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Banstead Christadelphians
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The Taj Mahal is perhaps the most famous of India’s ancient monuments.  It was built as the mausoleum of Arjumand Banu Bagam, known as Mumtaz Mahal (the Elect of the Palace), who was the wife of Shah Jahan.  She died in 1631, while on a military campaign with her husband.  The building was 20 years in construction and 20,000 men were said to have been involved in the project.  The tomb is over 73 metres (240 ft) high and is lavishly decorated with Koranic inscriptions and carved reliefs.  It is raised on a square podium with a minaret at each corner.  In front of the building is a large garden with a pool at its centre.  Mosques and tombs of other less favoured wives stand nearby. 

This magnificent building reminds us that the influence of Islam spread far beyond its beginnings in western Arabia in the 7th Century AD.  The territorial influence of the Arabian rulers, the Caliphs, took Islam beyond Arabia into sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.  The Ottoman empire, ruled by the Sultans from Constantinople ( Istanbul) from the 15th Century onwards, brought the Islamic religion further into Europe and today there are large Muslim communities throughout the Western world.   God’s Word, the Bible, was completed over 500 years before Mohammed came on the scene.  We believe that the Bible alone is God’s inspired message to mankind and religious beliefs that conflict with its message cannot be relied on. 

We wait for the time when God will intervene to re-establish the one true Faith as the only world-wide religion in the age to come, as foretold by the prophets of Israel: 

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it’ [Isaiah 2.2]

More information
The Rise of Islam