veils which eclipse the sun of Islam... and prevent it illuminating mankind have begun to disperse." The sings of dawn were appearing then, in 1911. He later added that the true dawn began in 1371, that is, 1951, when a number of Islamic countries were gaining their independenee. Or even if that was the false dawn, the true dawn would break in forty to fifty years' time. He was absolutely insistent on it. The obstacles were as follows:

The first three obstacles were "the Europeans' ignorance, their barbarity at that time, and their bigotry in their religion. These three obstacles have been destroyed by the virtues of knowledge and civilization, and they have begun to disperse."

The fourth and the fifth were "the domination and arbitrary power of the clergy and religious leaders, and the fact that the Europeans obeyed and followed them blindly. These two obstacles have also started to disappear with the rise among mankind of the idea of freedom and the desire to search for the truth."

The sixth and seventh obstacles were "the despotism that was with us and our immorality and degeneracy that arose from opposing the Seriat... The fact that the separate despotic power residing in a single individual is now declining indicates that the fearful despotism of larger groups in society and of committees will also decline in thirty to forty years time. And the great upsurge in Islamic zeal together with the fact that the ugly results of immorality are becoming apparent show that these two obstacles are about to decline; ratter, that they have begun to do so. God willing, they will completely disappear in the future."

The eighth obstacle was that "since certain positive matters of modern science were imagined to oppose and be contrary to the apparent meanings of the truths of Islam, it prevented, to some extent, their prevailing in the past." That is to say, scientists and philosophers opposed Islam because they did not understand its true meaning, but, "after learning the truth, even the most opinionated