The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page 13
Islam the True and Living Faith 13 within the scope of religion. Religion comprises all those matters which lead man from his wild condition to the condition of true humanity and then lead him from the condition of humanity to a life of wisdom and thereafter lead him from a life of wisdom to a life that is devoted to. God. [Kitāb-ul-Bariyyah, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, Vol. 13, p. 89]. There is no doubt that the Gospel does not provide for the full nurture of the tree of humanity. We are sent into the world with many faculties and every faculty demands that it should be used on its proper occasion. The Gospel emphasizes only the faculty of meekness and gentleness. . Meekness and forgiveness are good qualities when exercised on the proper occasion but their use on every occasion would be greatly harmful. Our cultural life, which comprises the interplay of different kinds of tempers, demands that we should exercise all our faculties with discretion on the proper occasion. It is true that, on some occasions, forgiveness and forbearance would benefit materially and spiritually a person who has done us harm. On other occasions, the exercise of those faculties would encourage the offender to commit greater mischief and to do more harm. . Our spiritual life resembles our physical life to a large degree. It is our experience that the use of only one type of food and medicines would upset our health. If we were to confine ourselves over a period to the use of cooling articles of diet and refrain altogether from the use of warming articles, we would become a prey to some diseases like paralysis, Parkinson's disease or epilepsy. On the contrary, if we confine ourselves to warming articles of diet, so much so that even the water that we drink