Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Parts I & II — Page 8
8 BAr a h i n-e-a h madiyya Honourable elders of Islam! From your own knowledge and experience, you cannot be unaware of the ills of the present age, the details of which are a painful story indeed. Nor can you be unaware of all the forms of corruption that have taken root in people’s hearts or how they are being led astray by evil suggestions, temptations and misguidance. And it is all because people are unaware of the arguments for the divine origin of Islam. The few who are educated have acquired their knowledge from schools or institutions that impart no religious knowledge. Thus the cru- cial part of their lives, in which they can employ their faculties of thought, reflection and meditation to the best advantage, is lost in pursuit of other arts and sciences, leaving them completely igno- rant of religious principles. If such people are not informed sooner rather than later of the arguments in support of the divine origin of Islam, they either end up as materialistic worldly creatures, caring the least for the Faith, or as atheists and apostates. This is not something hypothetical, for I myself have seen that the scions of noble families have been baptized and have taken to the churches, solely because of their ignorance of the teachings of Islam. Had not God, in His infi- nite grace, helped Islam, and had He not protected the True Faith through the forceful discourses and writings of Muslim scholars, people would have even forgotten in which country our Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was born. This is especially so in these tumultuous times when perversity and corruption are rife. If Muslim scholars—who are valiantly and vigorously debating with every disbeliever and atheist—were to give up this service to Islam, all the important traditions of Islam would soon disappear; instead of the traditional salutation