Front matter (continued 2)

Muhammadanism has lost touch with life; it contents itself with the letter of the Prophet's teaching and shuts its eyes to, does not search for, the indwelling spirit. It is a small kernel rattling in a very big shell, as Charles Kingsley said in "Yeast" of the Church service at St. Paul's in the fifties of the last century. Religion has been divorced from life, and so the followers of Islam as nations have decayed.

It is the same with the other religions that I have mentioned. The old time Brahmin called himself such because he was educated, intelligent, sanitary in his habits, upright; he did not claim to be all this simply because he was the son of his father. The great obstacle to progress down here is the fact that people imagine it is sufficient to follow in a mechanical unintelligent way the letter, while totally disregarding the spirit, of some old and after all not very important rules. Ireland is said to have been an "Isle of Saints", I have my doubts on the subject, but suppose it so. It is now full of fine churches and religious establishments; no people in the world go to church with greater regularity, abstain more thoroughly from meat on Fridays, etc. etc. But with the mechanical observances they are, I fear, too well satisfied. Drunkenness, idleness, utter disregard for truth, are rampant in Southern Ireland, and therefore Southern Ireland is what it is. Formal devotion is no substitute whether in the daily battle of the world, or (I believe) in the ultimate judgment of God, for the proper ordering of one's every day actions.

If Muhammadans breathe the breath of life on the dry bones of their religion I see no reason why the temporal power of Islamic countries and the spiritual strength of the Muhammadan Church should not revive. Something of the kind has happened in France. Zola cried out against "the nightmare of Catholicism"; antagonism to the Catholic Church had been growing up long before M. Combes started to "strafe" the religious establishments of the country. The orthodox imagined that France was losing all religion: Auguste Comte, an unbeliever, proclaimed that France was daily becoming more religious. Rènè Bazin, a Catholic writer, implicitly admits that Comte was right. The people were sick of the dry, lifeless, formal rules that were offered to them; the priesthood have had this truth hammered into them, and they are quickening their formulæ with life to fit the life of the people, not striving to dessicate the people's life to fit their formulæ.

J.C.M.

As a socio-political institution Islam is, in the middle of its fourteenth century (1340 A.H.), in the same vicissitudes of development, as Christianity was in the middle of its fourteenth century (1350 A.D.)—an institution weakened by contending sects and rendered stagnant by rigid formalism. "It is a dispensation of providence", says Syed Ameer Ali, "that whenever a religion becomes reduced to formalism cross-currents set in to restore spiritual vitality." As in Christianity in its fourteenth century, so in Islam of our own times, the vitalising cross-currents have set in and we are now witnessing a Muslim Renaissance all over the world. Its pioneers in India were Sir Syed Ahmad, Mowlana Shibli, and the poet Hali. The Rt. Hon. Ameer Ali, Dr. Iqbal and a host of others bear aloft the New Light. The Muslim Reformation is coming on as surely as the Christian Reformation came in the wake of Patristicism and Formalism. It need not necessarily mean Political Revolutions as in Europe.

A.H.

OUR PRAYER.

1.

All praise is due to Thee, O God! None other than Thee we adore. Thou art the Master of the Worlds, Thine aid alone do we implore.

2.

Thou art Compassion; lead Thou on To Thy right path our human race. Thy Mercy floweth evermore, Do guide us to the path of Grace.

3.

Thou art the Lord of Judgment-day, For sure shall all be judged by Thee, O keep us off the path of Sin And Error's way. So mote it be!

Abdur Rahim.

FOOTNOTES

Transcriber's note: Arabic names are kept as in the original text. Arabic transliterations are according to ISO 233 system in most cases and from the version by the CANADIAN SOCIETY OF MUSLIMS with their kind permission.