Saturday, March 27, 2010
Faith & Logic: No monopoly of truth
Some Distinctive Features of Islam was a lecture delivered by Hadrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih IV, of blessed memory at the University of Canberra, Australia. It was first published in UK in 1985 and then in 1987, 1989, 1992, and 1995 respectively.
Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Excerpt
Source & Credit: Some Distinctive Features of Islam | AlIslam.Org
By His Holiness Mirza Tahir Ahmad (1928-2003)
While speaking on the subject of the distinctive features of Islam, the first and most attractive feature that strikes one, is its most endearing disclaimer that Islam has a monopoly of truth, and that there have been no other true religions. Nor does it claim that Arabs alone have been the recipients of God's love. Islam is the only religion that totally rejects the notion that truth is the monopoly of any single faith, race or people; instead, it professes that divine guidance is a general bounty that has sustained humanity in all ages. The Quran tells us that there is neither a race nor a people, who have not been blessed with the bounty of divine guidance, and there is neither a region of the earth nor ~ body of people who have not received prophets and Messengers of God [Al-Quran: 35:35].
Contrary to this worldwide Islamic view of the manifestation of Allah's favour upon all people of the earth we are struck by the fact that no Book of any other religion verifies or even mentions the possibility of other peoples and nations having received light and guidance from Allah at any stage in history. In fact, the truth and validity of a local or regional religion is often emphasized so greatly, and the truth of other faiths ignored so totally, as if the sun of truth had only risen and set upon the limited horizon of certain people to the exclusion of the rest of the world, so to say, abandoned and condemned to eternal darkness. For instance, the Bible presents only the God of Israel, and it repeatedly says: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel [Chronicles 16:36].
It does not, even in passing, verify the truth of religious revelations bestowed on other lands and upon other peoples. Thus, the belief of the Jews that all Israelite Prophets were sent only to the tribes of Israel is in full conformity with the intent and message of the Bible. Jesus had also declared that his advent was intended for the guidance of the Hebrew tribes alone. and had said. I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel [Isamuel; 25:32], and he admonished his disciples in the words: Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before swine [Matthew 15:21-25].
Similarly, the Hindu religion also addresses its books only to those of high birth. It is said: If one of base birth should per chance hear a text of the Vedas, the King should seal his ears with molten wax and lead. And should he recite a portion of the Scripture, his tongue should be severed; and should he succeed in reading the Veda, his body should be hacked to pieces [Gotama Smriti:12].
Even if we disregard such drastic injunctions, or offer some less severe explanation of them, the fact remains that the holy books of various faiths do not, even by implication, allude to the truth of the religions of other lands and peoples. The basic question that arises here is, that if all these faiths were in fact true, then what was the wisdom in presenting the concept of God in such limited and restricted terms? The Quran readily furnishes a solution of this predicament. It says that even before the revelation of the Quran and the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, (peace be on him), divine Messengers had indeed been sent to every nation and every part of the globe. but their sphere was regional and their assignments temporary. This is because human civilization had not yet reached a stage of development which merited the commissioning of a universal messenger, bearing a universal message.
Read the entire text of the speech here: Some Distinctive Features of Islam
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