A Present to Kings — Page 56
( 56 ) trated their truth, but because the Holy Quran declares them to be true. Failing such a testimony meny a Mussalman would have altogether refused to include these books among the heavenly scriptures, because the mutilations in them are so numerous that a study of them goes only to fill one with wonder. For example the l'entateuch closes with the following passage regarding Moses--" So Moses, the servant of the Lord died . . . . but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. and there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses "-which clearly shows that the book was written after the death of Moses. How can we then regard the books as the revelations of Moses? In short, if we believe in the Old and the New Testaments, it is only because the Holy. Quran says that they were originally revealed by God. Our belief in them is therefore not direct, but derived from the یومنون بما انزل الیک Holy Quran and the Divine revelation is perfectly correct, and can not be changed و ما انزل من قبلك with the fault of wrong transposition, because the full signification of the passage could only be expressed by the order of words as it stands. If the order be transposed and j be read after the other portion of the sentence, assumning the same to be a case of wrong transposition of words, then there will altogether be missed the delicate reference which the sentence contains to the service which the Holy Quran has rendered to the older scriptures, and the language will be altogether bereft of its elegance, because though the books came before the Holy Quran in the order of their revelation, still the belief in them comes to a Mussalman only after he has believed in the Holy Quran. For when a Hindu embraces. Islam he does not believe in the Old and the New Testaments first and in the Holy Quran afterwards, but he begins by believing in the Holy Quran, and believes in the older books when he finds confirmation of them in the latter. Since the verse deals, with the subject of belief, and the belief of a. Mussalman in the older books comes after his belief in the. Holy Quran, it necessarily follows that in interpreting the