A Present to Kings — Page 3
( 3 ) world of reality. This epistle, which out of regard for Your. Highness's exalted rank, and for the benefit of the public at large, has been printed before transmission to Your Highness, is not deemed a proper place to relate the dream. So much however may be said, that I saw that in an elaborate discourse,. I was explaining to Your Highness all about this movement. . And what I spoke to Your Highness in my dream, a portion of the same, such as I happened to recollect, together with some additions, I now beg to submit to Your Highness in the form of this epistle. May God make it productive of good results and may He make Your Highness the means of guidance for a host of other people. Amen, Great God, Amen!. Your Highness is well aware that the condition in which. Islam finds itself in the world to-day is without a parallel in any previous age And when we compare its present condition with that of its early days, the vast gulf of difference is sure to make us shudder. That was a time when the condition of Islam was the humblest possible. The Holy. Prophet was all alone preaching to people the truth of the new faith. . There was no Moulvi to assist him, nor an alem nor any waiz. There was no kingdom to uphold the faith, nor any army nor any soldier to defend the faith against the attack of foes. It was the blessed personality of His Holy. Prophet alone that in spite of innumerable difficulties and dangers, in a place like Mecca (where the inhabitants had their single means of livelihood in service at the idol-temples and were held in esteem in the whole of Arabia for being the priests of the idols) was employed night and day in the uprooting of polytheism. A few well disposed and good-natured people had listened to his pure teachings and believed in his truth, but the mass of hard-hearted and evil-disposed people had set themselves upon effecting his ruin and were seeking all possible means to oppose and destroy his faith. At length his followers had to fly from their homes, and he himself had to remove to Medina. The new city proved for him a source of greater difficulties and his greatness and constancy had opportunities to display their full perfection. The infidels of Mecca