NOTES ON ISLAMBY SIR AHMED HUSSAINFOREWORD THE following Notes were enclosed by the author in his weekly letters to his brother and sons who were students in the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh and Birmingham. I persuaded him to allow me to have them printed, as I thought they were suggestive and useful. He has however desired me to say that they should not be regarded as any thing but concise memoranda jotted down at short inter vals between the busy hours of his official life as general answers to questions put to him. They contain some passages which are too concise or abstract, if not vague or enigmatic. But, the author says, he left them designedly so in order to induce his readers to try to understand them or at least to seek explanation and illustration. Numerous footnotes have been added for the same purpose. He frankly admits that his view of Islam is neither quite orthodox nor quite heterodox but something midway between the two. It was put forward in order to make his boys think for themselves and argue with him. The first three Notes may be f skipped at the first reading.Banganapalle,11th August 1922.CONTENTS FOREWORD MUSLIM PRAYER NOTE: INTRODUCTION THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE QURAN WHAT is RELIGION? WHAT is TRUE ISLAM? WHAT is NOT ISLAM? ISLAM AND NOT ISLAM WHY is ISLAM THE BEST RELIGION ? UNITY UNION PERFECTION SELFHELP MODERATION VIA MEDIA EVOLUTION SURVIVAL RELIGION BEGINS WITH THE FEAR OF THE LORD AND ENDS IN THE LOVE OF MAN APPENDIX MUSLIM REFORMATION THE MUSLIM PRAYER Surai FatihaPraise be to Thee my God, Lord of the WorldsO Merciful, Compassionate art ThouThe King of all on Day of Reckoning,Thee only do we worship and adore,To Thee, most merciful, we cry for helpO guide as ever more on the straight path,The path of those to whom Thou gracious artOn whom Thine anger falls not then nor now,The path of them that from Thee go not strayAmen Translated by Mushtari Begum of Bejnor and published in the Islamic Review April 1916.Grant that the knowledge I get may be the knowledge worth having.Thomas a Kempis.