Islam and the Freedom of Conscience — Page 6
~ 6 ~ excerpt from the Promised Messiah as ’s writings in which he talks on this subject. He writes, ''Therefore, this law is part of the eternal practice of Almighty God that He does not grant respite to a false prophet (that is to say if worldly governments do not tolerate that something false be ascribed to them, how can God tolerate it?). Such a person is soon seized and suffers his punishment. In view of this, we shall honour and accept as true all those who claimed to be Prophets at any time, and their claim was established and their religion became widespread and flourished over a long period. If we should discover mistakes in the scriptures of their religions or should observe the misconduct of their followers, we would not attribute these faults and shortcomings to the founders of these religions, inasmuch as the perversion of scriptures is possible and it is possible that mistakes of interpretation might find their way into the commentaries. But it is not at all possible that a person should fabricate lies against God and claim to be a Prophet and then put forward his own compositions as the Word of God falsely, and yet God should grant him respite like the righteous (that is, that all this should happen and God deals with him like a truthful person) and allows him wide acceptance worthy of the truthful. ''