The Holy War — Page 245
Proceedings—Debate 3 June 1893 245 the same power, but here the thing I find most amazing is that you have not proven any miracle of the Prophet of Islam at all, be it big or small. You contented yourself only by mentioning the miracles of others, or you made mention of some of your own visions and marvels that never made any demonstrable impact on the people. 6) Jesus Christ had never made any confession of his sins, nei- ther in word nor implication, nor was there ever a religious verdict of sin placed against him. It is true that the Holy Quran does not consider man to be only subject to coercion but rather, on the one hand, he is subject to coercion and at the same time he is subject to destiny; that is to say, a being with a choice. But what I say is that coercion occupies the foremost position in this and that these two are also contradictory to each other. Thus, we will give more references to verses that prove the foremost nature of coercion: 1—The gist of what is stated in the tenth Ruk u ‘ of S u rah an-Nis a ’ is: Those who say that good is from Allah and evil is from you; you should tell them that, ‘It is all from Allah alone. ’ 2—Then, in the eleventh Ruk u ‘ of S u rah an-Nis a ’ it is said that ‘The one whom Allah causes to become misguided, you cannot bring to the right path and for such a one there is left no path at all. ’ 3—Then, in the seventh Ruk u ‘ of S u rah al-M a ’idah it is said, ‘If God had so desired He would have given to all the same religion, but He wished to try you. ’ Then, in the seventeenth Ruk u ‘ of S u rah al-An‘ a m, it states: ‘They say that if Allah had pleased, we could not have joined gods with Him. In like manner did those who disbelieve say before. ’ 9) You have wrongly used the word it l a q for the free will of man; but rather, man is actually completely free within his fixed limits. I have never believed what you say, that there is some out- sider involvement also in the exercise of free will, nor do I absurdly engage in argumentation. As they say, ‘Everyone ponders according