C. G. Pfander, D. D

You have to choose between the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and Muhammad ibn 'Abdu'll&h : between Him who went about doing good and him who is called the Prophet with the Sword : between Him who said, "Love¹ your enemies," and him who said, " Slay ² your enemies and the enemies of God " : between Him who prayed ³ for His murderers, and him who caused those who lampooned him to be murdered. You are doubtless aware of what kind were Christ's life and character, and you know that these form one of the most decisive of the proofs of the truth of His claims. " The Sun has come as the proof of the Sun : if thou seekest the proof of Him, turn not thy face from Him." On the other hand, you have seen what Muslim writers tell us of the life and character of Muhammad. You must now judge for yourself whether these were so very far superior to Christ's that you are justified in rejecting Christ, and entrusting your eternal salvation to Muhammad instead of to Him. You are aware that the Bible, the Word of God (¿if teaches us that, in accordance with

¹ Matt. v. 44. ² Rauzatus Safd, vol. ii, p. 164.

³ Luke xxiii. 34.

prophecy, Christ laid down His precious life for sinners and made atonement for our sins, whereas Muhammad died a natural death, and did not even claim to die for other men's sins. According to His own promise and the testimony of His disciples, Christ rose again the third day from the dead, and thereby proved that He had overcome¹ death. The grave and death still hold Muhammad.

At Medinah, between the tombs in which lie the bodies of Muhammad and Abti Bakr, there may be seen an empty grave, which Muslims call " The grave of our Lord Jesus, the Son of Mary". It has never been occupied. Its emptiness reminds the pilgrim that Christ is alive? while Muhammad is dead. Which of the two is the better able to help you ? You have been taught to pray to God on behalf of Muhammad, so that you doubtless believe that he needs your prayers instead of being able to aid you. You believe that Christ will come again, and are now expecting His return with fear. We Christians too await His Second Advent with hope and joy, knowing that His own promise³ and that of His * angels will be fulfilled. We look and long for the time when the words of the Apostle shall receive their fulfilment: "⁶Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him ; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him." Hence it is that, as that glorious day draws nearer and nearer, we are the more zealous to obey His parting command ⁸ and to proclaim the Good News to all creation. Our time here on earth is short, and yours may not be long. Hence, as dying men to dying men, we call upon you to turn to the Living God, the Holy, the Just, the Merciful. We pray you to accept into your inmost hearts Him who is the Light of the World,⁷ so that

during this life you may walk in the light of God's truth, and escape the snares and deceits of the Devil and the chains and slavery of sin, and finally may not be ashamed before Christ at His coming to judge the world ¹ in righteousness. For "²we must all be made manifest before the judgement-seat of Christ". To Him has been given "the Name³ which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". Some day you must kneel before Him ; why not now ?

We bring you the good news of His love, which led Him to lay down His life for you, who as yet do not believe in Him, as truly as for those⁴ who have already become His disciples. He now offers you freely the gift⁵ of salvation, the assurance of God's forgiveness and grace to serve Him in newness of life, and finally a place in the many mansions⁹ in God's immediate presence in the Heavenly Places, into which nothing that defiles ⁷ can enter.

Pray therefore, my brother, that God may guide you aright and lead you to a right decision in this great matter ere it is too late. Thus you will be on God's side in the great contest between truth and falsehood, right and wrong. So shall you find the Truth in Him who is the Way,⁸ the Truth and the Life : and, having here walked daily with Him and received into your heart that peace which the world cannot give, being freed from the fear of death and hell, you will be able to look forward with gladness to a glorious Resurrection. And when He comes again to judge the world in righteousness, you shall receive from His pierced hand the crown of everlasting life.

• John xiv. 3. John xiv. 6.

o

LIGHT OF LIFE

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BOOKS AND CASSETTES FOR SERVANTS OF THE LORD AMONG MUSLIMS

BOOKS

Abd Al-Masih WHO IS ALLAH IN ISLAM? Pfander THE BALANCE OF TRUTH

(Mizaan-Ul-Haqq)

A Servant CHRISTIAN WITNESS Of The Lord AMONG MUSLIMS

Tisdal! CHRISTIAN REPLY TO

MUSLIM OBJECTIONS

Abd Al-Masih WHY IS IT DIFFICULT FOR A MUSLIM TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN?

CASSETTES

Dr. Thomas SIN AND ATONEMENT

Dr. Thomas MYSTICISM IN ISLAM

Dr. Thomas ESCHATOLOGY IN ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY

Dr. Thomas THE ASCENSION OF

CHRIST AND HIS RETURN IN ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY

Dr. Thomas MISSIONARY DIALOGUE

L. B. Hamadeh THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

³ See Mishkatu'l Mas&bih, Bab i, fasl iii. 1, and Bab xxv, fasl i. 1.

I. With regard to matrimonial affairs : in SOrah iv. 3 the rule is laid down that each Muslim may have one or two or three or four wives at a time, " or what your right hands possess." A1 Baiz&wi explains the latter phrase as meaning concubines or slave-girls (<¿1^-)- This verse sanctions polygamy and servile concubinage among Muslims for all time, rendering permanent the many evils thereby caused, of which Muslim lands are

1 Vide Sfirah ii. 107, and Baizawi's note.

¹ Sflrahs iii. 68, 109, 198; iv. 157 ; xxix. 45, &c., &c.

1 Ar Razi, vol. v, pp. 28, 29.

1* Baiziwi, edition printed at Leipzig in a. d. 1846, p. 424.

2 Jalal&n, Part i, p. 205.

1 Vol. 1, p. 259. * ^iilT vliSOl.

' Vol. i, p. 625. He also gives another explanation, which he does not accept, according to which the Zabiir denotes the inspired books

1 Vide Joshua Ben Sirach's grandson's Preface to his grandfather's Proverbs.

d 2

1 Vol. i, p. 78. ² Vol. i, pp. 636, 637.

1 Izharu'l Haqq, p. 166.

1 Mishkat, pp. 185 sqq.

1 He records it, but does not adopt it. In De Doctrina Christiana,

1lib. ii, cap. 15, he seems to favour the numbers in the LXX, but in De Civitale Dei, lib. xv, capp. ro, n, 13, he decides in favour of the Hebrew text on this point. ² Vol. i. p. 78.

1 In another edition of Baizawi, vol. i, pp. 104, 105.

2¹ Vol. i, p. 143.

3Other various readings in the Qur'an will meet us as we proceed in the present Treatise.

1 For the account of the revision of the Qur'an under 'Uthman the Khalifah, see Mishkdlul Masdbih, pp. 185, 186. There we are told that, after the revision, he ordered every sheet and volume of the older form of the Quran to be burnt, except Hafsah's copy. But MarwSn, when he was governor of Medinah, burnt that also.

1 Sfirahs ii. 130 (Baizawf explains " what was sent down to

Abraham", &c., as iii. 78; iv. 161. Compare also the mention of God's " Books" (^-Jfj) in Sfirah ii. 285 and elsewhere; also Sfirah lxxxvii. 19 .. 4..«° I („¿s-«.

1 The Qur'in tells us (Sfirah iii. 109, no) that in Muhammad's time there existed among the People of the Book some good men who used to recite the Book at night. Hence* it is clear (1) that these righteous men would not have allowed it to be corrupted; (2) that the Book then existed; (3) that it was known and recited.

1 See Part III, ch. vii.

1Part I, ch. i.

1Matt. v. 17; xxi. 42; xxvi. 54; Mark xii. 24; Luke xxiv. 27, 45 ; John v. 39, &c., &c.

1Num. xxxvi. 13; Deut. xxxi. 1-8.

1³ Lev. xviii. 24-30; Deut. ix. 4, 5; xviii. 9-14.

5. 
   2Gen. xiii. 14-17. ⁴ Sfirah ii, ver. 248.
   

6. 
   3Cf. Sflrah ii, ver. 252. « Cf. Sflrah vi, ver. 85.
   

1 Compare Sfirahs xxi. 91 and lxvi. 12.

1 See Sflrahs xx. 119; ii. 33, 34; lxx. 29; vi. 76, 77, 78; xiv.

242; xxviii. 14, 15; xxvi. 19; vii. 150; xii. 24; xxxviii. 23, 24, 34; xxxvii. 139-144, &c. [Adam, Noah, Abraham, are by Muslims called Prophets].

1 See also Sftrah iii. 43.

1 See Chapter V of this Second Part of our Treatise.

1 In proof of this, see the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and also the Confessions of the Reformed Churches [in Augusti's Corpus Lihrorum Symbolicorum\

^ Sfirah lxxxv. 14: see also Mishkdtiil Masdbih, Book "On the Names of God", § ii, pp. 191, 192.

1 Mosheim, Reid's ed., pp. 160, 161.]

2^a Hase, Kirchengcschichte, p. 104.]

3 Hippolytus, Philosophumena, ed. Miller, Oxford, 1851, pp. 95- 105.]

4[⁴ Article in Encyclopaedia Brilannica, by Dr. Ginsburg: largely from the Aramaic work Zohar: vide also Dr. Kalisch's edition of the Sepher Yesirdh!\

1 See instances in The Noble Eightfold Path, pp. 172, 173.] Analects, Bk. XI], ch. ii; Bk. XV, ch. xxiii; Great Learning, ch. x, § 2.

2' Doctrine of the Mean, ch. xiii, § 4. [I owe these quotations to Mr. Stanley Smith of Tsechowfu, China.]

3O

^ Ibn Athtr, vol. ii, p. 84.

1 Notice this as of supreme importance as a complete refutation of the Muslim argument. Compare Sftrah vii. 63, 71, 83 (where to 'Ad, Thamfld, and Madyan are sent Hfid, Salih, and Shu'aib, each being called " their brother", though each addresses those to whom he is sent as "My people "): cf. Sfirah vii. 57 : also Sflrah xi. 27, 30, 52, 64> 85; and Sflrah xxvi. 105, 106; 123, 124; 141, 142; 176, 177.

1 Tdrikhu'l Kkula/d (»Ulsjl ^U), printed at the Muhammadi Press, Lahore, Panjab, a. h. 1304, p. 66.

2* Futdhu'sh Sh&m (^LliT printed at the Nawal Kish6r Press,

Kanpflr, a.h. 1287, p. 5.

1¹ Ardta stellar is.

2¹ In the Rauzalu's Safd (vol. ii, p. 164) we are told that, before

1Mishkdt, p. 185. Bukhâiî derived his information from Anas ibn Mâlik.

2Sûrah xxxiii.

1 Ibn Khaldun, vol. ii, p. 391.

2^J Ibid., vol. i, pp. 171, 172.

1Other imperfections are pointed out in the Mandru'l Haqq, Arabic ed., Oxford University Press, a.d. 1894, pp. 14-16.