Favours of the Gracious God — Page 176
176 neighbourhood, and you can see that their elementary root words are scattered and there is no relationship between them and they are so bare that their blemish and shortcomings have become exposed. This has happened because their system was lost and their guardian no longer remained in place, leaving cattle to graze them away. And you observe that those languages are like a barren empty waste land devoid of any vegetation and are like such a frightening forest wherein ghosts dwell, which is repugnant in the sight of researchers. And the condition of these [languages] has not improved over time and their offspring did not develop new teeth after their first set had fallen out. But the unjust deceive the ignorant. These [languages] have neglected their similar genealogy and common foundations [with the Arabic language]. So, they have become like people with opposing opinions or like disunited clashing rabbles who have conflicting desires. Thus, it is as if some of them are on top of a hill supporting themselves with a stick, whilst others are lying in a ditch as if lifeless, yet others have lost all traces of reasoning behind names as if they have fainted or suffered a stroke or been seized by a stomach ache. Some appear in an ugly form, their face became disfigured, like children afflicted with smallpox repelling