PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.

3

PREFACE.

1. An English reader, unacquainted with the East and with the Muhammadan controversy, will be inclined, on reading this book, to think that the arguments here used on the Christian side are insufficient, being weakly stated and based too much upon the Qur'an. It is hoped that missionaries of experience will not think so. The reason why at first sight the work may seem open to these objections is that the Christian controversialist has to limit his choice of proofs to those which lie within the range of a Muhammadan's knowledge, and this is generally extremely limited. To appeal to the history of the Jews, of the world at large, of his own nation, to criticism of whatever nature, to the Bible, to the opinions of European writers, or anything of the kind, would for the most part be to refer to that of which a Muslim has no knowledge, or at least very little indeed. Should he have read the Bible (except certain extracts torn from their proper context and wrested to support the foregone conclusions of Muhammadan controversial writers), he still denies its authenticity, genuineness, and authority, except again in the case of the most enlightened of the Indian Muslims. It is evident, therefore, that no appeal to the Bible