Baghdadi Ad-Darqutni was an most respected saints in early eminent authority on Hadith Islam and was scrupulously (sayings of the Holy Prophet(sa)) careful in recording the sayings who lived from 918 – 995 CE. He of the Holy Prophet (sa). recorded a hadith of unusual

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THERE ARE TWO SIGNS FOR OUR MAHDI WHICH HAVE NEVER APPEARED BEFORE SINCE THE CREATION OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, NAMELY THE MOON WILL BE ECLIPSED ON THE FIRST NIGHT (OF THE LUNAR ECLIPSE DATES) IN RAMADHAN AND THE SUN WILL BE ECIPSED ON THE MIDDLE DAY (OF THE SOLAR ECLIPSE DAYS) OF RAMADHAN, AND THESE SIGNS HAVE NOT APPEARED BEFORE SINCE GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.’ (SUNAN DARQUTNI, VOL.1, P.188)

Commentaries on the Prophecy are going to happen in the by Islamic Scholars 13th century and I am Several Islamic scholars and visualising the eclipses of the saints have commented on the sun and moon to occur in this time of the arrival of the Mahdi. century.’ An eminent Muslim divine (Arbaeen Fi A h w a l i l Hadhrat Shaik Nematullah Wali Mahdiyeen) wrote: Allama Sheik Shahabuddin ibn ‘He will be both Mahdi of the Al hajr Al-Hashm wrote: time and Jesus: I see him blessed with both the ‘Muhammad bin Ali, an elite attributes. I see both the moon among the Ahle Bait narrates and the sun obscured.’ that there will be two Signs (Musleh Akhir Zaman) for the Imam Mahdi which have never been shown to Moulana Muhammad Ismael mankind since the creation of Shaheed stated: the heavens and the earth. One of these is the eclipse of the ‘Strange and unusual events Moon on the first of its nights

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IN THE LAST 200 YEARS, LUNAR AND SOLAR ECLIPSES HAVE OCCURRED DURING THE MONTH OF RAMADHAN ON 17 OCCASIONS BUT OF THESE, ONLY 6 TIMES WAS EITHER ECLIPSE VISIBLE FROM QADIAN, AND ONLY ONCE WERE B O T H V I S I B L E F R O M QA D I A N. IT H A P P E N S T H AT T H I S OCCURRED IN 1894, AND THAT BOTH THE LUNAR AND SOLAR ECLIPSES OCCURED ON THEIR SPECIFIED DAYS DURING THE MONTH OF RAMADHAN IN THE YEAR 1894.

in the month of Ramadhan hamlet of Qadian in the Punjab and the eclipse of the Sun will region of India. He announced: be on the middle of the days.’ (Kitabul Falaw Al Hadeesiya, ‘It was made clear to me p.31) through Divine revelation that the Messiah, whose advent Declaration of Mission among the Muslims had been In the latter part of the 19th promised from the beginning c e n t u r y, a pious, middle aged and the Mahdi whose advent revered personage identifying had been Divinely decreed at himself completely with Islam the time of the decline of and a faithful servant of Allah, a Islam and the spread of error, devoted follower of the Holy and who was to be guided Prophet(sa) announced that he had directly by God, and who was been a constant recipient of to invite people to participate revelations and that the day of the in the heavenly banquet and renaissance of Islam was about to whose advent had been dawn through him. His name was foretold by the Holy Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad(as), Prophet(sa) thirteen centuries in a scion of an ancient noble house advance was myslef. Divine of Persian lineage from the tiny revelation to this effect was

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vouchsafed to me so clearly Need for the Signs and so continuously that it left Towards the end of the century, no room for doubt.’ Muslims were objecting that the (Tazhkiratul Shahatain) prophecy regarding the lunar and solar eclipses had not been It was revealed to him that he was fulfilled. In early 1894, the the promised Reformer not only Promised Messiah ( a s ) made the for the Muslims, Christians and following supplication: Jews, but also for the Hindus, Buddhists, Confucians and ‘O Go d ! Am I not from Th e e ? Zoroastrians as predicted in their Curse and denial have now scripts. become excessive. Judge between us and our people The world religious scriptures are with justice, for Thou art the familiar with the second advent Best of those who judge. O of a great world teacher in the God! Please send Thy succour latter days. Nevertheless, the for me from heaven and help Reformer must appear in a Thy servant in the time of religion that recognises on the ad v e r s i t y . I have become like strength of its scripture, all of the the weak and disgraced and religious teachers and the Divine people have rejected me and origins of their scriptures. Islam reproached me. So Thou come is the only such religion. to my help as Thou helped the Holy Prophet(s a ) on the day of Hadhrat A h m a d( a s ), a faithful Ba d r. ’ follower of Islam claimed that (Noorul Haq, Part I) through his advent, these prophecies have been fulfilled. Signs of the Eclipses Thus he resolved the conflicts In the last 200 years, lunar and and paradoxes prevailing in them solar eclipses have occurred and laid the base for the during the month of Ramadhan reunification of all religions. on 17 occasions but of these, only

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6 times was either eclipse visible Both eclipses were visible from from Qadian, and only once were Qadian. both visible from Qadian. It happens that this occurred in Soon after the celestial Signs, the 1894, and that both the lunar and Promised Messiah( a s ) wrote a solar eclipses occured on their book N o o rul Haq Part II i n specified days during the month Arabic which is devoted to an of Ramadhan in the year 1894. extremely enlightening discus- sion of the accurate fulfilment of The solar eclipse was a full the splendid prophecy of the annular eclipse, the most spec- Holy Prophet(sa) of Islam. In his tacular type which occurs just 10 book, he explained in the light of times in any century. Therefore Divine revelation that the true just as predicted, during interpretation of the Hadith is that Ramadhan of the Islamic year in the time of the Mahdi, the 1311 AH (1894), God manifested moon will be eclipsed in the first over the vast area of our of the three nights on which a hemisphere the heavenly Signs of lunar eclipse can occur (13th day the eclipses, and Qadian of Ramadhan) and the sun will be witnessed both eclipses on the eclipsed on the middle day out of specified dates: the days on which the Solar eclipse can occur (28th day of • the lunar eclipse occurred after Ramadhan). sunset on Wednesday March The Promised Messiah( a s ) d r e w 21st 1894, the 13th night of attention to several properties Ramadhan; which make the Signs very impressive. He pointed out that • the solar eclipse occurred on the words first and middle used in Friday 6th April 1894, the 28th the Hadith were fulfilled in two day of Ramadhan. ways, namely with regard to the date and the time. Not only did the lunar eclipse occur on the first

60 Review of Religions: December 2001 A Unique Cosmic Heavenly Sign of the three nights but also Sun and Moon occurred; in occurred in the beginning of the my age only in accordance night in Qadian (7 – 9:30pm). the with the authentic sayings of Solar eclipse not only occured on the Holy Prophet and the Holy the middle day but also occurred Q u r’an and earlier books, in the forenoon in Qadian there was plague all over the (9–11am). country, and in my age only, new modes of transport Gratitude for the Signs namely railways came into The Promised Messiah( a s ) w a s existence, and in my age only, therefore vindicated through as per my prophecies, terrible these heavenly Signs as proof of earthquakes came. Does not his claim to be the Mahdi and then righteousness demand Messiah. The last words are from that one should not be bold in his writings in gratitude for the denying me? Look, I swear by Signs shown. He wrote: Almighty God and say that thousands of signs for ‘And I also swear by establishing my truth have Almighty God that I am the been manifested and will be Promised Messiah and I am manifested. If this were a the same person who was man’s plan, he would never promised by the prophets. have enjoyed such support There is news about me and and help!’ my age in the Torah and in the (Haqeeqatul Wahy) Gospel and the Holy Qur’an. It is stated that there will be eclipses in the sky and severe plague on the earth.’ (Dafae Balae)

‘In my age only in the month of Ramadhan, eclipses of the

Review of Religions: December 2001 61 Article List for Review of Religions 2001

JANUARY 2001 APRIL 2001

• Jesus(as) Versus Finality • Islam – A Religion of • Virtue and Vice Peace • The Concept of the • The Reality of Paradise Awaited Messiah in World • Biblical Prophecy about Faiths the Holy Prophet(sa)– Part • Who are the ? II • Yus Asaph and Jesus(as) • European Philosophy

FEB/MARCH 2001 MAY 2001 • Prayer of the Righteous • An Outline of the Life of • The Significance of Muhammad(sa) – the Holy Darood Messenger of God • Al-Qadr (The Majesty) • How Allah deals with those • Biblical Prophecy about who Accuse the Divine the Holy Prophet(sa) Appointee of Falsehood • Al-Bayyinah – A Manifest • Understanding the Principle Teaching Al-Qayyimah - An • Establishment of Khilafat Everlasting Teaching • Survival by Accident or • A Life of Distinction – Design? Hadhrat Bhai Abdur Rahman Qadiani(ra)

62 Review of Religions: December 2001 Article List 2001

JUNE/JULY 2001 SEPTEMBER 2001 • Life in the Perspective of • Origin of Life – Different Qur’anic Revelations – a Theories and Propositions brief Introductory chapter • The Path to Success • The Root of Islam • Cleanliness and Health of • The Need for Religion the Body and Soul • Knowledge and Truth • My Faith • Muslims in Spain • Islamic Perspective. • Prospects and Challenges • Life of the Caliphs – Part of the New Millennium: II The Moral Factor • A Brief History of Observatories in the Islamic World AUGUST 2001 • Buddhism OCT/NOV 2001 • True Repentance • Jihad • Aspects of Belief • Islamic Perspective – Part • Lives of the Caliphs – Part II 1 • Fasting • Mobile Internet and the • The Jinn Web • Business, Corporation and Governance Models in the DECEMBER 2001 Islamic Economic System

• The History and Theory of Islamic Medicine • Socrates(as) - Develoment of • Assessment of Belief – Prt I Greek Philosophy and • Division and Unity Religion • A Unique Cosmic Heavenly • Chirality or Sideness in Sign Nature

Review of Religions: December 2001 63 Subscription Review of Religions

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