India, Its Life and ThoughtJones, John P. (John Peter)
Religion
India, Its Life and Thought
Jones, John P. (John Peter)
India -- Civilization; India -- Religion; Missions -- India
And yet let it not be supposed that Islam in India is either dead or
moribund. It is evidently sensible of its defects and has made, from
time to time, efforts to reform itself.
Under the stress of circumstances and the sense of waning power they
have even translated the Quran into Urdu, with a view to reaching the
common people. This is an unique effort on their part. Like Romanists,
in the use of the Latin service, the Mohammedans cling, with deathly
tenacity, to their Arabic bible and Arabic worship, foolishly
believing that to vernacularize their faith is to degrade and corrupt
it. In Madura, where there is a mosque of some pretension, there are
only two or three who can pronounce their Arabic Quran. And while they
have learned to pronounce, in the ancient tongue, their beloved book,
they do not understand the meaning of what they say, and merely parrot
the whole ritual. But a break has been made from this inane method of
worship, and their holy book has now been translated into one
vernacular of India.
Islam has also revealed definite redeeming qualities which seem
distinctive and are worthy of enumeration.
Its prohibition of the use of intoxicating drinks is definite, and its
attitude toward that accursed habit has been consistently and
vehemently antagonistic. Hence, the Mohammedan of India is recognized
as a sober man, faithful to his religion in this matter wherein the
Christian reveals so much weakness. It is true that in some parts of
the country Mussulmans are too often addicted to the use of opiates.
But a drunken member of this faith is rarely to be found. In this,
Islam has joined forces with Hinduism itself in proscribing a habit
which is the curse and ruin of too many Christian lands. And it is a
distinct blot upon the Christian Church in India that many of its
followers, in this land of sobriety and abstinence, so easily fall
into the temptation of the cup and become the victims of intemperance.
Islam also enforces the law of usury among its followers. With the
Jew, the Mohammedan has been strictly forbidden to make money by the
use of money. And though they find ways of evading this law, to some
extent, the ideal which they have before them is a restraint and a
blessing in a land where the usurer is a ubiquitous curse, because of
his rapacity and the expertness with which he draws the common people
into his net and leads millions to financial loss and ruin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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