Mercy for the Universe

16 The Review of Religions – August 2006 ‘They were clever enough to realise that a Musalman’s feelings are never more easily aroused than over a real or fancied insult to the Holy Prophet(saw). They, therefore, began to proclaim that their activites were meant to preserve the nabuwwat [prophethood] of the Holy Prophet and to repel attacks on his namus [honour]. . . . The trick succeeded and they began to attract large audiences to their meetings. Since some of the Ahrar speakers are experts in the choice of words and expression and the use of similes and metaphors and can intersperse their speeches with flashes of humour of however Iow an order, they soon began gaining in popularity.’ Justice Mohammad Munir1 Disparaging a prophet of God is as old as prophecy itself. Even Muhammad(saw) could not escape it. He was mocked, not only during the Makkan period of his life, but also in Madinah where he had the authority to punish. The Jews of Madinah had sharp tongues and a sick sense of humour and did not miss an opportunity of ridiculing the Prophet(saw). After the Hijrah, the Quraish of Makkah joined forces with these Jews to stop the progress of Islam. The hypocrites were already there, starting work as fifth columnists. Apart from intrigue and war, they also employed the communications network for propaganda. The propagandist poets, whom Maxime Rodinson has described as ‘the journalists of the time’ and Carmichael as ‘kindlers of battle’2; accused the Muslims of dis- MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE Part 8 This is the eighth extract taken from the book Murder in the Name of Allah by Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad(ru). This chapter examines the teachings of Islam from the Holy Qur’an and examples of the Holy Prophet(saw) on how to treat verbal abuse against the status of the Holy Prophet(saw). 17The Review of Religions – August 2006 honouring themselves by sub- mitting to an outsider. Abu Afak taunted the children of Qayla (the Aws and the Khazraj): ‘I have lived a long time, but I have never seen Either a house or gathering of People More loyal and faithful to Its allies, when they call on it, Than that of the children of Qayla (the Aws and the Khazraj) as a whole. The mountains will crumble before they submit Yet here is a rider come among them who had divided them. (He says) ‘This is permitted; this is forbidden’ To all kinds of things. But if you had believed in power And in might, why did you not follow a tubba?’ 3 Abu ‘Afak in effect was saying, ‘The tubba was, after all, a south Arabian king of great reputation, yet you resisted him. Now what has happened to you that you have accepted the claims of a Makkan refugee?’ Meanwhile, Kab was elected chief of the Jews, replacing Malik b. alSayf4 who also lamented the loss of Quraish at Badr. 5 In an elegy he said: ‘Drive out that fool of yours that you may be safe From talk that has no sense! Do you taunt me because I shed tears For people who loved me sincerely? As long as I live I shall weep and remember The merits of people whose glory is the houses of Makkah.’ 6 Obviously, the main purpose of this vulgar and abusive campaign was to sow the seeds of dissention between the Ansar and the Muhajirs on the one hand and between the Aws and the Khazraj on the other. The campaign seemed to pay off when a Jew from the Banu Qua’inq’ua, Shas b. Qays, ordered a Jewish youth to recite some poems composed at the battle of Buath. They were recited to a mixed gathering of Muslims, comprising the Aws and the Khazraj. Eventually, both sides got worked up and challenged each other, saying: ‘If you wish we will do the same thing again.’ They both replied: ‘We will! Your MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 18 The Review of Religions – August 2006 meeting place is outside – that being the volcanic tract. To arms! To arms!’7 As soon as the Holy Prophet(saw) heard the news he hurried to the spot with the Emigrants and addressed the men of the Aws and the Khazraj: ‘O Muslims! Remember God, remember God. Will you act like pagans while I am with you? After God has guided you to Islam and honoured you and saved you from paganism? After he has delivered you from unbelief and made you friends by so doing?’ 8 The following verses of the Qur’an were revealed on the occasion: 10 O ye who believe… if you obey any of those who have been given the Book, they will turn you again into disbelievers after you have believed. When you are the people to whom the signs of Allah are given and among whom the Messenger of Allah is present, how can you disbelieve? He who holds fast to Allah is indeed guided to the right path. O ye who believe, be mindful of your duty to Allah in all respects, every moment of your lives, so that whenever death overtakes you, it will find you in a state of complete submission to Him. All of you, take hold of Allah’s rope which He gave you when you hated each other. He united your hearts in love so that by His grace you became brethren. (Ch.3:Vs.101-104) This was the atmosphere of unrest in Madinah when the Prophet(saw) decided to stop the poets’ propaganda campaign and asked for volunteers to execute them. It was clear they had become a grave danger to peace. To say that they were killed because they reviled and insulted the Prophet(saw) is to twist historical fact. To use these executions as a precedent for the execution of those who defame the Prophet(saw) is either deliberate dishonesty or sheer historical ignorance. Defaming the Prophet(saw), known technically as sabb, is neither a hadd offence according to the Qur’an nor a capital offence according to the Sunnah. In fact it is not punishable at all, unless there are contributing circum- stances. Its punishment, like that of MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 19The Review of Religions – August 2006 apostasy, is in the hands of Allah alone. The Qur’an uses goodwill to uphold the honour of Allah and his prophets, not the sword. The Qur’an says: Revile not those to whom they pray besides Allah, lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance. Thus unto every nation have We made their deed seem fair. Then unto their Lord is their return, and He will tell them what they used to do. (Ch.6: V.109) Respect, honour, love and esteem for someone come from the heart. Force can shut mouths, create terror and result in disrespect and irreverence. This is why the Qur’an takes a positive view in matters of the heart. As regards respect for the Holy Prophet(saw), the Qur’an says: Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and honour him with a worthy salutation. Lo! Those who malign Allah and His Messenger, Allah hath cursed them in this world and in the next and hath prepared for them the doom of the disdained. And those who malign believing men and women undeservedly, they bear the guilt of slander and manifest sin. (Ch.33:Vs.57-59) The Qur’an is very clear about sabb. It asks Muslims not to scorn even the false gods of unbelievers and it does not lay down any punishment for those who show disrespect to the Prophet(saw) – for them, God has prepared the ‘doom of the disdained’. And how did the Excellent Exampler(saw) treat those who reviled him? Let us return to the leader of the munafiqun, Abdullah b. Ubayy. After the battle of AI- Mustaliq (6AH/AD737), while the Holy Prophet(saw) was staying by the watering-place of Al-Muraysi, an unpleasant dispute took place between the Muhajirs and Ansar. A hired servant of Umar, Jahjah b. Masud, and Sinan b. Wabar aI- Juhani, an ally of Ansar, began fighting. According to Ibn Ishaq: ‘The Juhani called out: “Men of AI-Ansar!” and Jahjah MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 20 The Review of Religions – August 2006 called out “Men of the Muhajirun!” Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul was enraged. With him were some of his people, including Zayd b. Arqam, a young boy. He said: “Have they actually done this? They dispute our priority, they outnumber us in our country. Nothing is more apt for us and the vagabonds of Quaraish than the ancient saying, ‘Feed a dog and it will devour you.’ By Allah, when we return to Madinah the most honourable will drive out the meanest.” Then he went to his people and said: “This is what you have done to yourselves. You have let them occupy your country and you have divided your property among them. Had you only kept your property from them they would have gone elsewhere.” Zayd b. Arqam heard this and, when he had disposed of his enemies, went and told the Prophet(saw). Umar, who was with him, said: “Tell Abbad b. Bishr to go and kill him.” The Prophet(saw) answered: “What if men should say Muhammad kills his own Companions? No, but give orders to set off.”’10 The Holy Prophet(saw) was, of course, greatly upset. The tribal appeal of Juhani to Ansar and Jahjah’s call to ‘the men of Mahajirun’ reminded him of the Day of Buath and the war of Basus, which lasted forty years. Had Abdullah b. Ubayy succeeded the Ansar, the Muhajirs would have gone back to their tribal wars. The message of Islamic unity, which changed these disunited tribes into a mighty Arab nation, would have been lost forever. The Holy Prophet(saw) was so upset that he gave orders to move, although, as Ibn Ishaq reports, ‘This was at a time when the Prophet(saw) was not used to travelling’11 Referring to this incident, the Qur’an says: They [the Munafiqun] say: ‘When we return to Madinah the one most honourable shall surely drive out the meanest.’ True honour belongs to Allah, to His Messenger and believers; but the hypocrites know it not. (Ch.63.V.9) When Abdullah, son of Abdullah b. Ubayy, heard of this affair, he went to the Prophet(saw) and said: MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 21The Review of Religions – August 2006 ‘I have heard that you want to kill Abdullah b. Ubayy for what you heard about him. If you must, order me to do it and I will bring his head, for AlKhazraj know they have no man more dutiful to his father than I. I am afraid that if you order someone else to kill him, I could not bear to see his executioner walking around and might kill him. I would therefore be killing a believer for an unbeliever and I would certainly be damned. The Prophet(saw) said: ‘No, but let us deal kindly with him and make much of his companionship while he is with us.’ 12 Muslim rulers, who understood why the Holy Prophet(saw) treated Abdullah b. Ubayy and other hypocrites and Jews as he did, have been extremely reluctant to create false martyrs in the process of protecting the honour of the Prophet(saw) (Namus-i-Rasul). In Cordova, between 850 and 859, a group of Christian zealots was formed under the leadership of Eulogius. The members of this group were determined to denounce the Holy Prophet(saw) publicly and to accept martyrdom. The qadis of Cordova, however, refused to oblige them and jailed them instead. Will Durant reports one such incident: Isaac, a Cordovan monk, went to the qadi and professed a desire for conversion; but when the judge, well pleased, began to expound Mohammedanism, the monk interrupted him: ‘Your Prophet’ ,he said, ‘has lied and deceived you. May he be cursed, who has dragged so many wretches with him down to hell’ The qadi reproved him and asked had he been drinking? The monk replied: ‘I am in my right mind. Condemn me to death.’ The qadi had him imprisoned, but asked permission of Abd-ur Rahman II to dismiss him as insane. 13 Shaykhul Islam Ebus’u’ud Effendi, chief mufti of the Ottoman Empire during the reign of the Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, allowed the death penalty, but only for habitual and public defamers of the Holy Prophet(saw). Shaykhul Islam went out of his way to insist that execution should not be ordered lightly. He clearly wished to avoid frivolous and malicious MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 22 The Review of Religions – August 2006 prosecutions and laid down that an offender could not be treated as habitual ‘merely on the word of one or two persons’. The habitual character of the offender had to be proved to the authorities by impartial (begharaz) Muslims, who had no axe to grind. But there was an important rider to this which showed that though Shaykhul Islam Ebussuud issued a fatwa without any Qur’anic or hadith authority, he knew the punishment of sabb was Allah’s alone. The fatwa was issued, probably under political pressure, because he nullified its entire effect by stating that unbelievers were not held guilty for declaring ‘that which constitutes their disbelief: that is, for rejecting Muhammad’s(saw) prophetic mis- sion. The quality of a Muslim’s faith and the measure of respect he holds for the Prophet(saw) cannot be legally defined. Conversely, an unbeliever can neither be forced to embrace Islam nor to honour its Prophet(saw) at gunpoint. This is why God has prescribed no punishment for irtidad or sabb in this world. Despite the disparaging words uttered by Abdullah b.Ubayy at the watering-hole of Al-Muraysi, the Holy Prophet(saw) did not punish him. The punishment of these two offences is easily exploited by politically orientated ullema who would debase religious causes by using them for materialist purposes and exploit religious belief for their own ends. 14 At the moment, Deobandi Ahli Hadith ulema are accusing the Ahmadis of disparaging the Prophet(saw). Little do they realise that in doing so they have created the means of their own destruction. In comparison with mainstream Sunnis, who constitute the majority of Muslims in the subcontinent, 15 Turkey, and many other Muslim countries, the Deobandis/Ahli Hadith and the followers of the Najdi reformer Abdul Wahhab are in a minority throughout the Muslim world (except in Nejd). They are accused of belittling the Prophet(saw). The Deobandi/ Wahhabi ulema consider the mainstream Sunnis to be kafir for attributing to the Prophet(saw) qualities which, to say the least, are polytheist. For instance, they say that his body did not cast a shadow MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 23The Review of Religions – August 2006 because he was filled with light. When Meauud-i-Sherif, popu- larised by the Turkish poet Suleyman Chelebi of Busra (1410), is concluded with ya Nabi Salam Alaika (peace be with you), the Prophet’s(saw) soul is present at the event, and, therefore, everyone attending should stand to show respect. In the same manner, praying at his tomb, kissing the grillework surrounding it and many other such beliefs and practices of the Sunnis/Brelvis are shirk according to Deobandis. The Wahhabis, having demolished the historical graveyard of Jannat ul- Baqi, wished to destroy even the dome of the Prophet’s(saw) mosque and were prevented from doing so only by the strong reaction in the Muslim world. For these acts of destruction of graves, tombs and domes, Sunnis all over the world accuse the Wahhabis of denigrating and belittling the Holy Prophet(saw). The Barelvis consider that it was the Deoband scholars Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautwi and Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi, who did not believe in Khatm-i- nabuwatt. In a booklet, Deobandi Maulwiyon Ka Iman, Maulana Abdul Mustafa Abu Yahya Muhammad Muinuddin Shafi ‘i Qadri Rizvi Thanwi writes: ‘O Muslims! Look how this accursed, unholy, satanic assertion has destroyed the very basis of Khatm-i- nabuwatt . . . . See that Maulwi Qasim Nanautwi does not believe in Khatm-i- nabuwatt, while Maulwi Rashid Ahmad,Maulwi Khalil Ahmad and other Wahhabi ulema have declared those who reject Khatm-i-nabuwatt as kafir.’ 16 Barelvi-Deobandi polemics – all in the name of protecting the Holy Prophet(saw), the very paragon of modesty – have reached such vulgarity that even the mildest examples are offensive. Shourish Kashmiri, a supporter of the Deobandi school, said in his pamphlet ‘Kafir saz Mulla’ that anyone who declares the great leader of Deoband as kafir (unbeliever) is a liar. In the same pamphlet he said that the Barelvi ulema sell religion and the Sharia of the Prophet(saw) to make a living, that they are the born slaves of Lord Clive’s household, the enemies of the Muslim League and Qaid-i-Azam Jinnah. In another MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 24 The Review of Religions – August 2006 pamphlet, he said that these people were even lower than a brick in Maulana Husain Ahmad’s and Syed Ataullah Shah Bukhari’s lavatory16. The Barelvi reply to these abusive charges was tasteless. They said that the man slandering them and the Holy Prophet(saw) had spent his life wandering the red-light districts. ‘The man who called Nehru a prophet is now accusing us of selling the Shari’a of the Prophet(saw), they cried. ‘Why shouldn’t Muhammad Qasim Nanautwi be called a kafir and how can we accept Ashraf Ali Thanwi as a Muslim? Aren’t they the men who said the door of prophet hood was open? Aren’t they the pathfinders of the Qadiyanis? Who has taught you how to denigrate Mustafa? Who has taught you unbelief/ You have taken your clothes off, have you no sense of decency or modesty? You have created disorder under the name of khatm-i-nabuwwat and spread mischief under the name of peace. You are collecting money under the name of nabuwwat and begging under the name of the Prophet(saw): Another poet, Sayyad Muhammad Tanha, said: ‘How can you appreciate the high status of Ahmad Raza? Go and smell the stinking underpants of Hindus. Gold is your prophet, gold is your God You belong to the party of those who show you gold You have spent all your life with Kufr How can you, a Khatri Hindu by caste, join Islam? O Nimrod, how can you glorify Allah? Your place is with Hindus, go there and praise there the name of Hari, Hari.’18 Compare the language, the style and the contents of this Barelvi attack on Deobandi ulema with the tirade of Deobandi scholars against Ahmadis: 1. Ahmadis deny khatm-i- nabuwwat; 2. Ahmadis denigrate the Holy Prophet(saw) 3. Ahmadis created British imperialism in India; 4. Ahmadis opposed the creation of Pakistan; 5. Ahmadis are opposed to jihad; MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE 6. Ahmadis associate with non- Muslims; 7. Ahmadiyat is a racket in religion’s name. Both the Ahli-Sunnat wal Jama’at (Barelvi) and Deobandi ulema accuse each other of disparaging the Holy Prophet(saw). As we saw earlier, the Jama’ati Islami described the Ahl-i Qur’an as being worse than the Ahmadis. But the Shias have not been spared either – they have been accused of degrading the status of the Holy Prophet(saw) by claiming that Ali shared the prophethood with him. The Canadian scholar, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, who visited the subcontinent and closely observed the Muslim society of India and Pakistan, has accused Muslims of ‘a fanaticism of blazing vehemence’. In his book, Islam in Modem India, he says: ‘Muslims will allow attacks on Allah: there are atheists and atheistic publications and rationalistic societies, but to disparage Muhammad will provoke from even the most liberal sections of the community a fanati- cism of blazing vehemence.19 This is an incorrect assessment of Muslim temperament. Prof. Cantwell Smith has generalised. Actually, it is the Mullahs and the politically orientated leadership which recognised: ‘that the feelings of a Musulman are never more easily aroused and his indignation awakened than over a real or fancied insult to the Holy Prophet.’20 No doubt the rich and the poor, the intellectuals, the uneducated, the pious and impious have always been united in the love of the Prophet(saw) and considered Jana fir-rasul (annihilation in the name of the Prophet(saw)) to be the peak of religious experience. But no Muslim is unmindful that the Holy Prophet’s(saw) highest experience was the miraj, when he, sur- rounded by clouds of angels, soared high into the Divine Presence, where even the angel Gabriel has no access. The power- hungry Muslim leadership forgets that the exhortation ‘Muhammad(saw) is the Messenger of God’ is only the second part of the confession of the Muslim faith. The first is: ‘There is no God but Allah.’ 25 MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE The Review of Religions – August 2006 There is no way to measure love or repect. Lovers and mystics wrote diwans after diwans and finally devoted their lives to trying to express feelings no language could really convey. The mullahs can scan the poem of love, but cannot understand it. It is no mere accident that the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam was named Ghulam Ahmad(as). What an honour! What a status! What a glory! In the following three couplets he answers those who accuse him of disparaging the Holy Prophet(saw) and critics, like Cantwell Smith, who accuse Muslims of being negligent of Allah’s honour: ‘After the love of Allah it is Muhammad’s love which has captivated my heart; If this love be kufr, by God I am a great kafir. 21 My Love! My Benefactor! Let my life be sacrificed in Thy way, For when hath Thou shown indifference in Thy goodness to this slave? 22 If it be the custom that claimants of Thy love be beheaded at Thy threshold, Then let it be known I am the first to claim that reward.’23 The founder(as) of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam has clearly and honestly declared his faith in the supreme authority of the Holy Prophet(saw) as the Khatam-un- nabiyyin. He said: ‘The basis of our religion and the essence of our belief is that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad(saw) is His Prophet. The faith that we follow in this earthly life and the faith in which, by the grace of God, we shall depart from this transitory abode, is that of our Lord and great Master, Muhammad – may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.’ 24 And, again: ‘A superior status, comprising all that is good, belongs to our Lord and Master, Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad(saw) Mustafasa. It is unique to him, it is unapproachable’. 25 The writer of the four quotations given above, Mirza Ghulam 26 MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE The Review of Religions – August 2006 Ahmad(as), and his followers have been declared non-Muslims by Muslims described by Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1875-1938) in the following stanzas of a long Urdu poem: Hands are impotent and nerveless, hearts unfaithful and infidel, The Community a heartbreak to their Prophet and a shame; Gone are the idol-breakers, in their places idol-makers dwell; Abraham their father was: the children merit Azar’s name.26 New and strange the band of drinkers, and their wine is strange and new, A new shrine to house their Ka’aba, new and strange the idols too, Very heavy on your spirits weighs the charge of morning’s prayer; How much more would you prefer sleeping, than rising up to worship me, Ramadan is too oppressive for you tempers free to bear; Tell me now, do you consider that the law of loyalty? Nations come to birth by faith; let faith expire, and nations die So, when gravitation ceases, the thronged stars asunder fly, Why, you are a people utterly bereft of every art; No other nation in the world so lightly spurns its native place; You are like a barn where lightnings nestle, and will not depart; You would sell your fathers’ graveyards, And say that such a thing was right; Making profit out of tombstones has secured you such renown Why not set up shop in idols, if you chance to hunt some down? Loud the cry goes up ‘The Muslims? 27 MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE The Review of Religions – August 2006 They are vanished, lost to view’, Were-echo, ‘Are true Muslims to be found in any place?’ Christian is your mode of living, and your culture is Hindu; Why, such Muslims to the Jews would be a shame and a disgrace. Sure enough, you have your Syeds, Mirzas, Afghans, all the rest; But can you claim that you are Muslims if the truth must be confessed?27 Having claimed that the Muslims of the day would shame even Jews, and that they would even sell their ancestors’ tombstones, the ‘poet, philosopher, political thinker and altogether most eminent figure in Indian Islam of the twentieth century’28 decided to distinguish between Muslims and Ahmadis. So in 1936 he wrote in an open letter to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the leader of the predominantly Hindu Indian National Congress and, later, first prime minister of India, demanding that Ahmadis should be declared a non-Muslim minority. In the constitution of secular India the demand was, of course, ignored. But for the ulema of Deoband it was a matter of life and death. Hindus have occupied Babari Masjid in Ayodhya and converted it under police protection into the Ram Janma Bhoomi temple. Another section of Hindus demand the conversion of Benares and Kashi mosques into temples. Most Hindus are agitating for the abolition of Muslim personal law. . This is what becomes of people who reject prophets of God and men of peace. They stand disunited and bereft of the blessings of the peace they sought to disturb. They breed violence and terrorism. References 1. Munir Commission Report, 258. 2 Maxime Rodinson, Mohammad, trans. Anne Carter (New York, 1971), 194. ‘A tribal poet among the Bedouin,’ as Joel Carmichael puts it, was ‘no mere versifier, but a kindler of battle’, his poems were ‘thought of as the serious beginning of real 28 MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE The Review of Religions – August 2006 warfare’ (The Shaping of the Arabs, a Study in Ethnic Identity, New York, 1967,38). 3. Ibn Hisham, Kitab Sirat Rasul Allah, 995. The English translation is by Anne Carter, given in Rodinson’s Mohammed, op.dt., 157. 4. Ali b. Burhan ud Din ud- Halabi,Insanal-Uyun, vol. n, 116; cited by Kister, The Joumal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. VIll, 267. 5. Ibn Hisham, op.dt., 459. 6. Ibn Hisham, op.cit., 550, this translation by A. Guillaume. 7. ibid., 386. 8. ibid. 9. ibid., 387. 10. ibid., 726. 11. ibid. 12. ibid. 13. Will Durant, The Story of Civilisation, 11 vols. (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1950), vol. IV, The Age of Faith, 30l. 14. Munir Commission Report, 259. 15. In the subcontinent they are generally known as Brelvis. 16. Deobandi Maulwiyon ka Iman (Lyallpur: Shahi Masjid, n.d.). 17. Razakhani Fitna Pardazon ka siyahjhoot. 18. Shah Muhammad Asi and Syed Muhammad Tanha,Shourish ‘uif Bhare ka Tattoo, 7-8. 19. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Modern Islam in India (Lahore, 2nd ed., 1947). 20. Munir Commission Report, 257. 21. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, lzaln- iAwham (Amritsar, 1891), part 1, 176. 22. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, A ‘ina-i- Kamalnt Islam(Qadian, 1893), last page. 23 ibid. 24. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, op.cit., lzaln-i-Awham, 138. 25. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Tawdih- i-Maram (Amritsar, 1308 AH),23. 26. According to the Qur’an, Abraham’s(as) father’s name was Azar, (Adhar) the name given by the Church historian, Eusebius, and not Terah as given in Genesis 11:26; Qur’an, Ch.6.V.75. 27. Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Bang-i- Dara, Jawab-i-Shikwah, stanzas VII, IX, X and XVII, trans. A. 1. Arberry. 28. Aziz Ahmad and GE. Grunebaum (eds.) Muslim Self- Statement in India and Pakistan,1857 – 196B Wiesbaden, 1970), 13. 29 MERCY FOR THE UNIVERSE The Review of Religions – August 2006