On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s seventieth birthday, Albert Einstein said that future generations would hardly believe that a man like Gandhi actually walked upon this earth. At that time Abraham Pais was investigating the philosophical basis of Einstein’s scientific thought. Upon meeting Einstein, he asked him why he had characterized Gandhi’s personality in such an extraordinary manner. Einstein’s reply to this question was very simple: “Gandhi hated nobody, not even the British.”
One commentator on Abraham Pais’ book on Einstein has observed: “It helps us to grasp the special quality of mind and heart that Gandhi possessed and which Einstein admired so profoundly. In comparing his personality, we learn something about the morphology of human genius at its highest level—that of prophethood.” (The Times of India, November 13, 1983)
Many great Muslim leaders were contemporaries of Mahatma Gandhi. But Einstein’s evaluation of Gandhi could hardly be applied to anyone of them with any certainty. Hatred of western nations has always been the greatest trait of Muslim leaders of this age, whereas Mahatma Gandhi demonstrated how to love one’s friends and foes alike.
The prophets taught us to love other nations. They saw all non-Muslims as being in dire need of having the word of God conveyed to them. It was their mission to satisfy that need. Muslims, as heirs to the prophetic mission, should have taught the prophetic lessons of moral rectitude and spiritual elevation through love and compassion towards others. This, the Muslims have failed to do.
Mahatma Gandhi, on the other hand, provided a living example of brotherly love for all nations. For this reason he was acknowledged throughout the world as an ethical prophet, although not, in actual fact, a prophet.
When the prophet’s successors fail to demonstrate the prophetic character, raising barriers of hatred instead of cementing bonds of love, we cannot blame people for taking others as their “prophets.” (“Subtle is the Lord”: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein by Abraham Pais (Clarendon Press, Oxford.) □
