Jesus says:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled"
What Moses and the earlier Prophets have taught in this respect, we have described already. Christian missionaries have gone to all parts of the world, but Jesus himself had no such plan. The question is not what Christian believers are trying to do. The question is, what was the intention of Jesus himself ? What was the design of God Who sent Jesus? This nobody can express better than Jesus himself and Jesus said clearly:
"I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel"
"For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost."
The teaching of Jesus, therefore, is only for Israel, not for others. It is said that
Jesus exhorted his followers to go to other people:
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"
But to argue from this that Jesus had commanded his followers to take his
Message to peoples other than Israel is not correct. It means only this that the
followers of Jesus were commanded by him to preach his Message to all the tribes of
Israel and not to all nations and peoples as such. Jesus speaks in clear terms:
"Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration
when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"
"I am not sent but unto the lost sleep of the house of Israel."
"It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to east it to dogs."
Again we read:
"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the
way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go
rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Nobody should imagine that the idea here is that Christian preachers should
first go to Israelite towns, then to others. For, to go to the lost sheep of Israel does not
mean only to visit their towns, but to convert them to Christianity. The idea,
therefore, is that until the Israelites have become Christian, no attention is to be paid
to others. Jesus makes it quite clear that the task of preaching to Israel and converting
them will not be completed until his Second Coming. Thus we read:
"But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say
unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be
come"
From this it is clear that Matthew 28:19 requires Christian preachers to establish
Christianity in the towns of Israel and not merely to visit those towns. It is made quite
clear that this duty of preaching to the Israelites will not be over until the Second
Coming. In preaching to others, therefore, while the Second Coming of Jesus had yet
to take place, Christian preachers are acting against the teaching of Jesus.
The apostles also regard it as incorrect to preach the Gospel to non-Israelites.
Thus we read:
"Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about
Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the
word to none but unto the Jews only."
Similarly, when the apostles heard that Peter in one place had preached the
Gospel to non-Israelites, they were annoyed:
"And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision
contended with him, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised, and didst
eat with them."
Before the Holy Prophet of Islam, therefore, nobody addressed a Message to the
whole of mankind; before the Quran, no book addressed itself to the whole of
humanity. It is the Holy Prophet who declared:
"Say, O mankind! truly I am a Messenger to you all from Allah."
The revelation of the Quran, therefore, was meant to remove those differences
and divisions which had come to pass between religion and religion and people and
people, and which had first arisen out of the inevitable limitations of earlier teachings.
If the Quran had not come, these divisions would have endured. The world would
never have known that it had but One Creator, nor would it have realised that its
creation had one large purpose in view. Differences between religions prior to Islam
seem to require rather than to resist the coming of a Teaching which should unite
them all.
The second question is, was not the human mind to undergo the same process
of evolution as the human body had already undergone? And just as the human body
had ultimately reached a certain stability of form, was not the mind (and soul) of man
destined similarly to attain to a stability which was its ultimate end?
Will be continued...
Can't wait, read the full book online at https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Introduction-Study-Holy-Quran.pdf