God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
~ 381 ~
inspiration is superhuman. To sum up, here is an
incident which occurred in England, as related by
Inayat-ullah Mashriqi. “It was Sunday,” he writes,
“the year 1909. It was raining hard. I had gone out
on some errand when I saw the famous Cambridge
University astronomer, Sir James Jeans, with a Bible
clutched under his arm, on his way to Church.
Coming closer I greeted him, but he did not reply.
When I greeted him again, he looked at me and
asked, ‘What do you want? ‘Two things, I replied.
‘Firstly, the rain is pouring down, but you have not
opened your umbrella. ‘Sir James smiled at his own
absent-mindedness and opened his umbrella.
‘Secondly’, I continued, ‘I would like to know that a
man of universal fame such as yourself is doing—
going to pray in Church?’ Sir James paused for a
while, then, looking at me, he said, ‘Come and have
tea with me this evening.’ So I went along to his
house that afternoon. At exactly 4 o’clock, Lady
James appeared. ‘Sir James is waiting for you’, she
said. I went inside, where tea was ready on the
table. Sir James was lost in thought. ‘What was your
question again?’ he asked, and without waiting for
an answer, he went off into an inspiring description
of the creation of the celestial bodies and the
