Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Parts I & II — Page 78
78 BAr a h i n-e-a h madiyya and severity of the illness. If a book fails to adequately address the problems of its contemporary readers, it is useless and ineffectual; it does not have the power to penetrate the heart of the sceptics and root out their doubts. With even a little reflection, our crit- ics will realize that the forms of corruption that have presently engulfed the world have no parallel in history. Whereas people in the past mostly fell prey to blind following, the danger we face today is the misuse of reason. Whereas people of the earlier ages were corrupted by senselessly following irrational ideas, they are now being led astray by false reasoning and logic. This is why pious and eminent scholars of the past did not have to employ the kind of arguments and reasoning that we have to employ today. The new light of our age (woe if this be light) is vitiating the spiri- tuality of the newly educated. Instead of glorifying God, they glorify themselves; instead of following His guidance, they take themselves to be the guides. Today’s youth are generally inclined towards finding rational explanations and causes for all things, but on account of insufficient knowledge and wisdom, they end up being led astray rather than being guided. Perversion of thought and perception has greatly impaired their power to draw rightful conclusions. The profusion of divergent thoughts and ideas has thrown people of lesser understanding into great confusion. Sophistic rhetoric has further confounded the minds of the youth. Things that were self-evident and perfectly rational have become dubious in their eyes and what is totally absurd is hailed as absolute truth. Actions that are inconsistent with human dig- nity are termed as the epitome of civilization, while true civilized behaviour is downplayed and ridiculed. It was in this backdrop, and for such self-styled scholars who blow their own trumpet, that