Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 141
Lecture Ludhiana 141 tantamount to admitting that—God forbid—Islam is devoid of its true objective. But I affirm that this is not the case. It is through Islam alone that this objective can be fulfilled perfectly, and converse and communion with God is the only means, for this alone creates perfect faith in the existence of Allah the Exalted, and only then do we come to know that God detests sin and punishes those who commit it. Sin is poison: it is minor at first, then becomes major, and ultimately leads to disbelief. The Correct Remedy for Safeguarding against Sin I must say, parenthetically, that every people in their own right try seriously to figure out how to be cleansed of sin. The Aryas, for instance, believe that there is no way to be purified of sin except through punishment, and the penalty for just one sin requires hundreds of thousands of rebirths. He can never be absolved of sin unless a person passes through these rebirths. However, this process poses many problems—the most for- midable being that if all living beings are indeed sinful, then when will salvation from this ever become possible? Even more bizarre is their commonly held belief that those who ultimately attain salvation shall also, after some time, be thrown out of the abode of salvation. What, then, is the benefit of such salvation? When asked why you expel someone after he has been granted salvation, some say that one sin is withheld for the eventual expulsion. Now, reflect—can this possibly be the work of the Omnipotent God? What is more, if each self is its own creator and God Almighty is not the Creator (God forbid), there is no compelling need for the self to subordinate itself to Him. The Christians have yet another view. They have devised