Lecture Lahore — Page 27
2 7 disease which the husband is in danger of contracting, and in other such cases, the Holy Quran does allow the hus- band to divorce his wife. Coming back to the main subject, let me reiterate that Christianity does not offer any realistic means for attain- ing salvation or enabling man to abstain from sin. Salvation can only be meaningful if man reaches a state where he does not boldly venture upon sin, and his love for God becomes so strong that no egoistic passion can surmount it, and this, obviously, cannot be attained with- out complete God-realization. In the Holy Quran we find clearly defined ways and means for attaining knowledge about God, which generates fear and keeps one away from sin. Through obedience to the Holy Quran, man is granted Divine converse and heavenly signs and is given news of the unseen, and all this results in a strong bond between man and his Master. At this stage man begins to desire passionately for union with Him, and puts Him above everything else. His prayers are accepted and he is given the news of their acceptance beforehand, and a mighty river of Divine knowledge and awareness flows in his heart and stops him from sin. But when we read the Gospels, we find only one method [for attaining salva- tion], which, apart from being irrational, has nothing to do with the eradication of sin. It is indeed strange that even though the Messiah as exhibited all kinds of human weak- nesses, and did not show any Divine powers which could set him apart from other mortals, the Christians still con- sider him to be God!