A Present to Kings — Page 14
( 14 ) the Persian. Moreover, if the founding of empires were the real object of Islam, the work was already being done before. . The Romans and the Persians had already their mighty empires. The Hindus and the Chinese were not weak in material power. If, therefore, it be considered that the object of Islam was to achieve worldly prosperity, there would seem no necessity for its advent because the treasuries of the Caesars and the Kesras were richer than those of the Mussalmans, and the simplicity of the Islamic court could not in the least vie with the splendour of the courts of the Romans and the Persians. . It is, therefore, highly unfair to Islam to suppose that its object was to achieve worldly prosperity or that the purpose of its advent was to raise new nations and to set them to earn the things of the world and to give them pre-eminence in the same. He must indeed be blind who can make such au assertion. And what right has any person to make such a baseless assertion against Islam when the Holy Quran itself explains the object of the Holy Prophet's advent in the following words As I have sent among you a prophet from among yourselves who recites to you My proofs and arguments and (thus) purifies you (and leads you and raises you towards the highest goal) and teaches you the Book (and instructs you in the fine details of the Law and its hidden secrets and does not stop at those instructions which could be found in previous books but goes further) and instructs you in what you did not know before. Then remember Me so that I may give you rank in My presence, and be grateful to Me (for the favours I have showered upon you, through this prophet) and be not thankless to Me. " Thus it appears that Islam came to teach men knowledge and wisdom and proofs and arguments relating to faith and the unseen world, and the way to the purification of self and the attainment of the highest goal, and that spiritual knowledge, which may help man to attain nearness to God. It did not come to teach men the way to earn material wealth or to found kingdoms and empires. . There is no doubt that Islam is a perfect religion and as such it does not forbid any necessary pursuit which may in