Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 367
2 May 1908 367 to convey meanings different from its literal meaning, as we see from the Holy Quran: 1 اْوُلِزْلُز اًلاَزْلِز اًدْيِدَش اْوُلِزْلُز اًلاَزْلِز اًدْيِدَش. Now, all the Signs that God has shown will have the opposite effect upon them and, considering them all to be chance events like the plague, their hearts will become hardened. It is similar to what happened with Pharaoh. He, too, became more stubborn. Whenever there was a respite from a calamity, he too would consider the chastisement to have been a transient and chance event with the result that his heart would become yet more hardened. So at the very end, when he was about to be drowned, he professed that he too believed in the One in whom the Children of Israel believed. Even then, he did not proclaim the name of God. This is precisely the condition of these people at this time. The plague had hit but now it has become less intense to some extent. The famine is no longer that intense either, and the pros- pect of relief is becoming visible. Now they will feel safe and, feeling secure, will advance even further in the commission of sins and crimes with daring and audacity, having become more stone-hearted than before. Their hearts will not develop the anxiety to repent, seek forgiveness, pay heed to Allah, and to reform themselves. However, God says that this is nothing new, but rather, this has been happening since eternity. 1. They were shaken with a violent shaking ( S u rah al-A h z a b, 33:12). [Publisher]