Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 171
171 object to such a course, but experience shows that this is the only right course. Free intermingling of the two sexes and their freely casting looks at each other, are productive of great mischief and no good has resulted from them. To allow men and women whose hearts are not yet purified, and who are yet under the control of their sensual passions, to freely mingle with, and look at, each other, is to intentionally push them down into the pit. The Quranic teaching in this respect is free from every harm. The same defect of Gospel teaching is brought to light in its directions regarding divorce. The Gospel says that no one should / "put away his wifej saving for the cause of fornication," But the j Holy Quran permits divorce on other equally" urgent occasions, for instance when the husband and wife become the deadly enemies of each other and the life of one is in danger from the other, or when the wife is guilty of having gone through the preliminaries of fornication, though she may not have actually committed fornication, or when she suffers from some such disease as would endanger the life of the husband in case the relations are continued, or when some other cause comes into existence which -on account of its beisg a hindrance to the continuance of conjugal relations is a sufficient cause for divorce. In all such cases divorce is permitted, and the truth of this principle is practically admitted by the Christians themselves. To revert to the main point of this lecture, the Christians, cannot point out the means which can lead a man to salvation and freedom from the bondage of sin. For, as stated above sal- v vation means nothing but the attainment of a condition in which a man does not venture upon transgression and his love of God becomes so great as" to suppress his sensual desires, and the realization of such a state depends upon a perfect knowledge of God. The Holy Quran points out to us the clear ways which can