s, "men should be judged,
not by the letter of their sacred books, but by what they actually
do."[13]

Modern Moslem liberalism, as we have seen, received its first
encouragement from the discovery of the old Motazelite literature of
nearly a thousand years before. To be sure, Islam had never been quite
destitute of liberal minds. Even in its darkest days a few voices had
been raised against the prevailing obscurantism. For example, in the
sixteenth century the celebrated El-Gharani had written: "It is not at
all impossible that God may hold in reserve for men of the future
perceptions that have not been vouchsafed to the men of the past. Divine
munificence never ceases to pour benefits and enlightenment into the
hearts of wise men of every age."[14] These isolated voices from Islam's
Dark Time helped to encourage the modern reformers, and by the middle of
the nineteenth century every Moslem land had its group of
forward-looking men. At first their numbers were, of course,
insignificant, and of course they drew down upon themselves the
anathemas of the fanatic Mollahs[15] and the hatred of the ignorant
multitude. The first country where the reformers made their influence
definitely felt was in India. Here a group headed by the famous Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan started an important liberal movement, founding associations,
publishing books and newspapers, and establishing the well-known college
of Aligarh. Sir Syed Ahmed is a good type of the early liberal
reformers. Conservative in temperament and perfectly orthodox in his
theology, he yet denounced the current decadence of Islam with truly
Wahabi fervour. He also was frankly appreciative of Western ideas and
eager to assimilate the many good things which the West had to offer. As
he wrote in 1867: "We must study European scientific works, even though
they are not written by Moslems and though we may find in them things
contrary to the teachings of the Koran. We should imitate the Arabs of
olden days, who did not fear to shake their faith by studying
Pythagoras."[16]

This nucleus of Indian Moslem liberals rapidly grew in strength,
producing able leaders like Moulvie Cheragh Ali and Syed Amir Ali, whose
scholarly works in faultless English are known throughout the world.[17]
These men called themselves "Neo-Motazelites" and boldly advocated
reforms such as a thorough overhauling of the sheriat and a general
modernization of Islam. Their view-point is well set forth by another