A Present to Kings — Page 19
( 19 ) soon die. Embellishments depend upon life. If the man should cease to live, there is no value in the embellishments. Thus when Islam itself is nigh being lost and the Mussalmans are daily proving strangers to their religion and are becoming addicted to all kinds of vices, and faith in God is vanishing from their hearts, and when if a man calls himself a Mussalman he merely follows a enstom, at such a time to devote one's mind to material prosperity, and to be jubilant over it is a foolish piece of work. The first object is to revive Islam in the hearts of the Mussalmans. If however, they should remain strangers to it, then their material advancement can certainly be no source of joy. Islam is the soul of the Mussalmans, and when that is lost, there is little value in all these embellishments. . These have only to do with the present life, but when the water of life runs dry, they become a source of pain instead of pleasure. It is a pity that instead of trying to rehabilitate. Islam, the attention of the Mussalmans is fixed upon those in possession of worldly power and the influence which left them through loss of governing power they now seek to regain by trade and by proficiency in modern learnings It would not have mattered if they had kept in view the main object and side by side had continnd the worldly competition: Lut entirely to lose sight of the main object and to be absorbed in the world and in the meantime to let the real disease grow worse is certainly a most dangerous sign. . ISLAM IN TRIAL. . The consequences which have already resulted through the indifference to Islam are a more than sufficient eye-opener. 'There are thousands of men who have already abandoned Islam and embraced other faiths. Men whose forefathers considered it a pride and honour to follow the precepts of Islam, now point to a thonsand defects in this religion. Not to speak of others, even from among the descendants of the Holy Prophet (peace be on him) there are scores of families who have embraced Christianity. Even from this class, which for the sake of the Holy Prophet has been held in universal esteem for the last thirteen hundred years, have sprung up men who now stand