Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 19
Inter-Religious Peace 19 with his habitual humility and prudence and taught the Muslim the same lesson in decency and courtesy by admonishing: Do not declare my superiority over Moses as. 14 The long and short of this is that it is for God to decide and declare the comparative ranking of the various Prophets as closeness to Him. It is quite likely that in a particular age, in the context of a particular religion, God may have expressed His pleasure with the Prophet of the time in such strong terms as to declare that he was the best. Superlatives can, after all, be also used in relative terms in the context of a limited application of time and space. This could easily have led the followers of that holy personage to believe that he was the best and holiest for all ages and for all times to come. To genuinely believe in this should not be considered an offence against others. A civilised attitude would require that such issues should not be abused to create friction amongst religions. That exactly is the true import of the admonition of the Holy Prophet sa , quoted above. If adherence to this principle of humility and decency is adopted by all religions, the world of religious controversy would be the better for it. Salvation Cannot Be Monopolised by Any Single Religion The question of salvation, howsoever innocent it may appear, is potent in its danger to peace in the religious world.