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1068
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
Zoroastrianism and other religions bad anything to do with the teaching of Islam. When he insists on direct proof of Mahomed having derived his wisdom from the Zoroastrians, the Jews and others, he forgets that most of the legends and aphorisms of religion were the common property of the people at large, having been related, times out of number, at halting places of caravans, by beggars at the roadside, and by hermits and monks of different faiths who had their monasteries in the neighbouring countries, to say nothing of those who used to travel abroad in search of truth. Unless we believe that the Prophet's mind was an air-tight compartment in which nothing from outside had been allowed to enter till the completion of the Qur'an, it is not possible to think that he had not become acquainted with the things which were the common property of all alike. Rather than take up a position untenable on the face of it, it might be more profitable to lay stress on the wisdom of Mahomed, which enabled him to get to the kernel of truth in those very legends which many repeated but few understood.
The position and antiquity of Jainism can now be seen to assert themselves. It does not claim to derive its authority from any mystic or unintelligible source, but bases it on the authority of the Tirthamkaras, who saw, by their power of Omniscience, the things as they actually exist in the universe, and whose statements are verified by the most searching conclusions of reason. Add to this the fact that Their knowledge enabled them to attain the summum bonum, the great Ideal of Perfection and Bliss, which is the aim and aspiration of
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