Comparative Religion
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Geoffrey Parrinder, Comparative Religion, bahai-library.com.
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Comparative Religion

Geoffrey Parrinder
pp. 23, 82, 107-109

London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962

1. Text

[page 23]

...
But Asian religions are also here in our midst. Not only
have many Europeans been to the East, but orientals come
to the West in increasing numbers. The Times in 1959
printed an article on 'Eastern Faiths in Britain'. This was
mostly on London and listed some of the Muslim mosques,
Buddhist temples, Ramakrishna and Shanti Sadan missions,
and smaller temples of Sikhs, Parsis, Sufis and Bahá'ís. Many
of these places of worship exist to serve the spiritual needs
of their own followers. But some are openly propagandist
and seek to win Europeans from agnosticism or Christianity.

...

[page 82]

...
Almost contemporary with Ramakrishna, but in the
Muslim environment of Persia (a land however which has
undergone the influence of many religions, and the home of
the Sufi mystics with their broad spirit), lived the Bab, the
new prophet of the Bahá'í religion founded by his follower
Bahá'u'lláh. The Bahá'í religion recognizes other religions,
but claims to complete them. Muhammad is accepted as the
'seal of the prophets', but the last prophet in the Age of
Promise. Now the Bab has closed that past age and opened
the present Age of Fulfilment. Once again a syncretistic religion
turns to missionary activity to convert men of other
faiths to its own membership.
...

[page 107]

...

Similarly in Islam there has been such reaction and
revolution that a new situation must be recognized. Islamic
reaction to modern times has taken two main forms, first
there is the Puritan reform of the Wahhabi of Arabia, who
control the sacred shrines, try to expunge corrupt practices
like saint-worship, and return to primitive forms of !slam.
There is no doubt of their fervour and piety, and a similar
reaction may be seen among the Senussi of Cyrenaica. On
the other hand are the reforming movements, particularly
strong in Egypt and Pakistan, where many of the leaders
have been educated in western schools and universities. Perhaps
their greatest representative was Sir Mohammad Iqbal,
whose Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is still
significant. In Turkey the revolution went the furthest and
rejection of many old customs, and the authority of
traditional Islamic law, was most sweeping. Yet the Turks
claim not to have renounced Islam but to have got rid of
priestcraft, and to be true Muslims by re-stating the religion
in modern terms. They have achieved quickly and violently
what is being done slowly but surely elsewhere in the
Muslim world, and the Turks regard themselves as leaders
for the Arab people to follow, as they have done for
centuries.

These reformations have also produced offshoots in sects,

[page 108]

such as the Ahmadiyya which claim Ghulam Ahmad (died 1908) as Messiah and Mahdi and teach a number of variant doctrines from the orthodox. The Bahá'í movement also, found in Europe and America as well as the East, began as a revival but moved outside Islam to become a universal religion, with the Bab as the latest prophet. Those religions that claim they are best because latest, always run the risk of being counter-challenged by a new prophet. But these movements are now outside the main Islamic revival, and conversations with Islam would not be fruitfully directed to them.
...

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-- Comparative Religion (Used by permission of the curator)