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PART III
A CANDID INQUIRY INTO THE CLAIM OF ISLAM TO BE GOD'S FINAL
REVELATION.
CHAPTER I
AN EXPLANATION OF THE REASON AND SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY.
THE honoured perusers of these pages are respectfully informed that, not many years
ago, there reached the famous city of Shiraz in Persia a Christian merchant, whose
merchandise was beyond all price, since it consisted of copies of the Word of God, the
Book of the "People of the Book", to which Holy Book the Qur'an itself bears
such high testimony, as we have already seen in the First Part of this Treatise. Wonderful
to relate, however, when the merchant offered these books for sale, the Mullas stirred up
the mob against him. They seized all his books, tore them in pieces, trod them under foot,
beat the merchant, drove him out of the city, just as the wicked husbandmen did to some of
the servants of the Lord of the Vineyard (Matt. xxi. 33-44), and threatened to kill him if
he returned to circulate the Holy Scriptures, regarding which Muslims are commanded in the
Qur'an to say: "We1 believe in God and in what has been sent down unto us
and in what was sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes, and
what Moses was brought, and Jesus, and what the Prophets were brought from their Lord; we
make no difference between one of them [and another], and we are resigned to Him." In
the crowd there stood a Persian
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boy. He saw all that took place, and wondered how it was that the Mullas so impiously
ventured to urge the ignorant populace to destroy books which the Qur'an professes to have
come to confirm and defend.1 While he thought over this matter, the idea
occurred to his mind, "Is it possible that these books of the Christians contain
something of which our Mullas are afraid, something which disproves Islam?" This
thought terrified the boy, who had hitherto most firmly believed in his religion. He
fought against the thought, but could not shake it off. At last, when he had grown up to
be a young man, he determined to inquire what the proofs of Islam really were, in order
thus to remove the doubts which tormented his mind. There then dwelt near Shiraz a very
much revered Haji, who was famed for his strict observance of all the rites of his faith,
for his diligence in the appointed prayers
(الصّلوات), in reading the Qur'an, in fasting during
the month of Ramazan, and everything else which distinguishes a pious Muslim. To him the
young man went for instruction. But he feared to ask openly what he desired to know.
Therefore, after a reverential salutation and after showing the venerable Haji all due
deference, he said, "Yesterday your humble servant met a Jew, and tried to convert
him to our holy faith. He listened to what I said about the Seal of the Prophets, the
Chosen, the Messenger of God
(صلعم), and then said, ‘Please tell me what proof you have
that Muhammad was a Prophet.' Sir, I gave him what answer I could, but did not convince
him. Therefore I have come to ask your Honour what proofs I am to mention to him."
The Haji drew himself up, looked sternly at the youth, and said, "You are an
infidel." The youth fled in terror, and soon went to Bombay, where as soon as he
could he borrowed the New Testament, and read it carefully, in order to find out what in
it had frightened the Mullas and made them destroy the books.
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