Content of the Call

with justice and truth and not in self-interest, or in the interests of relations, or out of fear or greed, and who keeps before him the Book of God like a mirror.” Fortunately, this subject has acquired a new significance in the present age, giving rise to the new discipline of thanatology, which makes a scientific study of the subject of death. Not so long ago, discussions regarding death formed the subject matter only of particular kinds of religious books. Suddenly, the topic of death has become exceedingly popular, and has even become a subject for academic specialization. The university of Minnesota takes pride in having established a centre for thanatological studies and the U.C.L.A. has established a laboratory for the study of life endangering circumstances. In gatherings, the subject of death as a topic of conversation has surpassed even the evergreen subjects of sex and politics. A review which appeared in the American monthly, Atlantic, says that thanatology has given us a whole new literary genre. Given these new circumstances, there can be no better way of calling man to accept God than to warn him about death and the Hereafter. The warning about the Hereafter should be considered the central point in Dawah, for that is man’s greatest problem. The fact that man, after death, shall have to face the consequences of his deeds on an eternal time-scale, makes death and the life after death the most vital of issues on which his attention should be fully focussed. Dr. Billy Graham (b. 1918) writes of how a man—one of the richest men in the world—sent him an urgent invitation to come to his home. From the letter of invitation it appeared that no time should be lost. Dr. Graham accepted this invitation and left for his home immediately. After dinner, his host took him aside and said, “While at the moment I am in good health, my age tells me that I do not have long to live. I have never thought much about death before, but now I find my mind preoccupied with it, and the idea frightens me. I need help. I am going to take a fateful leap into