________________
988
great price in the Qur'an. So long as the followers of Islam carried this principle into practice, their religion was a living religion; but the times are changed now, and, like most other religions, Islam, too, has fallen into degeneration and decay.
To any one who would critically look into the Qur'an, it would be obvious that so far as religion proper is concerned there are three remarkable features of that book, namely,
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
(1) variants of the myths and traditions of the Jewish and certain other forms of faith, interspersed here and there with the folk-lore of the Arabs themselves;
(2) a total absence of all reference to the scriptures, traditions and myths of other countries, such as India, China, and the like; and
(3) a paramount teaching as to the great merit of the principle of resignation to one's destiny.
Of these, the first tends to show that the traditions and myths are not to be taken as having an historical basis; the second points to one of two things, that is, either Mahomed was ignorant of those scriptures, or that they did not need correction in his opinion; and the third is but the practising of renunciation under a different name,
As for the place of the Qur'an amongst the scriptures of the world, Non-Muslim writers, very naturally, were not to be expected to write much in favour of the book; but much of their criticism only goes to show that they possess no true insight into the nature of religion. The main defects pointed out in the great Book by
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org