CRITIC'S HERO

if it is said that these are the words of a devoted believer about his beloved, then let us hear what a sympathetic christian critic had to say about his "hero prophet!"

"a poor, hard-toiling, ill-provided man; careless of what vulgar men toil for. not a bad man, i should say; something better in him than hunger of any sort, — or these wild arab men, fighting and jostling three-and-twenty years at his hand, in close contact with him always, would not have reverenced him so!

"... they called him prophet, you say? why, he stood there face to face with them; bare. not enshrined in any mystery; visibly clouting his own cloak, cobbling his own shoes; fighting, counselling, ordering in the midst of them: they must have seen what kind of a man he was, let him be called what you like! no emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting. during three-and-twenty years of rough acutal trial i find something of a veritable hero necessary for that, of itself."

"hero and hero-worship" by thomas carlyle, page 93

(holy bible) john 16:13

it is very easy for the followers of any religion to talk glibly about "the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man" but how is this beautiful idea to be implemented? how to devise a system to bring mankind into a single brotherhood? five times a day, every muslim is obligated to gather together at the local mosque to strengthen himself spiritually. the black and the white; the rich and the poor; people of different nationalities, of varying hues are made to rub shoulders in the daily salaat, the muslim at prayer. once a week, that is on fridays, he has to congregate at the cathedral mosque (the jaame musjid) for a wider gathering from the surrounding districts. and twice a year during the two eids at still a larger venue, preferably in the open air, for a vaster communion. a-n-d, at least once in a life-time at the kaaba, the central mosque in makkah, for an international gathering; where one can witness the blonde-haired turk, the ethiopian, the chinese, the indian, the american and the african, all get levelled-up in the same pilgrim's garb of two unsewn sheets. where is there such a great leveller in the religious rites of other faiths?

the infallible precept as enunciated in the book of god is that the only standard recognised by god is on the basis of one's conduct, one's behaviour towards one's fellow human beings and not because of one's race or riches. these are the only true bases on which the "kingdom of god" can be established. all this does not mean that the muslim is immaculate, that he is altogether free from this sickness of racism, but you will find the muslim the least racist of all the religious groupings strutting the world today.