preoccupation: I have throughout been anxious to discover how much one can be said to know and with what degree of certainty or doubtfulness.”1 For this purpose, Russell made a special study of four branches

faces a two-sided difficulty. On the one hand, if we concede that the ultimate truth is beyond us, by what compass are our lives to be guided? On the other hand, when we strenuously try to penetrate life’s

mysteries, success seems awesomely remote. “Philosophy from ancient times has made long claims, but what it

his own country, the Principal asked him what branch of history he would like to teach. “Indian history,” was his immediate reply. The Principal then asked him what he knew about the subject. His answer was

his demeanour which struck the Principal as being sincere and determined, for he gave the young man what for him was going to be a very difficult appointment. Undaunted by the task ahead of him, Fr. Heras

Great. He inherited the land of Greece and became its king. But this was less than ideal for him as what he wanted was to conquer the whole world. Thus he embarked in pursuit of his goal with his army, but

have surely been successful, but because of the pursuit of an ideal he lost even what he had already attained, while what he had aimed for was never to be achieved. The only way to establish peace in this

bark placed in a corner and small quantity of barley. On seeing this, I could not help but weep. ‘What makes you weep? the Prophet asked. “The Roman and Persian emperors enjoy all worldly comforts, yet

God—are suffering so much,’ I replied. On hearing these words, the Prophet sat up and said, ‘Umar, what on earth do you mean? Don’t you want those people to have the world and we to have the Hereafter?”

hardly be surprising then if we accept such an extraordinary man to have been a messenger of God. What would be surprising, on the contrary, would be to refuse

ASK MAULANAYour Questions Answered What comprehensive advice would you give related to welfare, both for this world and for the Hereafter? In the light of the Quran, my answer is, “Adopt the method of

reach its destination. The importance of patience in life is like the importance of a brake in a car. What is the importance of trials in our lives? According to a Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad said: “Indeed

companions, who had learned it by rote in what is now its present order; and, in writing — on pieces of paper and other materials, preserved by the companions. What must be noted here is that the order existed

universe. But what the atheist thinkers did was divert the courses of scientific discovery towards atheism. They held that whatever has been proved is an end and not the cause. But what is the proof that

visitant! Would that you knew what the nightly visitant is! It is the star of piercing brightness. For every soul there is a guardian watching over it. Let man reflect from what he is created. He is created

walls, furniture, a few material objects and some human occupants. To all outward appearances, that is what the room adds up to. But the moment we switch on the TV set, we are introduced to a hitherto unsuspected

apprehended through any of the normal human senses; no switch can be turned on to make us understand what it is really like. Only death can do this for us. And, when we reopen our eyes after death, we find

proof of their prophethood. “Tell us,” they said, “What miracle have you brought as proof of your prophethood?” The Prophet listened in silence to what they had to say, then he read out these concluding