A Present to Kings — Page 36
( 36 ) a book which has been tampered with and altered. Because * which ha when the true meaning of a book has been lost to the world, it is really as much obsolete as the latter. It is therefore certain that there will always remain in the world a set of men who will practically fulfil the purpose for which the Holy. Quran was revealed, and that whenever men should happen to lose sight of the same then forthwith there should be sent by. God a man who should be a teacher and inform men of the real truth, and bring them back to the right path. The Hadis (traditions] also support the same view. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) is reported to have said:ان الله يبعث لهذه الامة على راس كل مائة سنة من يجدد لها دينها "God will raise among this people at the beginning of every century such a person as will renew the faith of Islam. In other words the changes which men will have brought about in the faith of Islam through the intermingling of their own opinions and desires will be rectified by those reformers who will re-establish the faith, and through their means there will always be raised bodies of men who will safeguard the true meaning of the Holy Quran or in other words achieve the purpose for which the Quran was revealed and thus will Islam remain a living faith. . This is wherein consists the superiority of Islam to other faiths. Because if the excellence of a faith could be proved by stories and traditions, then there are more of such stories and traditions to be found among the Hindus than in Islam. If we were to recount miracles, they would tell us of mightier miracles and the Christians too would present us with quite a heap of miracles in support of their faith. And actually this is what they do. In fact it is one of the charges levelled at. Islam by the other creeds that there was no miracle wrought in it. And it has so happened that even some of the so-called. Muslim reformers, helpless under the weight of European criticism, have endorsed this false view of the Christian