Prophet—Jesus—but did not believe in a contemporary one—Muhammad. Except for a few Christians who accepted Islam, those who had been believers

manifestations of human possibilities that emerge from this ever- changing nature of human beings. Islam stresses the importance of patience precisely because one should wait for a future period to come

essence, is a training in humility.FASTING AND MORAL DISCIPLINEAccording to Abu Huraira, the Prophet of Islam once observed: “When any one of you is fasting, he should refrain from all indecencies. He should

their less fortunate brothers. The observance of Zakat is a way of acknowledging this fact of life. Islam desires that private wealth should be considered as belonging to God, and therefore should be spent

According to the Quran, it is akin to providing support to God. Due to this speciality, the Prophet of Islam informed that fasting is preparing oneself for the sake of the divine mission. This is the greatest

with the spelling of the Quraysh, so that it should conform to the accent (lehja) of the Prophet of Islam. Caliph Uthman subsequently ordered that all other copies of the Qur’an, which people had written

loving each other, helping the poor and needy, etc. The same is true of the Quran. When the Prophet of Islam emigrated from Makkah to Madinah, the idolatrous tribes became aggressive towards him. But the Prophet

family. Like any other social unit, this requires an organizer or supervisor. For this special role, Islam has chosen man. Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because God has made some of them

118 In modern times a woman has become an external show- piece, whereas according to the scheme of Islam a woman should stay at home and look after the internal responsibilities. Housekeeping, family requirements

How then, one must ask, do the weak people of Kashmir hope to keep up their futile struggle forever? What is bound to happen, sooner or later, is that the Kashmiri militants will one day tire of fighting

highly-educated Kashmiri Muslim. I observed that what Kashmir needs most desperately today is peace. He replied that they certainly did want peace, but, he asked, what sort of peace? True peace, he said, was inseparable