ISLAM AS IT IS by Maulana Waiduddin Khan - page 173

Islam As It Is
The Universality of Islam
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worship which they could both revere, their concept
of individual greatness merged into a shared
consciousness of the greatness of One God. This,
more than anything else, is the source of the spirit
of universal brotherhood which Islam gives to the
world.
It is in teaching the oneness of God, that Islam
teaches the brotherhood of man. This one God of
Islam created the world, and He it is who sustains it
and controls its affairs. Everything man owns is a
gift from God. If God chooses to withhold His
bounty, there is no other being who can give it. God
is infinite, while all other things are finite. This is
the concept which makes of Islam both a
monotheistic and a universal religion.
When a man fully accepts
tawheed
(monotheism) as
his creed, he cannot but attribute all greatness to
God Almighty. All other creatures then become
lesser beings in his sight, and the hierarchies and
forms of discrimination which exist in society
appear to him in their true colours, as things of
man’s own making. The distinctions which have
been set up amongst men on the basis of caste,
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