Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 513
17 May 1908 513 same perfection and comprehensiveness that Allah the Exalted has, out of His perfect wisdom, endowed upon the Holy Quran. There is no comparison with the Holy Quran; they are not even worth mentioning. The New Testament transformed a frail and feeble man into God, but the true measure of his strength can simply be assessed in his confrontation with the Jews. The second element and the source of pride was the moral teaching of the New Testament, but it is so absurd and deficient that no right-minded person can adhere to them. Even the con- duct of Christian priests is totally opposed to this teaching. For instance, the New Testament teaches that if anyone slaps you once, you should turn to him the other cheek; and that if anyone asks for your shirt, you should hand over your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Now, to begin with, I’d like to ask those very gentle- men—the Christian priests who support and laud the New Testament—to what extent they follow this teaching. What exemplary conduct of this teaching have they shown that they should invite others to it as well? Moreover, it is written in this same New Testament that you should not resist evil. In short, the teaching of the New Testament is so wholly given to the extreme [of forbearance] that one cannot possibly act upon it save for some unusually extraordinary circumstances. On the other hand, if we look at the teachings of the Torah we see that they are tilted to the other extreme—that only one aspect is stressed: life for life, eye for eye, ear for ear, and tooth for tooth. There is absolutely no mention of forgiveness and pardon in it. The fact of the matter is that these scriptures were actually particular to a specific time and a specific people. On the con- trary, what a holy path the Holy Quran has told us about which is free from either extreme and is in perfect accord with human nature! For example, the Holy Quran says :