Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 389
2 May 1908 389 declared to be a kafir [disbeliever], akfar [the greatest of disbe- lievers], zall [misguided one], muzill [one who misguides oth- ers], and that I was outside the pale of Islam. I was declared to be worse than the Jews and Christians. It was pronounced that we should not be allowed to be buried in their cemeteries, that our funeral prayers should not be offered, and no one should meet us or shake hands with us. They went to the extreme in their oppression to declare that anyone who maintained con- tact with us would also be considered one of us. After receiving this response from them, I thought that the educated are usually without prejudice and hate. With this very thought in mind, I presented my invitation to the group who had received modern education. However, I discovered most of them to be unrestrained [not abiding by the Islamic teach- ings] and observed that most of them were seeking to make changes in Islam, thinking that Islamic teachings are of the age of ignorance and barbarism and are no longer needed—that they should now be freed from it and amendments should be made to it to keep pace with the changing times. Accordingly, in this way I was also disappointed by this group, except for an occasional few, by Allah’s grace. Then I sent my invitation to the rich and respected as they are blessed with a share of the world and are plain and sim- ple Muslims. So one of them, Siddiq Hasan Khan, tore my book apart and sent it back. This is how he demonstrated his callousness. After these experiences, I realized that the honour of accept- ance [of truth] is always the destiny of the weak and the poor. This turned out to be absolutely true and, in conformity with the longstanding tradition, it was the weak and the poor who joined me to a large extent. Such people do not have the arro- gance of religious scholarship nor the haughtiness of wealth; rather, they are simple-natured and pious souls. And they are