4. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY

4. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity ~ 150 ~ 4. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY One of the most cherished dreams of philosophers and thinkers has always been the brotherhood of equality. The Prophet of Islam, however, was the first person to bring about a revolution, which, for the first time in history, actually established equality in practice. This has been generally acknowledged by serious scholars. For instance, in his letter No. 175, Swami Vivekanand wrote that in his experience, “if ever any religion approached to this equality in an appreciable manner, it is Islam and Islam alone.”76 If, throughout history, equality in practice had been the exception to the rule, it was because of the general acceptance of polytheism, which had proved a stumbling block to many other kinds of progress throughout the ages. Whereas the domination of polytheism had perpetuated inequality among human beings, the domination of monotheism now established human equality.