Islam came like a flood of light – it illumined the entire environment. Its
charm so captivated many that they moved into its fold – but those who, for a
variety of reasons, did not enter its fold, were also spell-bound. They could
not help admiring its beauty, splendour and grandeur. They confessed its
greatness and paid tributes to it. Their evidence is important in one respect:
it comes from those who are not within it, from many who have, on the whole,
been rather antagonistic; but they too had to admit its unique features, its
serenity that casts its spell on all and sundry. It is a selection of such
evidence that we now present.

Islam: A Simple, Humanitarian and Attractive Religion

“Islam had the power of peacefully conquering souls by the simplicity of its
theology, the clearness of its dogma and principles, and the definite number of
the practices which it demands. In contrast to Christianity which has been
undergoing continual transformation since its origin, Islam has remained
identical with itself.”
(Jean L’heureux, Etude sur L’Islamisme P.35)

“Two features in the Creed of Islam have always specially attracted me. One is
the God conception, the other is its unquestionable sincerity – a tremendous
asset in human affairs, the religious aspect of them especially. After all,
sincerity is almost divine and like love covers a multitude of sins.”
(Major Arthur Glyn Leonard, Islam – Her Moral and Spiritual Value, London, 1927)

“Sense of justice is one of the most wonderful ideals of Islam, because as I
read in the Qur’an I find those dynamic principles of life, not mystic but
practical ethics for the daily conduct of life suited to the whole world.”
(Sirojini Naidu, Lecture on “The Ideals of Islam vide Speeches and Writings of
Sirojini Naidu, Madras, 1918, P 167)

“The rise of Islam is perhaps the most amazing event in human history. Springing
from a land and a people alike previously negligible, Islam spread within a
century over half the earth, shattering great empires, overthrowing long
established religions, remoulding the souls of races, and building up a whole
new world – the world of Islam…For the first three centuries of its existence
(circ.A.D. 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilised and progressive
portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques, and quiet
universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and
appreciated, the Muslim world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West,
then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages.”
(A.M Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D., The New World of Islam, London 1932, pp1-3)

“There can be no question but that, with its pure monotheism, and a code founded
in the main on justice and humanity, Islam succeeds in raising to a higher level
races sunk in idolatry and fetishism, like those of Central Africa, and that in
some respects, notably in that of temperance, it materially improves the
morality of such peoples.”
(Sir William Muir, Mohamed and Islam, London, 1895 p.246)

Islamic Brotherhood: All Are Equal

“Take away that black man! I can have no discussion with him,” exclaimed the
Christian Archbishop Cyrus when the Arab conquerors had sent a deputation of
their ablest men to discuss terms of surrender of the capital of Egypt, headed
by Negro Ubadah as the ablest of them all.”

“To the sacred archbishop’s astonishment, he was told that this man was
commissioned by General Amr; that the Muslims held Negroes and white men in
equal respect – judging a man by his character and not by his colour.”

“Such a spirit of class distinction is certainly the greatest hindrance to
missionary work in the East, as every impartial observer has noted. How, for
instance, can any other appeal stand against that of the Muslim who, in
approaching the pagan, says to him, however obscure or degraded he may be,
Embrace the faith, and you are at once an equal and a brother.’ Islam knows no
‘colour line’.”
(S.S Leeder, Veiled Mysteries of Egypt, London, 1912,pp.332 – 335)

“The Islamic brotherhood which they proclaimed was a real thing, and a new thing
among Eastern nations. It is doubtful whether Christian Syrians ever felt the
same sense of brotherhood with Christian Persians as Muslim Syrians did with
Muslim Persians.”
(Lawrence E. Browne, The Prospects of Islam, London, 1944, p.12)

“But Islam has yet a further service to render the cause of humanity… No other
society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of
opportunity and of endeavour so many and so various races of mankind. The great
Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small Muslim
community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently
irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the
great societies of the East and the West is to be replaced by co-operation, the
mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition.”
(H.A.R. Gibb. Whither Islam, London, 1932 p. 379)

“But above all—and herein is its supreme importance in the missionary history of
Islam—it ordains a yearly gathering of believers, of all nations and languages,
brought together from all parts of the world, to pray in that sacred place
towards which their faces are set in every hour of private worship in their
distant homes. No stretch of religious genius could have conceived a better
expedient for impressing on the minds of the faithful a sense of their common
life and of brotherhood in the bonds of faith.”

“Besides the institution of the pilgrimage, the payment of the legal alms is
another duty that continually reminds the Muslim that ‘the faithful are
brothers’ (XLIX-10) – religious theory that is very strikingly realised in
Muslim society and seldom fails to express itself in acts of kindness towards
the new convert. Whatever be his race, colour or antecedents he is received into
the brotherhood of believers and takes his place as an equal among equals.”
(T. W. Arnold, The Preaching of Islam, London, 1956, pp. 415-416)

“It was the first religion that preached and practised democracy; for, in the
mosque when the call from the Minaret is sounded and the worshippers are
gathered together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the
peasant and the king kneel side by side and proclaim, “God alone is great”. I
have been struck over and over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that
makes a man distinctively a brother. When you meet an Egyptian, an Algerian, an
Indian and a Turk in London, what matters that Egypt was the motherland of one
and India the motherland of another.”
“The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the
outstanding achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it
happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtues…”

(Sirojini Naidu, Lecture on “The ideals of Islam” vide Speeches and Writings of
Sirojini Naidu, Madras, 1918, p.169)

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