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2 It was with a heavy heart that I read your letter, which you wrote after studying the book Yanabi-ul-Islam, authored by a Christian. I am surprised that you have begun to harbour doubts about Islam on account of the falsehood and deceit spread by people whose God is dead, whose religion is dead, whose book is dead, and who are themselves dead for they lack the spiritual eye. 3You must remember that these people have not only interpolated the books of God, but have surpassed every other people in falsehood and fabrication in order to promote their faith. Since they do not possess the light which descends from heaven in support of the truth, and distinguishes a true religion through repeated testimonies, they are forced to employ all kinds of deceit, fabrication and fraud to alienate people from the living faith—Islam.

Brother! These are black-hearted people who do not fear God. They are trying, day and night, to make people love darkness and forsake the light. I cannot understand how you could be influenced by the writings of such people. They are, in fact, worse than the magicians who had turned ropes into serpents in the presence of Prophet Moses(as), but since he was a Prophet of God, his staff swallowed up all their serpents. The Holy Quran is likewise the 'staff of God' which continues to swallow up snakes made of ropes, and the day is coming—it is indeed at hand—when they shall all disappear without a trace.

The author of Yanabi-ul-Islam has tried to prove that the Holy Quran has been copied from certain accounts or books, but his effort is nothing compared to the effort made by a learned Jew to determine the authenticity of the Gospels. He has established, in his own estimation, that the moral teachings of the Gospels have been taken from the Jewish scripture Talmud and certain other books of the Israelites, and that this act of plagiary has been so blatant that whole paragraphs have been copied word for word. The scholar has proved that the Gospels are a collection of stolen material, and has gone so far as to prove that the 'Sermon on the Mount'—in which Christians take such pride—has been copied verbatim from the Talmud. He has shown that the text has also been copied from various other books, and has thus astonished many people. European researchers are also taking a keen interest in this research. I recently came across a book written by a Hindu in which he, too, had tried to prove that the Gospels have been taken from the teachings of Buddha, and he cited Buddha’s moral teachings to establish this point. The story about the devil, who took Jesus(as) from place to place to tempt him, is also prevalent among the Buddhists. Everyone is, therefore, entitled to believe that the story has been copied in the Gospels with minor alterations. It is an established fact that Jesus(as) came to India and his grave is to be found in Srinagar, Kashmir, as I have proved with categorical evidence. And in this context, the detractors are further justified to believe that the existing Gospels are merely a sketch of Buddhism. The evidence in this regard is so overwhelming that it can no longer be concealed.

Another incredible fact is that the ancient book of Yuz Asaf (which most English scholars believe to have been published before the birth of Jesus(as)), and which has been translated in all European countries, is so similar to the Gospels that many of their passages are identical. The parables used by the Gospels are also found word for word in this book. Even if the person reading it were so ignorant as to be practically blind, he would still be convinced that the Gospels have been borrowed from the same book. Some people, including some English scholars, believe that this book belongs to Gautama Buddha, and that it was originally in Sanskrit and was later translated into other languages. If this is true, the Gospels would lose all their credibility and Jesus(as) would be considered a plagiarist in all his teachings—God forbid. The book is available for everyone to see. My own opinion, however, is that this book is Jesus’(as) own Gospel which was written during his journey to India. I have proved with many arguments that it is indeed the Gospel of Jesus(as), and is purer and holier than the other Gospels. The English scholars who consider this book to be that of Buddha, call Jesus(as) a plagiarist by implication, and thus they dig their own grave.

It should also be remembered that the clergy’s collection of scriptures is completely worthless and even embarrassing. They whimsically declare some books to be divine and others to be forged. They judge these four Gospels to be authentic and the rest—about fifty-six of them—forged. But this belief is based on mere guesswork and speculation, rather than on any concrete evidence. They have had to make these decisions by themselves, for there is a marked discrepancy between these and the other Gospels. Researchers, however, believe that it is not possible to determine which of them is actually forged and which is not. This is why, on the occasion of King Edward’s coronation, the Church fathers of London presented him with the books which they presume to be forged along with the four Gospels, all bound in one volume. I possess a copy of this Bible. Now, if these books had really been forged and were unholy, would it not be sinful to bind the holy and the unholy in a single volume? The fact is that these people are unable to say with any degree of conviction whether any of these books are authentic or forged, and everyone goes by their own opinion. Out of mere prejudice, they declare those Gospels to be fabricated which are in accord with the Holy Quran. Hence they have declared the Gospel of Barnabas to have been forged because it contains a clear prophecy about the Prophet of the Latter Days(sa) [the Holy Prophet]. Sale, in his commentary, has related the story of a Christian monk who was converted to Islam after reading this Gospel. Remember, these people declare a book to be false or fabricated for either of these two reasons:

1. If an account or a book contradicts the current Gospels.

2. If an account or a book has some similarity with the Holy Quran. Some mischievous and black-hearted people first try to establish the principle4 that these books are fabricated, and then claim that the Holy Quran contains stories taken out of them, and in this manner they try to deceive the ignorant.

The fact is that only Divine revelation has the authority to prove the truth or falsity of past scriptures. Any account confirmed by Divine revelation has to be true, even though some ignorant ones declare it otherwise. Similarly, the account which Divine revelation rejects, has to be false, even though some people declare it to be true.

To think that the Holy Quran is made up of such wellknown accounts, tales, books or gospels, is the height of ignorance and something to be ashamed of. Is there anything wrong with a book of God being in agreement with some past accounts? Many truths of the Vedas, which were not even known at the time, are to be found in the Holy Quran, but can we conclude from this that the Holy Prophet(sa) had studied the Vedas? The Gospels that have now become available—thanks to the printing press— were not known to anyone in Arabia, and the people of that land were simply unlettered. If there happened to be an odd Christian among them, he was not likely to know much about his own religion.5 It is therefore despicable to think that the Holy Prophet(sa) plagiarized from these books. The Holy Prophet(sa) was unlettered and could not even read Arabic, let alone Greek or Hebrew. It is now upon our opponents to produce any manuscript of that time from which these accounts are supposed to have been taken. If the Holy Quran contained material copied from other sources, the Christians of Arabia, who were bitter enemies of Islam, would at once have cried out that it has been taken from their own accounts.

Remember, the Holy Quran6 is the only scripture in the world that proclaims itself to be a miracle. It forcefully asserts that its prophecies and narratives are from the realm of the unseen, it contains prophecies about the future down to the Last Day, and that it is a miracle in respect of its eloquence and beauty of expression. It would have been easy for the Christians of that time to produce the books from which passages were supposedly copied in the Holy Quran, thus dealing a severe blow to Islam. But now they only cry over spilled milk. It is unthinkable that the Christians of Arabia would have kept quiet despite being in possession of books—whether genuine or forged—from which they suspected the Holy Quran of having copied certain material. Thus there can be no doubt that the Holy Quran is totally composed of the revealed word of God, and that this revelation was a great miracle, for, no one could produce anything like it.

Just consider, can a person dare to give such a challenge to the whole world, while being a plagiarist and having cooked the whole thing up on his own, and knowing full well that this knowledge has not come to him from the unseen, rather he has stolen it from such and such books, and to think that no one should be able to accept his challenge and expose him!

The fact is that the Christians are extremely annoyed with the Holy Quran, for it has destroyed the very basis of their religion. It has refuted the concept of deifying a human being, shattered the doctrine of the cross, and proven beyond all doubt that the teachings of the Gospels—which the Christians are so proud of—are extremely flawed and ineffective. It was, therefore, only natural for their egoistic passions to have been aroused, and their imputations [against the Holy Quran] are quite understandable. The example of a Muslim who wishes to convert to Christianity is like a person who, having been born from his mother’s womb and having attained maturity, wishes to return to her womb and become a sperm once more. I wonder what the Christians are so proud of! If they have a 'God', he is the one who died long ago and lies buried in Mohalla Khanyar, Srinagar, Kashmir. And if he has any miracles to his name, they are no greater than those of other Prophets, indeed Prophet Elijah showed greater miracles than he ever did. In the eyes of the Jews, Jesus(as) showed no miracles at all, and it was all deception and trickery.7 And if we look at his prophecies, most of them turned out to be false. Will some padre tell us if the twelve disciples were indeed given twelve thrones in Paradise, as they had been promised! And will someone tell us if, in keeping with his prophecy, Jesus(as) got the Kingdom of the World, for which—by the way—weapons were also acquired. And did Jesus(as) descend from heaven in those very days, as he had promised? Let me tell you that there can be no question of his descent, for he never went to heaven in the first place. European scholars also concur with this belief. The fact is that Jesus survived the crucifixion in a state of near death, and then secretly fled to Kashmir through India where he [ultimately] died.8

The teachings of the Gospels—regardless of whether they have been accused of plagiarism—emphasize only the human faculties of forbearance and forgiveness, and discard the rest. Everyone can understand that nothing which has been given to mankind by Divine Omnipotence is without a purpose, and every human faculty has a function. Just as forgiveness and forbearance is considered a great virtue at certain times and occasions, so is retaliation, revenge and retribution considered a commendable moral quality at other times and on other occasions. Neither forgiveness, nor punishment is always desirable. This is what Allah teaches us in the Holy Quran:

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'The recompense of an injury is an injury the like thereof; but whoso forgives and his act brings about reformation,10 his reward is with Allah.'

This is the teaching of the Holy Quran. The Gospel, on the other hand, teaches unconditional forgiveness at all times, and thus tramples upon all sense of expediency on which the social structure is based. It only emphasizes the growth of one branch of the 'tree' of human ethics, and completely disregards all the others.

But, strangely enough, Jesus(as) did not act upon his own moral teachings. He cursed the fig tree when he found it to be barren, while he exhorted others to pray. And while he taught others not to call anyone a fool, he himself went to the extent of calling the Jewish elders misbegotten, hurling abuses at them in every sermon and calling them foul names. A teacher of morals must first exhibit those morals in himself. Could such a flawed teaching, which Jesus(as) himself did not follow, be from God?

The only pure and perfect teaching is that of the Holy Quran, which nourishes all human faculties. It does not emphasize any one aspect, rather it teaches a judicious exercise of both forgiveness and chastisement. In truth, the Holy Quran is a reflection of the Divine law of nature which we witness all around us. It stands to reason that there should be harmony between God’s word and action. The action of God, as we see it in this world, must necessarily be the basis for the word of God contained in His True Book—not that His Action should point to one thing and His word to another. With regard to His action, we observe that forgiveness is by no means the rule, and that He also inflicts upon the wrongdoers various kinds of punishments, which have been mentioned in earlier scriptures as well. Our God is not only Forbearing, but He is also most severe in His wrath. The True Book, therefore, is the one which conforms to His law of nature, and the true Divine Word is that which does not contradict His action. We have never observed God to be continually forbearing and forgiving towards His creatures and never punishing them. Even today God has warned the wicked people through me and has told of a powerful and terrible earthquake which will destroy them; and the plague has not yet subsided either. Do you not remember what happened to the people of Noah(as) and what befell the nation of Lot(as)?

Do understand that the essence of the Shariah is , which means to adopt the attributes of the Exalted and Glorious God. This is the highest perfection a soul can attain. The desire to acquire morals greater than God’s, is sheer blasphemy, and amounts to an attack on His holy attributes.

You should also consider that it is God’s eternal and established law that He forgives in response to repentance and penitence, and hears the prayers of His righteous servants which are offered by way of intercession. But we never observe in the Divine law of nature that 'A' hits his own head with a stone and this cures the headache of 'B'. We are, therefore, at a loss to understand how people can acquire inner purification through the suicide committed by the Messiah. Is there any law or philosophy which can make us understand how the Messiah’s blood could have cleansed the inner impurities of other people? Our observation is, in fact, opposed to this principle, because, until the time when the Messiah decided to commit suicide, we find an element of righteousness and godliness among the Christians. After the crucifixion, however, their carnal passions burst forth like a river which breaks its banks and inundates the land.

There is no doubt that even if this suicide on the part of the Messiah was deliberate, it was quite needless. If he had, instead, spent his life in preaching and exhortation, he would have done a lot of good for God’s creation. But this act did not serve them in any way. Yes, if the Messiah had indeed come back to life after his suicide, and had ascended to heaven before the very eyes of the Jews, they would surely have believed in him. But, as things stand, the Jews, and all reasonable people, consider the Messiah’s ascension to be no more than a fable.

The doctrine of Trinity is also rather peculiar. Has anyone ever heard of something being permanently and perfectly 'three' and 'one' at the same time? Or that one God should be as perfect as three Gods? Christianity is indeed a strange religion, which errs at every step.

And, not content with all this darkness, it has set a seal on all future revelation. According to the Christian belief, it is no longer possible to correct the errors contained in the Gospels through fresh revelation, because they believe Divine revelation to be a thing of the past. Everything now comes to rest upon individual opinion which can never be free from ignorance and darkness. It is, in fact, impossible to count the absurdities that are to be found in the Gospels, like the deification of a humble man, proposing the Messiah’s crucifixion as a penalty for sins committed by others, banishing him to hell for three days, and declaring him to be God while attributing weakness and falsehood to him at the same time! There are many passages in the Gospels which prove that the Messiah(as)— God forbid—was guilty of falsehood. For example, he promised a certain thief that he would break fast with him in heaven that very day, but, in breach of his promise, he went to hell and stayed there for three days. It is also written in the Gospels that the devil took the Messiah from place to place in order to tempt him. Is it not strange that the Messiah, being 'God', was not immune to satanic temptations, and that the devil had the cheek to tempt Him at all! This is quite a unique philosophy! If the devil had indeed visited the Messiah, it would have provided him an excellent opportunity to show him to the Jews, as they were strongly opposed to his claim of Prophethood. The sign of the true Messiah, which had been mentioned in the Book of Malachi, was that the Prophet Elijah11 would return to the world before his coming, but since Prophet Elijah did not return, the Jews have called Jesus(as) a liar and an impostor to this day. And the Christians are at a loss to counter this argument of the Jews.

The Jews also say that the account of the devil calling upon the Messiah is a sign of insanity, and that many insane people experience such hallucinations and nightmares. An English scholar has said that this visitation of the devil means that the Messiah received satanic revelations on three occasions, but remained unmoved by them, and that in one of them he was urged to renounce God and submit himself wholly to Satan. How strange that the devil subdued 'the Son of God' and inclined him towards the world! And Jesus even suffered death, despite being called 'God'! Does God ever die? And if it was only a man who had died, then why do they claim that 'the Son of God' gave up his life for the sake of mankind? What is more, despite being 'the Son of God', Jesus does not know the hour of Resurrection, and his statement to this effect is recorded in the Gospels. How absurd for God not to know the hour of Resurrection! That may be a distant event, but he was not even aware that the fig-tree he was heading for was barren!

Returning to the main discussion, let me briefly say that no Divine revelation can be attacked merely on the basis of its similarity, or partial-similarity, to a past book or account, even if that book or account is considered to be fictitious. When the Christians label a book as 'historical' or 'revealed', they do so without any substantial proof, and none of their books are free from the stains of doubt and suspicion. It is quite probable that the books they call forged or fabricated are not fabricated at all, and the ones they consider to be authentic may, in fact, be fabricated. A book of God cannot be subject to such likes and dislikes. Their labelling of certain books as fictitious is not something that has been proven by judicial inquiry, nor is it on the basis of established evidence that they declare a book to be authentic. It is all based on speculation and conjecture, which cannot be the criterion for judging a book of God. The true criterion is whether the book proves its Divine origin through God’s law of nature12 and through powerful signs. Our Lord and Master, the Holy Prophet(sa), showed more than three thousand miracles and made countless prophecies. But we do not have to refer to these miracles of the past, for, a great miracle of the Holy Prophet(sa) is that, while the revelation of all the Prophets have come to an end, and their miracles are a thing of the past, and their followers are empty-handed but for a few fictitious tales, the revelation of the Holy Prophet(sa) has not ended, nor have his miracles, for they continue to be manifested in his perfect followers through the blessing of their obedience to him. This is why Islam is the living religion and its God is the Living God. Today, I, His humble servant, am here to bear testimony to this. Thousands of signs, testifying to the truth of the Prophet of God and the Book of God, have so far been manifested through me, and God blesses me with His pure word almost every day. Think carefully, how can we prove that a religion is actually from God while there are thousands of religions in this world that attribute themselves to Him? Should a true religion not have some distinction? The fact that a religion is rational cannot be a proof of its being from God, for man, too, can speak of rational things. And the 'God' who is only a creation of man’s own reason is no God at all; God is He Who manifests Himself through powerful signs. A truly Divine religion must possess signs of being from God, and it must possess the Divine seal to prove that it has indeed come from Him, and this religion is none other than Islam.

It is through this religion that God, Who is hidden and invisible, comes to be known, and it is to the followers of this religion that He manifests Himself. He supports the true religion and manifests His existence to the world through it. Religions that are only based on tales are hardly distinguishable from idol-worship, for they are devoid of the spirit of truth. If God is still Living as He was before, and if He still speaks and hears as He did in the past, then why should He have observed such silence in this age as if He did not exist? If He does not speak today, then surely He does not hear either, which means that He practically does not exist. Hence the true religion is that which testifies that God hears and speaks even in this age. In the true religion, God Himself informs about His existence through His dialogue and communion.

Recognition of God is not something easy, and it is not for the sages and philosophers of this world to try to find Him. The study of heavens and earth can only prove that there 'should be' a Creator of this highly ordered universe, but it cannot prove that He actually exists. And the difference between 'should be' and 'is' is quite obvious. The Holy Quran is the only book that proves God’s existence as a fact. It does not only enjoin the recognition of God, but actually reveals Him to us. There is no other book under the firmament which provides proof of that Hidden Being.

What is the aim of religion? It is only that man should have full faith in the existence of God and in His perfect attributes, and then deliver himself from his carnal passions and develop a personal love for Him. This, in fact, is the Paradise, which will find various manifestations in the Hereafter. To remain unmindful of the True God, and to keep away from Him, and not to love Him truly, is the Hell which will reveal itself in diverse forms in the Hereafter. The purpose of religion is to attain full faith in the existence of God and to love Him completely.

Let us now see which religion and which book provides the means to achieve this purpose. The Gospel gives a point-blank answer: The door to Divine converse and dialogue is closed, the path to achieving conviction is forever barred, everything is confined to the past, and there is nothing for the future. It is indeed strange that while God can hear in this age, He cannot speak! Is there any consolation in the belief that He could hear and speak in the past but now He only hears and cannot speak? What is the use of a 'God' who loses his powers with the passage of time, just as man loses his faculties with old age? And what is to be gained from a 'God' who cannot forgive the sins of his servants until he has been flogged, spat in the face, imprisoned for days, and then crucified? We are tired of this 'God' who was overwhelmed by the Jews—a helpless people who could not even hold on to their own kingdom. On the other hand, the God Whom we consider to be the True God is He Who appointed as His Messenger a poor and helpless man from Mecca, and showed a manifestation of His power and glory to the whole world at that very time, so much so, that when the Persian Emperor sent his soldiers to arrest the Holy Prophet(sa), the Omnipotent God told him to inform them, "Tonight my God has killed your god."

Just consider, in the first instance we have a man who claimed to be God, but ended up being arrested by a Roman soldier and thrown into jail, and his night-long prayers remained unanswered. In the second instance, we have a man who claimed only to be a Messenger, but God annihilated even the kings who stood up against him!

The saying [Be the friend of the mighty, so that you may prevail], is of great value for a seeker after truth. What is the use of a religion that is dead, and of what value is the book that is dead, and what can we gain from a God who is dead? I swear by Him, in Whose hand rests my life, that I am honoured with the most certain and definite Divine conversation, and I am honoured with it almost every day. The God, to Whom Jesus had said, 'Why hast Thou forsaken me?', has not forsaken me. There have been many attacks on me, as there had been on the Messiah, but my enemies were frustrated in every one of them. A conspiracy was even hatched to have me executed, but, unlike the Messiah, I was not to be crucified. Instead, my God saved me at the time of every trial, demonstrated great miracles for my sake, and helped me with His mighty hand. Through thousands of signs, He has proved to me that the True God is He Who revealed the Holy Quran and sent the Holy Prophet(sa). I do not at all consider Jesus to be superior to me in these matters. Just as the Word of God was revealed to him, so is it revealed to me; and just as he is said to have shown miracles, so have I been granted miracles, though in greater numbers. All this honour has been conferred upon me solely by virtue of being a follower of the Prophet whose spiritual station and high standing is largely hidden to the world, and he is none other than Muhammad, the Chosen One(sa).

It pains me to hear ignorant people say that Jesus(as) is alive in heaven, whereas it is in the Holy Prophet(sa) that I see the signs of life. It is through him that we have found the God Whom the world does not know; it is through him that the door of Divine revelation—which remains closed to other people—has been opened for us; it is through him that we have been shown miracles which other people relate only as tales; and we have found his status to be so high that there is no status beyond it. How strange that the world should be unaware of all this! People ask me how I could have claimed to be the Promised Messiah. Let me tell them that, through complete obedience to the Holy Prophet(sa), one can attain a status even higher than that of Jesus(as). The blind call this heresy, but I say: How do you know what heresy is when you are yourselves devoid of faith and heresy is inside you? Had you understood the meaning of the verse:

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you would not have uttered such things. Do you consider it heresy to acquire the perfections of just one Prophet, while God promises that, through perfect submission to the Holy Prophet(sa), you can acquire the perfections of all the Prophets?

Do pay attention, for it is possible to recognize a true religion which is from God, and the true religion is the one that leads to Him. While other religions lay stress on human efforts to find God—as if they were doing Him a favour by doing so—in Islam God manifests His own existence by pronouncing [I do exist!] in every age, and He has manifested Himself to me in this age. Peace and blessings be on that Prophet a thousand times, for through him we have recognized the True God.

I am sorry to say that you only expose your ignorance when you express doubts about the statement that Mary(as) was the sister of Aaron. Scholars have written a lot to counter this objection. Why should it surprise you if, by way of metaphor or for some other reason, God has declared Mary(as) to be the sister of Aaron? The Holy Quran has repeatedly mentioned Aaron(as) as a Prophet who lived in the time of Moses(as), and has mentioned Mary(as) as the mother of Jesus(as), who was born some fourteen hundred years later. Do you wish to say that God was unaware of these facts, and that He has made a mistake by declaring Mary(as) to be the sister of Aaron(as)? How vile are the people who raise such objections and then rejoice upon them! Is it not possible that Mary(as) might have had a brother named Aaron? 'Absence of knowledge about something does not prove that it does not exist.'

These people do not look into their own hearts, and do not see that the Gospel is itself the target of countless objections. Just imagine how strong the objection that falls upon Mary(as) is, for she had pledged to serve the Temple all her life and not to take a husband, but when her pregnancy became apparent in its sixth or seventh month, the elders of the community married her off to a carpenter by the name of Joseph, while she was still with a child. And a mere couple of months after going into his house, she gave birth to a son who was named ‘Isa or Jesus. The first objection is that, if this was indeed a miraculous conception, why did they not wait until the child was born? The second objection is that while Mary(as) had pledged to serve the Temple for the rest of her life, why was this pledge broken and why was she withdrawn from the Sacred House and given in marriage to Joseph, the carpenter? The third objection is, why was she married to Joseph during her pregnancy, when it is strictly forbidden in the Torah, and when Joseph himself was unhappy with the marriage and he already had a wife living with him. Those who are against polygamy are perhaps unaware of Joseph’s first marriage. A critic, therefore, has every right to conclude that this marriage was affected because the elders of the community suspected Mary(as) of having conceived illegitimately. But we, in the light of the teachings of the Holy Quran, believe that the conception was a manifestation of God’s power, for He wished to give the Jews a sign of the Day of Resurrection. When thousands of insects are born by themselves during the rainy season, and Adam(as) was also born without parents, it is no proof of Jesus’ eminence if he, too, was born in the same manner. In fact, being born without a father deprives a person of certain faculties. It was on the basis of this suspicion that Mary(as) was married off, otherwise there was no reason to marry of a woman who had been dedicated to the service of the Sacred House. The unfortunate thing is that this marriage occasioned a lot of mischief and the Jews were able to spread rumours of an illegitimate relationship. This is the objection that really needs to be answered, and the objection about Mary(as) being the sister of Aaron is no objection at all. The Holy Quran never says that Mary(as) was the sister of Aaron, the Prophet. It only mentions the name 'Aaron' and there is no mention of 'Prophet'. It was a custom among the Jews to adopt the names of Prophets as a blessing. Therefore, it is by no means inconceivable that Mary(as) had a brother named Aaron, and it is sheer folly to question this statement.

And where is the harm if the story of Ashab-e-Kahf [the Companions of the Cave] is also found in the earlier books of Jews and Christians, even if we suppose that these accounts are fictitious? Remember, their religious and historical books, and even their revealed ones, are all cloaked in darkness. You do not know how Europe is bemoaning these books, and how good people are instinctively being drawn towards Islam, and how books are being written in its support. This is why many people from countries like America have joined my Jama‘at. Falsehood cannot remain hidden forever! Why would Divine revelation need to copy extracts from such books? These people are blind and so are their books. Only those who do not at all fear God can make such objections against the Holy Prophet(sa), for it is obvious that the people of the Peninsula in which the Holy Quran was revealed had virtually no knowledge of Christian and Jewish books, and the Holy Prophet(sa) was himself unlettered. If such an objection can be raised against the Holy Prophet(sa), then just imagine the sort of objections that would be raised against Jesus(as), who learnt the Torah word for word from a Jewish scholar, and read all the books of the Jews such as the Talmud, and whose Gospel is replete with passages from Talmud and the Old Testament! The Gospel is, in fact, so susceptible to all kinds of suspicions that we would not have believed in it had the Holy Quran not commanded us to do so. What a pity that there is nothing in the Gospel which is not to be found in earlier scriptures in exactly the same words. Why, then, should it be considered unreasonable and outrageous if the Holy Quran has collected the scattered truths and verities of the Bible in one place? And how can you say that Divine revelation cannot be the source of all the Quranic accounts, while it has been established with clear and categorical signs that the Holy Prophet(sa) was a recipient of Divine revelation, and the blessings of his true Prophethood continue to be manifested even to this day? Why should one allow Satanic ideas to enter one’s mind and think that—Heaven forbid—an account contained in the Holy Quran has been taken from some earlier writing or book? Do you doubt the existence of God, or is it that you do not believe Him to be the All-Knowing?

As I have already said, the Jews and Christians have no solid grounds for declaring one book to be authentic and another inauthentic, for none of them is a witness to the authenticity of the one, and none of them has caught the forger of the other. I have the testimonies of European scholars themselves to this effect. They [Jews and Christian] are a blind people, devoid of the light of faith. The state of the Christians is even more deplorable, for their knowledge of science and philosophy has been of no avail to them. They deny the very existence of Heaven but, at the same time, believe Jesus(as) to be sitting there!

If earlier Jewish scriptures are considered to be true, they do not bear out the Prophethood of Jesus(as). For example, according to the Book of Malachi, Elijah(as) had to reappear before the coming of the true promised Messiah—who Jesus(as) claimed to be—but Elijah(as) has not appeared to this day. This was a weighty argument put forward by the Jews, but Jesus(as) was unable to give a satisfactory answer. The Holy Quran has indeed done a great favour to Jesus(as) by affirming his Prophethood!

As for the doctrine of the Atonement, it, too, was rejected by Jesus(as) when he likened himself to Jonah(as) who had remained alive in the belly of a fish for three days. If Jesus(as) had died on the cross, what resemblance would there be between him and Jonah(as)? The comparison clearly proves that Jesus(as) did not die on the cross, and, like Jonah(as), he had only become unconscious.

Then there is Jesus’ Ointment, which is recorded in nearly all books of medicine as having been prepared for the wounds that Jesus(as) had suffered on the cross.

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