Essence of the Holy Qur’an — Page 14
Essence of the Holy Qur’ ā n 14 themes of this S u rah also. But in this S u rah greater space has been assigned to a comparison of the detailed teachings of the two religions—Islam and Christianity—with special reference to the progress and domination of Christianity in the Latter Days. As in the Latter Days, Christian writers and speakers were to profess and proclaim loudly that Islam had degraded woman by giving her a much lower status than man, this S u rah largely deals with the problems concerning females, and a cursory glance over the Qur’ a nic teaching about women establishes the fact that even in this respect Islamic teachings are far superior to those of Christianity. And as the subject of orphans is intimately connected with that of women, it has also received special mention in this S u rah which is the first revelation to safeguard their rights and those of women. Women have not only been given all the rights to which they are legitimately entitled, particularly the right of inheritance, but have also been declared to be the sole masters and arbiters of their property. The second main topic dealt with in this S u rah is that of hypocrisy. As in the Latter Days Christianity was to gain worldwide predominance and a large number of Muslims were to live under Christian Governments and, as a result of their subjugation by Christian rulers and their fear of Christian criticism of Islam they were to adopt hypocritical attitude towards their own Faith, the subject of hypocrisy has also been treated in this S u rah along with that of women, and light is thrown on the depths to which a hypocrite can sink morally and spiritually. The hypocrites are warned that shame and abasement would seize them because they fear men more than their Creator. Towards its end the S u rah sheds some light on the subject of Jesus’ crucifixion and it is emphatically stated and convincingly established that the belief that Jesus died on the Cross is utterly false and unfounded. Like other human beings he died a natural death, and this false doctrine is belied by proven facts of history, and even the Gospels lend no support to it. The S u rah closes with a brief reversion to the subject of Kal a lah in order to draw attention to the spiritual hairlessness of Jesus who in a sense was a Kal a lah inasmuch as he left no spiritual successor, Prophethood having been transferred from the House of Israel to that of Ishmael.