A Present to Kings — Page 13
( 13 ) being committed by the Mussalmans. There have been instances when even the forbidden degree of relationship has been violated. Their indifference to religion knows no bounds. The rich among them are engrossed in luxury and worldliness. The. Sufia are taken up with songs and kawalis. The Ulemas are engaged in giving false Fatwas and in delivering edifying sermons which they never practise. The younger section of the community, who have imbibed the light of western learning, have gone to the length of denying the existence of. God, and in their own circles designate a belief in the Deity as a doctrine lacking in evidence They consider religion to be a mere fancy and Shariat (religious law) a bondage. The masses take their colour from those with whom they have most to deal. . Lewd women who think it a pride to trade in their charms are found among the Mussalmans to an extent unknown in other communities. . In short the condition is such as can not fail to overcome with grief any sympathetic heart. Only the name of Islam has been left; with regard to actions hardly anything has been left of Islam. . THE REAL OBJECT OF ISLAM. . It is undoubtedly a fact that in Hindustan under the aegis of the British rule, the Mussalmans have made some advance in trade and education. But the progress can hardly be termed as the progress of Islam, because the chief object for which Islam took its birth, was, not worldly prosperity or an advance in material wealth, which have in fact little to do with the main purpose of Islam. That religion does not in the least deserve its name which sets down worldly prosperity as its end and aim. It is possible that some creed which is intended for a particular people or a particular country-like the creeds that flourished anterior to Islam-should have as its object the attainment of worldly prosperity, because it may happen that a nation in a state of degradation and degeneration might wish to attain to power under the cloak of a religion. But the claim of Islam is that it is for all the world and for all peoples; and being a universal faith affects equally the Arab, the Roman or