Ahmadiyyat or Qadianism! Islam or Apostasy? — Page 110
Christian missionaries who were scattared all over India and were becoming increasingly active on proselytisation missions on behalf of. Christianity. To be able to shake the confidence of Muslims with respect to their beliefs and to make them skeptical as to the basis of. Islamic Shariah, was reckoned by them as success. The new generation of Muslims, which had not been thoroughly grounded in. Islam, were their main target. Schools and colleges were, therefore, the main fields of activity directed at spreading intellectual confusion. . Events of conversion to Christianity also began to take place in India. . But the main danger of that period was not apostasy (in the sense of ostensible conversion from Islam to Christianity), but skepticism and atheism. . This was one aspect of the situation: the situation vis a vis the external menace. Looked at internally, the situation was even worse. . Mutual disagreement between Muslim sects had assumed frightful proportions. Each sect was busy denouncing the other. Sectarian polemics was the order of the day, often leading to violent clashes and bloodshed. The whole of India was in a grip of sectarian civil war. This too had given birth to mental confusion, and created breaches in the. Muslim society and disgust in people and had considerably damaged the prestige of the ulama and Islam. . On the other hand, immature sufis and ignorant pretenders of spiritual excellence had reduced the sufi order to mere play thing. . . The result of all this was that the Muslim masses had developed an uncommon relish for things esoteric. . . . . Hypocritical derwishes and cunning traders of religion took full advantage of the situation. . . . . . Muslims were generally in a grip of frustration and had fallen prey to defeatism. . . . They had despaired, therefore, of bringing about any change and reform through normal process and a large number of people began to await the advent of some divinely appointed leader. ' 30. Having assessed the situation without exaggeration, the author then 30. Nadwi, A. H: Qadianism. A Critical Study: pp 3/5 111