and to give it a fair trial. If they earnestly do so, it assures them that
they will, before long, overcome all the hostile forces of decay and
destruction and rise from the depths of their present misery to the
heights of achievement and glory. And the essence of the Social
Order prescribed by the Qur’an is simply this: the forces of nature
should be subdued and the gains of the victory should be utilised
for the development and progress of mankind at large in
accordance with the eternal values enshrined in the Revealed Book
of Allah: for,
Only that way of life can survive which is beneficial for the whole of
mankind (13:17).
I have given the best part of my life to a study of the solution that
the Qur’an offers to the problems, difficulties and dangers that
beset humanity in the present times. I have been writing on the
subject for nearly a quarter of a century and my writings have
reached all parts of the land. But they have so far been available only
in the Urdu language. Now I have felt called upon to present to a
wider audience the Qur’anic solutions to contemporary problems
through the medium of English. My chief purpose is to show that
man has no reason to feel overwhelmed by the apparently insoluble
problems that face him or look upon himself as helpless and
despicable, and resign in despair. There is still a source to which he
may turn for light and hope, and if he follows the light, there is no
doubt that the will overcome the problems that seem to him
insoluble and will be able to go through further stages of evolution
with confidence.
One of the serious difficulties, which I have encountered in this
effort, relates to the translation in English of the Qur’anic terms
and phraseology bearing on deen. Most of the prevalent English
equivalents for the Arabic terms are associated with madhhab, and if
I were to use them, it would be well-nigh impossible to distinguish
deen from madhhab, and the main purpose of the work would be
defeated. It might be said that I could have chosen suitable
equivalents from the English vocabulary; but this is in fact
impossible, for the English vocabulary does not offer words and
phrases that could convey precisely the exact sense of the relevant
Qur’anic terms. Take, for instance, the word deen itself. It has no
exact equivalent in the English language. The same exactly is the
reason why it is practically impossible to translate the Qur’an
Introduction 15