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Sīrah

Shahādat al-Aqwām

The Testimony of the Nations to the Truth of Islam

Ḥaḍrat Mawlānā Muḥammad Ashraf ʿAlī Thānawī

What people outside Islam said about it: European scholars and doctors, Hindu writers and public men, gathered out of the Urdu papers of the 1910s and 1920s and set down as testimony the faith never asked for.

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Contents

  1. Introduction that is, one plain instance of the well-known hemistich:
  2. The Duties of Islam and the Preservation of Health In the well-known German learned journal Dī Hāyif, the celebrated German scholar and orientalist ʿAllāmah Joachim dī Yūsuf has written a most...
  3. A German Doctor's Devotion to the Prophet of Islam The well-known German doctor Koch had written an article in the newspaper Naṣīḥat, an extract from which we reproduce here, so that it may appear how...
  4. The Qurʾān Is the Best of All Revealed Books Dr Maurice, who is a celebrated man of letters of France, an orientalist and a master of the Arabic sciences, and who by the order of the French...
  5. The Rays of the Qurʾān upon the West This too is a rare miracle of the Divine Word, that it has made even bitterly prejudiced opponents and fault finding Christians acknowledge its worth:
  6. Spirituality in Islam On 15 November 1923 Pandit Indranāth Ṣāḥib declared in the Ārya Sabhā that the Christian religion and the religion of Islam are like a building which...
  7. The Islam of Rājah Bhoj Gorakhpur has always been a hospitable city, and whoever once sets foot upon this soil is called back by its dust, sooner or later, to tread that...
    Sections 2
    1. A Few Fine Points
    2. Further Notes
  8. The Views of Bābū Bipin Chandra Pāl The sacrifice of the cow is mentioned often in the Vedas. The horse sacrifice (aswamedha yajña) and the cow sacrifice (gaumedha yajña) are set out...
    Sections 4
    1. The Mention of Cow Slaughter in the Veda and the Shāstra
    2. The Time of Bhavabhūti
    3. The Ārya Hindus Were Meat Eaters
    4. The Cow's Hide in the Investiture of the Sacred Thread
  9. Proof of the Prophet's Truthfulness from the Writings of Others If it is necessary that these signs be found in a true messenger, that he be the living image of self-sacrifice and sincerity of intention; that he...
  10. A Christian Scholar Confirms the Messengership of the Prophet Let it be known that a Christian scholar has written a book entitled Qirān al-Saʿdayn. The book runs to twenty-eight pages and was printed in 1929 at...
  11. The Opinion of an Educated Hindu Mr L. M. Sawale is an educated and broad-minded Hindu Maratha, and in 1924 he also travelled to Iraq and Iran. A valuable article of his under the...
    Sections 2
    1. The Hindus Did Not Become Muslims by Force
    2. The Noble Messenger in the Eyes of an Ārya
  12. The Bahāʾī Religion and the Muḥammadan Sharīʿah (A refutation of the Bahāʾīs) If religion is taken to be religion, and its commands and prohibitions are held to be worthy of certainty, then every...
  13. Islam and the Scholars of Europe It seems fitting that at this point the thoughts of a number of the noted researchers of Europe and of the celebrated orientalists (mustashriqīn)...
  14. The Greatest Man in the World In the eyes of Dāwūd Afandī Majāʿiḍ, a noted Christian man of letters, the greatest and highest man in the world is he who in the short space of ten...
  15. Islam in the Eyes of Non-Muslims By way of a sample I have copied out one saying each of Mr Godfrey Higgins and of Padre Canon Isaac Taylor Ṣāḥib only.
  16. The Greatness and Worth of the Noble Qurʾān
  17. Confirmation of the Splitting of the Moon London, 28 March (a special telegram of Pānīr). The men of science of London are at present taking a boundless interest in the news which has been...
  18. Living Inside a Fish Is Possible A researcher named Dr Ambrose John Wilson, who has been a fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, has published an article in the Princeton Theological...
  19. A Bouquet of the Prophet's Virtues For the Mīlād number we have prepared, after a great deal of search and enquiry, this bouquet of the virtues of the Prophet , in which no Muslim has...
    Sections 9
    1. Mr Govindji Desai
    2. Human Nobility
    3. Tenderness Towards Children
    4. The Crowned Head of Prophethood Among the Huts
    5. Respect for the Poor
    6. Greatness and Messengership
    7. Mr Bhupendranath Basu
    8. Bābū Bipin Chandra Pāl
    9. Gandhi
  20. The End of the World in the Words of Scientists Professor J. H. Janiyar, the famous astronomer of Britain, is of the view that the lamp of the sun is about to go out, and that after that the earth...
  21. A French Writer's Thoughts on the Noble Messenger This is the testimony which a non-Muslim Frenchman has given concerning the Master of the Universe and concerning the book he brought, the Glorious...
  22. Islam within Unbelief Today my subject is 'Islam within Unbelief'. I do not know what you may have thought in your hearts on seeing this title, but when I chose this...
  23. The Benefits of the Islamic Prayer A learned article has appeared in the celebrated Egyptian journal al-Muʾayyad of Cairo, under the title Faḍīlat al-Ṣalāh, in which its learned...
    Sections 4
    1. The Prayer and Reverend Lebon
    2. The Saying of Saint Hiller
    3. The Statement of Padre James Muller
    4. Mr King's View
  24. The Plural Marriages of the Prophet of Islam First of all it is necessary to remember that, apart from Ḥaḍrat ʿĀʾishah , every one of the women who entered into the bond of marriage with the...
    Sections 7
    1. A Discerning Scholar's Love of Truth
    2. Ḥaḍrat Ḥafṣah
    3. Umm Salamah
    4. Zaynab
    5. Ḥaḍrat Ḥabībah
    6. Ḥaḍrat Juwayriyah
    7. Ḥaḍrat Ṣafiyyah
  25. The Opinions of Some Non-Muslim Scholars on the Noble Qurʾān Apart from the Qurʾān there is no book in the world which has beyond doubt remained exactly as it was from its beginning until today. Now consider...
  26. The Testimony of the Wife Who Knew Him Best After studying the 'blessed biography' (Sīrat Ṭayyibah) of the Master of the World , a celebrated scholar of Europe, Thomas Carlyle, writes:
  27. A Christian Woman's Thoughts on the Veil These days a great many Muslims, and indeed the shaykhs, are of the view that the veil (pardah) has become a heavy stone lying in the path of...
  28. The Blessed Mention of the Messengership of the Prophet in the Books of the Hindus Mention of the Noble Prophet is present in the Hindu books also, and it is present with the fullest amplitude and detail.
    Sections 6
    1. Has the Kalkī Avatar Come?
    2. What Is the An-kahī or An-kahnī?
    3. Certain Hindu Ascetics and Men of God
    4. The Testimony of Vyās Jī, the Famous Hindu Sage
    5. The Islam of Rājah Bhoj, the Famous Learned Rājah
    6. The Testimony of a Man of Gorakhpur
  29. Would That I Were a Muslim Margaret, the daughter of Shīlḍōk, the millionaire merchant of Germany, died in such a condition that, having gone three mealtimes without food, she...
  30. The Un-Islamic Customs of the Muslims of India The article which we set out below is, it is true, the writing of an English scholar, but by reason of its own particular qualities it deserves to be...
    Sections 7
    1. The Method of Preaching of the Prophet
    2. The Preaching of Islam in the Earliest Centuries
    3. The Missionary Activity of the Mongols
    4. The Missionary Activity of the Scholars and the Sufis
    5. Islam in the Archipelago and in Africa
    6. The Religious Knowledge of New Muslims
    7. The Un-Islamic Customs of the Muslims of India
  31. The Future Religion of the World Will Be Islam The newspaper-reading class knows George Bernard Shaw very well. George Bernard Shaw deserves the foremost place in the list of the writers of the...
  32. Supplement to Shahādat al-Aqwām The time is not far off when Islam, by its undeniable truthfulness and its spirituality (rūḥāniyat), will draw everyone into itself. That age is soon...
    Sections 35
    1. The Ascendancy of Islam
    2. The Greatest Benefactor
    3. The Effect of Islam upon the Present Civilisation of the World
    4. Worthy of Honour and Love
    5. Islamic Brotherhood
    6. A Reformer of Exalted Rank
    7. A Life Full of Instruction
    8. Light
    9. The Pure Teaching of Islam
    10. The Religion of Peace
    11. A Cloud of Mercy
    12. The Mark of Democracy
    13. An Offering of Devotion
    14. The Best Religion in the World
    15. The Benefactor of Mankind
    16. A Religion for the Whole World
    17. The One Religion of the Whole World Will Be Islam
    18. A Message of Light and Consolation
    19. A Man of Unshakeable Resolve
    20. A Mercy for Mankind
    21. The Good Christian
    22. Above Doubt and Suspicion
    23. One Sent by God
    24. The Very Image of Mercy and Kindness
    25. The Fullest Manifestation of Generosity
    26. Had He Not Come?
    27. A Prophet of Great Majesty
    28. A Sacred Person
    29. The Prophet of Islam and His New Way
      1. The Life of the Prophet
      2. The Spirit of the Religion of Islam
      3. The Three Forms of the Religion of Islam
      4. The Religious Form of the Movement of Islam
      5. The Social Form of Islam
      6. The Economic Form of Islam
  33. Glossary