Page 157 - Demo

Creator, and not by outward ostentatious practices and153rituals. These latter will benefit us only when the faith isgenuine, and the submission voluntary and unconditional.Surely, the angels did not sing in honour of private or individual peace, which is, after all, limited to a comparatively small number of godly men; nor did they do so in praise of an imaginary universal peace, which would mean a total disarmament of nations and a cessation of wars and hostilities. No, neither of these two specific peices wasthe object of this melody. The spiritual peace is a tranquillity of heart and conscience granted byAllah as a grace and blessing only to those few believers who have made great progress in piety and spiritual life, and love Him, above all, and sacrifice every other love for His.It was neither a social nor a political peace for the people or Israel; for the history of the last twenty centuries shows the very contrary. The angels could not, therefore, sing and announce a peace that could never be realized or accomplished.Weareforced,then,infaceofthesubsequent historicalfactsontheonehand,andbytheimportanceofthe occasion, aswell asthe quarterfromwhich thisremarkable announcementwasmade, on the other,to conclude that this “peace upon earth” was none other than the approaching establishment of the Kingdom of Allah upon earth, which is Islam. The Geek word “Eiriny” stands for the Semitic “Shalom,” “Shlama,” and “Islam.” That is all!The very mention of “a multitude of heavenly hosts” gives the hymn a martial or triumphal character. It is indeed a singular indication of joy on the part of the armies belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven, in favour of their future allies belonging to the Kingdom of God on earth, of which the newly born Babe of Bethlehem wasthe greatest Evangelist and Herald.