A Present to Kings — Page 39
( 39 ) dul Qadir Gilanee, Hazrat Shahab-ud-Din Suharwardi, Hazrat. Baha-ud-Din Naqshbandi and Hazrat Moin-ud-Din Chistee (may. God be pleased with them all) with bundreds of successors who flourished in each school, and on the other hand there are besides these, many other holy men who enjoyed Divine propinquity and were graced with Divine communion. If they are enumerated their number will pass from thousands to lacs. These were men whose lives were for their contemporaries a living evidence of the truth of Islam. Thus it is not simply the verses of the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Holy. Prophet (peace be on him) which prove the existence of such men, but actual events also testify that Islam has never been bare of such holy spirits who have attained the highest stages of spiritual development and thus borne witness to Islam being a living faith. . No body can deny the fact that there is no difference in the use of a tree which has ceased to bear fruit and of one that is barren by nature. Because when fruit-bearing ceases the only use of the tree is to serve as fuel. Thus a religion which has ceased to bring fresh fruits and of which one can only say that some time it used to bring fruits is no more fit to be kept among the fruit-bearing trees, rather it deserves to be consigned to the fire. The fruit of a religion consists in the production of such perfect men as enjoy the closest relation with Almighty. God, men whose passions have suffered a death and who bear with them such manifest signs, that these persons may serve for others as a proof of the truth of their faith. If then the other religions are deficient in producing such men as claim to have attained Divine propinquity by following their respective systems, and to have been blessed with the high felicity of. Divine converse, and may say that their faith is not based upon mere hearsay, but is grounded upon experience, then such religions are like fruitless trees and have no right to proclaim their truth. Even if it be conceded that at some previous time those systems used to bring fruits, still they can not for that fact be now deemed worthy of admiration. It can not be a matter of pride for the owner of any garden that at some