Page 155 - New English Book L

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On various occasions, in the course of these articles, we
have explained that Shalom, in its concrete and practical
sense, has the signification of the religion that is good,
sound, safe, salutary, and the way of peace, in opposition
to the religion that is evil, bad, harmful, destructive, and
the way that conducts towards misery and perdition. It
was in this sense that Allah, in His Message through the
prophecy of Isaiah (xlv.) to Cyrus, used the word Shalom,
as synonymous with good in opposition to evil. This is
precisely the literal, etymological, moral, and practical
interpretation of Islam as the true religion, the powerful
Kingdom of Allah on earth, with its permanent and sound
laws and directions inscribed in the Holy Quran.

Beyond Islam, which literally signifies “making
peace,” any other interpretation or imaginary peace is
irrelevant with the sense in which “Eiriny” is used in this
triumphal angelic anthem. It was in this Islamic sense
of the word that Jesus Christ (pbuh) , in his grand Sermon
on the Mount, said: “Blessed are the Muslims (literally,
“the peacemakers”); for they shall be called the Children
of God” [1] (Matt. v. 9). Moreover, it was precisely the
imaginary peace which Sayyidina Jesus Christ (pbuh)
repudiated when he exclaimed, “Think not that I came to
establish peace upon earth; I did not come to set peace but
a sword” (Matt. x. 34-6); or, as Luke declares “I came to
set fire on the earth …Do you think that I came to establish
peace? I tell you, no; but divisions”(Luke xii. 49-53).

Unless “Eiriny” be understood in the sense of the
Religion of Islam, these two crucial and contradictory
statements of Jesus (pbuh) must remain a riddle, if not
an irretrievable injury which the Christian Church has
committed in having accepted these Gospels an the
“inspired Word of God.”

[1] The expression “children of God” will be treated later on.(the author).