Islam Rediscovered
3. The Concept of God
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other of evil. Some believe in three, as in the form of
the trinity, a construct of the Christians. There are
others who believe in multitudes of gods, as in
Hinduism.
Now, of these concepts which should be held right
and which wrong? The Qur’an gives us a clear
assertion on this subject: There are only two forms
of credible knowledge, that is, revealed knowledge
and scientific knowledge. (46:4)
Let us first take revealed knowledge. When we
make a survey of revealed scriptures, the first
question that arises is which one of them is to be
regarded as authentic? Apparently, in the world of
today, there are many religious books which are
said by their adherents to enshrine God’s
revelations. But when these books are judged on the
basis of history, we find that none of them can
sustain their credibility on purely historical
grounds. We have no way of knowing, as a matter
of historical record, precisely when and how these
books came into existence, what their original
language was, how they were preserved after the
First Giver, how they reached later generations of
