Prophetic Guidance for the Modern Age

realities, I was able to come to the conclusion that Marxism as a philosophy was entirely baseless. After a detailed study of the subject, I wrote a book titled: Marxism Tarikh jis ko rad kar chuki (Marxism rejected by history), which was published in 1959 by Maktaba Islami, Rampur. Today everyone is aware that the charm of Marxism has evaporated, so that it is difficult to find as many as two individuals who receive from Marx such intellectual nourishment as will bolster confidence and conviction. Next comes the turn of religion. What is religion? Religion in its reality is the name of that knowledge which has come directly from God. Knowledge has been divided into two categories in the Quran ­experimental knowledge and revealed knowledge: Bring me a Book revealed before this or some other vestige of knowledge, if you are telling the truth. (The Quran, 46:4). In principle it is true that religion is the source of truth and can bestow upon man the blessing of conviction. But here a historical reality has come in between men and religion. That is, none of these existing religions are historically credible. There are about one dozen major religions in the world, there being also countless minor religions. But there is no historical evidence to support their reliability or credibility. Furthermore, the revealed scriptures of these religions have been marred by human interpolation. This is a proven fact. There are many contradictions in their assertions. Purely academically, it is difficult to separate the human and the divine world. When the image of religion was distorted by human additions, God sent His Last Messenger in order that he might put an end to discrepancies and tell man the truth. This is the reality that has been pointed out in the Quran: We have only sent down the Book to you so that you can make clear to them that concerning which they differ, and as a guidance and a mercy to people who believe. (The Quran, 16:64). The divine book given to the Prophet is a perfectly preserved book. As such, it serves as a reliable source of divine guidance and confers upon its readers the blessing of conviction that they have been seeking all along. Confidence and conviction are essential for the building of life in this world. One highly important point in the construction of a healthy human society is that human beings should learn the exact nature of man and woman. In the present age of freedom, there has been a growing belief that men and women are equal in every respect. In fact, modern society is adhering more and more to the principle that both should play an equal part without any discrimination in all social activities. But the pursuit of such a course has destabilized human relationships to the point of throwing all social departments into disarray. The result is that in present times, despite extraordinary