Muhammad and Christ,Used

MUHAMMAD AND CHRIST BT MOULVI MUHAMMAD ALI, M. A., LL. B. President, Ahmadiy x AnjumaniIshaatilalam Lahore, India AUTHOR OF AN English Translation of the Holy Quran AHMAD . NIISHAATMSLAM LAHOR INDIA 1921 OF CONTENTS PAGE iNTRODUCClQft ... ... ... 1 . MIRACLES 1. General Remarks ... ... 17 2. Raising the Dead to Life ... ... 23 3. HeaHng the Sick ... ... ... 35 4. Oth r Signs ... ... ... 41 II. SlNLESSNESS ... ... ... ... 48 III. CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO BIRTH 1. Announcement of Birth ... ... 76 2. Mothers Greatness ... ... 96 3. Extraordinary occurrences at the time of Birth ... ... ... 104 IV. THE CALL ... ... ... ... 108 V. CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO DEATH 1. The alleged Ascent to Heaven ... 118 0.. T2hA Death of Christ ... ... 134 VI. THE SECOND ADVENT ... ... 147 INTRODUCTION ONE of the fundamental principles of Islam is a belief in all the prophets of the world, a belief in the fact that before the advent of the Holy Prophet, Muhammad, may peace and the blessings of God be upon him, Different prophets had been raised among different nations. Thus the great change that the advent of the mighty Prophet of Arabia brought about was, that the day of the national pro phet was over, to give place to the Great WorldProphet, to the new order which was to bring about the unity of the whole human race. A belief in all the prophets of the world being thus the basic principle of the faith of Islam, the Muslims have always been averse to institute comparisons between the various prophets of the world, because compari sons, as thef say, am odious. In fact, they were forbidden by the Prophet himself, to do so un necessarily lest in the heat of controversy on such points, things might be said which may be deroga tory to the dignity of a prophet. At the same time the Holy Qiydn declares in plain words that there 2 INTRODUCTION are varying degrees of excellence even among the prophets We have made some of these apostles to excel others ii. 253. It must, however, be borne in mind that it is one thing to say that one prophet possesses an excellence which another does not, and quite another to speak of that other in derogatory words. The prophets were all perfect men raised for the regeneration of man, but they no doubt possessed varying degrees of excellence according to the nature of the work with which they were entrusted and the capabilities of the race for whose regeneration they were raised. It is in this light, therefore, that we take up the challenge so often given by the Christians as to the comparative greatness of Muhammad or Christ, a task which, though painful, is necessary because of the wrong inferences drawn from the sacred Book of Islam. The error which Christian writers generally com mit is that they place all reliance on words, not caring for the work actually done khey look to appearances, not to reality. With th6m jrsatness consists in the terms of eulogy which may be heap ed upon a person and the incredibly wonderful stories which may be f narrated of him, not in the actual work done by him. Hence they are always INTRODUCTION 3 contending that Jesus speaks of himself thus, not so Muhammad, peace be on him, or that the founder of Christianity performed so many miracles which the founder of IsMih did not. The Holy Quran, on the other hand, adopts a different attitude to wrds this question, regarding work, not words or miracles, as the criterion of greatness. It speaks of the greatness of the Holy Prophet not in the words of eulogy in which Jesus Christ speaks of himself according to the Gospels, but by drawing attention to the great change, the mighty transfor mation, that he brought about in the world...