Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 286
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part Four 286 essential. Thus, when the useless ramblings of poets do not enjoy the status that belongs to the Holy Word of God Almighty, nor do they make any such claim or take responsibility in this regard—and even admit their own helplessness—then what foolishness and ignorance is it to present their worthless work as equal to the Word of God? Even if they died trying, the poets would never be able to abide by the norms of truth, uprightness, and genuine necessity. In fact, they cannot utter anything without having recourse to frivolous speech, as their entire craft depends on redundance and falsehood. Take away falsehood and absurdities and no verse would be left. If you were to search their writ- ings, sentence by sentence, to find how many truths and subtle veri- ties they contain, or how far they conform to truth and veracity, or how firmly they are rooted in truth and wisdom, or what true need has led them to utter their words, and what unique and incomparable secrets lie within them, you would realize that their dead writings con- tain none of these virtues. They are more likely to follow the dictates of poetic rhyme and metre, and prattle on about whatever takes their fancy. They neither stick to truth and wisdom, nor shun absurd speech, nor consider whether there is a true need for their words or whether any detriment would occur by not saying them. They arbitrarily join sentence with sentence with no regard to truth or usefulness, placing, as it were, the head where the feet belong and vice versa. They have much glitter, like a mirage, but are in fact not even equal to dust in real value. It is all a show, like a juggler’s performance, with no real sub- stance. These people are poor, powerless, weak, and unworthy. They are blind, but what coquetry! To put it very mildly, you may say that they are like a spider in terms of their infirmity and worthlessness, and the verses they compose are a spider’s web. How aptly has God the Benevolent described them: َو ُءٓاَرَعُّشلا ُمُهُعِبَّتَي َنٗواَغْلا ْمَلَا َرَت ْمُهَّنَا ْيِف ِّلُك ٍداَو َنْوُمْيِهَّي َو ْمُهَّنَا َنْوُلْوُقَي اَم اَل َنْوُلَعْفَي اَّلِا َنْيِذَّلا