The Potential Contribution of Islam To

World Peace
Before one can determine the potential contribution of Islam to world peace
one must answer three questions:
(1) What is it basically that is dividing man from man, causing friction between
nation and nation and disturbing again and again the peace of mankind at
present?
(2) Is It possible for the human race, in view of the potentialities of their
nature, to be gifted with a real and permanent peace at some stage of
their evolution?
(3) If the answer to the second questions may be in the affirmative, what is
the actual manner in which the human race can possibly achieve its unity
of the future?
Only when these three questions have been answered can we know what is
the potential contribution of Islam to World Peace or whether Islam has at all
made any such contribution. I shall, therefore, endeavor to answer these
questions first.
If we look at the map of the world we find the whole of the habitable globe
divided into countries each of which is a sovereign political unit or a state
based on an ideology. For example, the ideologies of Britain, Russia, France,
America and India are British Nationalism respectively. There are as many
political section of mankind as there are ideologies. Let us now study briefly
the nature of an ideology.
An ideology is a system of ideas developing around an ideal in the course
of its application to the various aspects of practical human life. The ideal of
an individual is the idea of the highest Beauty, Goodness and Truth known
and experience by him as such, irrespective of the fact whether it has
really any qualities of Beauty, Goodness and Truth in it or not. It is an idea
of which the Beauty, Goodness and Truth he feels sufficiently to be
induced, to accept it as the sole determining force of his practical life and
not merely as a concept of theoretical or academic importance. It is his
effective view of the purpose and destination of human life and of the
nature of man and the universe which be thin any real significance for him
and, therefore any significance in the world at all. It is a view of man and
the universe in which he can actually believe and according to which he
can actually act. People love and follow different ideologies because their
ideas of Beauty Goodness and Truth differ. Thus Christ, Allah, Economic
Equality, Political Equality, the German race, the French language and
culture, the Hindu religion and culture are examples of ideals that, in their
application to the various aspects of practical human life, have developed
Into the ideologies of Christianity, Islam, Communism, Democracy,
German Nationalism, French Nationalism and Indian Nationalism
respectively.
The urge for an ideal in the human being controls and dominates all his
other impulses and desires even those which have their immediate source in the
instincts. That is why, men become ready to deny themselves the proper

satisfaction of their instincts and even to lay down their lives for the sake of t
ideals whenever necessary. Every ideology is distinct from all other ideologies.
Otherwise it would not have a separate existence. It has its own ideal, its own
internal psychological core or essence and its own external social form. Every
human being must have an ideal and no ideology. An ideological individual, i.e., a
human being, considered as the lover of an ideology, lives only for the sake of his
ideology and is similar to a biological Individual or an organism which lives only
for the sake of living and growing. We know that individuals of the same species
have an affinity for each other and tend to come together and live an organized
life. Socially advanced species, e.g., bees and ants, are capable of achieving an
organization as perfect as that of a single organism. Similarly Individuals who
love the same ideology love each other and have a tendency to; come together
and form an organized ideological community which in its present developed
form is known as a state. The more the members of an ideological community
love their ideology the more they love each other and the greater is the unity, the
solidarity, the efficiency and the power of their state or organization.
Like a socially advanced species, a socially advanced ideological
community is capable of achieving an organization almost as perfect as that of a
single organism. A highly organized ideological community is in fact a psychosocial organism which behaves like a biological organism the behaviour of which
is representative of the behaviour of a whole species and is subject to laws
which are similar to the laws of Biology. Like an organism it has an internal urge
which is the love of the ideal and an external form which consists of its laws,
institutions and traditions, Like an organism it has the will to live and to grow
indefinitely, needs food which consists of all psychological or educative
influences which can nourish the love of the ideal, has a purpose which is the
realization of the ideal, meets with resistance in its efforts to achieve that
purpose, exerts itself to overcome resistance. Increases and enlarges its power
through exertion and becomes weak when it fails to exert itself or gives up effort.
As biological environment influenced the direction of the development of an
organism, in the past, so ideological, i.e. psychological or educational
environment influences the direction of the growth of an ideological community at
present. The people of England, for example, are an ideological community
because they love the same ideology. But their ideology has come to be what it is
because they lived in the same country, belonged to the same race, spoke the
same language and had similar habits and customs. The influence of psychosocial environment has given a particular direction--in this case a wrong
direction, since theology could not become perfect, its growth having stopped at
the stage of a territorial nationalismto the process which has shaped their
ideology.
As an organism was subject to a sudden improvement of its form during
the biological ages as a result of what is known by the biologists today as a
mutation, so an ideological community is subject to a sudden improvement of
its form during this ideological age as a result of an ideological mutation which
we call a revolution. Thus the French Revolution, Russian Revolution, Nazi
Revolution and Fascist Revolution changed the ideologies of France, Russia,
Germany and Italy, from French Monarchy to Democracy, from Russian
Monarchy to Communism, from German Nationalism to German National
Socialism and from Italian Nationalism to Fascism respectively.

Again, like an organism, an ideological group can die owing to internal

disease which in Its case is caused by the elements of imperfection in the ideal.
As an organism can produce another organism through the operation of the urge
for procreation in which the male and the female play their part, so the follower of
an ideology can produce another follower of the same ideology through the
operation of the urge for propagation in which the leader and the follower play
their part. As every biological individual is a descendant as well as a progenitor,
so every ideological individual is a follower as well as a leader, live as an
organism, that of an ideological group by its urge to love (and serve) its ideology.
As an organism has an organthe heartwhich is the cause of its life and
applies the fluid of life to feed and nourish all its parts, so an ideological
community has an organizationthe educational system of the community
which is the Centre of its love and supplies the ideas that feed and nourish the
love of the ideology in the hearts of all its members. As an organism can
overpower and annihilate another organism by capturing its life-centre and
destroying its functions, so an ideological community can overpower and
annihilate another ideological community by capturing its educational system and
destroying its functions. Thus when the conquerors of World War II occupied
Germany, Japan and Italy, they hastened to annihilate the ideologies of Nazi-ism,
Mikado-ism and Fascism by capturing and controlling the eth systems of these
countries. Again just as an organism gains in health and strength when there is a
perfect co-ordination of its parts and their functions, so an ideological community
gains in strength and efficiency when it is able to achieve a perfect unity of
purpose among its members. Like an organism it is attracted by objects that help
it or support its life and growth and is repelled by objects that have the contrary
effect. As the activity of an organism is directed by its brain, so the activity of an
ideological group is directed by its leader.
A species has a tendency to grow and procreate itself indefinitely. But
since the amount of available food and the means of existence are limited, it can
satisfy this tendency only at the expense of all other species. Hence ever since
the beginning of animal life there has proceeded an unending war of species in
the animal world. The basis of an ideology is an idea of the highest Beauty and
Power known to its lovers. Its lovers therefore feel the urge to display to the world
all the Beauty and Power that they imagine to be latent in it. That is why an
ideological community has a tendency to grow in power and expand the number
of its helpers and adherents indefinitely. But since the available area of land and
resources (human as well as material) are limited, it can satisfy this tendency
only at the expense of all other ideologies. Hence ever since mart has become
conscious of himself there has proceeded an unending war of ideological
communities in the human society. An important part of the history of our race is
a record of the struggle of ideological communities against each other, as an
important part of the history of the animal world is a history of the struggle of
species against each other. In the war of species the activity of every organism,
every individual of a species, was motivated by two impulses. Firstly, the impulse
which enabled the organism to defend its life against the efforts of all other
species to grow and multiply at its expense. Secondly, the impulse which
enabled it to grow and multiply itself at the expense of all other species. In the
war of ideologies the activity of every state as an ideological community is
motivated by two desires. Firstly the desire to defend itself against the expansion
of all other states. Secondly, the desire to expand itself at the cost of all other

states. It may be said that the weaker states have no aggressive designs against
other states and that all that they desire is to be allowed to continue their
existence. But let us not forget that these states are never satisfied with what
they can take from other states in order to continue their existence and that there
was a time when the bigger states too were very weak and wanted only to be left
alone. Rome that became a big empire began as a single city.
A modern state employs a number of methods to fight out its ideological
war against all other states. It sets up, first of all, a system of external education
carried on through News Agencies, Publicity Literature, Radios Press and
Cinema with the object of winning over to its side as many lovers of other
ideologies as possible. But whenever it feels that its efforts to expand are being
thwarted or may be thwarted by another state directly or indirectly, immediately or
ultimately, it resorts to other tactics like treaties, pacts, peace conferences,
disarmament proposals, direct persuasions propaganda. Criticisms of policy and
action, diplomatic, economic or political pressure and as a last resort to violence
in order to remove the direct or indirect, immediate ultimate opposition of that
state, Since every state tends to expand and gain in power more and more at the
expense of all other states, as time goes on, every state is, by the potentialities of
its nature, heading towards an ultimate violent conflict with every other state.
A state may enter into a fast friendship with an another state in order to
defend itself against a hostile state or a group of hostile states, but the allies are
all the time the secret enemies of each other and as soon as their common
enemies are defeated their latent animosities rise to the surface again. This
explains why it happens so frequently that the same states are sometimes
intimate friends and at other times sworn enemies of each other. The war of
states may be sometimes open and violent, at other times concealed and
peaceful; it may take the form of a battle field or a peace-conference, but it is
going on all the time without a truce or a break.
Hence I can answer the first question by saying that the real force
disturbing the peace of mankind again and again can be expressed by a single
word of eight lettersIDEOLOGY.
That the human race will be ultimately gifted with a real and permanent
peace can be safely concluded from the fact that what man really desires is
peace and not war. He resorts to war only when he feels that his purposesall
derived from his own ideologyare meeting with a resistanceproceeding
entirely from the ideologies of othersthat cannot be overcome without violence.
There is no trace of any such resistance within a real ideological group devoted
to a single, definitely known ideology however large the group may be. That is
why an ideological group of this kind enjoys, as long as it exists, a real and
permanent peace within its own boundaries. There is no reason why the state of
mutual love, peace and amity which can be achieved and successfully
maintained by a section of humanity, i.e. an ideological community, should not be
achieved and successfully maintained by the whole of it. As the unity of the family
developed into the unity of the tribe developed into the unity of the state, so the
unity of the state must develop into the unity of the whole of the human race one
day. Such facts indeed point to the conclusion that the unity of the human race is
not only possible but also necessary in the long run.
That eoncludes my answer to the second question.

When we endeavour to find an answer to the third question we notice that

there are only two possible ways in which the human race can achieve its unity of
the future.
Either
1.

The various states will arrange to live in harmony with each other,
ignoring their differences or settling them peacefully by mutual
negotiations or under political, economic or military pressure from a world
organization of states like the defunct League of Nations or the present
U.N.O.

Or
II. Some single ideology will prove to be so scientific and so sound and
attractive intellectually, that it will be accepted willingly, though gradually, by the
whole of mankind, thus turning the entire human race into a single ideological
community.
The possibility mentioned under No. 1 above is precluded by the very laws
of human nature which are inexorable and by the characteristics of ideologies
and ideological communities which no one can alter. As I have submitted above,
ideology is the only force that rules the life of the individual, the community and
the state. None of them can, therefore, do anything that is contrary to the
requirements of their ideology wherever they may be represented. An
organization like the U.N.O Intended to unify conflicting ideologies cannot work
smoothly and successfully even for a single day. It may, no doubt, assume a false
appearance of working smoothly and successfully for some time but its real,
impracticability cannot remain hidden from the eyes of the world for long. The
reason is that a real co-operation with such an organization is not possible for
any state on account of its very nature as an ideological community. No state can
agree to become its member except to use it as an instrument to safeguard and
further its two-fold ideological interests of growing at the expense of other states
and defending itself against their growth at its own expense. Every decision of
such a body which may appear to the world to be agreed to by all its members is
either a secret deal in which some nations batter away the ideological interests of
some other nations for the sake of some advantages which further their own
ideological interests or a decision which is really accepted by each state with
secret reservations which, it believes, will reduce it practically to a decision which
is favourable to itself and unfavourable to all the other states in the long run. That
is why we had a World War in spite of the League of Nations and we are
expecting another World War every moment in spite of the U.N.O.
Even when a state has a very sincere and honest desire to serve the cause
of peace, justice and freedom, as a member of such a body it is forced, by its
irresistible ideological urge, to qualify, unconsciously and in spite of itself, the
meaning of these terms in such a way that the realization of values represented
by them does not involve the least danger to us own ideological interests whether
offensive or defensive. Actually, therefore, such an organization as a battlefield in
which every state enters to fight the incessant and relentless war of ideologies
and calmly and peacefully, consciously or unconsciously and with the help and
co-operation of other states, secured in the name of peace, justice and freedom,
till it has the need, the power and the opportunity to fight it out openly dad

violently to the end. In this peaceful war as in any violent war, some states win
while some others Iose and as in a violent war so in this peaceful war it is the
most powerful states that generally win.
Some of us believe that the U.N.O. is a great force for the peace and unity
of mankind at present. But our belief is no better than that of a child who runs
dragging between his legs a stick held elosely in his hands believing all the time
that he is riding a horse. How can an organization which is based on the disunity
of mankind, be ever expected to unite them? The existence of the U.N.O. marks
our ignorance of the laws of human nature and. human psychology. It is a toy
invented by man to while away his childhood. The grown up man of the future will
simply laugh at it.
The second possibilitythat of a single ideology dominating the world
permanently bringing a permanent peace to mankindalone is thinkable. Indeed
if we study the trends of ideological evolution in the light of biological evolution,
we come to the conclusion that it is not a possibility but a veritable certainty.
Some of the most important features of biological evolution are as under
(1) Evolution concerned itself throughout with the creation and development
of biological forms of life or species.
(2) Every species was distinct from every other on account of its outward
physical form consisting of the organs and features acquired by the first
individual or the father of the specie. They were passed on to all succeeding
generations without any fundamental alteration, as a fixed and permanent
biological heritage of the species.
(3) Of all the species that emerged there was only one the human type of life
that was able to dominate the earth finally and completely. It was biologically the
most perfect of all species and its perfection as a species consisted in the
perfection of its brain.
(4) Thus the perfect biological form, man, was the real objective of biological
evolution. It was on him alone that the forces of evolution were concentrating
their attention all along. He was in existence from the very beginning of animal
life. He continued to develop slowly and through innumerable stages of biological
forms right from his earliest stage as a unicellular organism to the stage of his
perfection as a full-fledged human being dominating the earth. All other species
were the incidental bye-products of the creation of man. They were deviations or
defections at various points from the main path (or the right path) of evolution
leading to the final stage of man, as a result of the misdirection of some of his
potentialities as the perfect biological form, under the influence of unfavourable
biological environment. That is why every one of these species could manifest
only a portion of the instincts and urges of the perfect biological form and not all
of them.
(5) As soon as the perfect biological form, man, had come into existence the
emergence of new biological forms on the main line of evolution was
discontinued as it was no longer possible for the simple reason that a perfect
biological form could not be superseded by another perfect biological form. But
new deviations from the main line of evolution and the emergence of new
species along the branches of the main line, representing previous deviations
from the main line, still continued over line periods of time during which man, as

a weak and unprotected form of life, struggle for his existence. But since all the
other species represented a departure from the main line of evolution and a
fraction of t potentialities of the perfect form, they wore not destined to reach the
stage of biological perfection. Hence in spite of the tremendous physical power of
some of them, they all soon exhausted their possibilities of progress with the
result that biological evolution came to a dead stop everywhere. The
unprogressive and unwanted species became gradually extinct or else lingered
on without evolving, waiting for extinction.
(6) Every species became involved from the moment of its emergence in a
desperate struggle for existence against other species. Some of these species
e.g. elephants, tigers, lions, bears, etc., were far more powerful than man in spite
of biological perfection. They were gifted with a physical power and instruments
of attack and defence which man did not possess. As a consequence he was
force to take shelter on trees and in caves in order to save his life. It was a
miracle that he able to survive in his unequal struggle for existence against these
mighty species.
(7) But man not only survived in the midst of such dangers, he also flourished
and prospered slowly but continuously in spite of them. On account of his
cerebral perfection he was soon able to invent weapons of attack and defence
which were far more powerful than any organs possessed by the most terrible of
species and against which, therefore, all other species were helpless. The result
was that he multiplied rapidly and profusely in numbers till he spread to the ends
of the earth vanquishing and dominating all other species finally and completely
in all parts of the 1 globe. This brought the war of species to an end.
Thus the perfection of man which enabled him ultimately to win the war of
species and dominate the world depended upon the perfection of his brain and
not upon the abundance of his physical strength or the efficiency of his organs in
which he was far behind other species.
The process of evolution continued even after man had reached his biological
perfection but now its nature was different. Since its medium could be now only
the human being, the highest form of organic life, and since the human being had
developed a new charactera psychological capacity to love ideals and
ideologiesall future evolution could only depend upon the unfoldment of the
potentialities of this character. Hence the process of evolution shifted from the
biological to the ideological plane.
Life must express the same characteristics generally at the ideological stage
of evolution as it did at the biological stage. For its fundamental qualities must
remain the same wherever it may be found to be active. The very word evolution
denotes progress or movement towards a stage of perfection. At the biological
stage of evolution the activity of life centred around the requirements of the
organism, at the ideological stage it centres around the requirements of the
ideology. The driving force of biological evolution was the perfection of the
organism. It caused, by a process, exhibiting particular characteristics, the
emergence of a biological form of life that was perfect and enabled it to dominate
the world and end the war of species. The driving force of ideological evolution
must be the perfection of the ideology. It must cause, by a process exhibiting
parallel characteristics, the emergence of an ideological form of life that is perfect
and must enable it to dominate the world and end the war of ideologies. We have

already seen how close is the analogy between a species and an ideological
community and how the points of similarity between the two can be counted
almost unlimitedly. In view of all these facts we can be sure that, when
ideological evolution has run its course to the end, a man who is looking back at
its past will be able to outline its broad features as follows;
(I) Evolution concerned itself with the creation and development of ideological
forms of life or ideological communities.
(2) Every ideological community was distinct from every other by reason of its
external ideological form consisting of the laws and institutions which were laid
down by the founder of the ideology. They were passed on to all succeeding
generations of the community without any fundamental change or alteration as a
fixed and permanent ideological heritage of the community. Just as a species
could not change its physical form made up of its organs and features
fundamentally without changing into a new species, so an ideological community
could not alter its ideological form made up of its laws and institutions
fundamentally without changing its ideology.
(3) Of all the ideological forms that emerged there was only one that was able
to dominate the earth finalIy and completely. It was ideologically the most perfect
of all ideological forms and its perfection as an ideological form consisted in the
perfection of its ideology.
(4) Thus the Perfect Ideological Form of life was the real objective of
ideological evolution. It was on the form alone that the forces of evolution were
concentrating their attention all along. It was in existence from the very beginning
of human life. It continued to develop slowly, through innumerable stages of
ideological forms its earliest condition as a family loving the Perfect Ideal to the
stage of its perfection as a full-fledged world: state of the Perfect Ideology. All the
other ideological forms of life were the incidental bye-products of the creation of
the Perfect Ideological Form. They were deviations or defections at various
points from the main path (or the right path) of evolution leading to the final stage
of the Perfect Ideological Form as a result of misdirection of some of the
potentialities of this form, under the influence of unfavourable ideological
environment. That is why every one of these ideological forms could manifest
only a portion of the qualities and attributes of the Perfect Ideal and not all of
them.
(5) As soon as the perfect ideological form came into existence the emergence
of new ideological forms of the main line of evolution was discontinued as it was
no longer possible for the simple reason that a perfect ideological form could not
be superseded by another perfect ideological form. But new deviations from the
main line of evolution and tile emergence of new ideological forms along the
branches of the main line, representing previous deviations from the main line,
still continued over long periods of time during which the perfect ideology, as a
weak and unprotected form of life, struggle for its existence. But since all the
other ideologies represented a departure from the main line of ideological
evolution and a fraction of the potentialities of the perfect ideological form, they
were not destined to reach the stage of ideological perfection. Hence in spite of
the tremendous economic and material power of some of them, they all soon
exhausted their possibilities of progress with the result that ideological evolution
came to a dead stop everywhere except in the Perfect ideological Form. The

unwanted and un-progressive ideologies became gradually extinct or else

lingered on without evolving waiting for extinction.
(6) Every ideological community became involved from the movement of its
emergence in a desperate struggle for existence against all other ideoIogical
communities. Some of these communities were far more powerful than the
community of the Perfect Ideology in spite of the latter ideological perfection.
They were gifted with material and economic resources and armaments
consisting of atomic weapons of attack and defence which the community of the
Perfect ideology did not possess and which, therefore, obliged it to avoid their
displeasure. It is a miracle that it was able to survive in its unequal struggle for
existence against these mighty ideologies.
(7) But the Perfect Ideological Form not only survived in the midst of such
dangers, it also flourished and prospered slowly but continuously in spite of them.
On account of its ideological perfection it was soon able to invent weapons of
ideological attack and defence in the form of convincing intellectual and scientific
ideas about the nature of man and the universe which as instruments of
ideological conquest were far more powerful than any armaments possessed by
the most terrible of ideological communities and before which, therefore, all other
ideologies were helpless. The result was that the Perfect Ideology got such a
large number of converts and its followers multiplied so rapidly and profusely in
numbers that it spread to the ends of the earth vanquishing and dominating all
other ideologies finally and completely in all parts of the habitable globe. This
brought the war of ideologies to an end.
Thus the Perfection of the Final Ideological form which enabled it to win the
war of ideologies and dominate the world depended upon the perfection of its
ideology and not upon the abundance of its material and economic resources or
the power of its armaments in which it was far behind other ideological forms.
This completes my answer to the three question propounded above. I can
now turn to my real subject; the potential contribution of Islam to World Peace.
The question arises. Has the perfect ideological form already emerged? If it
has not, then neither Islam nor any other ideology in existence at present can do
anything to bring about world-peace. If it has, then world-peace depends upon
the expansion and world-domination of that ideology and the retirement,
whenever it may be possible, of all other ideologies which by their existence and
self-assertion stand in the way of that ideologys inevitable destiny of worlddomination and mission of world-peace. What is the place occupied by Islam in
this picture? Is it the ideology that will bring about: world-peace or is it one of all
the other ideologies that are thwarting the arrival of world peace by their very
existence?
To know the answer to these questions we have to find out first of all what is a
Perfect Ideology.
An ideology eon be perfect only if its essence and form are both perfect. The
essence of an ideology is its psychological core or the ideal or the idea on which
it is based. The form of an ideology is the application of its ideal to the various
aspects of practical human life. Hence an ideology will be perfect only if it is an
application of the perfect ideal to alI the important aspects (viz. the religious,
social, economic, educational. ethical, legal, political and military aspects) of

natural human activity. An ideal is perfect if its perfection is unassailable from the
positive as well as the negative points of view, in other words, if it only possesses
up to the highest degree all the qualities and attributes which we by our nature
look upon as lovable, admirable and beautiful and which we describe briefly as
the qualities of Beauty, Goodness and Truth, but is also free from every shortcoming, defect or blemish that we can possibly think of. Such an idea can be only
one and that is the idea of God by the very definition of the term God. For if the
idea of God has any defect or lacks any of the qualities of Beauty, Goodness and
Truth, to the highest degree, it is not the idea of God at all. Since the Perfect
Idea, the Idea of God is the Idea of a Living, All-powerful, All-knowing, Allnourishing and All-evolving Personality, the application of this idea to human life
in a manner which may have any real meaning for the evolution of man can
imagined to have been made by God Himself i.e. by someone who speaks on
behalf of God. This accounts for the phenomenon of prophet hood which is
already so well-known.
This means that the main line of ideological evolution is the line of the
Prophets which begins with a prophetic ideology and ends with one, there being
innumerable prophets in between the beginning and the end, applying the idea of
God to ever larger and larger areas of human life according as it develops and
complicates in the process of evolution the last of them applying the idea to the
whole of human life. The earliest application of the idea of God was to the
religious life of man, that is, to his life as a worshipper and a propitiator of the
object of worship and later on also to his social, ethical and legal life and last of
all also to his economic and political life. As the earliest form of the human being
was the first perfect organism of a single cell, so the earliest form of the Perfect
Ideological Community was the first single human family, the family of the first
perfect human being (who was also The first Prophet), worshipping, True God as
the God of the family. Its next form was a tribe combining a number of families
(like that of the Israelites) worshipping True God as the God of the tribe and still
next a kingdom combining a number of tribes ruled by a king (like that King
Solomon) worshipping True God as the God of the kingdom and its last form
must be an ideological statement expanding in all directions to embrace the
whole of humanity and loving, worshipping and serving True God as the God of
the entire human race (Rabb-ul-AlaminAl-Quran). We can expect the first
perfect specimen of humanity to be also a Prophet because nature which gives
him a perfect biological form and along with it the urge to love an ideal must give
him also the knowledge of the ideal that can satisfy this urge perfectly i.e. the
knowledge of the Perfect Ideal to be of use to him and to his offspring. Nature
creates no need without creating simultaneously the means of its satisfaction, so
that those who starve their natural needs of their proper satisfaction have always
to blame themselves and not nature for their misfortune.
It follows that the Perfect Ideology of the future must have the following
characteristics:
(1) It must be a prophetic ideology having the idea of God as its essence.
(2) Its Idea of God must be absolutely pure and perfect and it must lay all stress
on the maintenance of its purity and perfection.
(3) Its external ideological form, as bequeathed by its founder to the succeeding
generations of its followers on the authority and example of his own practical life,

must be an application of this idea to all the important aspects, namely, the
ethical, religious, social, political, economic, legal, educational and military
aspects of natural human activity. The reason is that no prophetic ideology which
ignores any of these aspects at the time of its birth in the life example of its
founder can have anything to do with it later on. No ideology that is born
imperfect can become perfect by subsequent development unless it mutates
into a new ideology having a new founder and new laws and institutions.
(4) This further implies that the Prophet who is the founder of the Perfect
Ideology must be a historical figure and the important details of his own practical
life as the leader of a community which accepted that ideology must be available
in the records of history. Without such historical record the original ideological
community of the prophet will be taken to have ceased to exist like one of those
unwanted species which disappeared from the animal world in the past.
(5) The fact of its perfection or finality and all that it implies must form a part of its
teachings, otherwise it will be lacking in one of its most important ideological
constituents which will enable it to maintain its wholeness as well as finality and
perfection to the end. In other words the teachings of the founder of this Ideology
must explicitly mention the following points:
(a) That be brings to a perfection the teachings of all earlier prophets.
(b) That he is the last of the prophets and there will be no prophet after him.
(c) That he comes for the guidance of the whole of the human race.
(d) That his ideology will dominate the world whether the followers of other
ideologies may like it or not.
(e) That his teachings will remain intact, in theory as well as in practice, in the
hands of his followers till the end of the world.
(f) That his followers will be the leaders of mankind.
(g) That in due course of time the discovery of scientific facts relating on the one
hand to the external universe (i the facts of Physics and Biology) and on the
other to the human mind (i.e. the facts of Psychology) will justify his ideology to
such an extent that all the non-believers will be convinced of its truth.
All these characteristics belong eminently to Islam. If this is true, it means,
that no ideology, other than Islam, whether in existence at present or coming into
existence in future, can be a Perfect Ideology and that Islam alone is the Final
Ideology of mankind destined to unite them into a single ideological community,
enjoying permanent peace and prosperity. The reason as I have said above, is
that a Perfect ideology cannot come into existence twice over. It also means that
we shall be able to understand more clearly the broad features of the ideological
evolution of the past and future, an outline of which is given above, if we
substitute the world Islam for the term Perfect Ideology, and the expression
Muslim Community for the term Perfect Ideological Form, in this outline. Since it
is the analogy between animal species and human communities studied and
understood in the light of the facts of evolution which has led us to this
conclusion here, it is significant to note that the Holy Quran not only affirms this
analogy but also alludes to it as an important fact which God Almighty has the
power to reveal as a sign of the truth of the Quran which the non-believers
demand from the Prophet.

And they say, why has not a sign been sent down to him from his Lord? Say,
surely Allah has the power to send down a sign but most of them know not. And
there is no animal in the earth, nor a bird that flies on its two wings but are
communities like you. We have not left out anything important from this book:
then (at the end of their earthly life, human communities) will be gathered
together before their Lord (along with their leaders).
(6: 37, 38)
I now take up the characteristics of a Perfect Ideology one by one in the order
in which they have been put forth above to show how they belong to Islam and
therefore to Islam alone for ever.
(1) Islam is the ideology of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and its core
or essence is the idea of God. A person who desires to enter the fold of Islam is
required to pronounce the following:
I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that
Muhammad is the apostle of Allah.
(2) Islam lays a great stress on the oneness of God and the absolute purity and
uniqueness of all His attributes. In fact it is one of the fundamentals of its mission
to correct people who have distorted or altered the true idea of God originally
taught by all prophets. Attributing any of the qualities of God to anything else in
the least is the only unpardonable sin according to the Holy Quran.
Surely Allah forgives not that a partner should be set up with Him and He
forgives all besides that to whom He pleases. And whoever sets up a partner with
Allah, he devises indeed a great sin.
(4: 48)
(3) In the life-example of Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the creator and
leader of an ideological community we find all aspecis of the natural activity of
such a community (e.g., Religion, Ethics, Economics, Education, Law, Social
Relations, Politics and Military activity) being controlled and dominated by t single
idea of God. Muhammad (peace be upon him) was ordered to say:
Say: Verily my prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are all for Allah, the
Lord of the worlds. He has no associate: and this is what I have ordered to
observe and I am the first of those who submit.
(6: 163, 164)
Muhammad (peace be upon him) not only worshipped one God and did his
utmost to teach others to worship Him but he also lived a married life, prepared
his followers to resist the opposition of his own people who were bent upon
destroying his mission, created a state, ruled and administered it, defended it
from its enemies by military action, solved its internal and e problems and gave it
the rudiments of a plan of informational services, a scheme of research and
education, a socio-political system, an economic-legal order and a foreign policy.
The example of his life can, therefore, satisfy the evolutionary requirements of his
community till the end of the world.
It does not mean that the Muslim community will never need any laws other
than those ordained by their Prophet. It means only that these original laws will
form the foundation and the nucleus of other laws that may be required in future
from time to time as the community evolves from stage to stage. Because the
original laws will be kept intact as a sacred heritage, they will enable the devoted

followers of the Prophet who happen to have entered deeply into the spirit of his
teachings to derive from them other laws consistent with their Ideal as the
ramifications and amplifications of the original laws, to satisfy the requirements of
the evolving community and to meet new situations arising from time to time not
directly covered by these laws. Where laws enforced by the Prophet (peace be
upon him) already exist, no change has any evolutional value and no change is
possible. But where there are no such laws we are free to enact in the light of the
original laws without prejudice to the evolution of the community.
Imagine a beautiful picture complete in all its major and essential details. It
may be possible to amplify it a little more by introducing into it some more lines
and colours representing some of its minor and insignificant details. But the artist
who undertakes to do so will have to control his activity by two considerations.
Firstly, that he does not interfere in the least with the details of the picture that
have already emerged. SecondIy, that his additions are perfectly consistent and
in complete harmony with these existing detail. Evidently this can be done only
by a man who is thoroughly inspired by the beauty of the picture and who loves it
passionately on account of his perfect appreciation of the idea of its original
creator. If, however, the picture is allowed to be handled for this purpose by a
man who is unable to be inspired by it and to catch the thought at the back of it,
he will act like a and senseless artist rubbing off certain portions of it and adding
new irrelevant portions to it in their place. Far from amplifying the picture he will
ruin its beauty and splendour permanently.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has given us a picture of the
Perfect Ideology which is complete in all its major and essential details. It is now
the minor details of it that may call forth the spiritual effort (Ijtihad) of his followers
on occasions when they may be really needed. Further laws to Supply these
minor details of the ideology of the Prophet can now be framed with the help of
the original and fundamental laws and institutions which the community has
inherited from him As often as required, by pious and God-fearing men who are
inspired by the beauty of the ideology, have entered into its Spirit and grasped
the idea behind it, without altering or disturbing any of these original laws and
institutions in the least. Thus the community will evolve in the right direction on
account of these laws and institutions and not in spite of them. Anybody who will
make an attempt to alter them will be like a bad and senseless artist who will mar
rather than make the picture of the Perfect Ideology. But in spite of what some of
our short sighted, self-styled saviours of Islam may wish to do, these laws and
institutions will never be altered. Only those who will attempt to change them will
enter into a deviation from the main line of evolution to disappear into the world
of non-existence forever.
It is neither accidental nor meaningless that a prophetic ideology has an
unconquerable tendency to persist in the form in which it was left by its founder. It
is due to a fundamental characteristic of life. Whatever form life takes in its
nascent conditionwhatever the apparent causes and conditions that may have
enabled it to take that formbecause fixed forever. This is as much true of the
form and institutions of a newly emerging natural ideology as it is of the form and
features of a newly born organism or a newly emerging natural species. That is
why as long as a religion lives, its followers resist heresy and innovation with all
the power that they command. As there is a law of biological heredity which
protects the original form and features of a species by an arrangement within the

organic form itself, so there is a law of ideological heredity which protects the
original laws and institutions of an ideology by an arrangement within the
ideological form itself. The failure of the Marriage Laws Commission set up
recently by the Government of Pakistan indicates how the law of ideological
heredity is working to preserve the essential ideological features of Islam even in
this age.
Heredity whether biological or ideological has not only a meaning for
evolution. It is one of the essentials of evolution. It preserves the past
achievements of life and thus prepares the ground on which further
achievements can be built up. It assures that change takes place only in the right
direction, i.e. in the direction of the next higher stage of evolution, and without
evolving the loss of any of the achievements of life secured in the past. In the
case of the Muslim community the next higher stage of evolution that we can
expect, is an extraordinary development of their love for Islam (for it prophet as
the greatest personality of all time, for its laws and institutions, ordained by the
prophet, as the most appropriate for a progressive society in view of the nature of
man and for the spirit behind them as the spirit of all future progress) as a result
of their intellectual realization of it as the Last of the Divinely Revealed ideologies
as well as the only True and Scientific Ideology in the world. The realization will
raise them gradually to a very high stage of moral and spiritual development
where alone it will be possible for them to understand the original laws of Islam
properly and to discover their appropriate ramifications and derivations needed
from time to time and where these laws, in so far as they are concessions or
permissions, will not be miss-used and in so far as they are correctives,
punishments will not be required to be moved.
How far the laws of a community actually assure its progress depends more
upon the mental attitude with which they are approached than on the laws
themselves. Laws which may appear to us to be extremely good may prove
worthless when approached with a morally bad attitude of mind, while laws which
may appear to us to need improvement may actually conduce to the best
progress of the community, when approached with a really moral and spiritual
attitude of mmd.
The idea of the sacred and the holy is the essence of a prophetic ideology.
The moment it is deprived of this idea, it is reduced to a secular or materialistic
ideology utterly useless for the purposes of evolutions. The special achievement
of life registered by the emergence of a prophetic ideology is an intense love of
its followers for God as a result of their faith that now they have a direct, intimate
and personal contact with Him Through His Prophet whose word is the sacred
word of God and like all its other achievements life preserves this achievement of
it own at all costs. If we now change any of the laws of Islam enforced by the
Prophet we shall damage the wholeness and prestige of Islam as the last of the
prophetic ideologies, deprive it of its quality of sacredness and thus make it
impossible for the Muslim community to love it wholeheartedly and to pass on to
the next higher stage of their evolution. That is why the law of ideological heredity
will, in the Interest of evolution, prevent such a thing from happening.
Imagine a surgeon biologist who is not satisfied with the existing organs an
features of the human being and wants to alter them by surgical operations with
a view to improve them. He can only argue like this: ---

The present organs and features of the human being have come down to
us from a very distant past when the conditions of the world were far different
from what they are now. Unfortunately his biological environment of those days
could not permit him to evolve better organs and features than these. In this age
of automobiles and aero planes, bombs and rockets, supersonic speeds and
stratospheric flights, the ears of man should have a mechanism by which they
can be made proof against loud and shrill noise of all kinds at will, and the eyes
of man should be able to see much farther off into the atmosphere than they can
at present. As an expert surgeon and biologist I have devised a method by which
these qualities can be easily imparted to the ears and eyes of man by a series of
surgical operations. I have, moreover, conceived of a new superior artistic design
of the human face in which the relative positions of eyes, ears, nose and lips are
changed a little and this change can be brought about by the same surgical
operations. Let the Government start a clinic under me so that these operations
may be carried out on a large scale for the good of the community.
The surgeon-biologist may succeed in convening some people but he forgets
that the poor human beings whom he wants to improve and bring up-to-date in
this way may not survive his surgical operations (they may involve such a huge
loss of blood) at all or may live the rest of their lives as invalids. He also forgets
that the law of biological heredity will not cooperate with him and his alterations
will not be inherited by future generations whose organs and features will
nevertheless continue to be as they were at the time the human race was born.
Natures reply to such a mad biologist will be: --We have given a definite set of organs and features to the human being
as the last and the most perfect of the species. If you think they are the outcome
of an unfortunate accidenta certain unfavourable biological environmentfrom
which we could not save man, you are grossly mistaken. For how could we have
in that case given him the rest of his qualitiescerebral and intellectualwhich
make him the Perfect Biological Form capable of bearing the burden of all future
evolution, which you know him to be. These organs of man go with the rest of his
qualities as a perfect species and make him a single integrated whole suited
eminently to our aspirations regarding the future of the Universe.
You cannot change any part of this whole without damaging its integrity
and robbing it of its latent capacity to continue the process of evolution till the
end. These organs of man are the best that could be possible considering
everything. Whether they appear to you to be good or bad we have ordained that
they must remain as they are. And we tell you, we have taken upon ourselves to
protect them as they are and you cannot change them, however much you may
endeavour to do so. As a perfect species, the human race is, however, gifted with
an amount of intelligence which will enable them to attain to such a high stage of
intellectual and scientific advancement that they will invent instruments by which
they will be able to add the usefulness of these organs and turn them to their
best possible advantage under all circumstances, for the sake of their continued
evolution of the future.
Very much similar is the case of the jurist-ideologist who is not satisfied with
the existing laws and institutions of Islam and wants to alter them with the help of
laws to be enforced by the Government. He argues like this:

The present laws and institutions of Islam have come down to us from a
very distant past when the Conditions of society were far different from what they
are now. Unfortunately the ideological environment of the Muslim Community in
those days could not permit them to evolve better laws and institutions than
these. In this age of Democracy and Freedom, Industrialization and intellectual
Advancement, Economic and sex equality, the laws and institutions of Islam must
be changed for fit the new conditions. I have a proposal regarding the manner in
which they can be changed for this purpose. Let the Government accept my
proposal and enforce the new laws suggested by me at the point of the sword for
the general good of the Muslim Community.
Like our biologist he may also succeed in convincing some people. But he
does not know that the Muslims w reconcile themselves to these laws after they
are enforced may, instead d becoming better and up-to-date Muslims, not remain
Muslims at alltheir faith in Islam as the last of the Divinely Revealed ideologies
may be shattered so muchor may live the rest of their lives as bad Muslims or
half Muslims only. Nor does he know that the law of ideological heredity will not
co-operate with him and that true Muslims, who undoubtedly constitute the
majority of the community, will never feel reconciled to these laws and will insist
on the continuation of the original laws of Islam given to them by their Prophet at
the time the community was born.
Natures reply to such an ideologist will be: --We have given a definite set of laws and institutions to the Muslim
Community as the last and the Most Perfect of the ideological forms of life. If you
think they are the outcome of an unfortunate accidenta certain unfavorable
ideological environmentfrom which we could not save the community, you are
grossly mistaken. For how could we have in that case given it the rest of its
qualitiesideological and spiritualwhich make it the Perfect ideological Form,
capable of bearing the burden of all future evolution, which, you profess, you
believe it to be. These laws and institutions of Islam go with the rest of its
characteristics as a Perfect Ideological Form and make it a single integrated
whole suited eminently to our aspirations regarding the future of the Universe.
You cannot change any part of this whole without demaging its integrity and
robbing it of its latent capacity to continue the evolution of the human race till the
end. These laws of the Muslim Community are best that could be possible
considering everything. Whether they appear to you to be good or bad, we have
ordained that they must remain as they are. And we tell you we have taken upon
ourselves to protect them as they are, and you cannot change them, however
much you may endeavour to do so. As a Perfect Ideological Form, the Muslim
Community is, however gifted with a knowledge of the Perfect Ideal which will
enable them to attain to such a high stage of moral and spiritual advancement
that they will have an outlook on life by which they will be able to add to the
usefulness of these laws and turn them to their best possible advantage, under
all circumstances for the sake of their continued evolution of the future.
(4) Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) lived in the full view of history.
As a consequence not only every word of the Holy Quran but also every
important utterance of the Prophet and every important event of his life are
preserved faithfully to this day. The fact that a large number of the
traditions attributed wrong to him by alien or interested people were

discovered and rejected by a consensus of learned opinion among the

Muslims within a short period of the emergence of Islam and that there is
still a difference of opinion among them about a few traditions only shows
how keen the Muslims are to differentiate the true from the false in the
historical material relating to the life of the Prophet. The followers of
Muhammad (peace be upon him) have evolved a science and a
methodology for testing the veracity of his tradition, which have no parallel
in the history of other peoples.
(5) It is a part of the teachings of Islam: --(a) That Muhammad (peace be upon him) brings to a perfection the
teachings of all the earlier prophets.
The Quran says: --Today I have perfected for you your ideology and completed my favour
to you and chosen for you Islam as an ideology.
(5:3)
(b) That Mohammad (peace be upon him) is the Last of the Prophets.
There will be no Prophet after him. The Quran says
Mohammad is not the father of any of your males but the apostle of
Allah and the Last of the Prophets. (33:40).
The Prophet (peace be upon him) announced;
There will be no prophet after me.
(c) That Mohammad (peace be upon him) comes for the guidance of the
whole of the human race. The Quran says: --And we have not sent thee but as a bearer of good news and as a
warner to all mankind. (34:28).
(d) That his ideology will prevail all other ideologies whether the opponents
of Islam may like it or not. The Quran says:
They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths and Allah will
allow nothing save the perfection of His light though the followers of other
ideologies be averse.
He it is who sent His Messenger with guidance and the ideology of Truth
so that He may cause it to prevail over all other ideologies though the followers of
wrong ideologies be averse.
(9:32,33).
(e) That his teachings will remain intact in theory as well as in practice for
the guidance of mankind till the end of the world. The Quran says: --Surely we have revealed the Reminder and surely, we are its Guardian.
(15:9).
The Prophet predicted that his community will split up into a number of Sects but
out of these sects there will always be one that will continue to be on the right
path till the end of the world and it will be the sect that will follow him and his
companions strictly.
Those who will follow my creed and that of my companions.

The sect which strictly follows the Prophet and his companions happens to
constitute the majority of the Muslim Community. The major part of the Muslim
Community has never accepted any innovations or miss-interpretations of the
true creed of Islam traceable by history and tradition to the Prophet and his
companions. Such innovations and miss-interpretations of Islam, some of which
have now become separate isms, are caused by the miss-direction of some of
the potentialities of the Perfect ideology owing to the influence of unfavourable
ideological environment. They have always been ignored by the majority of
Muslims as defections from true Islam and have always died their natural death
after some time, thus meeting the fate of all biological or ideological deviations
from the main line of evolution, while true Islam has passed on intact through the
centuries to the succeeding generations of the community.
(f) That his followers will be the leaders of mankind. The Quran says:
You are the best community raised up for the guidance of mankind.
You enjoin good and forbid evil and you believe in Allah. (3:109).
(g) That the discovery of scientific facts relating to the external world (facts
of Physics and Biology) and to the human mind (facts of Psychology) will
ultimately prove the truth of the Quran to the entire satisfaction of the nonbelievers. Thus the Quran says: --We will soon show them our signs (i.e. the laws of nature working) in
the external universe and in their own minds until it is quite clear to them that the
Quran is Truth.
Scientific facts relating to the two domains of existence--- the domain of the
internal mind of man and the domain of the external universemust be
consistent with each other. If the nature of man really demands a particular
ideology according to the laws of Psychology, the laws of Physics and Biology
cannot be irrelevant to that ideology. If an ideology is really i.e. if it is really an
application of the idea of Truth to all aspects of natural human activity, it must be
true and therefore perfectly relevant to all the scientific facts belonging to the
spheres of Physics, Biology and Psychology which it may be possible for man to
discover and its relevance to these facts must be established more and more
definitely with their accumulation. In other words, the ever increasing sum-total of
scientific facts that man may come to have at his disposal from time must prove
more and more consistent with the Perfect ideology and less and less consistent
with every other ideology till there is a stage when all possible rational
justification is easily ascertained to lie on the side of the Perfect Ideology and to
be completely lost to every other ideology in the world. This stage can be
reached by only one ideology in the world and not by two or more since there can
be only one ideology that can be true and hence perfectly relevant to all the
scientific facts. In the above verse the Holy Quran predicts that due course of
time this stage will be reached by Islam. It may be noted that this prediction of
Quran is wonderfully consistent with the assertion quoted earlier that Islam is the
Perfect and Ultimate Ideology of mankind destined to dominate the world.
The question arises: When is Islam going to reach the stage predicted by
the Holy Quran, when the discovery of scientific facts will establish its intellectual
justification sufficiently to convince the non-believers? My answer is that Islam
has already reached that stage and the intellectual justification of Islam that will

ultimately convince the world of its truth has already emerged and it is the
Philosophy of Self which was out lined by Iqbal and developed subsequently by
some of his followers. This philosophy which is on the one hand a scientific
interpretation of the nature of man and the Universe and on the other hand a
scientific interpretation of the fundamentals of Islam, is certain to be accepted by
the intellectual world sooner or later as the only philosophy of the Universe that is
true.
I briefly explain the reason.
The core of every philosophical system, which is really the starting point of
the process of its formulation, is the philosopher ideal or intuition or vision of the
Reality of the Universe. The philosopher attempts to show that all the known
facts of existence---and they can be either the facts of Physics or Biology or
Psychologyare relevant only to his view of Reality of his ideal of human life
which may be either true and perfect or wrong and imperfect. When it is wrong
and imperfect the facts of existence cannot be relevant to it and the attempt that
he makes to show that they are so, does not succeed. His reasoning becomes
faulty and the philosophical system that he evolves becomes incoherent and
discrepant. Such has been the case with every one of the philosophies of the
past because every one of them was based on an imperfect ideal or an
incomplete intuition or vision of Reality. The Philosophy of Self is the first
systematic modern philosophy that has come to be founded on the Perfect Ideal.
Its central idea viz., that the urge for an ideal is the sole dynamic power of human
activity, is perfectly relevant to all the scientific facts known up to date. These
facts have, therefore, found their place in it in a perfectly natural and national
order, thus giving it the coherence and the wholeness of a perfect philosophy,
capable of inspiring its readers with the conviction that it is the only Physico-BioPsychological explanation of the universe that is possible and hence the only one
that is true. Thus my conclusion that Islam is the ultimate ideology of mankind
does not depend only on the analogy between animal species and human
communities explained above. Its validity is rationally tested and verified by the
Philosophy of Self.
The fact that the Philosophy of Self has properly absorbed all scientific facts
(real scientific facts) known so far, is an indication that it has also capacity to
absorb all such facts that may be discovered by man in future. The reason is that
a truth is always relevant to all other truths. It attracts them and they attract it. All
truths belong to a single system, a single family. Hence a Philosophy in which a
few truths have already found their proper place, is the only one in which all of
them can find their proper place. The greater the number of scientific facts which
such a philosophy has absorbed, the greater will be its affinity as a whole for
other scientific facts not yet discovered. It will not be possible to discover any
scientific facts which contradict such a philosophy. If it appears at any time that
such scientific facts have actually come to light, the scientists will have very good
reason to suspect the validity of their own conclusions and to revise their
research with a view to locate the error. Such a philosophy will be, therefore, by
its nature, a guide to the scientists in their research.
This means that as scientific knowledge will accumulate the Philosophy of
Self will gain in the clarity and force of its arguments and become more and more
convincing till mankind will be compelled by their own inner urge for Beauty and

Truth to discard all other philosophies and to accept it as the only true philosophy
of the nature of man and the Universe.
If hitherto the philosophers of mankind were not able to evolve a true or
perfect philosophy, it was not their fault. It was not possible to evolve it earlier. It
could not have come into existence as long as the teachings of the Prophets had
not brought our knowledge of the Perfect Ideal and the meaning it has for the
various aspects of natural human activity to a stage of perfection. This was
achieved by man with the arrival of Muhammad (peace be upon him), Again it
could not have come into existence even when mankind had acquired the
requisite amount of knowledge of the Perfect Ideal so long as the mass of
scientific knowledge at all levels of existence had not accumulated sufficiently to
indicate its relevance to the Perfect Ideal and to the Perfect Ideal alone. This
happened in the twentieth century when it became possible for man to make
important discoveries in the spheres of Physics, Biology and Psychology which
definitely favored a spiritual interpretation of the Universe. An lqbal or a
philosophy of the Self would not have been possible in the nineteenth century or
in the beginning of the advent of Islam. That is why the emergence of a
convincing philosophy of Islam is mentioned in the Holy Quran as a prophesy to
be fulfilled in future.
It is now too well-known in this age of great of intellectual advancement that
the only sphere in which the knowledge of man has made no progress
whatsoever, so far, is that of his own nature and that the present crisis in world
affairs is due mainly to the ignorance of man about himself. A scientific
knowledge of human nature is thus the crying need of mankind at present. The
Philosophy of Self fulfills this great need of hour.
The intellectual world will have to accept the philosophy of Self on
account of its supreme intellectual justification as well as on account of its dire
need to mankind at present. This philosophy is, therefore, an intellectual weapon
in the hands of Islam before which all the other ideologies, with all their
armaments, will ultimately find themselves helpless. For armaments can destroy
nations and countries but cannot destroy the force of ideas the beauty and truth
of which is able to conquer the hearts of men and women all over the world. The
potential contribution of Islam to World Peace is that it alone has the capacity to
unify the human race finally and permanently by attracting them all to the Beauty
and truth of its ideas.