The Young Moslem Looks at Life/Preface
PREFACE
Youth everywhere is interested in the problems of youth, whether they be of their own or other countries and races. It is taken for granted, therefore, that the youth of America, with its ever widening social and humanitarian outlook, will welcome a study of Moslem youth as it faces the problems of life in these days of kaleidoscopic change. These changes affect both the social and the spiritual aspects of life. Old authorities are being questioned, and familiar restraints are being cast aside. Desperate and vain attempts are being made to inherit both worlds—the ancient order of Islam, and the material blessings of Western modern civilization. In practically every Moslem country in the world this tension between the old and the new is growing stronger every year. Finally, something snaps, and we have a new Turkey, a new Persia (now christened Iran), a new Iraq, a new Egypt, and some day we shall have a new Arabia!
In this process a shedding of religious and social ideas inevitably takes place. Moslem youth has a great part to play in this transformation and it is doing it bravely and with courage. The author has attempted (however feebly) to portray not only the significant changes that are taking place, and those which to his thinking must yet take place in Islam, but also the help that must be given by Christianity if the people of Moslem lands are ever to enjoy that fullness of life and purity of character which comes from full and free contact with Jesus Christ. In this connection the Christian churches of the West cannot and dare not shirk their obligation to the world of Islam.
The author has drawn on many sources, and has had the help of many people through the years of his experience to whom he is unspeakably indebted for the material that has gone into this book. He would, however, like to thank especially Miss Ruth Seabury, secretary of education of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, for her helpful counsel on the plan and general line of treatment. He is also deeply indebted to Professor Herrick B. Young, of the Alborz College of Teheran, for his valuable suggestions in connection with the final editing of the text.
Budaun, India
November, 1936