Through Force or Faith? — Page 254
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 254 teachings of Christianity and Judaism because these two religions are close to Islam, and the Pope also relates to them. It should be kept in mind that there are three aspects of Islam’s teachings that are new: First, some of the knowledge Islam has brought is such that it did not exist at all before Islam. Second, there is some knowledge that existed in rudimentary form but Islam completed and perfected it and removed its flaws. Third, the perfect knowledge that was present in previous reli- gions but had slowly disappeared, was revived by Islam. True teachings of any religion can be found by referring to their original source, otherwise, the followers of each religion keep on changing their interpretations to keep pace with the changing trends, and they declare their self-made beliefs to be their religion. The original authentic source of Islamic teachings is the Holy Quran, and its explanations are the sayings of the Holy Prophet s as known as A hā d ī th. However, any h adīth that contradicts the Quran is unacceptable even if it is authentically attributed to the Prophet s as of Islam. Likewise, the basic source of Christian and Jewish teachings is the Bible because they consider it to be the Word of God. Therefore, in our comparison we shall refer to these sources. Secondary sources can be presented to explain the origi- nal sources but not to contradict them. Keep in mind that we do not blame the Torah and the Gospels for their limitations because these Books never made a claim to be perfect teachings for the world. In fact, Jesus himself said: I shall have many things to say to you, but you cannot