Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 15
15 gency is as disastrous for the spiritual welfare of man as the former. So that if a perfect religion exists in the world—as the followers of all religions believe that it does—at the same time we find that all religions fail to produce men as perfect as they produced in ages past, and that they are now incapable of estab- lishing that relation between man and God which used to exist between them in earlier days, why does not God present the true religion to the world in a manner calculated to demonstrate His power and bring about that change in the hearts of men, the working of which alone is the object of religion ? Does a man build a fine house and furnish it richly and then neglect its repair and let it fall to ruin ? Or, does a man plant a beautiful garden and then let it dry up for want of means to conduct water into it? If this does not happen, how is it possible to imagine that God revealed a perfect religion for the guidance of mankind, but failed to take measures for its protection and preservation ? Do we not find that “after Moses God sent prophet after prophet to keep alive the Jewish religion and to fulfill the object for which that religion had been revealed; and that after Jesus He appointed those who kept the spirit of Christianity alive; and that after the revelation of the Vedas He sent Krishna and Ram Chandra, and other Holy Men, to enforce the teachings of Vedas, and that after Zoroaster He provided for the preservation of the Persian reli- gion; and that after Muhammad (on whom be peace and the blessings of God) he continuously raised such men who ex- pounded Islam with the help of revelation, and thus kept it alive ? How can we believe then that He has now ceased to provide means for the preservation of the true religion ? If, however, none of the old religions claim today to be under Divine as- surance and protection and able to provide proof of it, we must conclude that, as a building which has fulfilled its purpose is allowed to fall into decay, or as a garden that has lived out its life is cut down, so these religions have lived out their lives and fulfilled their purpose and that God has left them to rot and de-