Malfuzat - Volume VII — Page 266
Malfuzat - English translation of Urdu Volume 7 266 the poison of sin until true faith comes into being. In my view, this is the main criterion for identifying faith, and everyone can test their faith accordingly. The argument for this is clear: Those who understand that arsenic is a poison do not eat it because they know they will die by eating it. In the same way, sin is also a poisonous fruit that, if con- sumed, causes the person to die instantly. However, if a person has belief in Allah the Exalted, he is afraid to go near this fruit, and its destructive effects are made clear to him. I know with full certainty that the disease of shamelessness and open depravity that is spreading throughout the world began with the sickness of atheism and is rooted in the false fables of Atonement. The Cause of Materialism Materialism has reached an extreme. Everyone seems enam- oured with the world. The reason for this is that wherever one looks, he sees only worldly people. Since there are very few examples of sincere people who are models of a perfect rela- tionship with God Almighty, no attention is given to this. On the contrary, there are plenty of models of materialists. As a result, everyone leans in this very direction, and very few peo- ple turn towards God Almighty because adopting the path of God amounts to renouncing the world. A person cannot enter through this path until he embraces a death. That is why he [the Holy Prophet s as ] said, ْا َو ُ ت ْ َو ُ م َـ ت ْ ن َ ا َ ل ْ ب َقَ ْا َو ُ ت ْ َو ُ م ْا َو ُ ت ْ َو ُ م َـ ت ْ ن َ ا َ ل ْ ب َقَ ْا َو ُ ت ْ َو ُ م [‘Die before you die’]. 1 1. Al- H akam, vol. 9, no. 27, p. 3, dated 31 July 1905