The anti-religious movement which has taken root in Russia is based on a misconception as to the nature of Islām. The three chief objections to religion are:
—That religion helps in the maintenance of the present social system, which has borne the fruit of capitalism with the consequent crushing of the aspirations of the poor.
—That it keeps the people subject to superstition and thus hinders the advance of sciences.
—That it teaches them to pray for their needs instead of working for them and thus it makes them indolent.12
So far as Islām is concerned, the facts are entirely contrary to these allegations. It came as the friend of the poor and the destitute, and as a matter of fact it has accomplished an upliftment of the poor to which history affords no parallel. It raised men from the lowest rung of the social ladder to the highest positions of life, it made of slaves not only leaders in thought and intellect but actual kings. Its social system is one of an equality which is quite unthinkable in any other nation or society. It lays down as one of the fundamental principles of religion that the poor have a right in the wealth of the rich, a right exercised through the state which collects annually a fortieth of the wealth amassed by the rich, to be distributed among the poor.
The second allegation that religion discourages the advancement of science and learning is equally devoid of truth. Islām gave an impetus to learning in a country which had never been a seat of learning and was sunk in the depths of superstition. Even as far back as the caliphate of ‘Umar (634-644 A.D.), the Islamic state undertook the education of the masses, while the Muslims carried the torch of learning to every country where they gained political ascendancy; schools, colleges and universities sprang up everywhere as a result of the Muslim conquest. It is no exaggeration to say that it was through Islām that the Renaissance came about in Europe.
The third allegation that religion makes people idle by teaching them to pray is also belied by the history of Islām. Not only does the
12 As summed up in Emotion as the Basis of Civilizations, p. 506.