Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 116
116 indirectly to admit it. Some Muslims, under the guise of religious reform, started a movement of mutual under- standing between Islam and Christianity on the basis of the assumption that both were true and of the necessity of avoiding collision between the two, for these men feared that Islam could not withstand Christianity. Others had started writing apologies on behalf of Islam, and tried to explain that certain Islamic doctrines to which Europe took exception, were really no part of Islam and that Islam taught exactly what Europe ap- proved of. They explained that Islam was revealed in an age of darkness when the Arabs were in a very degraded condition, that many of the doctrines and command- ments of Islam were meant only to improve the condi- tion of the Arabs and were not of universal application, that these would now be repealed by a conference of Muslim doctors and ulema, that the Holy Prophet sa used to preach to the Arabs with due regard to their national and religious prejudices and that his meaning was really different from that which his words would ordinarily bear. In short, the Muslims had begun to admit by their conduct that the days of Islam were numbered. They had lost not merely the power to take the offensive but even the heart to defend Islam. They were ready to surrender, and awaited only the offer of better terms by Christianity, under which they would not be treated as mere savages. On the other hand the man who saw and pub- lished this vision was alone and had no following. He had just proclaimed his claim to Messiahship, which had aroused universa1 resentment and opposition. The