has cast the fullest light on all religious questions.

The Holy Qur’ān as guardian and judge of previous revelation

Besides bringing revelation to perfection and making plain what was obscure in the previous scriptures, the Holy Qur’ān claims to be a guardian over those scriptures, guarding the original teachings of the prophets of God, and a judge deciding the differences between them. Thus after speaking of the Torah and the Gospel (5:44, 47), it says: “And We have revealed to thee the Book with the truth, verifying that which is before it of the book and a guardian over it” (5:48). It is elsewhere pointed out in the Holy Qur’ān that the teachings of the earlier scriptures had undergone alterations, and therefore only a revelation from God could separate the pure Divine teaching from the mass of error which had grown around it. This the Holy Qur’ān did, and hence it is called a guardian over the earlier scriptures. As for its authority as a judge, we are told: “We certainly sent messengers to nations before thee … And We have not revealed to thee the Book except that thou mayest make clear to them that wherein they differ” (16:63, 64). Religious differences had grown to a large extent. All religions were from God, yet they all denounced one another as leading man to perdition; and their basic doctrines had come to differ from one another to such an extent that it had become simply unthinkable that they could have proceeded from the same Divine source; till the Holy Qur’ān pointed out the common ground, namely, the Unity of God, and the universality of revelation.

Defects of earlier scriptures removed

There is much that is common to the Holy Qur’ān and the previous scriptures, especially the Bible. The Holy Qur’ān has repeatedly declared that the basic principles of all religions were the same, only the details differing according to the time and the stage of a people’s development. All these principles in a more developed form are taught by the Holy Qur’ān, and occasionally lessons have been drawn from previous history. But the remarkable thing is that, both in its discussion of religious principles and in its references to history, the Holy Qur’ān has done away with the defects of the earlier books. Take, for example, the Bible. It mentions many incidents which, so far from