Malfuzat – Volume I — Page 94
94 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is most unfortunate is that if a well-intentioned counsellor graciously seeks to advise them, they do not make the least effort to understand. So be it, but the least they can do is listen to the other person's point of view! But why would they bother? For this requires ears that are willing to hear. This also requires them to demonstrate patience and think well of others. If God Almighty had not turned to the earth with His grace, the religion of Islam would have also become lifeless, like a mere tale, just as the other religions have become. A dead Faith cannot give life to anyone, but Islam, in this day and age, is capable of granting life. It is the custom of Allah that He does nothing except through means—however, it is another matter as to whether we can observe them or not-but there is no ques- tion that God most certainly utilises means. In this manner, light descends from heaven and takes on the form of means when it reaches the earth. When Allah the Exalted found the era of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, plunged in darkness and misguidance, with dark clouds of wrongdo- ing and gloom sweeping over the earth in every direction, He raised the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, shining forth as a brilliant lamp from the mountains of Paran, to dispel the darkness, and to transform mis- guidance into guidance and virtue. The State of the Present Age and the Need for a Reformer In the same way, in this present era, religious capacities have died away, and sin and impiety have taken their place. The mutual interaction of people on the one hand and their worship on the other-everything has become corrupted. If this affliction was all that plagued the people, there was no harm or danger. But in ad- dition to all these things, the greatest calamity, regarding which I am compelled to speak time and again, and which every heart possessing sympathy for Islam has already felt or can feel, is the poisonous effect of today's natural medicine, astron- omy and flawed philosophy, which is attacking Islam and Muslims. The scholars pay no attention to this because they can barely find time from their wars with one another, waging internal conflicts, and declaring one another disbelievers. If the ascetics sat in seclusion and did so much as to pray, even that could bring about positive effects, but they are engrossed in debates on the worship of saints and the permissibility of the Sufi practice of sama, etc. A few traditions, which are not to be found in the Quran and Sunnah, have taken the place of true Sufism. Therefore, from every direction Islam is victim to the arrows of the foolish and the