Bounties of the Gracious God — Page 74
74 me through their deaths. Even before the start of the epidemic, He addressed me saying: ُ َمْرَاض ُ تُشَاع ُ وَالنُّفُوْس ُ تُضَاع ْأ إْل َ ا [Diseases will spread and people will die. ] So He sent down an exemplary punishment and sent down that which He had foretold. I swear by Allah that I had been informed about this even before the start of this century of the Hijri calen- dar. Thereafter the reports started coming in of the plague and it spread in this part. When I got news of it, I appraised it and reflected upon it and found that it was indeed the sign that had been promised. Also, the plague reduced the number of our foes and increased the number of my beleaguered community to the extent that our population reached a hundred thousand or more. And today this number has increased almost twofold. There is a great sign in this for those who contemplate. As for those who hold on to prejudice and jealousy, they prefer darkness over light. From the very beginning, envy and prejudice has left its mark on their natures, and it is something which they have inherited from their forefathers. You will find in them such a vile poison of miserliness, arrogance and hypocrisy that nothing akin to it has been known for a long time when it comes to the accounts of the disbelievers and the ill-fated ones. By Allah! The very existence of these religious leaders is a sufficient sign of the proximity of the Day of Judgment. They seek to become close to worldly people so that they might be seen as respectable by them. They do not seek to get close to piety so that they are honoured in heaven. Islam has fallen into the pit of defencelessness while they are sleeping