Three Questions by a Christian and their Answers — Page 37
37 New Testament about Jesus as curing the lame, the crippled, the paralyzed, and the sick, etc. , by his mere touch, and that it is all to be taken literally, and it does not have any other connotation, even then it would not confer any merit on him. First of all, there was a pool in those very days which could cure people suffering from all such ailments if they had a dip in it at a particular moment. This has been mentioned in the New Testament itself. Secondly, it has been proven by long observation and re- search that the healing of the sick is one of the many branches of science, and many people are to be found even today who are adept in this field. This science requires ex- treme concentration, mental power, and expertise in controlling another person’s thoughts. Hence, this ability has nothing to do with Prophethood, and it does not even require that the person practising it should be pious. This science has been in vogue since times immemorial. Some eminent Muslim scholars—such as Mo h yudd i n Ibn-e- ‘Arab i , author of the Fu sus , and some elders of the Naqshband i order—are known to have been great experts in this science and had no equal in their own times. Of some of them it has been said that, with perfect concentra- tion, and with the leave of God, they could even talk to the people who had recently passed away; 43 and that they could 43 It is not contrary to the laws of nature for a recently deceased person to be restored to life for a few minutes or hours through the art of con- centration. And why should we consider such a thing to be beyond the Contd…