Arba'in — Page 141
Number Four 141 a foe of the enterprise of prophethood and desires to mix darkness into light and deliberately prepares the way of spiritual ruin for the people, and this is this reason why God is his enemy. And the wisdom and mercy of God consider his death to be easiest in com- parison to the death of thousands of people. Hence, just as death is the punishment from God for all brutes and violent criminals, that same decree applies in relation to him. However, God Himself safeguards a truthful person and manifests heavenly Signs to protect his life and honour. He is a well-fortified fortress; for, a truthful one is protected in the lap of God, just like the cub of a lioness is secure under the shelter of her paw. This is the very reason that if someone states upon oath that a certain Appointed One from Allah is a liar and imputes falsehood to God, is a dajj a l [deceiver], and is faithless, whereas in reality that man is from God and is truthful, and the indi- vidual accusing him of lying seeks to settle the pivotal verdict in the court of Allah by praying, ‘If he is truthful then I should die first, but if he is a liar then he should die in my lifetime’, then God Almighty most certainly destroys the one who seeks such a verdict. I have already written that at the site of Badr, Abu Jahl had supplicated this very prayer and—mentioning the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, by name—he said that whoever is the liar between the two of us, God should slay him on this very battlefield. Consequently, he himself was slain following that prayer. The same prayer was uttered against me by Maulaw i Ism a ‘ i l ‘Al i of Aligarh and Maulaw i Ghulam Dastagir Kasuri, of which thousands of people are witnesses. Thereafter,