مطالبہء اقلیت کا عالمی پس منظر

مطالبہء اقلیت کا عالمی پس منظر — Page 82

82 achievement; and when once born it must be reinforced by inhibiting the growth of other modes of knowledge۔There is no doubt that the ancient world produced some great systems of philosophy at a time when man was comparatively primitive and governed more or less by suggestion۔But we must not forget that this system-building in the ancient world was the work of abstract thought which cannot go beyond the systematization of vague religious beliefs and traditions, and gives us no hold on the concrete situations of life۔Looking at the matter from this point of view, then the Prophet of Islam seems to stand between the ancient and the modern world۔In so far the source of his revelation is concerned he belongs to the ancient world; in so far as the spirit of his revelation is concerned he belongs to the modern world۔In him life discovers other sources of knowledge suitable to its new direction۔The birth of Islam, as I hope to be able presently to prove to your satisfaction, as the birth of inductive intellect۔In Islam prophecy reaches its perfection in discovering the need of its own abolition۔This involves the keen perception that life cannot forever be kept in leading strings; that in order to achieve full self- consciousness man must finally be thrown back on his own resources۔The abolition of priesthood and hereditary kingship in Islam, the constant appeal to reason and experience in the Quran, and the emphasis that it lays on Nature and History as sources of human knowledge, are all different aspects of the same idea of finality۔10