The Moslem Sunrise, October 1922
Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Sadiqra (1872-1957)
Muhammad Eunus Evans
[Muhammad Eunus Evans], an English convert to Islam, joined our faith when Mr Chaudhry FM Sayal first established our mission in England. [He] married our sister Fatima (Miss Penfold) in Southsea in 1920. […]
Muhammad Ali Khan
[Muhammad Ali Khan is a] guide and [an] interpreter. [He is] highly recommended by the Americans helped by him in India.
A few words from some of the testimonials:
“Most excellent guide.” (Mrs George Harrison of Minneapolis, Minnesota)
“He is conscientious, honest and reliable; knows India thoroughly.” (Mrs HW Robison of Los Angeles, California)
“Intelligent and capable. It is with regret that we go on without him to China.” (Francis M Wolcott of Hillcrest Pavilion, NY)
“Anybody is very fortunate who secures him.” (Mrs JW Smith of Fargo, North Dakota)
“A very exceptional man, honest, efficient and thoroughly trustworthy in every way.” (Mr and Mrs M Frankle of Des Moines, Iowa)
“Excellent guide, well-educated and with an extensive knowledge of interesting places in India.” (Charles WG Bond of London)
To the parties who intend to visit India, Burma, Ceylon, Strait Settlements and the countries near there, we recommend Muhammad Ali Khan of Babuzai Street, Shahjehanpur, UP, India, as an experienced, reliable targuman [interpreter]. On getting a cablegram Mr MA Khan will receive the party at Bombay, Colombo or any other desired seaport. Cablegram address: Ahmadi, Shahjehanpur.
The Bible is not the oldest book
Editor of The Times:
“It appears to be a common belief that the Bible is the oldest book in the world. We often hear ministers and Bible teachers make this claim, but history teaches that it is not the oldest.
The Old Testament in its present form was written during a period of about 1400 years and the New Testament was written in less than a century after the death of Christ. Probably Moses wrote one or more of the first books of the Bible, including the Hebrew laws and the commandments, but the laws of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, were written 700 years before Moses was born, and they are to an extent similar to the laws of Moses.
Various books of the Old Testament prove that they are not the oldest by referring to and quoting from other books. Not less than sixteen of these lost books are referred to by name in our Bible. When the author of the book of Joshua wrote that command for the sun to stand still, he says: “Is not this written in the book of Jasher?” Some parts of this book still exist, and the command is an exact copy from it.
Very few, if any, of the books written by the ancient Hebrews have come down to us in their original form. The Hebrews revised their Bible, not only by rewriting the books, but by omitting some of them entirely. Eighteen of their sacred books are omitted from our Old Testament. The Catholic Bible includes some of these books and the Protestant Modern Readers Bible has recently added three of them – Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus.
“The Iliad, written by Homer, the Greek poet, is believed to be older than any of the books of our Bible in their present form. Some of the writings of the ancient Egyptians are many centuries older than those of the Hebrews. The Hebrew race is not the oldest in the world.
History tells us all of the Old Testament books except Daniel and a part of Ezra were first written in the Hebrew language. These two excepted were written in the Aramaic language, which superseded the Hebrew language two or three centuries before Jesus was born. During this period, the sacred books were translated into the Greek language, which also became a dead language early in the Christian era. Jesus and his disciples were Hebrews, but they spoke the Aramaic language. There were no English people at that time, and there was no English language until many centuries later.” (George Branson in Brazil. Indianapolis Times)
Expressions of appreciation
SG Whitecraft, Springfield, Massachusetts [states]:
“You surely will be blessed by Allah for preaching and obeying his Holy Law.”
Miss Gloria Baker, Seattle, [says]:
“Your work is great, for your vision and unfoldment are great. Your words of wisdom are most welcome and your work will be broader in Chicago.”
CF Sievwright [states]:
“I now know of the struggle you have just passed through to bring about the foundation of a Head Centre in Chicago, a more strategic point to evolute all your future work from, than anywhere else in the United States of America, because all roads lead to Chicago which is America’s real hub, for things Mental, Physical, Industrial, Commercial and Political, and what-not. So, I hope the transfer will beget proportionate development in your work. Islam is for eternity and must grow, and you are a sower of the seed thereof, or a planter of its truths and are now in America permitted! So, fight the great fight and glory will be yours is the prayer and loving hopes of your devoted brother – Muhammad Abdul Haqq [CF Sievwright].”
Mrs Pearl Wood [says]:
“The Moslem Sunrise gave me much food for thought and was very interesting. I am sorry that Detroit was not lucky enough to have you make your headquarters here, but Chicago is more centrally located and, of course, more convenient for the work to be done. Surely your accomplishments should inspire others to put forth more effort.”
Mrs Erma T McLouth [states]:
“There are several interesting articles and it is a bright little magazine, which no doubt accomplishes its purpose.”
Miss C [says]:
“I enjoyed The Moslem Sunrise you sent me. It is very interesting. The list of converts has certainly grown. It shows what good work you are doing. It would be lovely to have a large mosque in every big city here.”
Maulvi FR Hakeem, Salt Pond, [states]:
“I am related to you in love.”
Professor Abdul Latif [says]:
“May Allah help you to baptise the soil of America with the fire of the lightning that flashed from the East to the West.” (Cf. Isiah 41-2. Sadiq means ‘Righteous.’ Ed)
Mrs Fatima Ameeruddin, Hove, [states]:
“I am delighted to know that Islam is making such good progress in the States, in fact, all over the world. It means hard work for you, but I always think of two lines I learned as a schoolgirl. ‘We shall pass onward where we are forgotten, only remembered by what we have done.’”
James Sodick [says]:
“The receipt of the first issue of The Moslem Sunrise was surely a delightful event.
“For raising a flag in the name of truth in the land of intellectual bankruptcy; for the ushering forward, with a man’s courage, a ladder for climbing to the level of happiness; for rendering such a service which is intended not only to acquaint but enlighten the people of America within a superior knowledge, and, finally, breaking through the financial difficulties, even depriving yourself of well upkeeps, for the sake of setting a strong foundation of your mission in America for Americans, which I might say represents a singular faith of humanity – I should say nothing less than that you are winning a credit. Congratulations!
“If a statement of our Master Prophet Muhammed[sa] that ‘In the latter days the sun shall rise from the West’ was at its dawn I should not be surprised. Truly, if Western industrial progress was combined with Islamic spiritual progress, the happiness of the human race in both worlds could easily be assured.
Maulvi Mubarik Ali, London, [states]:
“I heartily congratulate you on the wonderful success of your mission in America. You have a magnetism in you which attracts people.”
Significant sayings of the famous men of the day
Reverend Henry C Vedder of Crozer Theological Seminary:
“For several generations, the clergy have been influenced by every bribe this world can offer – hope, honors, wealth, social consideration and by every threat this world can devise – disgrace, persecution, stripes, chains, death – to maintain the infallible correctness of every word contained in the Bible; and as a net result, faith in the Bible has been steadily weakening. Is it not about time to try another policy?”
Reverend EC Lumsden:
“Movies and light fiction are the curse of the modern age.”
Professor Leslie E Fuller:
“Book of Jonah (in the Bible) is a fiction.”
Mr Fred B Smith:
“Hindus, Muhammadans and Buddhists are filling the Far East with descriptions of Western Christianity as a war-loving and war-promoting organization. The East says, ‘Christianity, a cannonball, a submarine and a gas bomb go together.’ The West says, ‘Christ is the Prince of Peace and the Christian church is the instrument to make that doctrine effective throughout the world!’
“But the cold fact is that thus far, Christian teaching has not produced that result even in nations where it has held a preponderance of the people. Passing peace resolutions does not remove this impression, I believe that the Great War has set back by many years what might have been the progress of Christianity in China and India.”
WR Nelson of the Kansas City Star:
“What I want to do is to get in on some of these rich men who go to church with prayerbooks under their arms and never do anything for anybody.”
Canon Isaac Taylor:
“Islam has done more for civilization than Christianity.”
Miles Krumbine:
“The most striking phase of the religious revolution is that there has been steady divorcement of practical social interests from the guiding care of organized Christianity.”
Arthur Brisbane:
“Good missionaries in the East complain that American moving pictures give the heathen a false idea of life among Christians. They say they can’t convert heathen ladies and gentlemen after they have been to movies showing Christians shooting each other, swimming half-naked, etc. There may be something in that.
“Many things in Christian nations more serious than movies would make the heathen pause and think hard.”
(Christian missionaries in the East have always deceived the Easterners as to the fruits of Christianity in the Western world. Ed) Chillicothe Gazette:
“In Christian countries today, suicide is an evidence of weakness.”
EA Robertson:
“Men once thought that the Decalogue was original with Moses, but now we know that practically everything in the Decalogue, with the exception of the religious duties, is to be found in the Code of Hammurabi, which dates from the year 3000 before Christ. So, it is not a fact that each succeeding generation has formulated its own conceptions of right and wrong. Throughout the centuries, men have always seen that certain modes of action bring misery, while others bring joy.”
The National Association of Credit Men at its last convention declared:
“We are in a wave of business dishonesty such as the nation has never before known.” “In a time when the movies and the stage are preaching, ‘happy is the man who commits adultery,’ it needs sometimes a stern prophetic ‘thou shalt not!’ to bring the truth home.”
Reverend Alva W Taylor:
“Jesus proposed a utopia. He was not a practical statesman, but an idealist.”
Harry Wise:
“Bible instruction in the schools is contrary to the fundamentals of American government.
“Church and state must forever be separate and apart. Their work will always be in parallel. It has never failed to prove a calamity when they came together.”
DB MacDonald in his book, The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam, [states]:
“God, Himself, the One, reveals Himself to man, through prophets and otherwise, and man, in prayer, can come directly to God. This is Muhammad’s great glory. The individual soul and its God are face-to-face.”
[…]
Nashville, Tennessee, 20 August 1922:
“The church whose masculine following is decreasing rapidly is bankrupt, and the fault must be attributed largely to the clergy. This is the gist of a flood of severe criticism loosened during the past week against several prominent London ministers. The list of alleged clerical failings is very long. Chiefly, they are effeminate, according to the Reverend BG Bourchier, and the Reverend TP Stevens.
“Mr Bourchier plans to publish a pamphlet containing some of the 350 letters he has received from the younger clergy who agreed with his criticism and added to it. They say the matter with the clergy is:
“Their flabby handshakes, their depressing service, their ‘dearly beloved brethren’ voices and their ‘oh, my dear friends’ manner, their namby-pamby sermons, their weak and feeble personalities.”
(Transcribed by Al Hakam from the original in The Moslem Sunrise, October 1922)