Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 129
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 129 Holy Quran and the practice and pronouncements of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him. The great body of his writings and the reports of his speeches and addresses thus constitute a detailed commentary on the Holy Quran in which is set forth the guidance that mankind needs in the era that opened with his advent. At one place he observed that his age bears the same relationship to the era that was now opening out before mankind as the age of Adam bore to his age. One of the revelations vouchsafed to him was: 'Weare about to create a new heaven and a new earth. ' He was the Adam of this new heaven and new earth. The Promised Messiah on the one side weeded out the innovations and superstitions which had been encrusted over the body of Islam, and had to a large degree choked out its true spirit like poison ivy that was strangling the tree of Islam, so that it had ceased to flourish and to yield the beneficence that it was intended to provide; and on the other side set forth clearly the true and pu~e teachings of the Holy Quran by acting upon which Islam and the Muslims could be revivified and restored to their full moral and spiritual vigour. He forbade recourse to all practices that were inconsistent with faith in the Unity of God and the teachings of the Holy Quran and the practice of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him. The bulk of Muslims had taken to a glorification of saints, making offerings to them, addressing supplications to them and making vows for the purpose of propitiating them and winning their pleasure. All this was utterly inconsistent with faith in the Unity of God and was opposed to the true spirit of Islamic teachings. The Muslims had, like the rest of mankind, come to place their reliance entirely upon means, ignoring that all good proceeds from God and that means should not be exalted to the position of the true source of all good and beneficence. Prayer and supplication had been reduced into mere cer- monial and formality and no longer served as the principal means of approach to God and of establishing communion with Him. The Promised Messiah expounded the great sig-