Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 47
47 ِ اہلل ُ مُحَمَّد ٌ رَّسُوْل ُ اہلل َ ٓ اِلٰہ َ اِلّ َ ل There is none worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. There was a time when laying forth one’s head to be slaughtered seemed insignifi- cant. Yet, now we are in an era where people have fallen so weak in the strength of their faith that even though our opponents do not subject us to such torments, even though we live under the shade of a just government, even though the ruling power does not interfere in our religious obligations, even though every facility is available for the acquisition of religious knowledge, even though there is no actu- al difficulty in fulfilling the tenets of our religion, even one prostration in Prayer seems a heavy burden on the people. Reflect! On the one hand, there are people whose heads were severed, while here all that is required is one prostration. This clearly demonstrates the extent to which the people’s faith has deteriorated. Ablution and the Formal Prayer People are negligent, even though the observance of Prayer and performing ablu- tion carries medical benefits as well. Physicians say that if every day a person did not wash their face, this would cause ophthalmia (an inflammation of the eye— Editor) and this is a precursor to cataract. This results in many other ailments as well. Tell me, why does it feel like the end of the world for people to perform ablution? Anyone can see the excellence in this practice. In the ablution, a person must rinse their mouth with water and they must brush their teeth; this expels foul odour from the mouth and strengthens the teeth, which in turn enables one to properly chew their food so that it may be easily digested. Then, one is required to clean their nose. When a foul smell enters the nasal passages, this disturbs the mind. Now do tell me, what is so unacceptable about this? After this, they take their needs before Allah Almighty and receive an opportunity to submit their requests to Him. During this time one has ample opportunity to make their sup- plications. At most, it takes one hour to offer the Prayer; although some Prayers take less than fifteen minutes. It is astonishing then that the offering of Prayer is considered to be a waste of time, even though it possesses such merits and ben- efits. Even if the entire day and night are wasted away in vain and useless things, or in sport and merriment, this is regarded as being occupied. If the people pos- sessed strong faith—rather, strong faith aside, if they possessed any faith at all, p. 41