Pope, purdah and who holds the key to global peace (1925)

Pope and purdah

It is gratifying to note that under the instructions of the Pope, it is announced “that no woman will be admitted to the sacraments, to confession, or to the nuptial benediction, nor may she act as godmother at baptisms and confirmations, unless her dress conforms to the following rules:

(a) Dresses for adults must descend to just above the feet; children and young girls must have their knees covered. The material must, in no case, be transparent.

(b) Round the neck, not more than two fingerbreadths may remain uncovered.

(c) Sleeves must reach below the elbow.

“A note urges Christian dressmakers and milliners to stand firm against the dictates of fashion. Mothers who allow their young daughters to follow immodest fashions will be refused the sacraments, even though their own attire is not such as to bring them under the ban.

“At Viareggio, Italy’s most fashionable seaside resort, members of a Catholic Association, wearing a badge of office, are stationed at the church doors and ladies whose appearance meets with their disapproval are firmly refused admittance.”

It is understood that inadequate bathing costumes will shortly form the subject of a separate crusade. A covert sympathy with the Pope’s views is indeed noticeable in the press and approval is expressed of a movement among some ladies of the Roman aristocracy for a return to modest fashions.

Reconciliation and harmony

“Every time we indulge in sneers or ridicule, we widen the gap between ourselves and our opponents and make it more difficult to win them over. Not only that, but such indulgence tends to darken our own vision and alienate us from the truth, which cannot be seen clearly in anger or in the spirit which produces sneers. These lapses put off the day of salvation. We make ‘fighting speeches,’ thinking that we are fighting in the cause of righteousness, whereas, in fact, we are indulging our weakness and helping to prolong the day of poverty and oppression. Oh, that we could always bear this in mind and learn to control ourselves in the interests of those we seek to serve! Aye, and in the interests of those who disagree with us. For, unless we have faith that they too, in some way not understood by us, are seeking the Kingdom that we seek, how can we ever hope to win them, or why try to reason with them?” – Brotherhood

America indebted to Prophet Muhammad^sa

Today, when America is seriously considering its naval strength, it is interesting to read the words of a learnt Christian writer. He refers to the great scientific knowledge of the Muslim nations and points out that we owe our maritime discoveries to them. I [Khalid Sheldrake] will quote his words:

“It would not be too much to say that it is to the example of the Saracens (Muslims) we are indebted for the progress of maritime discovery; since Spain and Portugal, whence the expeditions sailed that discovered America and the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, had learnt the art of navigation from their Saracenic masters.”

I would further quote him on the subject of commerce. America, the great nation of the West, with its true democratic principles, is reaping today the benefit of a great change brought about by the advent of Islam, although this fact is carefully hidden by the churches of the West. I prefer to use his words, those of a Christian, as I know it would be considered better evidence than the remarks of a Muslim, who might possibly be regarded as biased. Dr W Cooke Taylor (LLD) says:

“The feudal system, which so long was the disgrace and bane of Europe, had no place among the Saracens; whilst throughout Christendom, honest industry was regarded as the sign of subjection and trade esteemed disgraceful, the Arabs gave every encouragement to labour and commerce. The countries that they subdued were long after free from the fatal influence of feudalism; it had never penetrated into Corsica; it was unknown in Sardinia, Sicily and Lower Italy until after the expulsion of the Moors. In consequence of the protection and patronage granted to industry by the Saracenic monarchs, especially in Spain, agriculture and manufactures flourished and commercial communications were formed, which extended from the extreme east of Asia to the extreme west of Europe. The few manufacturers which still exist in Spain are those that the Moors established.”

As to the administration of justice, he says:

“In the Byzantine and Persian Empires, justice was openly bought and sold; corruption was not merely tolerated, but avowed; bribes were offered and accepted in public. On the contrary, the Saracens established a rigid administration of law and so strict was their system of criminal justice that the sovereign, for many years, had not the power of pardoning a man whom the judges had condemned.”

Western people should know the fountainhead of the civilisation of which all are so proud today. The Muslims were the teachers of the world and their wonderful progress came with the wonderful inspiration given to mankind through the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace. Islam stands for progress and I appeal to all to study the Holy Quran. – Khalid Sheldrake

The Muslim Prayer

In our country, people generally laugh when they see a Muslim saying his prayers. For them, the act of bowing and prostrating of a Muslim is a veritable source of derisive mockery.

But does not a Christian reverend say, “We bow down before Thee in the dust”? What he professes by his tongue, a Muslim translates into action. His heart and body both bow down before his Creator because the soul and body both owe obligations to God and both discharge them by bowing down in humility and supplication.

Those people who mock the Muslim mode of worship would surely laugh to scorn the Christian way of praying also if they happened to enter a church and see women sitting in their chairs with their eyes closed and hands folded and men standing holding their hats in their hands.

Now, what is the object of prayer? To send up our requests to God and to express our misery is not the highest aim of Islamic prayer. The real purpose of prayer is to give utterance to our feelings of gratitude to the Supreme Being and to seek and establish a right relation with Him.

If one studies the Islamic prayer from beginning to end, one will see that it consists of four parts. The exaltation and glorification of God, the expression of man’s gratefulness for the manifold divine favours bestowed upon him, the invoking of the blessings of God upon the Holy Prophet, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude which can never be fully paid and the admission and acknowledgement of one’s own shortcomings, failures and inadequacy to fulfil the object of his creation.

Hence, we see that a person who says his prayers regularly and in a manner prescribed by the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, is purged of the dross of sin and his heart is so irresistibly drawn towards his Creator that he gradually establishes such a firm relation with Him that he loses himself in Him and this is the object of man’s creation. – Miss Budd

Universal peace

After several centuries of struggle between the Cross and the Crescent, Jerusalem has again come under the domination of the former. It is believed that this change has occurred in fulfilment of a prominent prophecy, which runs as follows:

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of the East (the Jews) might be prepared.” (Rev. 16:12)

According to this prophecy, the Christians believed two events to be fulfilled before the establishment of universal peace under the Cross as attending the Second Advent of Jesus. One is the complete dismemberment of the Turkish Empire and the other is the return of the Jews to Jerusalem to be converted to Jesus.

Two hundred years ago, when the Turkish Empire was at the summit of its power, Christians believed that this prophecy would be fulfilled in some way or other when the time came.

When the Crimean War broke out in the year 1853, the Christians held that it was a war which took place in accordance with a prophecy, because it ended in the year 1856 at the close of the Great Period of 2300 days mentioned in Daniel 8:14, which meant the cleansing of the sanctuary of the Holy Land from the Turko-Muhammedan domination. As a result of the treaty that ended the Crimean War, not only were the Great European Powers benefited by slices of Turkish territories, but Turkey also was required to carry out certain reforms and to treat Jews and Christians within the Empire on an equal footing with her Muslim subjects and also to allow them the same civil and religious liberties as well as to grant them equal rights to purchase and hold landed properties. This gave rise to the belief among the Christians that the prophecy of 2300 days had been fulfilled and the prophecy in Revelation 16:12 would soon see its fulfilment.

When Jerusalem was captured by the British in the last great war, the then Prime Minister of England and his colleagues published to the world a New Year message on the fulfilment of this prominent prophecy regarding the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire. These ministers were very jubilant at the success of the Gladstonian policy of “bag and baggage” based on this prophecy. Why was this New Year’s message issued? Because it is the Christian belief that with the dawn of the Millennium and the return of the Jews to Palestine after the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire, the doctrines of the Gospel would be universally diffused and professed, Christian principles would gain a decisive prominence and war also would cease and peace would universally prevail.

Now the Jews have begun to return to Jerusalem, because Palestine is made a National Home for them in fulfilment of the prophecies in the last chapter of Zechariah, as well as in the four previous chapters and also in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel and in the eleventh chapter of Romans. In accordance with this belief, based on the aforesaid prophecies, the method of establishing universal peace by Christianity is now in the course of preparation and is to be submitted before the League of Nations for approval.

An attempt to establish universal peace is a noble thing, but the question is, what will be the result of these human efforts if Jesus does not come down from heaven either in glory or as a thief? All these efforts were in anticipation of Jesus’ Second Advent. If he does not come down from heaven, there will be universal disappointment. There will be on earth no Kingdom of God but only the kingdom of man. According to Christianity, the Millennium is the beginning of the last thousand years. It is mentioned in Revelation 12 that it would commence with the resurrection of the righteous and the Second Advent of Jesus. The ablest prophetic expositors have held that the number of days mentioned in prophecies is really as many years and this view is amply supported by the Bible itself.

Now, the chief thing here is to find out whether the Millennium has dawned or not. If it has, then we have to see if Jesus has appeared, because both events are to occur simultaneously so that the righteous may rise from their graves and reign with Jesus for the last 1000 years. It is so given in 12:4 Revelation.

When we look at the Bible chronology, we find that the 6000 years from Adam had ended in the year 1900 AD and the last 1000 years in the millennium began in 1901.

For the information of the readers, I append here the Bible Chronology of the 6000 years from Adam, which has been compiled by ablest Christian writers after carefully tracing and examining each link in chronological data:

1. From Creation of Adam to the close of Noah’s Deluge (Genesis 5 and 8:13-14) – Years: 1656
2. Close of the Deluge to the call of Abraham to Canaan (Acts 7:6, Genesis 11:10-32, Genesis 12:15) – Years: 427
3. Abraham’s Call to the date of Exodus (Exodus 12:40, Galatians 3:8-17) – Years: 430
4. The Exodus to the Distribution of the land (1 year, Numbers 10:11 to 13:25 and 45 years mentioned in Joshua 14) – Years: 46
5. Dividing of the land to the end of Samuel’s Judgeship (Acts 13:20, Joshua 14) – Years: 450
6. Reigns of the Kings Saul, David and Solomon, 40 years each and Rehoboam 17 years, Abijam 3, Asa 41, Jehoshaphat 25, Jehoram 8, Ahaziah 1, Athaliah 6, Jehovah 40, Amaziah 29, Azariah 52, Jothan 16, Ahaz 16, Hezekiah 29, Manasseh 55, Amon 2, Josiah 31 and Jehoiakim 3 years, when the 70 years of the Captivity of the Jews commenced in the 3^rd or 4^th year of Jehoiakim’s reign according to Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Daniel 1:1. (All these kings’ reigns are given in 1 Kings 11:43 to 2 Kings 25. – Years: 494
7. The 70 years’ captivity from Jehoiakim’s 3^rd or 4^th year until Cyrus’ first year (2 Chronicles 36:21-23, Jeremiah 25:11-12) – Years: 70
8. Cyrus’s first year to the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem in King Artaxerxes Longimanus’s 20^th year (Nehemiah 2, Daniel 9:25) – Years: 82
9. Daniel’s 69 weeks, or 483 years, commencing in Artaxerxes’ Longimanns’ 20^th year BC 445 and reaching “unto Messiah the Prince,” when he rode as a prince into Jerusalem and was “cut off” a few days later AD 32 (Daniel 9:25-26, Nehemiah 2) – Years: 483
10. Total from the Creation of Adam to the Crucifixion of Christ, AD 39 – Years: 4138
11. Add to the rest of this Christian Age or Dispensation 1862 years from AD 39 to 1900-1 – Years: 1862
12. Total from the Creation of Adam to the end of the age AD 1900-1 – Years: 6000

According to this Biblical Chronology, the Millennium dawned 25 years ago. But where is the much-expected Messiah? Where is Our Saviour and Deliverer? When shall the Son of Man descend from heaven in great glory? When shall Jesus Christ come like a thief, as he himself described his second advent? Either the prophecies are false or the Messiah should have come. The prophecies cannot be false, as they have literally been fulfilled.

The Messiah has also come, but not as the Christians expected, because the appearance of the Messengers of God always baffles the expectations of the people. He was the Prophet Ahmad^as of Qadian. In his time were fulfilled the above-mentioned prophecies and many others that are found in the religious scriptures of various faiths about the advent of a Great Reformer in the present time.

The Muslims, like the Christians, expected the advent of Jesus Christ; the Zoroastrians expected Zoroaster to come, the Hindus hoped to see Hinduism regenerated by Krishna and the Buddhists believed that the Buddha would come again. Prophet Ahmad^as combined in his person the power and spirit of all these Messengers of God. It is vain to expect anyone else to appear. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but no Messiah would descend from heaven, because he who was to come has come and he has descended from heaven in the same way in which Christ himself descended from heaven at the time of his first advent. Blessed are they who listen to his voice and do not follow their own desires. – TK Lye

(Transcribed and edited by Al Hakam from the original English, published in the September 1925 issue of The Review of Religions)