Page 158 - Demo

154On various occasions,inthe course ofthese 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, inopposition 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 Sayyidinā 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).