Editorial

Today, as in ages gone by, good-willed people continue to seek an answer to the world’s problems and difficulties in an effort to unearth a golden solution that will release mankind from the shackles of war, poverty and hunger, and give birth to a kind of heaven on earth.

The Sacred Book of Islam, the Holy Qur’an, is a text that has irrefutably remained unblemished since the revelation of its first verse in 610 AD. It has served as a trusted guide to mankind – a link between man and His Creator – for the past 1400 years, providing mankind the unadulterated teachings for all aspects of life.

The Holy Qur’an presents the route mankind must embark upon in order to attain both an internal and external peace; Islam literally meaning ‘PEACE’ and ‘submission to the Divine Will’. The message of Islam is not to create disorder but to bring about unity and friendship between each of the beautiful and diverse groups on earth, so that ‘…you may recognise one another” (Ch.49:V.14).

In the Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad^(saw), we find the quintessential living expression of the Holy Qur’an and how, when embraced with love, humility and sincerity, his way of living and the Message of God revealed to him, cause man’s every fibre to resonate with peace.

Islam propagates that one of the greatest obstacles to achieving peace is the prevalence in one’s self of the destructive quality of arrogance. For surely arrogance intoxicates the soul and blinds individuals, tribes and nations to the true nature of any matter. History has certainly taught us that the arrogance of the few has often led to the suffering of the many.

In this issue of The Review of Religions, we feature an inspirational extract from the writings of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad^(as) on how arrogance plays havoc with peace. Indeed, it is such a powerful force that it precludes man from observing the dictates of justice, and as observed by Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad in a recent speech at the 6th annual Peace Conference (also featured in this issue), it is selfishness and greed that are the root causes of the global crises of the past and present.