Some Distinctive Features of Islam — Page 8
8 the contents of various faiths fade d and wilted under the vicissitudes of time; hence they were not preserved in their original form. In some cases, the followers themselves intr oduced innovations and variations to suit changing needs, and the originally revealed Books continued to be interpolated for this purpose. Obviously, such adulteration of the Divine Message ultimately mandated fresh guidance from the Original Source. As God has said in the Holy Quran: They pervert the words from their proper places and have forgotten a good part of that wi th which they were exhorted. 10 If we examine the history of differences between various faiths in the light of the principles enunciated by the Holy Quran, we find that the differences tend to diminish as we reach nearer the source itself. For instance, if we limit the comparison of Christianity and Islam only to the life of Jesus as and the four gospels in the Bible, then there will appear only very minor differences between the basic teachings of the Bible and the Holy Quran. But, as we travel further down the road of time, the chasm of these differences becomes wider and wider, till it becomes totally unbridgeable—and all because of human endeavour to revise that which was originally revealed. The history of other faiths also reveals the same basic reality, and we find strong corroboration of the Quranic view, that the direction of human changes and revisions of the Divine Message, has always been from the worship of one God to that of several, and from reality to fiction, from humanity to deification of human beings. The Holy Quran tells us that the surest way to distinguish a true religion, despite its subsequent mutilation, is to examine its origin. If the origin reveals the teaching of the unity of God, worship of none