Dhiyaulhaq, The Light of Truth

I begin with the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious

I was born to staunch Catholic Christian parents. Even from my youngest days, my father sometimes took me along with him

when he went to preach, it was quite obvious that he wanted me to succeed him in his profession. By the time I reached grade

twelve, I could preach the Gospels in my own way. In college, I often met my Protestant classmates and discussed the

differences in our faiths and the performance of rituals.

By the time I completed the first year in college, I was sufficiently grounded in the knowledge of the Christian Faith as held

by the Catholic Church. I was given a scholarship from the Church funds and in return for the help I received, I was required

to receive special coaching in understanding parts of the Holy Book, under the Chief Priest of the Church who loved to teach

me very much and was very intimately attached to me.

Having appeared in the first group for my intermediate course I used to sit working at his subjects till late at night. One night

when all were asleep and I was absorbed in my studies an idea suddenly struck my mind to examine the doctrine of the Holy

Trinity, the basic formula of the Christian Faith. The question how god exists in three persons, and yet has a single divine

nature, a single will and be of one substance arose in my mind.

My failure to reconcile my belief in the Trinity with the reasoning of the science of logic, created a mental restlessness in me.

Days passed on and many a time, I thought of asking my father to help me in solving the problem which puzzled my mind but I

knew that my father would never appreciate the least doubt in the dogmatic belief of the Catholic School. However, one day when

I found my father in a happy mood and asked him to explain the Holy Trinity…he finally said:

“In matters of faith one has to stop reasoning this doctrine is beyond the grasp of human reason.

One should believe in the doctrine only by one’s heart and mind!”

This reply from my father upset me to a great extent all my thinking got centered in the question which had become

a definite problem to puzzle my mind further and I wondered saying: “Is this the foundation upon which the huge edifice

of the Christian faith is built? Is the basis of my faith only a matter of blind following of some dictated belief which can

never stand reasoning or the indepndent scrutiny by the dispassionate and impartial arguments from the clean

conscience?” I became extremely worried and made up my mind to blindly believe in the Trinity.

One day one of our senior lecturers was sitting alone in his room and I entered with his permission and asked him if

he could help me to solve something which to me was a perplexing problem. He very kindly asked me what it was. I asked him to

explain to me how God, a single being, can exist simultaneously as three distinct persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the

Holy Spirit?!

The senior lecturer smiled and said: “Is it that you do not like my stay in this college?” I asked him: “Why sir?” He said:

“What do you think the college authorities who are staunch Catholics will do with me, if someone informs them that I discuss in my

private room things opposed to the Christian faith in general? Will they keep me on the staff of the College any longer? If you want to

discuss anything here, you must confine your discussion to the subject of your studies in the College!”

Thereafter, I made an appointment with him to see him in his house.

On Sunday when I met the senior lecturer he first asked me as to what made me inquire into the Doctrine of Trinity.

I said that I wanted to know how far the doctrine stood to reasoning.

He smiled and said, “Why don’t you ask any one of our priests?”

I said: “I have asked them but they say it is a matter of belief or faith and it should not be subjected to any logic or philosophy.

This has upset me. This has raisedthe question in me, if what I believe in is unreasonable and illogical, why should I subject myself

to any blind following? Is God so unjust to expect man to believe in a doctrine about Himself which no human brain can ever

reasonably conceive? I request you, Sir, to somehow give me some method of arguing out the possibility of such existence as the

doctrine of Trinity wants us to believe in!”

The senior lecturer smiled and said: ‘Dear Thomas, suppose you want me to prove by some mathematical formula

how water can remain water and the same time be fire, or how a stone can be a stone and at the same time be water too, how can

I do it? I do not think any sensible man on earth can ever conceive such a possibility how the Ever living God who being the Ever living,

can also at the same time be a mortal! (i.e. be a man to suffer death at the hands of the other mortals?) And how the same mortal

being at the same time be the Absolute Immortal God? It is a problem which our priests want us to believe and we have to merely

believe in it and none has any choice of even questoning the practicability of this inconceivable dogma.’

He went on saying: “The fact is when God, Whom we believe as One, is absolutely One, it means that God is singularly One in

natural essence of His existence, free from any different or variant factors having anything to do with His pure or Absolute Unity to

justify His being the Absolute One, owing an indivisible existence, by Himself. Division suggests that the One is not an Absolute

One but a compound of some variants and that which is a composed being can never really be One in the true meaning of Onenss.

And certainly the one dependent in its existence upon its different components can never be independent in its action, whereas God

is the Absolute One, independently Omnipotent in His Will and His action.

Besides how can any three which are three separate beings, with three variations justify being three separate entities, remain three

separately individual native properties differentiating them from each other, and become conceivably the absolute indivisible one,

without the least variation in the essential oneness?

An absolute one must be totally independent in its existence, Mr. Thomas it is impossible to reason out the doctrine of the Holy Trinity

for it is an inconceivable human riddle!”

He continued: ‘The only thing is that we Christians are shut out of the vast sources of knowledge about the truth and of the higher

factor in atters of religion which are available outside our own fold, by damning every nonChristian as the Devil’s work. We Christians,

Mr. Thomas, in our madness to swell up our ranks have played such a disgraceful role that a scholar like Sir Dennison Ross had to

helplessly disclose truth about this in his foreword to the translation of the Quran by George Sale.”

I was amazed to hear the arguments of the senior lecturer who was himself known as a Catholic, and at the same time

I was very much encouraged to know that my doubt about the unreasonableness of the doctrine of Trinity was something which had

made a highly educated and enlightened mind like the senior lecturer of Mathematics to enquire into it. I was much benefited by the
discussion with the senior lecturer for I came to know arguments justifying the doubt created in my mind.

My study of the matter in the ‘Islamic Literature’ and the translation of the Quran opened my eyes to many great and

very important factors that..

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..that effect human ife on earth. Once I visited the senior lecturer in his house and to my amazement I found him possessing a great

amount of literature on Islam!

I further asked him: “May I know sir, if you have embraced the faith of the Muslims?”

He replied: “Do not worry yourself about my personal choice!”

I took the copy of the translation of the Quran by George Sale and read the introduction by Sir E. Dennison Ross. The introduction

needs to be read with special attention. Sir Ross said:

“For many centuries the acquaintance which the majority of Europeans possessed of Mohammedanism was

based almost entirely on the distorted reports of fanatical Christians which led to the discrimination of a

multitude of gross calumnies. What was good in Mohammedanism was entirely ignored and what was not good

in the eyes of Europe was exaggerated or misinterpreted. The unity of God and the simplicity of his creed was

probably a more potent factor in the spread of Islam than the sword of th ghaziz.”

(G. Sale’s translation of the Koran – Introduction)

This statement of the great Christian scholar of international repute, created in me the thirst to know the original teachings of Islam

especially about the Islamic concept of God.

About four years passed away and by this time I knew the contents of the Quran. Many things had aroused my attention.

I had discussed many doubtful points with the senior lecturer whom I found to have read the Quran several times with a better

and more critical view. I was now longing to meet some Muslim scholar to cross examine him about certain doubts about the

Islamic Faith.

Once I thought of Hinduism but what I saw daily with my own eyes, curses of untouchability and the reservations of the

caste system prevalent before us and besides everything else, the idol worship and the observance of innumerable rituals did not

prompt me to take up any enquiry into its tenets. I could never understand the superiority exclusively and arbitrarily claimed for

the members of certain castes, simply because they had accidentally been born in those folds. I had seen with my own eyes

how the people belonging to certain castes are imagined as lower in the society and are treated asthe untouchables, not allowed

even to enter into the Hindu Temples. I had seen these poor souls being prohibited even to take drinking water from the wells

reserved for the superior classes.

The havoc in the social life played by Hinduism dividing humanity into castes and subcastes and the unreasonable

superiority of one caste over the other is itself so repulsive that no one would like to take any trouble of executing any studies

about the doctrines of that faith.

While resenting the caste system and the sectarian segregation in the Hindu folds, I was automatically reminded of the similar

restrictions amongst Christians. I asked myself:

“Why criticize other people and their beliefs when the religion which I myself belong to, has in it the sectarian segregation as well?

Are not Churches in Christendom owned exclusively for the members of the particular sects? Are there not churches belonging to

a particular sect which cannot be used by the people of the other sect? Has not Christianity failed to unite mankind into one human

society? Did Jesus preach all these differences and dissensions which we the Christians have innovated? Is it not then that we are

far away from the original objects of the Mission of Jesus Christ?”

Against the irreconcilable differences and the innumerable dissensions of the social order in the very folds of Hinduism and

Christianity, I was very much impressed by the genuine and real brotherhood practiced day and night among the Muslims. I found

that a Muslim Mosque is a Mosque belonging to everyone who calls himself a Muslim and that there is no reservation of eats in the

Mosque. I saw with my own eyes, Muslims of all ranks, all social and economical status of different complexions of various

nationalities all standing in one row, turning towards one direction, praying to one God in one language, and after the prayer

shaking hands with one another. Brotherhood or social equality claimed more in theory by other schools of thought in the world;

I found it to be an ever experienced and a living reality in the daily life of the Islamic folds.

One day I was informed by the senior lecturer who by this time had become a close friend of mine that a Muslim scholar
was going to deliver some talks in English on the life of the Prophet of Islam in a hall near the big Mosque of my own. My senior

lecturer and I both attended the talks and met the lecturer who was an old friend of my senior lecturer. We talked with the lecturer

about several important topics.

During my meeting with the Muslim lecturer I asked him if he would kindly answer some questions for my own information. He said:

“I will most willingly answer your questions.”

I put forward the following questions which he very cheerfully answered: “What proof have you besides the Quran to establish that

Muhammad was truly a Prophet of God?”

He answered: “Have you your Bible with you?” I said: “Yes.”

He took the following verses and read them to me one after the other:

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