not a people but a warner has gone among them” (35:24). A Jew believes only in the prophets of Israel; a Christian believes in Jesus Christ and, in a lesser degree, in the prophets of Israel; a Buddhist in Buddha; a Zoroastrian in Zoroaster; a Hindu in the prophets who appeared in India; a Confucian in Confucius; but a Muslim believes in all these and in Muḥammad also, the last of the prophets. Islām is, therefore, an all-comprehensive religion within which are included all the religions of the world; and similarly, its sacred Book, the Holy Qur’ān, is spoken of as a combination of all the sacred scriptures of the world: “Pure pages, wherein are (all) right books” (98:2, 3).

There is yet one more characteristic of Islām which gives it a special place among religions. In addition to being the last and an all-inclusive religion, it is the perfect expression of the Divine will. Thus the Holy Qur’ān says: “This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favour to you, and chosen for you Islām as a religion” (5:3). Like every other form of consciousness, the religious consciousness of man has developed slowly and gradually down the ages, and the revelation of the great Truth from on High was thus brought to perfection in Islām. It is to this great truth that the words of Jesus Christ allude: “I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you unto all truth” (Jn. 16:12, 13). Thus it is the great mission of Islām to bring about peace in the world by establishing a brotherhood of all the religions, to bring together all the religious truths contained in previous religions, to correct their errors and sift the true from the false, to preach the eternal verities which had not been preached before on account of the special circumstances of any race or society in the early stages of its development and, last of all, to meet all the moral and spiritual requirements of an ever-advancing humanity.

New meaning introduced into religion

With the advent of Islām, the concept of religion received a new significance. Firstly, it is to be treated not as a dogma, which a man must accept if he must escape everlasting damnation, but as a science based on the universal experience of humanity. It is not a