Why Islam is my choice — Page 129
129 meaningful defense of Isl ā m when it was challenged and abused. But let me now come to an end of this meeting that we have had, a very profitable one I might add, by thanking you for providing us with all this time and being available. There are many other questions, I’m sure, that I can ask, but we will leave that for a future meeting. To conclude, by mentioning that a lot of the issues that we have discussed in this interview impacted on some fundamental problems that American society faced and continues to face. Nothing was stated to be taken in the vein that no good is embodied in Christianity or in America. Isl ā m’s position on the issue of other religions says that all were founded by Prophets of God who were sent by God for the reformation of various people throughout the ages. Isl ā m’s purpose is to establish peace on earth, and it teaches that in order to establish peace, man has to believe in the unity of God and the unity of mankind, and not only to believe in an academic sense but that the practices of his or her religion have to be consistent with the establishment of that unity of mankind. And this, Isl ā m provides an excellent way of doing. All the religions, according to Isl ā m, that came prior to it, were sent by God for specific people for a specific time, this is why God did not arrange for their messages to be preserved, and they continue to experience changes and adulterations by man’s hand. It is these errors and these shortcomings which, when man tries to apply it to the age in which we are living today, lead to severe problems and severe likelihood of a cessation of peace. By following Isl ā m man can attain that peace which he has been working so hard to try and attain. May All ā h, may God, enable all of us to understand and practice that true teaching of Isl ā m which can lead all of us to live peaceful and enjoyable, prosperous lives here on Earth. May All ā h enable us to do this. . . Edited from Al-Na ḥ l, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2002.