The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam — Page 30
24 The True Purpose of the Teachings of the Holy Quran is the Reform of the Three Conditions Before I embark upon a detailed exposition of the threefold reforms that I have just mentioned, it is necessary to point out that there is no teaching in the Holy Quran which is imposed by compulsion. The whole purpose of the Quran is the three reforms, and all its teachings are directed towards that end. All other directions are the means for the achievement of those reforms. As sometimes a surgeon has to perform an operation in order to restore the patient to normal health, or has to apply an ointment, in the same way the teachings of the Quran, out of sympathy for mankind, have recourse to such means also. The purpose of all Quranic insights and admonitions and directions is to raise man from his natural condition of barbarity to a moral state, and then to lift him from that state to the limitless ocean of spirituality. Natural Conditions by Regulation become Moral Qualities We have already stated that natural conditions are not something distinct from moral conditions. When they are regulated and are used on their proper