Islam Rediscovered
24. A Case of Discovery*
~ 428 ~
has been admitted even by Christian writers such as
Edward Montet who, in his book called
“La
propaganda chretienne et ses adversaires Mussalmans”
has written the following: “Islam is a religion that is
essentially rationalistic in the widest sense of this
term, considered etymologically and historically.
The definition of rationalism as a system that bases
religious beliefs on principles furnished by the
reason, applies to it exactly. To believers, the
Muslim creed is summed up in belief in the Unity of
God and in the mission of His Prophet, statements
that, to the religious man rest on the firm basis of
reason. This fidelity to the fundamental dogma of
the religion that has been proclaimed with a
grandeur, majesty, and an invariable purity and
with a note of sure conviction which it is hard to
find surpassed outside the pale of Islam, the
elemental simplicity of the formula in which it is
enunciated, the proof that it gains from the fervid
conviction of the missionaries who propagate it, are
so many causes to explain the success of Muslim
missionary efforts. A creed so precise, so stripped of
all theological complexities and, consequently, so
accessible to the ordinary understanding, might be
expected to possess and does indeed possess a
