A Present to Kings — Page 30
( 30 ) doning fighting and quarreling during the Hajj, this time seems to have been specially set apart for these purposes. . In short, though there are some people who still carry out some of the precepts of Shariat (religious law) they do it in a way that their actions fail to produce the effect which ought to have been produced. Their Nimaz, their Roza, their Zakat and their Hajj are just the kind of actions performed by players one of whom sometimes assumes the role of king and takes his seat and holds his court, though actually he is a beggar. Though for a while he styles himself a king and a number of men waits upon him and plays the part of attendants and he commands over them, yet there is no reality in it all; neither it makes him a real king, nor his companions become his attendants and his slaves, and the assumption of kingly role gives him none of the privileges and authority which are the prerogatives of a king. . These people too, like true Nimazis (worshippers) ontwardly perform the ablutions, enter mosques, go through the Nimaz, but all their works are mere make-believe. This worship of theirs has no value in the sight of God, because otherwise (God protect us from such a thought) it will amount to saying that these people fully perform the labour, but God feprives them of the reward which He promised for those who would perform. Nimaz or Roza (fasts) or who would pay the Zakat or perform the Hajj. May God save us from such opinion!. Congregation in the mosque is of no value unless the heart is full of the love of God. The repetition of God's name on the tongue is of no value unless there is remembrance of Him in the heart. It is a pity that this relation of heart has now wholly disappeared. This kind of worship may please men but it cannot be pleasing to God, Who sees not the exterior but sees the heart. In the sight of God that worship has no valne which has no sincerity in it. This is the reason why in spite of devotion, the heart is not purified and the piety and the security from sins which were promised for the truly devout are never attained.