We continue knowing important information about Quran from the treatise “INTRODUCTION T O THE STUDY OF THE HOLY QURAN” by Mirza Mahmood Ahmad, the son of PromisedMessiahImamMahdi. This he wrote when English translation of Quran was being launched by Ahmadia- a peaceful community in Islam.
alislam.org/books/invitation/arg5.html
Please read my previous post on this thread:
"The Founders of religions did not possess those
powers and accomplishments which ordinarily make for
successful leadership. They knew little or nothing of the arts
or culture of their time. Yet what each taught turned out to
be something in advance of his time, something pertinent and
seasonable. By adopting this teaching a people attained to a
great height in civilization and culture, and retained the glory
for many centuries.
A true religious Teacher makes this
possible. Yet it is inconceivable that a person innocent of
ordinary accomplishments, as soon as he begins to lie about
God, should come to have such tremendous powers that his
teaching dominates all other teachings current in his time.
Such a development is impossible without the help of a powerful
God.
REVEALED TEACHINGS ALWAYS AGAINST CURRENT IDEAS
Fourthly, when we consider what these Founders of religions
taught, we find that it has always been contrary to all contemporary trends. If this teaching had been in line with the
tendencies of their times, it could be said that these Teachers
only gave expression to those tendencies. Instead, what they
taught was very different from anything they found current.
A terrible controversy ensued and it seemed as though the
country had been set ablaze. Yet those who chose to deny
and controvert the teaching were ultimately themselves com-
pelled to submit to it.
This also proves that these Teachers
were not a product of their times, but were Teachers, Reformers
and Prophets in the sense in which they claimed to be.
In the time of Moses, how novel must have seemed his
teaching about One God. When Jesus confronted in his time
a materialism born of the worldliness of the Jews and of the
vicious influence of Rome, how peculiar must have appeared
his stress on the spirit ? How out of place must have been his
Message of forgiveness to a people who trembled under the
tyranny of Roman soldiers, groaning all the while for legitimate
vengeance ?
How out of time must have appeared Krishna
who taught war, on the one hand, and, on the other, a withdrawal from the material world in order to cultivate the spirit.
The Zoroastrian teaching, embracing all aspects of human life,
must also have come as a shock to the licentiousness of that
time.
The Holy Prophet appeared in Arabia and addressed
himself to Jews and Christians. How strange it must have
appeared to those who believed that there was to be no teaching
outside their own ! Then he taught the Meccan idolaters
that God was One, and that all men were equal. How peculiar
must his teaching have seemed to a people who believed
intensely in the superiority of their own race !
T o teach
hardened drunkards and gamblers the evils of their ways, to
criticize almost everything they believed or did, to give them
a new teaching and then to succeed seems impossible. It is
like being able to swim up-stream against a current rushing with
tremendous force. It is utterly beyond human capacity.
Fifthly, the Founders of religions have all shown Signs and
miracles. Every one of them announced at the outset that his
teaching would prevail and that those who might seek to destroy
it would themselves be destroyed. They were without means
and ill-equipped. Their teachings were contrary to firmly-
established beliefs and habits of thinking and provoked the
fiercest opposition of their people. Yet they succeeded, and
what they had foretold came to pass.
Why were their pro-
phecies and their promises fulfilled ? No doubt there have
been others, generals and dictators, who have attained to
apparently similar success. But it is not success which is in
point. It is success which is foretold, which is attributed to
God from the beginning, success on which is staked the
Prophet’s whole moral reputation and which is achieved in
spite of the worst opposition.
Napoleon, Hitler and Chingiz
Khan rose high from humble positions. But they did not set
themselves against any thought-current of their time. Nor
did they declare that God had promised them victory in spite
of opposition. Nor did they have to confront any wide-spread
opposition. The ends they set out to achieve were adored by
most of their contemporaries, who perhaps proposed different
methods but not different ends. If they suffered defeat,
they lost nothing. They still stood high in their peoples’
esteem, and feared nothing."
Unquote
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