He, for the first time, translated Darwin's 'Origin of...

He, for the first time, translated Darwin's 'Origin of Species' into Arabic, along with the German scientist Boucher's commentary on it, giving it the name of 'A weapon against religious beliefs". Though he is a materialist, he does not feel shy of admiring Islam and its great founder. He appreciates Islam as a living religion, applicable to all times.

This man, in the second volume of his book "Philosophy of Evolution", which he has published in Arabic, has written an article under the caption "The Qur'an and Civilisation". He has written this article to refute a non-Muslim who had travelled in the Muslim countries and had expressed the opinion that Islam was responsible for the decline of the Muslims. Shibli Shama'il has tried to prove that actually the cause of the decline of the Muslims is their deviation from the social teachings of Islam.

Those Europeans who attack Islam, either do not know it or criticise it with the bad intention of making the people of the East sceptical about their laws and their system with a view to keeping them under the western tutelage. During our time the question, whether Islam is compatible with the present age, has become a burning question. We meet a cross-section of people, especially those belonging to the educated class and we find that this question is asked more often than other questions.

OBJECTIONS Sometimes these people give a philosophical turn to their query and say that everything in this world is subject to change. Nothing is static and stationary, human society being no exception. Then, how can a body of laws remain unchanged through the ages? If we look at this question from a purely philosophical point of view, the answer is simple. It is the material things of the world which are ever changing; which grow and decline, and which are subject to evolution and decay.

As for the universal laws, they do not change. For example, all living things have evolved and continue to evolve according to certain laws which have been set forth by the scientists. The living things themselves are, no doubt, ever changing, but the laws of their evolution and development are not subject to any change. And we are at present talking about the laws.