Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 562
562 HAQIQATUL-WAḤI—THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVINE REVELATION abusive and filthy language that I cannot imagine that Abū Jahl could have ever hurled this much abuse upon the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Indeed, I say with full certainty that of all the Prophets of God who came to this world, none can be proven to have ever faced as evil-tongued an opponent as Sa'dullāh. He left no stone unturned in his opposition and hostility towards me. And even the lowest of society did not know the crude etiquettes of abuse known to him. It was as though he was fuelled by his abuse. He clamoured such harsh and filthy words with such cheek and disdain as is impossible except for the one who is evil at birth. The harshest of harsh words and the filthiest of filthy abuse issued forth from his mouth with such audacity and shamelessness that no man could pos- sess such a filthy nature unless he was already born with it, endowed from his mother's very womb. Such men are even worse than a brood of vipers. I exercised great restraint in the face of his foul language. I tried my best to restrain myself, but when he transgressed all extremes and the dam holding back his innate filth burst, then I, out of scrupulously good intent, used such words about him as were appropriate for the occasion. Although such words, as in the writing above, appear to be somewhat harsh, they cannot be categorized as any form of abuse. Rather, they are factually appropriate for the occasion and were written exactly as and when they were needed. Every Prophet was lowly, meek, and humble, but there were occa- sions when they all had to use such words for their opponents. Thus, look how mild the teachings contained in the Gospels are claimed to be and yet, the same Gospels contain such expressions about the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Jewish scholars that portray them as being wicked, deceitful, mischief-mongers, a brood of vipers, wolves, unholy in nature, inherently vicious and that prostitutes would enter Paradise before they would enter therein. The Holy Quran also con- tains words like —zanīm [i. e. of doubtful birth]. Hence it is clear that an expression which is in keeping with facts cannot be categorized