Life of the Promised Messiah — Page 80
80 by His Holiness as. As such, this wholesome method of reformation and purification takes place in the most excellent of manners; no one is faced with trial, no one’s dignity and honour is injured so that the vein of ignorance would further provoke them and make them more brazen in sin. In this character of His Holiness as , there is a most excellent lesson for those, who on noting a minor fault—in the garb of reformation—pounce on others such as would put to shame even a carnivorous beast, and who instead of spreading harmony, create disorder. Such ‘reformation’ does not bring any spiritual reward and is worse than if they were to engage in war and conflict so as to attract something as terrible as divine chastisement and punishment. It is unfortunate, for I have found most Muslims clerics, and especially those who do not subscribe to the four main Islamic schools of thought, to be harsh and severe in preaching and accustomed to abusive language. If they see anyone with a moustache that is slightly longer than it should be, or trousers that are longer than their ankles, and if the person in question enters one of their mosques, it is as if they have stepped into the forbidden land of Yaghistan, and now only God can bring them back alive from the Khyber Pass or Ali Masjid. 8 Alas! When 8 Yaghistan (literally, the land of the rebels) represents the various tribal regions along the border of British India and Afghanistan, inhabited by the rebel Pakhtuns. The Khyber Pass has historically