nobility of Anu_sh_irvan the Generous and the Just.(42) That fair-minded
monarch came to power at a time when the once solidly established throne
of Persia was about to crumble away. With his Divine gift of intellect, he
laid the foundations of justice, uprooting oppression and tyranny and
gathering the scattered peoples of Persia under the wings of his dominion.
Thanks to the restoring influence of his continual care, Persia that had
lain withered and desolate was quickened into life and rapidly changed
into the fairest of all flourishing nations. He rebuilt and reinforced the
disorganized powers of the state, and the renown of his righteousness and
justice echoed across the seven climes,(43) until the peoples rose up out
of their degradation and misery to the heights of felicity and honor.
Although he was a Magian, Muhammad, that Center of creation and Sun of
prophethood, said of him: "I was born in the time of a just king," and
rejoiced at having come into the world during his reign. Did this
illustrious personage achieve his exalted station by virtue of his
admirable qualities or rather by reaching out to conquer the earth and
spill the blood of its peoples? Observe that he attained to such a
distinguished rank in the heart of the world that his greatness still
rings out through all the impermanence of time, and he won eternal life.
Should We comment on the continuing life of the great, this brief essay
would be unduly prolonged, and since it is by no means certain that public
opinion in Persia will be materially affected by its perusal, We shall
abridge the work, and go on to other matters which come within the purview
of the public mind. If, however, it develops that this abridgement
produces favorable results, We shall, God willing, write a number of books
dealing at length and usefully with fundamental principles of the Divine
wisdom in its relation to the phenomenal world.
No power on earth can prevail against the armies of justice, and every
citadel must fall before them; for men willingly go down under the
triumphant strokes of this decisive blade, and desolate places bloom and
flourish under the tramplings of this host. There are two mighty banners
which, when they cast their shadow across the crown of any king, will
cause the influence of his government quickly and easily to penetrate the
whole earth, even as if it were the light of the sun: the first of these
two banners is wisdom; the second is justice. Against these two most
potent forces, the iron hills cannot prevail, and Alexander's wall will
break before them. It is clear that life in this fast-fading world is as
fleeting and inconstant as the morning wind, and this being so, how
fortunate are the great who leave a good name behind them, and the memory
of a lifetime spent in the pathway of the good pleasure of God.
It is all one, if it be a throne
Or the bare ground under the open sky,
Where the pure soul lays him
Down to die.(44)
A conquest can be a praiseworthy thing, and there are times when war
becomes the powerful basis of peace, and ruin the very means of
reconstruction. If, for example, a high-minded sovereign marshals his
troops to block the onset of the insurgent and the aggressor, or again, if
he takes the field and distinguishes himself in a struggle to unify a
divided state and people, if, in brief, he is waging war for a righteous
purpose, then this seeming wrath is mercy itself, and this apparent
tyranny the very substance of justice and this warfare the cornerstone of
peace. Today, the task befitting great rulers is to establish universal
peace, for in this lies the freedom of all peoples.
The fourth phrase of the aforementioned Utterance which points out the way
of salvation is: "obedient to the commandments of his Lord." It is certain
that man's highest distinction is to be lowly before and obedient to his
God; that his greatest glory, his most exalted rank and honor, depend on
his close observance of the Divine commands and prohibitions. Religion is
the light of the world, and the progress, achievement, and happiness of
man result from obedience to the laws set down in the holy Books. Briefly,
it is demonstrable that in this life, both outwardly and inwardly the
mightiest of structures, the most solidly established, the most enduring,
standing guard over the world, assuring both the spiritual and the
material perfections of mankind, and protecting the happiness and the
civilization of society--is religion.
It is true that there are foolish individuals who have never properly
examined the fundamentals of the Divine religions, who have taken as their
criterion the behavior of a few religious hypocrites and measured all
religious persons by that yardstick, and have on this account concluded
that religions are an obstacle to progress, a divisive factor and a cause
of malevolence and enmity among peoples. They have not even observed this
much, that the principles of the Divine religions can hardly be evaluated
by the acts of those who only claim to follow them. For every excellent
thing, peerless though it may be, can still be diverted to the wrong ends.
A lighted lamp in the hands of an ignorant child or of the blind will not
dispel the surrounding darkness nor light up the house--it will set both
the bearer and the house on fire. Can we, in such an instance, blame the
lamp? No, by the Lord God! To the seeing, a lamp is a guide and will show
him his path; but it is a disaster to the blind.
Among those who have repudiated religious faith was the Frenchman,
Voltaire, who wrote a great number of books attacking the religions, works
which are no better than children's playthings. This individual, taking as
his criterion the omissions and commissions of the Pope, the head of the
Roman Catholic religion, and the intrigues and quarrels of the spiritual
leaders of Christendom, opened his mouth and caviled at the Spirit of God
(Jesus). In the unsoundness of his reasoning, he failed to grasp the true
significance of the sacred Scriptures, took exception to certain portions
of the revealed Texts and dwelt on the difficulties involved. "And We send
down of the Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy to the faithful:
But it shall only add to the ruin of the wicked."(45)
The Sage of _Gh_azna(46) told the mystic story
To his veiled hearers, in an allegory:
If those who err see naught in the Qur'an
But only words, it's not to wonder on;
Of all the sun's fire, lighting up the sky
Only the warmth can reach a blind man's eye.(47)
"Many will He mislead by such parables and many guide: but none
will He mislead thereby except the wicked..."(48)
It is certain that the greatest of instrumentalities for achieving the
advancement and the glory of man, the supreme agency for the enlightenment
and the redemption of the world, is love and fellowship and unity among
all the members of the human race. Nothing can be effected in the world,
not even conceivably, without unity and agreement, and the perfect means
for engendering fellowship and union is true religion. "Hadst Thou spent
all the riches of the earth, Thou couldst not have united their hearts;
but God hath united them..."(49)
With the advent of the Prophets of God, their power of creating a real
union, one which is both external and of the heart, draws together
malevolent peoples who have been thirsting for one another's blood, into
the one shelter of the Word of God. Then a hundred thousand souls become
as one soul, and unnumbered individuals emerge as one body.
Once they were as the waves of the sea
That the wind made many out of one.
Then God shed down on them His sun,
And His sun but one can never be.
Souls of dogs and wolves go separately,
But the soul of the lions of God is one.(50)
The events that transpired at the advent of the Prophets of the past, and
Their ways and works and circumstances, are not adequately set down in
authoritative histories, and are referred to only in condensed form in the
verses of the Qur'an, the Holy Traditions and the Torah. Since, however,
all events from the days of Moses until the present time are contained in
the mighty Qur'an, the authoritative Traditions, the Torah and other
reliable sources, We shall content Ourself with brief references here, the
purpose being to determine conclusively whether religion is the very basis
and root-principle of culture and civilization, or whether as Voltaire and
his like suppose, it defeats all social progress, well-being and peace.
To preclude once and for all objections on the part of any of the world's
peoples, We shall conduct Our discussion conformably to those
authoritative accounts which all nations are agreed upon.
At a time when the Israelites had multiplied in Egypt and were spread
throughout the whole country, the Coptic Pharaohs of Egypt determined to
strengthen and favor their own Coptic peoples and to degrade and dishonor
the children of Israel, whom they regarded as foreigners. Over a long
period, the Israelites, divided and scattered, were captive in the hands
of the tyrannical Copts, and were scorned and despised by all, so that the
meanest of the Copts would freely persecute and lord it over the noblest
of the Israelites. The enslavement, wretchedness and helplessness of the
Hebrews reached such a pitch that they were never, day or night, secure in
their own persons nor able to provide any defense for their wives and
families against the tyranny of their Pharaohic captors. Then their food
was the fragments of their own broken hearts, and their drink a river of
tears. They continued on in this anguish until suddenly Moses, the
All-Beauteous, beheld the Divine Light streaming out of the blessed Vale,
the place that was holy ground, and heard the quickening voice of God as
it spoke from the flame of that Tree "neither of the East nor of the
West,"(51) and He stood up in the full panoply of His universal
prophethood. In the midst of the Israelites, He blazed out like a lamp of
Divine guidance, and by the light of salvation He led that lost people out
of the shadows of ignorance into knowledge and perfection. He gathered
Israel's scattered tribes into the shelter of the unifying and universal
Word of God, and over the heights of union He raised up the banner of
harmony, so that within a brief interval those benighted souls became
spiritually educated, and they who had been strangers to the truth,
rallied to the cause of the oneness of God, and were delivered out of
their wretchedness, their indigence, their incomprehension and captivity
and achieved a supreme degree of happiness and honor. They emigrated from
Egypt, set out for Israel's original homeland, and came to Canaan and
Philistia. They first conquered the shores of the River Jordan, and
Jericho, and settled in that area, and ultimately all the neighboring
regions, such as Phoenicia, Edom and Ammon, came under their sway. In
Joshua's time there were thirty-one governments in the hands of the
Israelites, and in every noble human attribute--learning, stability,
determination, courage, honor, generosity--this people came to surpass all
the nations of the earth. When in those days an Israelite would enter a
gathering, he was immediately singled out for his many virtues, and even
foreign peoples wishing to praise a man would say that he was like an
Israelite.
It is furthermore a matter of record in numerous historical works that the
philosophers of Greece such as Pythagoras, acquired the major part of
their philosophy, both divine and material, from the disciples of Solomon.
And Socrates after having eagerly journeyed to meet with some of Israel's
most illustrious scholars and divines, on his return to Greece established
the concept of the oneness of God and the continuing life of the human
soul after it has put off its elemental dust. Ultimately, the ignorant
among the Greeks denounced this man who had fathomed the inmost mysteries
of wisdom, and rose up to take his life; and then the populace forced the
hand of their ruler, and in council assembled they caused Socrates to
drink from the poisoned cup.
After the Israelites had advanced along every level of civilization, and
had achieved success in the highest possible degree, they began little by
little to forget the root-principles of the Mosaic Law and Faith, to busy
themselves with rites and ceremonials and to show forth unbecoming
conduct. In the days of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, terrible dissension
broke out among them; one of their number, Jeroboam, plotted to get the
throne, and it was he who introduced the worship of idols. The strife
between Rehoboam and Jeroboam led to centuries of warfare between their
descendants, with the result that the tribes of Israel were scattered and
disrupted. In brief, it was because they forgot the meaning of the Law of
God that they became involved in ignorant fanaticism and blameworthy
practices such as insurgence and sedition. Their divines, having concluded
that all those essential qualifications of humankind set forth in the Holy
Book were by then a dead letter, began to think only of furthering their
own selfish interests, and afflicted the people by allowing them to sink
into the lowest depths of heedlessness and ignorance. And the fruit of
their wrong doing was this, that the old-time glory which had endured so
long now changed to degradation, and the rulers of Persia, of Greece, and
of Rome, took them over. The banners of their sovereignty were reversed;
the ignorance, foolishness, abasement and self-love of their religious
leaders and their scholars were brought to light in the coming of
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, who destroyed them. After a general
massacre, and the sacking and razing of their houses and even the
uprooting of their trees, he took captive whatever remnants his sword had
spared and carried them off to Babylon. Seventy years later the
descendants of these captives were released and went back to Jerusalem.
Then Hezekiah and Ezra reestablished in their midst the fundamental
principles of the Holy Book, and day by day the Israelites advanced, and
the morning-brightness of their earlier ages dawned again. In a short
time, however, great dissensions as to belief and conduct broke out anew,
and again the one concern of the Jewish doctors became the promotion of
their own selfish purposes, and the reforms that had obtained in Ezra's
time were changed to perversity and corruption. The situation worsened to
such a degree that time and again, the armies of the republic of Rome and
of its rulers conquered Israelite territory. Finally the warlike Titus,
commander of the Roman forces, trampled the Jewish homeland into dust,
putting every man to the sword, taking the women and children captive,
flattening their houses, tearing out their trees, burning their books,
looting their treasures, and reducing Jerusalem and the Temple to an ash
heap. After this supreme calamity, the star of Israel's dominion sank away
to nothing, and to this day, the remnant of that vanished nation has been
scattered to the four winds. "Humiliation and misery were stamped upon
them."(52) These two most great afflictions, brought on by Nebuchadnezzar
and Titus, are referred to in the glorious Qur'an: "And We solemnly
declared to the children of Israel in the Book, 'Twice surely will ye
commit evil in the earth, and with great loftiness of pride will ye surely
be uplifted.' And when the menace for the first of the two came to be
executed, We sent against you Our servants endowed with terrible prowess;
and they searched the inmost part of your abodes, and the menace was
accomplished... And when the punishment threatened for your latter
transgression came to be inflicted, then We sent an enemy to sadden your
faces, and to enter the Temple as they entered it at first, and to destroy
with utter destruction that which they had conquered."(53)
Our purpose is to show how true religion promotes the civilization and
honor, the prosperity and prestige, the learning and advancement of a
people once abject, enslaved and ignorant, and how, when it falls into the
hands of religious leaders who are foolish and fanatical, it is diverted
to the wrong ends, until this greatest of splendors turns into blackest
night.
When for the second time the unmistakable signs of Israel's
disintegration, abasement, subjection and annihilation had become
apparent, then the sweet and holy breathings of the Spirit of God (Jesus)
were shed across Jordan and the land of Galilee; the cloud of Divine pity
overspread those skies, and rained down the copious waters of the spirit,
and after those swelling showers that came from the most great Sea, the
Holy Land put forth its perfume and blossomed with the knowledge of God.
Then the solemn Gospel song rose up till it rang in the ears of those who
dwell in the chambers of heaven, and at the touch of Jesus' breath the
unmindful dead that lay in the graves of their ignorance lifted up their
heads to receive eternal life. For the space of three years, that Luminary
of perfections walked about the fields of Palestine and in the
neighborhood of Jerusalem, leading all men into the dawn
[PAGES 81-100]
of redemption, teaching them how to acquire spiritual qualities and
attributes well-pleasing to God. Had the people of Israel believed in that
beauteous Countenance, they would have girded themselves to serve and obey
Him heart and soul, and through the quickening fragrance of His Spirit
they would have regained their lost vitality and gone on to new victories.
Alas, of what avail was it; they turned away and opposed Him. They rose up
and tormented that Source of Divine knowledge, that Point where the
Revelation had come down--all except for a handful who, turning their faces
toward God, were cleansed of the stain of this world and found their way
to the heights of the placeless Realm. They inflicted every agony on that
Wellspring of grace until it became impossible for Him to live in the
towns, and still He lifted up the flag of salvation and solidly
established the fundamentals of human righteousness, that essential basis
of true civilization.
In the fifth chapter of Matthew beginning with the thirty-seventh verse He
counsels: "Resist not evil and injury with its like; but whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." And further,
from the forty-third verse: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'Thou
shalt love thy neighbor, and thou shalt not vex thine enemy with
enmity.'(54) But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth down the rain of His mercy on the just and on the
unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not
even the publicans the same?"
Many were the counsels of this kind that were uttered by that Dayspring of
Divine wisdom, and souls who have become characterized with such
attributes of holiness are the distilled essence of creation and the
sources of true civilization.
Jesus, then, founded the sacred Law on a basis of moral character and
complete spirituality, and for those who believed in Him He delineated a
special way of life which constitutes the highest type of action on earth.
And while those emblems of redemption were to outward seeming abandoned to
the malevolence and persecution of their tormentors, in reality they had
been delivered out of the hopeless darkness which encompassed the Jews and
they shone forth in everlasting glory at the dawn of that new day.
That mighty Jewish nation toppled and crumbled away, but those few souls
who sought shelter beneath the Messianic Tree transformed all human life.
At that time the peoples of the world were utterly ignorant, fanatical and
idolatrous. Only a small group of Jews professed belief in the oneness of
God and they were wretched outcasts. These holy Christian souls now stood
up to promulgate a Cause which was diametrically opposed and repugnant to
the beliefs of the entire human race. The kings of four out of the world's
five continents inexorably resolved to wipe out the followers of Christ,
and nevertheless in the end most of them set about promoting the Faith of
God with their whole hearts; all the nations of Europe, many of the
peoples of Asia and Africa, and some of the inhabitants of the islands of
the Pacific, were gathered into the shelter of the oneness of God.
Consider whether there exists anywhere in creation a principle mightier in
every sense than religion, or whether any conceivable power is more
pervasive than the various Divine Faiths, or whether any agency can bring
about real love and fellowship and union among all peoples as can belief
in an almighty and all-knowing God, or whether except for the laws of God
there has been any evidence of an instrumentality for educating all
mankind in every phase of righteousness.
Those qualities which the philosophers attained when they had reached the
very heights of their wisdom, those noble human attributes which
characterized them at the peak of their perfection, would be exemplified
by the believers as soon as they accepted the Faith. Observe how those
souls who drank the living waters of redemption at the gracious hands of
Jesus, the Spirit of God, and came into the sheltering shade of the
Gospel, attained to such a high plane of moral conduct that Galen, the
celebrated physician, although not himself a Christian, in his summary of
Plato's Republic extolled their actions. A literal translation of his
words is as follows:
"The generality of mankind are unable to grasp a sequence of logical
arguments. For this reason they stand in need of symbols and parables
telling of rewards and punishments in the next world. A confirmatory
evidence of this is that today we observe a people called Christians, who
believe devoutly in rewards and punishments in a future state. This group
show forth excellent actions, similar to the actions of an individual who
is a true philosopher. For example, we all see with our own eyes that they
have no fear of death, and their passion for justice and fair-dealing is
so great that they should be considered true philosophers."(55)
The station of a philosopher, in that age and in the mind of Galen, was
superior to any other station in the world. Consider then how the
enlightening and spiritualizing power of divine religions impels the
believers to such heights of perfection that a philosopher like Galen, not
himself a Christian, offers such testimony.
One demonstration of the excellent character of the Christians in those
days was their dedication to charity and good works, and the fact that
they founded hospitals and philanthropic institutions. For example, the
first person to establish public clinics throughout the Roman Empire where
the poor, the injured and the helpless received medical care, was the
Emperor Constantine. This great king was the first Roman ruler to champion
the Cause of Christ. He spared no efforts, dedicating his life to the
promotion of the principles of the Gospel, and he solidly established the
Roman government, which in reality had been nothing but a system of
unrelieved oppression, on moderation and justice. His blessed name shines
out across the dawn of history like the morning star, and his rank and
fame among the world's noblest and most highly civilized is still on the
tongues of Christians of all denominations.
What a firm foundation of excellent character was laid down in those days,
thanks to the training of holy souls who arose to promote the teachings of
the Gospel. How many primary schools, colleges, hospitals, were
established, and institutions where fatherless and indigent children
received their education. How many were the individuals who sacrificed
their own personal advantages and "out of desire to please the Lord"(56)
devoted the days of their lives to teaching the masses.
When, however, the time approached for the effulgent beauty of Muhammad to
dawn upon the world, the control of Christian affairs passed into the
hands of ignorant priests. Those heavenly breezes, soft-flowing from the
regions of Divine grace, died away, and the laws of the great Evangel, the
rock-foundation on which the civilization of the world was based, turned
barren of results, this out of misuse and because of the conduct of
persons who, seemingly fair, were yet inwardly foul.
The noted historians of Europe, in describing the conditions, manners,
politics, learning and culture, in all their aspects, of early, medieval
and modern times, unanimously record that during the ten centuries
constituting the Middle Ages, from the beginning of the sixth century of
the Christian era till the close of the fifteenth, Europe was in every
respect and to an extreme degree, barbaric and dark. The principal cause
of this was that the monks, referred to by European peoples as spiritual
and religious leaders, had given up the abiding glory that comes from
obedience to the sacred commandments and heavenly teachings of the Gospel,
and had joined forces with the presumptuous and tyrannical rulers of the
temporal governments of those times. They had turned their eyes away from
everlasting glory, and were devoting all their efforts to the furtherance
of their mutual worldly interests and passing and perishable advantages.
Ultimately things reached a point where the masses were hopeless prisoners
in the hands of these two groups, and all this brought down in ruins the
whole structure of the religion, culture, welfare and civilization of the
peoples of Europe.